[SERM. them either from bad education, early habits, or other circumstances. But, whatever be the origin of the propensity, most men have a greater attraction and inclination to some sins than to others. One is inclined to lust, another to intemperance, another to covetousness, another to censoriousness, another to envy, and so on. The adversary of our souls well knows our weak points, and the power of these sinful propensities; and, if we pretend to self-knowledge, we also must know them. Our safety will depend upon our both knowing and vigilantly attending to them. And it is a knowledge requiring both discernment and firmness.

Combined with this part of self-knowledge should be a knowledge of those temptations which have the greatest power over us. Otherwise we shall rush into evils which we might have avoided, and our misery will be embittered by the recollection that our destruction is the result of our own careless

ness and presumption. "As men have their particular sins, which do most easily beset them, so they have their particular temptations, which do most easily overcome them. That may be a very great temptation to one, which is none at all to another. And if a man does not know what are his greatest temptations, he must have been a great stranger indeed to the business of self-employment. As the subtle enemy of mankind takes care to draw men gradually into sin, so he usually draws them by degrees into temptation. As he disguises the sin,

so he conceals the temptation to it; well knowing that, were they but once sensible of their danger of sin, they would be ready to be upon their guard against it. Would we know ourselves thoroughly then, we must get acquainted not only with our most usual temptations, that we be not unawares drawn into sin, but with the previous steps and preparatory circumstances which make way for those temptations, that we be not drawn unawares into the occasions of sin; for those things which lead us into temptations are to be considered as temptations, as well as those which immediately lead us into sin. And a man that knows himself will be aware of his remote temptations as well as the more immediate ones; e. g. If he find the company of a passionate man is a temptation (as Solomon tells us it is ',) he will not only avoid it, but those occasions that may lead him into it. And the petition in the Lord's prayer makes it as much a man's duty to be upon his guard against temptation as under it. Nor can a man pray from his heart that God would not lead him into temptation, if he take no care himself to avoid it 2."

The last branch of self-knowledge which I shall now bring under your notice is the knowledge of the state of our soul, and of the character of our hope of finally attaining the rewards of Christ's heavenly kingdom. The absurdity of professing to

Prov. xxii. 24, 25.

2 Mason on Self-Knowledge.

have proved our ownselves, and to know ourselves, when we are ignorant and regardless of our situation with regard to the awful, but inevitable, periods of death and judgment, is too obvious to need much proof. The Word of God, and our own conscience, give us many tests to enable us to prove our ownselves in respect of those great and all surpassing concerns. Foolish and ignorant, indeed, shall we be found, if we omit to apply those tests. Well, in such ignorance, should we deserve the reproach which St. Paul urged against the Gentiles, who knew not themselves nor God,

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Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools'." For what folly or what ignorance can be more unpardonable, than ignorance of our preparation for the day of the Lord? I shall close this part of our subject in the words of Baxter.

"It is for want of knowledge of ourselves, that precious time is so much lost, and hastening death no more prepared for. Did we carry still about us the sensible knowledge of our necessity, our mortality, and the inconceivable change that is made by death, we should then live as men that are continually waiting for the coming of their Lord; and as if we still beheld our graves. For we carry about us that sin and frailty, such corruptible flesh, as may tell us of death as plainly as a grave or skeleton. So great, so unspeakably necessary a

1 Rom. i. 22.

work as the seriously diligent preparation for our end, could not be so sottishly neglected by the ungodly, did they thoroughly and feelingly know what it is to be a mortal man, and what to have an immortal soul; what it is to be a sinner, and

what to pass into an endless life of joy or misery."

SERMON XV.

THE USES AND ADVANTAGES OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE.

THE PRAYER.

Almighty God, who shewest to them, that be in error, the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness; Grant unto all them, that are admitted into the fellowship of Christ's religion, that they may eschew those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

2 COR. xiii. 5.

KNOW YE NOT YOUR OWNSELVES ?

THE second head, under which I proposed to consider self-knowledge, was its uses and advantages; and the words of St. Paul, which I have chosen for the text, will furnish us with a very suitable introduction. For he asks the question of the text, immediately after he had given the exhortation, "to examine" and "prove" ourselves, which I took as the text of the preceding sermon. The mode in