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

8. Were you assured that Christ himself is in you, it would sweeten all the mercies of your lives: It would assure you that they are all the pledges of his love: And love in all, would be the Kernel and the Life of all: your friends, your health, your wealth, your deliverances, would be steeped in the dearest Love of Christ, and have a spiritual sweetness in them, when to the worldling they have but a carnal, unwholesome, luscious sweetness; and to the doubting Christians they will be turned into troubles, while they are questioning the Love and meaning of the giver, and whether they are sent for ⟨p. 364⟩good to them, or to aggravate their condemnation; and the Company of the Giver will advance your estimation of the gift. Mean things with the company of our dearest friends are sweeter then abundance in their absence. To have money in your purses, and goods in your houses, and books in your studies, and friends in your near and sweet society, are all advanced to the higher value, when you know that you have also Christ in your hearts; and that all these are but the attendants of your Lord, and the fruits that drop from the tree of life, and the tokens of his Love, importing greater things to follow. Whereas in the crowd of all those mercies the foul would be uncomfortable, or worse, if it mist the presence of its dearest friend: and in the midst of all would live but as in a wilderness, and go seeking after Christ with tears, as Mary at his Sepulchre, because they had taken away her Lord (as she thought) and she knew not where they had laid him, Joh. 20.13. All mercies would be bitter to us, if the presence of Christ do not put into them that special sweetness which is above the estimate of sense.

8. Were you assured that Christ himself is in you, it would sweeten all the mercies of your lives: It would assure you that they are all the pledges of his love: And love in all, would be the Kernel and the Life of all: your friends, your health, your wealth, your deliverances, would be steeped in the dearest Love of Christ, and have a spiritual sweetnss in them, when to the worldling they have but a carnal, unwholsome, luscious sweetness; and to the doubting Christians they will be turned into troubles, while they are questioning the Love and meaning of the giver, and whether they are sent for ⟨p. 364⟩