Twenty sermons preached at Oxford before His Majesty, and elsewhere

2. He thinks himself to be something though he be nothing: He thinks he shall come to Heaven, though he be not in the way; as the foolish Virgins, that thought they should be let in, feared not the contrary, till they came to the Marriage Chamber door. Matth. 25.11. So these men walk in their way all their life, and yet fear not entrance into Heaven, till they receive sentence to the contrary. If these men knew themselves to be nothing, they would seek something for themselves; but now they are nothing, though they think themselves something. This is the Disease.

2. The Remedy is in the next Verse, Let him prove his own work. Let him view himself in a true Glass, and that is the point we shall insist on. If then we provide, that Satan shall not delude us in deferring, and putting off our repentance; so let us also provide, that he deceive us not with a false conceit of our ways and estate ▪ that we may not make our selves something, when we are nothing. Therefore let us see what false Glasses they are, that men get to themselves. If Satan bring us to have a good opinion of our selves, and our condition, and persuade us, that it is not with us, as precise Preachers tell us; that it's no such matter to go to Heaven, but that it may be done with less pains and more ease: when, I say, Satan lulls a man asleep with such plausible things as these, he hath him where he would have him. Why then no marvel, if this man like his ways, when he looks upon them with false Glasses.

2. The Remedy is in the next Verse, Let him prove his own work. Let him view himself in a true Glass, and that is the point we shall insist on. If then we provide, that Satan shall not delude us in deferring, and putting off our repentance; so let us also provide, that he deceive us not with a false conceit of our wayes and estate ▪ that we may not make our selves something, when we are nothing. Therefore let us see what false Glasses they are, that men get to themselves. If Satan bring us to have a good opinion of our selves, and our condition, and perswade us, that it is not with us, as precise Preachers tell us; that it's no such matter to go to Heaven, but that it may be done with less pains and more ease: when, I say, Satan lulls a man aslep with such plausible things as these, he hath him where he would have him. Why then no marvel, if this man like his ways, when he looks upon them with false Glasses.