_Direct._ V. Put yourselves in another's case, and be impartial. When you cannot easily see the faults of others, inquire then whether your own be not as visible, if you were as ready to observe and aggravate them. And surely none more concern you than your own, nor should be so odious and grievous to you; nor are so, if you are truly penitent.
_Direct._ VI. Understand your natural temper and inclination, and suspect those sins which you are naturally most inclined to, and there keep up the strictest watch.
_Direct._ VII. Understand what temptations your place, and calling, and relations, and company do most subject you to; and there be most suspicious of yourselves.
_Direct._ VIII. Mark yourselves well in the hour of temptation: for then it is that the vices will appear, which before lay covered and unknown.
_Direct._ IX. Suspect yourselves most heedfully of the most common and most dangerous sins. Especially unbelief and want of love to God, and a secret preferring of earthly hopes before the hopes of the life to come; and selfishness, and pride, and sensual pleasing of the fleshly appetite and fancy: these are the most common, radical, and most mortal, damning sins.
_Direct._ X. Take certain times to call yourselves to a special strict account. As, 1. At your preparation for the Lord's day at the end of every week. 2. In your preparation for the sacrament of Christ's body and blood. 3. And before a day of humiliation. 4. In a time of sickness or other affliction. 5. Yea, every night review the actions of the foregoing day. He that useth to call his conscience seriously to account, is likest to keep his accounts in order, and to be ready to give them up to Christ.
_Direct._ XI. Make not light of any sin which you discover in your self-examination. But humble yourselves for it before the Lord, and be affected according to its importance, both in its guilt and evil signification.
_Direct._ XII. And let the end of all be the renewed exercise of faith and thankfulness, and resolutions for better obedience hereafter. That you may see more of the need and use of a Saviour, and may thankfully magnify that grace which doth abound where sin abounded; and may walk the more watchfully and holily for the time to come.
_Tit. 3. Directions for Self-judging as to our Estates, to know whether we are in a Regenerate and Justified State, or not._
_Direct._ I. If you would so judge of the state of your souls, as not to be deceived, come not to the trial with an over-confident prejudice or conceit of your own condition, either as good or bad. He that is already so prepossessed as to resolve what to judge before he trieth, doth make his trial but a means to confirm him in his conceit.
_Direct._ II. Let not self-love, partiality, or pride, on the one side, or fear on the other side, pervert your judgment in the trial, and hinder you from the discerning of the truth. Some men cannot see the clearest evidences of their unsanctified hearts, because self-love will give them leave to believe nothing of themselves which is bad or sad. They will believe that which is good and pleasant, be it never so evidently false. As if a thief could be saved from the gallows, by a strong conceit that he is a true man; or the conceit that one is learned, would make him learned. Others through timorousness can believe nothing that is good or comfortable of themselves: like a man on the top of a steeple, who though he know that he standeth fast and safe, yet trembleth when he looketh down, and can scarce believe his own understanding. Silence all the objections of an over-timorous mind, and it will doubt and tremble still.
_Direct._ III. Surprise not yourselves on the sudden and unprepared, with the question, whether you are justified or not; but set about it as the most serious business of your life. A great and difficult question must have a well-studied answer, and not be answered hastily and rashly. If one should meet you in the street, and demand some great and long account of you, you would desire him to stay till you review your memorials, or have time to cast it up. Take some appointed time to do this, when you have no intruding thoughts to hinder you; and think not that it must be resolved easily or quickly upon the first inquiry, but by the most sober and judicious consideration, and patient attendance till it be done.
_Direct._ IV. Understand the tenor of the covenant of grace, which is the law that you must judge of your estates by: for if you mistake that, you will err in the conclusion. He is an unfit judge, who is ignorant of the law.