A26955:152
The mischiefs of self-ignorance and the benefits of self-acquaintance opened in divers sermons at…
The mischiefs of self-ignorance and the benefits of self-acquaintance opened in divers sermons at Dunstan's-West and published in answer to the accusations of some and the desires of others / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by R. White for F. Tyton, 1662
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Nimis perverse seipsum amat, qui & •lios vult errare, ut error suus lateat: •ith August. He too perversely loveth himself, that would have others err to hide his ••ror. A wise man loveth himself so well, •hat he would not be flattered into Hell, •or die as Sisera or Sampson, by good •ords, as the harbingers of his woe. He ••veth his Health so well, that he thinks •ot the sweetness or colour of the fruit, motive sufficient to encourage him to a ••rfeit. He loveth ingenuous Penitence so •ell, that he cannot love the flatterers voice, •hat contradicteth it. Faithful reprovers •re the messengers of Christ, that call us to repentance, that is, to Life: Unfaithful ••atterers are the messengers of the Devil, •o keep us from Repentance, and harden us […] impenitency, unto Death: If we know •ur selves, we shall know that when we •re over-loved and over-praised as being •ore learned, wise, or holy then we are, it […] not we that are loved and praised; for •e are not such as that Love or praise •pposeth us to be. Saith August. [Vos ••ui me multum diligitis, si talem me asseri••, ut nunquam me in scriptis meis erase ⟨p. 64⟩dicatis, frustra laboratis; non bonam […] sam suscepistis: facile in eo, me ipso jud•• superamini. Quoniam non mihi placet, […] à charissimis talis esse existimor, qualis […] sum. Profecto non me, sed pro me ali sub meo nomine diligunt; si non quod sum, […] quod non sum diligunt.] It pleased him […] to be accounted unerring in his writing and to be taken by his friends to be […] he was not; which is not to love him, […] another under his name. He that knowe himself, perceiveth how much of the Commendation is his due, and how much he […] lay just claim to: and knoweth it is a dishonour to own the honour that is not his […] He loves not to be belied by a praiser, a more then by a dispraiser; lest Truth a He be both abused. Vices, like Worms, a bred and crawl in the inward parts, […] seen, unfelt of him, that carrieth them abo him: And therefore by the sweet meats […] flattery and sensuality they are ignorant fed: But its bitter medicines that […] kill them: which those only will endure that know they have them, and what they are. [Lenocinantur dulcia delictis: ast vero & fortia virtutibus sunt amica.] […] speak bitterly, saith the impatient sinner […] the plain reprover, but such are sweet […]