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

Who would have thought that it had been in the heart of Solomon, a man so Wise, so Holy, and so Solemnly engaged to God, by his public professions and works, to have committed the abominations mentioned, 1 Kings 11.4.?

Who would have thought that it had been in the heart of Solomon, a man so Wise, so Holy, and so Solemnly engaged to God, by his publick professions and works, to have committed the abominations mentioned, 1 Kings 11.4.?

If you say, that all this proveth not that there was any seed or root: of such a sin in the Heart before: but only that the temptation did prevail to cause the acts first, and then such habits as those acts did tend to; I answer; 1. I grant that temptations do not only discover what is in the heart, but also make it worse when they prevail; and that is no full proof that a man had a proper habit of sin before, because by temptation he commits the act: For Adam sinned by temptation without an antecedent habit. 2. But we know the nature of man to ⟨p. 289⟩•e now corrupted; and that this corruption […] virtually or seminally all sin, disposing •s to all; and that this disposition is strong enough to be called a General Habit. When Grace in the sanctified is called [A Nature] 2 Pet. 1.4. there is the same reason •o call the sinful inclination [a Nature] •oo; which can signify nothing else then • strong and rooted inclination. Knowing therefore that the Heart is so corrupted, we may well say when the evil fruit appears, that there was the seed of it before. And the easy and frequent yielding to the temptation, shows there was a friend to sin within. 3. But if it were not so, yet that our hearts should be so frail, so defectible, mutable, and easily drawn to sin, is a part of Self-knowledge necessary to our preservation, and not to be disregarded. 4. I am sure Christ himself tells us, that out of the heart proceed the sins of the life,