Part 1

For the first, the holy Ghost says: Search yourselves. The words are commonly read thus: Gather yourselves; which though it be good, for that in repentance a man gathers himself, and all his wits together, which before were dispersed, and wandered up and down in vanity: yet I rather allow their translation who read thus: Search or fan yourselves: but either of them may stand, because the word in the original does comprehend both significations; yet it seems that to search, or sift, fits this place better, considering the same manner of speech is afterwards continued in the word chaffe: so that the meaning of the holy Ghost seems to be this: Search, try, and fan yourselves, lest you be found light chaffe, and so fly away and be consumed before the justice of God.

Concerning this duty of searching, let us observe first, that the holy Ghost urging the Jews to repent, uses not the word repentance, but bids them search themselves: yet meaning, he would have them to repent: giving us to understand, that no man can have true and sound repentance, but he who has first of all searched and examined himself: and this stands with good reason, for no man can repent, who first of all does not know himself, and his own wretchedness. But no man can see into himself, nor know himself, but he that does diligently search himself: so that the beginning of all grace, is for a man to search, and try, and fan himself, that thereby he may know what is in himself: that so upon the search, seeing his fearful and damnable estate, he may forsake himself and his own ways, and turn to the Lord. Thus speaks the holy Ghost in the hearts of holy men: Let us search and try our ways: and mark what follows; and turn again to the Lord: as though there were no turning again to the Lord, but after a searching of ourselves. With this testimony of the holy Ghost, agrees the testimony of all holy men's consciences, who all know, that the first beginning of their turning to the Lord, was a searching of themselves. Let any repentant sinner ask his conscience, and call to mind his first calling and conversion, and he will remember that the first thing in his repentance was this: that he searched into himself, and looked narrowly into his ways, and finding his ways dangerous, and his case fearful, did thereupon resolve to take a new course, and turn to the Lord for pardon and mercy, and for grace to enter into more holy, and more comfortable courses.

The man that passes upon ridges of mountains, and sides of hills, or that goes over a narrow bridge, or some dangerous and steep rocks, at midnight, fears not because he sees no danger: but bring the same man, in the morning, and let him see the narrow bridge, he went over in the night, under which runs a violent stream, and a bottomless gulf, and the dangerous mountains and rocks he passed over, and he will wonder at his own boldness, and shrink for fear to think of it, and will by no means venture the same way again: for now he sees the height of the mountains; the steepness of the hills, the cragginess of the rocks, the fearful downfall, and the furious violence of the stream underneath, and thereby sees the extreme danger, which before he saw not: therefore he wonders, and rejoices, that he has escaped so great a danger; and will by no means be drawn to go that way in the day, which he went most carelessly in the darkness of the night, but seeks another way (though it should be far about). So a sinner in his first estate, which is natural and corrupt (as we are bred and born) has a veil before his face; so that he sees nothing: the wrath of God, and the curse due for sin, hell, and damnation, seeking to devour him, he sees them not, although (living always in sin) he walks in the very jaws of hell itself, and because he sees not this fearful danger, therefore he refuses no sin at all, but rushes securely into all manner of sin: the night of impenitency, and the mist of ignorance, so blinding his eyes, that he sees not the narrow bridge of this life, from which if he slide, he falls immediately into the bottomless pit of hell.

But when as God's Spirit has by the light of God's word opened his eyes, and touched his heart to consider his estate, then he sees the frail bridge of this narrow life, and how little a step there is between him and damnation; then he sees hell open due for his sins, and himself in the highway to it: sin being the craggy rock, and hell the gaping gulf under it; this life being the narrow bridge, and damnation the stream that runs under it.

Then he wonders at his miserable estate, admires the mercy of God in keeping him from falling into the bottom of hell, wonders at the presumptuous boldness of his corruption, which so securely plodded on towards destruction, and being ashamed of himself, and these his ways, he turns his heart to the God that saved him from these dangers; and sets himself into more holy ways, and more comfortable courses, and confesses that ignorance made him bold, and blindness made him so presumptuous; but now he sees the danger, and will by no means go the same way again: and thus the searching and seeing into the foulness of sin, and the danger thereof, is the first beginning of repentance, and the first step into grace.

