A supplement to the several discourses upon various divine subjects

It is necessary for us to mourn for our own sins. We can never mourn for others Sins, unless we mourn for our own. If we sorrow not for our own, the sorrow we may pretend to have for others, proceeds not from a right cause. We have that one Sin of Adam in our Nature, which subjected the whole world to an Anathema. Let us not stay in generals; every Man will lay the fault upon Sin in the bulk, without reflecting on the sin in his own Bowels. We can complain particularly of those sins that are common, and why should we rest in generals, when we come to our own? Dolus versatur in universalibus, 'tis a deceitful sorrow that is for Sin in a heap. Is there not perfidiousness to God, coldness in his ways, too much slighting the Gospel, want of bowels and compassion, incorrigibleness under judgments, houses fired and pride not consumed; falseness in resolutions, like Oxen moving with the touch of the Goad, and presently standing still; deceitful bows, letting the string slip after they have stood fully bent? Hos. 10.4. There may be Sins among us that may cause a storm that we little think of: The Mariners little suspected Jonah to be the cause of the tempest till he discovered it himself. He that never mourned for his own Sins, cannot perform this duty so necessary for his preservation, and therefore cannot expect the mark of God in a time of public judgment. He that would rightly mourn for the Corruptions of others, must enquire whether he hath not the same in his own Bowels, and fling the hardest stone at them. Judah calls for Tamar to the flames for that crime which himself had been a partner and actor in; so apt are we to be severe against others Sins, and indulgent to our own. The best have need to mourn for their own sins in relation to the public: The only good man in the Ship was Jonah, and for his sin was the Storm sent, and the rest like to be wrecked.

It is necessary for us to mourn for our own sins. We can never mourn for others Sins, unless we mourn for our own. If we sorrow not for our own, the sorrow we may pretend to have for others, proceeds not from a right cause. We have that one Sin of Adam in our Nature, which subjected the whole world to an Anathema. Let us not stay in generals; every Man will lay the fault upon Sin in the bulk, without reflecting on the sin in his own Bowels. We can complain particularly of those sins that are common, and why should we rest in generals, when we come to our own? Dolus versatur in universalibus, 'tis a deceitful sorrow that is for Sin in a heap. Is there not perfidiousness to God, coldness in his ways, too much slighting the Gospel, want of bowels and compassion, incorrigibleness under judgments, houses fir'd and pride not consumed; falseness in resolutions, like Oxen moving with the touch of the Goad, and presently standing still; deceitful bows, letting the string slip after they have stood fully bent?