The blessedness of the righteous discoursed from Psal. 17, 15 /The blessednesse of the righteous discoursed from Psal. 17, 15 /

2. That having well fixed the notion of this blessedness in your minds,¹ you seriously reflect upon yourself, and compare the temper of your Spirit with it: that you may find out how it is affected thereto; and thence judge in what likelihood you are of enjoying it.

1. 12 Rule.

The general aversion of mens Spirits to this so necessary work of self-reflection is one of the most deplorable Symptoms of lapsed, degenerate humanity. The wickedness that hath overspread the nature of man, and a secret consciousness, and misgiving, hath made men afraid of themselves, and studiously to decline all acquaintance with their own souls; to shun themselves as Ghosts and Spectives; they cannot endure to appear to themselves. You can hardly impose a severer task upon a wicked man, than to go retire an hour or two, and commune with himself, he knows not how to face his own thoughts: His own soul is a Devil to him (as indeed it will be in hell, the most frightful, tormenting Devil) Yet what power is there, in man, more excellent, more appropriate to reasonable nature, than that of reflecting, of turning his thoughts upon himself. ⟨p. 248⟩Sense must here confess it self out done. The eye that sees other objects cannot see it self. But the mind, a rational Sun, can, not only project its beams, but revert them; make its thoughts turn inward. It can see its own face, contemplate it self. And how useful an endowment is this to the nature of man? If he err he might perpetuate his error, and wander infinitely, if he had not this self-reflecting power, and, if he do well never know, without it, the comfort of a rational self-approbation. Which comfort Paganish morality hath valued so highly, as to account it did associate a man with the inhabitants of heaven;¹