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

4. And therefore it is our own duty […] keep as far from Temptations as we ca• and if we have Grace to avoid the sin […] avoiding the Temptation, we have such Gr•• as God useth for the saving of his ow• Not that he hath saving grace that wo••• live wickedly if he were but tempted to […] by those ordinary trials that humane •••ture may expect: But the soul that p•••ferreth God and Glory before the pleasures […] sin for a season, if it so continue, shall […] saved, though possibly there might have […] a Temptation so strong as would have conquered the measure of grace that he ha• if it had not been fortified with new supplie• ▪ It is therefore more dotage in those th•• could find in their hearts to put themselv•• upon some Temptation, to try whether the• are sincere by the success. Avoid temptation, that you may avoid the sin and punishment. Make not your selves worse on pr•••ence ⟨p. 335⟩of discovering how bad you are. Put •ot Gunpowder or fuel to the sparks of corruption that still remain in you, on pretence of trying whether they will burn. •ll men are defectible, and capable of every […], and must be saved from it by that Grace which worketh on nature according to that •ature, and prevaileth with Reason by •eans agreeable to Reason. If we think •e are wicked, because we find that we •ave hearts that could be wicked, were they […] alone, and because we are not removed […] far from sin as to be uncapable of it, we ay as well say Adam was wicked in his innocency: much more David, Solomon and eter before their falls. It is not he that an sin that shall be punished: but he that th sin, or would sin if he could, and had ther have the sin for its Pleasure or Commodity to the flesh, then be free from it, and […] Holy, in order to salvation, and the favour and pleasing and enjoying of God in endless Glory.