This doctrine teaches us what faith and repentance is generally in the world. All men say, they believe, and have repented long ago; but try it well, and we shall find in the body of our nation, but a lip faith, and a lip repentance: for even when they say so, they are blind and ignorant of their own estate, and know not themselves, that because they are baptized and live in the Church, therefore they are in God's favor, and in very good estate, when as they never yet were reconciled to God: and are so far from it, that they never yet saw any sins in themselves, whereof they should repent. As a man travelling in the night sees no danger, but plods on without fear: so the most part of our common people, in the night of their ignorance, think and presume they love and fear God, and love their neighbor; and that they have ever done so. No, it is the common opinion that a man may do so by nature, and that he is not worthy to live, who does not love God with all his heart: and believe in Jesus Christ. But alas poor simple souls, they never knew what sin was, never searched nor saw into their own hearts, with the light of God's law, for if they had, they should have seen such a sea of corruption, that then they would confess it to be the hardest thing in the world, to love God, and to believe in Christ, and forsake sin. It is therefore manifest, that they have not yet begun to believe or repent, nor have entered into the first step of grace, which leads to repentance, for that they have not learned this lesson, which the Prophet teaches: that is, to search themselves.

Furthermore, let us in the second place, observe better the signification of the word: it signifies to search narrowly, as a man would do for a piece of gold, or a precious jewel, which is lost in a great house: or as a man may search for gold in a mine of the earth, where is much earth, and but very little gold ore.

Here we may learn, that in true repentance, and conversion, we must not search so only, as to find the gross and palpable sins of our lives: but so as we may find those sins which the world accounts lesser sins, and espy our secret faults and privy corruptions. Some corruptions seem more near a kin of our nature, and therein men hope to be excused, when they forsake many other greater sins. But a true penitent sinner must search for such, so as a good magistrate searches for a lurking traitor which is conveyed into some close and secret corner, and he must ransack his heart for such corruptions, as wherein his heart takes special delight, and must think that no sin can be so small, but it is too great to be spared, and that every sin great or little, must be searched for, as being all traitors to God's majesty.

But alas, the practise of the world is far otherwise, great sinnes are little sinnes, little sinnes are no sinnes: no, after a little custome, great sins are so little or nothing, and so at last men make no bones of grosse and grievous sinnes: and for the most parte men search so superficially, that they scarce finde any thing to be sinnes: such excuses are made, such distinctions are devised, such mitigations, such qualifications, such colours are cast upon all sins; as now up and downe the world, grosse sinnes are called into question, whether they bee sins or no: and the great transgressions of the Law are counted small matters, necessary evils, or inconveniences, tollerated to avoid other evils: and what is he counted, but a curious and precise foole, which stands upon them: Ignorance after five and thirty yeares preaching, is counted no sinne, blinde devotion in Gods service, no sinne, lippe labor in praying, vaine and customable swearing, mocking of religion, and the professors thereof, no sinne: prophaning of the Sabboth, contemning of preachers, abusing of parentes no sinne: pride in apparell, superfluity in meates, beastly and ordinary drunkennes, fornication, no sinnes. No, deceits, cosonages, oppressing, usurie, notorious briberie, and covetousnesse, that mother sinne; these are counted no sinnes: these beames are made but moates by prophane men, and they are so minced and carved, or there is some such necessitie of them, or some such other flourish or varnish must bee cast upon them, as that they are little or none at all. Alas, alas, is not that a simple and a silly search where such blockes as these are, lye unespyed? What are moul-hilles, when such mountains are not seene? Moates wil be little regarded, where such beames are not discerned: but it is cleere, that therefore there is no true tryall, nor diligent search made: for a true convert wil search his hart for all, and will spare none. He deales in searching his own heart, as a good Justice of peace in searching for Traitors or Seminary Priests. He seekes not superficially, but most exactly, and leaveth never a corner unsought, and he thinkes great sinnes to be infinit, and little sinnes great, and judgeth no sin so small, but that it deserveth the anger of God, and therefore he wonders at the mercy of God, which throwes us not all downe to hell in a moment: and he crieth out with holy Jeremie: It is the Lords mercie that wee are not consumed. Away then with this superficiall and hypocriticall search, where so many sins are spared and not found out. It is Pharisaicall, for even so the Pharisie, when he came into the Temple to recken with God, and to tell what Traytors he hadde found, that is, what sins upon good search he had espied, he returnes his precept, all is well, he has found never a one, but begins to thank God that he was so good, and so good, and not so ill, and so ill, nor yet like the Publicane. The world is full of Pharisies, not onely the Popish Church, but even our Church swarmes with these superficiall searches, who cannot (because they wil not,) finde any sinne to present to God. Men thinke in the countrey, a Church Officer hazards his Oath, if he present all well, and findeth no faulte in his parish, to present as punishable to the Ordinary: for men think it unpossible, that there should bee none in a whole parish: then how does that man hazard his owne soule, who being made overseer and searcher of his heart, findes nothing in it to present to the Lord. For it is no more easie to espye outward and actuall transgressions in a whole parish, then it is to find a heape of corruptions in a mans heart, if a man will search into the bottome of it with the light of Gods lawe. Therefore when the Lord comes and keepes his visitation, what shall become of such a man, but to undergoe the strict and severe search of the Almightie, because he would not search himselfe?

