The mischiefs of self-ignorance and the benefits of self-acquaintance opened in divers sermons at…

6. If you know not yourselves, you know not how to confess or pray. This makes men Confess their sins so seldom and with so little remorse to God and man; you hide them because they are hidden from yourselves; and therefore God will open them to your shame: whereas if they were opened to you, they would be opened by you, and covered by God. Saith Augustine [Non operui, sed aperui ut operires; Non caelavi, ut tegeres: Nam quando homo detegit, Deus tegit. Cum homo caelat, Deus nudat: Cum homo agnoscit, Deus ignoscit] [I did not cover, but open that thou mayest cover: I concealed not, that thou mightst hide. For when man discloseth, God covereth: When man hideth, God maketh bare: when man confesseth, God forgiveth.] For want of self-acquaintance it is that men hypocritically confess to God in a way of custom, the sins which they will deny or excuse to man; and will tell God formally ⟨p. 117⟩of much, which they cannot endure to be told of seriously by a reprover: or if they confess it generally with a seeming humility to others, they cannot bear that another should faithfully charge it upon them, in order to their true humiliation and amendment [Indicia verae confessionis sunt, si ut unusquisque se peccatorem dicit, id de se dicenti alteri non contradicat. Nam non peccator sed justus videri appetit, cum peccatorem se quisque nullo arguente confitetur; superbia quippe vitium est, ut quod de se fateri quis sua sponte dignatur, hoc sibi dici ab aliis dedignetur] saith Bernard. [It is the sign of true Confession if, as every one saith he is a sinner, he contradict not another that saith it of him. For he desireth not to seem a sinner, but Righteous, when one confesseth himself a sinner when none reproveth him. It is the vice of Pride for a man to disdain to have that spoken to him of others, which he stuck not to confess of his ow• accord concerning himself.]

6. If you know not yourselves, you know not how to confess or pray. This makes men Confess their sins so seldome and with so little remorse to God and man; you hide them because they are hidden from yourselves; and therefore God will open them to your shame: whereas if they were opened to you, they would be opened by you, and covered by God. Saith Augustine [Non operui, sed aperui ut operires; Non caelavi, ut tegeres: Nam quando homo detegit, Deus tegit. Cum homo caelat, Deus nudat: Cum homo agnoscit, Deus ignoscit] [I did not cover, but open that thou maist cover: I concealed not, that thou mightst hide. For when man discloseth, God covereth: When man hideth, God maketh bare: when man confesseth, God forgiveth.] For want of self-acquintance it is that men hypocritically confess to God in a way of custome, the sins which they will deny or excuse to man; and will tell God formally