5. Another sottish maxim is, that petty sins are not to be stood upon. They shall do well enough if they never sin more nor worse ; as the omission of good duties in their closets or families, lesser Oaths, vain speeches, idle sport ; whereas Christ saith, ' By thy words thou shalt l)e justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned,' Mat. xii. 37. Light things may weigh heavy in God's balance. Well, then, until the soul be dis230ssessed of these sottish conceits, it cannot be but they must overween their own righteousness, and think too well of them- selves and of their estate before God.-
Thirdly, Self-love is the reason of it : Prov. xvi. 2, ' All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord w'eigheth the spirits.' A man is very blind and partial in his own cause, and will not own any opinion and conceit against himself. There is an emphasis in that, ' his own eyes.' Surely man would favour himself, and be friendly to himself ; we have a double instance of this in scripture. Judah was severe against Tamar, when he thought her to be with child by another man : Gen. xxxviii. 24, ' Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.' But when she showed him the tokens, the ring, the staff", and bracelets, and that he was the man, then he becomes gentle enough. So David, when his own story was represented to him in the case of a third person, that took away the ewe lamb from the poor man, he says in a heat, ' As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die,' 2 Sam. xii. 5 ; but when the prophet closeth with him, and told him, ' Thou art the man,' all this is spoken to thee, he was more calm. All this is spoken to show how favourable a judgment it must needs be that we pass upon ourselves : Ps. xxxvi. 2, ' He flatters himself in his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful ; ' a man is well pleased with his own doings. That self-love is a cause, appears by
454 SERMONS UPON MARK 2. 17-27. [SeR. IV.
this, a man will not see sin, no, not when any man that looks npon his way m*ay see it, till it break forth in shame, and makes him to he hateful ; tlie mistake vaiiisheth not till all the town crietli shame npon him. While a man crieth out against sensuality, drunkenness, gluttony, he is so full of self-love, that he is loath to pass a sentence against his own soul. Fourthly, Negligence, and want of searching, and taking the course whereby we may be mideceived. He that thinks better of himself than there is gi'ound and reason for, the only way to bring him to liimself is to jiut him upon often trial. So saith the apostle, Gal. vi. 3, ' If a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.' But alas I this is a common case, and what more ordinary than for a man to conceit too highly of himself, and flatter him- self with those excellences he hath not, and cry Peace, peace, when the wrath of God and sudden destruction is upon him ? But how shall a man do to come out of this fool's paradise, that he may unde- ceive himself ; see the next verse, ' But let every man prove his own work ; ' try their work and carriage by the rule of God's word, what he doth, and upon what motives, and for what ends ; let him prove so as to approve himself to God: 2 Cor. xiii. 5, 'Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith ; prove yourselves, know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates ? ' Oh ! search and see what is the frame of your hearts, what true grounds of confidence you have towards God. Now, when men will not so much as put it to the question, whether it be well or ill, no wonder they slightly return an Omnia bene, ' All these have I kept from my youth.' A natural man is under this dilemma. If I should not search, I should not know myself, if I should search I should not like m3'self ; and therefore out of laziness and self-love he chooseth the latter. Plutarch saith, Evil men turn from their own lives as the worst spectacle that can be presented to them. We could not be so grossly deceived by Satan as we are, if we did not turn our eyes away from our own hearts and ways, but did oftener call ourselves to an account. Fifthly, Security. As they will not search, so they will not know themselves when they are searched, and cannot endure thoroughly to be discovered to themselves. There is a voluntary examination of conscience, and an involuntary impression, by which conscience is awakened against our wills, either by the preaching of the word, or by afflictions sent from God. In both these cases men discover this self- conceit, in that they do defeat those methods which God useth when they are searched by God.