Our bodies and lives are free from Spanish Inquisition (which is one of the last proppes, which Satan has lent the Pope, wherewith to upholde his declining kingdome) and the Lord grant we may be ever free from it. But in the meane time, that might put us in mind how to deale with our corrupt heartes, and unmortified affections, even to erect an Inquisition over them, to lay in wayte for them, to search them narrowly, and to use them roughly: yes, to set our hearts upon the racke of Gods Law, that so it may confesse the secret wickednesse of it: for the Papistes doe not thinke us Protestants, greater enemies to their superstition, then the inward corruptions of our hearts, are to our salvation. Therefore it may bee a godly pollicie for every man, even to erect an Inquisition over his owne heart and conscience, and not to spare his most secret and dearest sins, and such as are neerest allyed to his owne nature: for that is the true search here commanded by the Prophet, and practised by all godlie and holie men: when a man purposeth to finde all that are, and to espie even all his sinnes: for a godly man is never satisfied in his searche, but still, the more he findes, he suspects the more are still behinde: and therefore he continueth in his owne heart all his life long. Therefore let every professor looke to it between God and his conscience, that he dallie not with himselfe in this case: for if he doe, then when God comes with his privy search, his hypocrisie shall bee discovered, and his nakednesse shalbe laid open in the view of men, and Angels: to his eternall confusion.

Thirdly, Search, says the Prophet, but not so content: he forceth it againe, Eeven search you. In thus repeating and urging this exhortation, the holy Ghost gives them and us to understand, that the true searching of a mans heart, and life, is a dutie of a great moment, and speciall necessity: therefore he leaves it not after once naming it, but inforceth it the second time, as beeing no matter of indifferencie, but of great necessitie: thereby shewing, that it is a principall dutie in Repentance, even the beginning and foundation of all true grace.

And further, it is a meanes also to prevent Gods judgements: for when men search not themselves, then God sendes the fire of afflictions, and crosses to trie and search them: but when they search themselves, then God spareth to search them by his just judgements.

