search your hearts, commune with your reins, nothing more (Concerns YOU in all the world tlian this doth. O that you would be more in your closets, and oftener upon your knees ! O that you would look into the Bible, then into your hearts, and then to God, saying with Davicl, " Search me, O God, and know my heart ; prove me and " try my reins, and see if there be any way of iniquity in me !'' Ne- ver did religion thrive in the world since men's heads have been so over-heated with notions and controversies, and their hearts so sen- sibly cooled in their closet- work. I have elsewhere * more largely pressed this duty upon the professors of this generation, and thither shall refer the reader for the present, to see the necessity and impor- tance of this work.
Here 1 shall only urge the duty of self-trial by some pressing motives and awakening considerations.
Motive 1. And the first shall be the exceeding difficulty of this work : difficulty in some cases may be a discouragement ; but where the matter is of absolute necessit}'^, as it is here, nothing provokes more to diligence ; " Strive (saith our Lord) to enter in at the strait " gate, for many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able,"*' Luke xiii. 24 A double difficulty is found attending this work of self- trial : Difficulty in bringing the heart to it ; and difficulty in the right and successful management of it. Who finds it not hard to persuade his heart to such work as diis.'* Nature declines it, flesh and blood relish it not : It is one of the great severities in religion : It is no easy thing to bring a man and his own heart together.
It is in this case as in the study of Geography ; we are more inqui- sitive to know, and delighted when we discover the rarities of foreign countries, and strange things in the remote parts of the world, than those of our own native countr}^ I fear there be many professors of religion that can spend day after day in hearing, and love to be dis- puting fi'uitless controversies, that never spend one day in searching what influence all those sermons they have heard have had upon their hearts, or in rightly stating and detei*mining that great contro- very, in whose right and possession their souls are, and which way they shall go as soon as death hath divided them from those mortal bodies ; yea, I doubt, many sinful hours are spent in prying into, re- porting, and censuring the failings of others, and not one hour faith- fully employed in judging their own hearts before the Lord : Oh ! men had rather be about any work than this ; there is no pleasure in it to tlie flesh.
And yet how difficult soever it be to bring our hearts to the work, it is certainly much more difficult to manage it successfully, and bring the great question of our sincerity to a clear result and issue. O how many upright hearts have sat close to this work many a year, and lift- ed up many a crj^ to heaven, and shed many secret undissembled tears
*" Seebefoip, mv Sdhit Indeed, &;c.
A SERIOUS EXHORTATION TO SELF-EXAMINATIOy. 593
about it ; and yet still are in the dark, and their minds greatly per- plexed, and filled with fear about it ! What would they not do ? What would they not suffer? What pleasant enjoyment would they not gladly part w^th, to arrive at the desire of their souls, the full assurance of their sincerity? It was the saying of a pious Avoman, I have born, said she, seven children, and they have cost me as dear as ever children cost a mother, yet would I be content to endure all that sorrow over again, to be assured of the love of God to my soul.
Motive % Secondly, And as the work is full of difficulty, so the discovery of your sincerity will be full of sweetness and joy unspeak- able : It will never repent you that you have prayed and mourned, that you have trembled and feared, that you have searched and tri- ed : Nay, it will never repent you, that God hath tried you by thou- sands of sharp afflictions and deep sufferings, if, after all, your since- rity may be fully cleared up to the satisfaction of your souls ; for in the same day your sincerity shall be cleared, your title to Christ will be made as clear to your souls as your sincerity is ; you may then go to the promises boldly, and take your own Christ into the arms of your faith, and say, " My beloved is mine, and I am his ! ' Yea, you may be confident, it shall be well with you in the judgment of the great day, for " God will not cast away the upright man," Job viii. 20. If the word clear you now, it cannot condemn you then.
O what an ease it is to the soul, when the fears and doubts that hang about it are gone ! When a man sees what he is, and wliat he hath in Christ and the promises, and what he hath to do; even to spend the time betwixt this and heaven, in admiring the grace of God that hath delivered him from the ruining mistakes and miscar- riages by which so great a part of the professing v/orld are lost to all eternity.
Motive 3. Tldrdlyy The deep concernment of your souls in the mat- ter to be tried, should awaken you to the utmost diligence about it. The trials of men for their life, at human bars, is but a trifle to this: It is our eternal happiness that stands or falls with your sincerity.
It is said in the trial of opinions, that if a man superstruct hay or stubble upon the foundation, he shall suffer loss; yet he himself may be saved, 1 Cor. iii. 12. But if hypocrisy be in the foundation, there is no such relief, there is no possibility of salvation in that case.
Ah, reader, thou must be cast for ever according to the integrity or hypocrisy of thy heart with God. Summon in them all the powers of thy soul : Jbring thy thoughts as close as it is possible to bring them to this matter : If there be any subject of consideration able to drink up the spirits of a man, here it is : Never was time put to an higher im- provement ; never were thoughts spent upon a more important busi- ness than this is : Happy is the man that rescues tlie years, months, days, yea, the very moments o^ his life from other employments' to
59^ A SElllOUb EXHOIITATION TO SELF-EXAMINATION.
consecrate them unto this solemn, awful, and most hnportant business ! Motive 4. Fourthly^ How evidential will it be of your sincerity, when you are willing to come to the trial of your own hearts ?
Suppose your doubts and fears should in some degree remain with you ; yet in this you may take some comfort, that if hypocrisy be in your heart, it is not there by consent : You are not loth to rise and come to trial, because, like Rachel you sit upon your idols : Certain- ly it is a good sign thy heart is right when it is filled with so much fear lest it should be false. You know all the disciples said, " Master, *' is it I ?" before Judas, who was the traitor, spake a w^ord. " Last '' of all (saith the text) Judas said. Is it I ?" Our willingness to be tried is a good sign that the desire of our soul is to be right with God.