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

Dir. 3. IT will therefore be a great help to the Knowledge of your selves, if you will converse with those that bear the Holy Image of their Creator, (Col. 3.10.) and whose lives will tell you what it is to live by faith, and what it is to walk in the spirit, to mortify the flesh, and to live above all the alluring vanities of the world. We can more sensibly perceive the nature of holiness, when we see it in action before our eyes, than when we only read a description of it. Who could have known what Life is, or what Reason is, by bare reading or hearing their descriptions, if he knew them not in himself and others, by another kind of demonstration! Many thousands can honour the name of a Saint and the Scripture description of a Saint, that hate the life of holiness, when it appeareth to them in practice, and cannot endure a Saint indeed. It will most convincingly tell you what you want, when you see what others have. To see how naturally they breath after heaven, will most convincingly show you the dullness and earthliness of your minds: To see how easily they can love an enemy, and forgive ⟨p. 467⟩a wrong, will acquaint you most sensibly with the ulcers of your passionate revengeful minds. Do but lay by your prejudice and partiality, and see whether there be not in serious Christians another spirit then in the world? and whether they live not upon the things above, which your belief and love did never reach? Look upon believers, and consider why they pray, and watch and study to please God, and then bethink your selves whether you have not •s much cause to do so as they: and so you may perceive your negligence by their diligence, your senselessness by their tenderness of heart and conscience; your fleshliness by their spirituality, and the rest of your sins by the lustre of their graces. Saith Gregory [Qui plenissime intelligere appetite qualis sit, tales debet aspicere qualis non est; •t in bonorum forma metiatur quantur ipse deformis est.] that is [He that would fully understand what he is, must look on such as are better then himself: that in the comeliness of the good he may take the measure of his own deformity.] As Isidore saith [Minus homo seipsum ex seipso considerat] Men know not themselves by themselves alone.