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

For a man that hath no Heart to Prayer or Holy conference, but loathes them and is weary of them, and had rather talk of fleshly pleasures, to pretend that yet his Heart is Good, and that God will excuse him for not expressing it, and that it is his Prudence, and his freedom from Hypocrisy, that maketh ⟨p. 181⟩his tongue to be so much unacquainted with the goodness of his Heart, this is but to play the Hypocrite to prove that he is no Hypocrite: and to cover his Ignorance in the matters of his Salvation, with the expression of his Ignorance of the very nature and use of Heart and Tongue, and to cast by the Laws of God, and his own duty, and cover this impiety with the name of Prudence. If Heart and Tongue be not used for God, what do you either with a Heart or Tongue?

For a man that hath no Heart to Prayer or Holy conference, but loathes them and is weary of them, and had rather talk of fleshly pleasures, to pretend that yet his Heart is Good, and that God will excuse him for not expressing it, and that it is his Prudence, and his freedome from Hypocrisie, that maketh ⟨p. 181⟩his tongue to be so much unacquainted with the goodness of his Heart, this is but to play the Hypocrite to prove that he is no Hypocrite: and to cover his Ignorance in the matters of his Salvation, with the expression of his Ignorance of the very nature and use of Heart and Tongue, and to cast by the Lawes of God, and his owne duty, and cover this impiety with the name of Prudence. If Heart and Tongue be not used for God, what do you either with a Heart or Tongue?

The case is plain, to men that can see that it is your strangeness to your selves, that is the cause that you have little to say against yourselves, when you should confess your sins to God; and so little to say for your selves, when you should beg his grace; and so little to say of your selves, when you should open your hearts to those that can advise you: But that you see not that this is the Cause of your Dumbness, who see so little of your own corruptions, is no wonder while you are so strange at home. Had you but so much knowledge of yourselves as to see that it is the strangeness to your selves that maketh you so prayerless and mute, and so much sense as to complain of your darkness, and be willing to come into the light, it were a sign that light is coming