airy notions, and with strange monstrous speculations to their own dam- nation: 2 Thess. ii. 10-12.
llolv Melancthon, being newly converted, thought it impossible fox
his hearers to withstand the evidence of the gospel, but soon after he complained that old Adam was too hard for young Melancthon.2
Ah ! young men, young men, if you do not in good earnest give up yourselves to the reading, to the studying, to the pondering, to the believing, to the affecting, to the applying, and to the living up to the Scripture, Satan will be too hard for you, the world will be too hard for you, }rour lusts will be too hard for you, temptations will be too hard for you, and deceivers will be too hard for you, and in the end you will be miserable ; and thus much for the first thing, &c.
Duty (2). Secondly, If you would be good betimes, then you must acquaint yourselves wvbh yourselves betimes.
If you would be gracious in the spring and morning of your days, then you must see betimes how bad you are, how vile, how sinful, how wretched you are. No man begins to be good till he sees himself to be bad. The young prodigal never began to mend, he never thought of returning to his father, till he came to himself, till he began to return into his own soul, and saw himself in an undone condition, Luke xv. 12-22.
Ah ! young men, young men, You must see yourselves to be chil- dren of wrath, to be enemies, to be strangers, to be afar off from God, from Christ, from the covenant, from heaven, to be sin's servants, and Satan's bond-slaves.3 The ready way to be found, is to see yourselves lost ; the first step to mercy, is to see your misery ; the first step to- wards heaven is to see yourselves near to hell. You won't look after the physician of souls, you won't prize the physician of souls, you won't desire the physician of souls, you won't match with the physician of souls, you won't fall in love, in league with the physician of souls, you won't resign up yourselves to the physician of souls, till you come to see your wounds, till you come to feel your diseases, till you see the tokens, the plague-sores of divine wrath and displeasure upon you. As the whole do not need the physician, so they do not desire, they do not care for the physician.'
Ah! young men, as you would be good betimes, begin to acquaint yourselves with your sinful solves betimes, begin to acquaint yourselves betimes with your natural and undone condition.5
There is a threefold self.
(1.) There is a natural self; as a man's parts, wit, reason, will, affec- tions, and inclinations, &c.
1 Ovid. Met Hi. 341, scq. — G. 2 Melch. Adam, sub nomine. — G.
' Eph. ii. 1-8, 12, U ; Rom. vi. 10; John viii. 44; 2 Tim. ii. 26.
* Austin aaith, lie would willingly yu through hell to Christ, so will all that see their need of Christ- " Zanchias writ a tractate, Quod nihil scicur.
1 Kings XIV. 13.] apples of gold. 239
(2.) A religious self; and so a man's duties, graces, obedience, right- eousness, holiness, are called one's self.
(3.) There is a sinful self; and so a man's corruptions, lusts, sinful nature, and dispositions, are called one's self. Now, if ever you would be good betimes, you must acquaint yourselves with your sinful selves betimes.1
Demonicus being asked at what time he began to be a philosopher, answered, When I began to know myself. So a man never begins to be a Christian till he begins to know himself. And indeed, for a man to know himself, to acquaint himself with himself, is one of the hardest works in all the world. For as the eye can see all things but itself, so most can discern all faults but their own. Henry 'the Fourth, emperor of Germany, his usual speech was Multi multa sciunt, se autem nemo, many know much, but few know themselves.
The very heathens did admire that saying as an oracle, nosceteipsum, know and be acquainted with thy own self The main exhortation of Chilo, one of the seven sages, was ' Know thyself And Plato recordeth that this saying of Chilo, ' Know thyself,' was written in letters of gold upon the portal of Apollo's temple.
Juvenal saith that this saying, ' Know thyself,' came from heaven. Macrobius saith that the oracle of Apollo, being demanded what course should be taken for attaining to felicity, answered, only teach a man to 'know himself.'2
Thus you see that both divinity and philosophy doth agree in this, that the best and surest way to true felicity is, to know ourselves, to acquaint ourselves with ourselves.
This duty the apostle charges upon the Ephesians, ' Remember that you, being in times past Gentiles in the flesh, that at that time you were without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world,' Eph. ii. 11, 12.
Here are five withouts : without Christ, without the church, without the promise, without hope, and without God in the world.
Man in his natural state is afar off; he is without, three manner of ways :
(1.) In point of opinion and apprehension.
(2.) In point of fellowship and communion.
(3.) In point of grace and conversion. '
As you would be good betimes, dwell much upon your corrupt nature betimes.3 Ah ! such is the corruption of our nature, that propound any divine good to it, it is entertained as fire by water, or wet wood with hissing ; propound any evil, then it is like fire to straw ; it is like the foolish satyr, that made haste to kiss the fire ; it is like that unctuous matter which the naturalists say sucks and snatches the fire to it, with
1 Luther said, that if a man could perfectly see his own faults, the sight thereof would be a very hell unto him.
2. The precept, Tvvtii triavrav, has gathered around it a little literature of its own. It has been assigned to Chilo, as above ; but also to Pythagoras, Thales, Cleobulus, Bias, and Socrates, and to Phoemonoe, a Greek poetess of the pre-Homeric period. The reference to Juvenal is found in Sat. xi. 27, Eccelo descendit y\uh tnaurov. — G.
3 Of dull and. insensible men, one long since thus complained, Patientius ferre Christi jacturam quam suam, that they did more calmly pass by the injuries done to Christ than those that were done unto themselves Oh the plague of insensibleness!
240 ArPLES OF GOLD. [1 Kings XIV. 13.
which it is consumed. Till you come to be sensible of this, you will never begin to be good ; you will never look to have your hearts changed, and your souls saved.