Eighteen sermons preached in Oxford 1640 of conversion, unto God. Of redemption, & justification,…

But these are not my only grounds that I have so good opinion of my self, and that others speak well of m•, but when I compare my self with my self, I find wherein I may rejoice. So that this is the

But these are not my onely grounds that I have so good opinion of my self, and that others speak well of m•, but when I compare my self with my self, I find wherein I may rejoyce. So that this is the

3.¹3. Third glass, when a man compares himself with others and himself.

3.¹3. Third glasse, when a man compares himself with others and himself.

1. 13 Glass. When a man compares himself with others.

1. When he compares himself with others. I thank God, saith he, I am better then twenty of my neighbours; I know this man follows such courses, and another lives in such a foul sin. Sure, saith he, I am not such a sinner as these, therefore I am happy, and I doubt not of room in Heaven. This is the cause that the Pharisee went home unjustified, because looking on other men, he justified himself. God I thank thee I am not as other men, no extortioner, &c. This fellow is so far from begging any thing of God, that he fills up his time with thanksgiving, he thinks he wants nothing, and that is his error; he looks on other men, and compares himself with them, and thence concludes he is well enough, because he is not so bad as this or that man. This is the common deceit, when men take this for a rule, that because they are not so bad as the off-scouring of the world, but are better then the ordinary sort of men, therefore they suppose they are very well, or as well as they need to be: As if a sick man should say, I am not so sick as such a man