Now in that this duty of searching, is both the beginning of all true grace, and the means to stay God's judgments, and therefore is so pithily, and forcefully, urged by the holy Ghost, it must teach us all a necessary lesson: namely, to make great conscience of searching ourselves. First, because God has so commanded, and we are to make conscience of obedience to every commandment. Secondly, because thereby we shall reap two so great commodities, as first, thereby we shall lay a sure foundation for the good work of grace in us, and secondly, shall stay the hand of God, and his judgments, from being executed upon us. Let us therefore hearken to this counsel of the holy Ghost, let us take the fan of the Law, and therewith search and winnow our hearts and lives. Our hearts for secret and hidden corruptions. Our lives, for committing of evil, and omitting of good. Do with your hearts as men do with their wheat: they will not suffer their corn to lie long in the chaff, lest the chaff hurt it, but commits it to the fan, that the wind may separate them: so the graces of God in our hearts are but corn, our sins and corruptions are chaff: look well, and you shall find in yourself much chaff, and but little corn: let not then the chaff lie too long mingled with the corn, lest it corrupt the corn. Let not your sins lie mingled with the grace of God in you, if you do, they will choke it in the end, and so deprive you of all grace; therefore rip up your heart, and look into your life, and when you have sinned, enter into yourself, ask your conscience what you have done, and be not quiet till you have found out your sin, and the foulness of it: and never think that you know anything in Religion, till you know what is in your own heart. And what are in your special and most private corruptions, and look into your own faults, not with a partial eye, but with a censorious, and a strict judgment, spare sin in no man, but especially condemn it in yourself.

But alas, these times of ours, cry out of another state, for even Jeremiah's case is ours: we may complain as he did, No man repents him of his wickedness, saying, what have I done? The same is the force of our people, and the sickness of all nations: that every man runs on in his sins, from sin to sin carelessly: even as the bared horse into the battle. But how rare a thing is it, to find a man, that daily searches himself, and examines how he lives, and how the case stands between God and himself: and that when he has done amiss, enters into the closet of his heart, and strikes himself upon the breast, and disputes the case with himself, saying; What have I done? O what is this, that I have done against God, against his Church, and against my own soul?

The want of this, is that which the Prophet complains of in that place: not as though it was sufficient thus to do, in a man's own conscience: but because it is a good beginning, and a step to further grace. For if a man did seriously thus deal with his conscience after his sin, his conscience would shape him such an answer, and would tell him so roundly, what he had done, that he would take heed, how he did the same again, and look more narrowly, and warily to himself all the days of his life. Seeing therefore it is so necessary a duty, let every one of us endeavor the practice of it, namely, to rip and ransack our hearts, and to search our ways to the bottom.

Now for our better instruction, and furtherance in the performance hereof: you must know that this search is to be made by the Law of God, for nothing else but God's law can help us, and let us see that which we must search for: for if we search by any means, we may seek and search long enough, ere we find anything that will be matter of repentance. Ask the Devil, he will tell you all is well, and that you are in an excellent estate: and God loves you, and you are sure of heaven: this song the Devil always sings for the most part, till a man comes to die, for then he appears in his colors, but till then, he labors to sing, and lull all men asleep in the cradle of security. Ask your own flesh, and your own hearts and natures, and they will answer and say, that all is well and safe, and that we have believed, and loved, and feared God all our days. Ask the world, and men in the world: and they will answer, all is well; and they will say further, that you are a right good fellow, and are worth twenty of these curious fools that stick upon points, and stand upon circumstances, as swearing, and drinking, and good fellowship, and gaming, and such other nice and circumstantial points: thus will worldly men answer: for your profane course is acceptable to them, because thereby you approve the same in them.

No, go further, and ask all human learning in the world, and it cannot tell you what one sin is, nor what it is to offend God: so that there remains only the law of God, the light whereof will disclose the darkness of our hearts; and the justice whereof will reveal the righteousness and the perverseness of our natures: therefore to the Law of God must we fly to help us in this search.

And yet for our better help in this duty, and that there may be nothing wanting to that soul, that seeks God, therefore we are further to know, that if we will search ourselves by the Law profitably, we must mark three rules, the truth whereof unless we know, acknowledge, and feel: we shall never see our own estate, nor profit by this search, but plod on from sin to sin, until we plunge into hell.

The first rule is, that every man that came from Adam, sinned in the sin of Adam: you must therefore know, that his sin in eating the forbidden fruit, was your sin: and you sinned therein, as well as he (though you were then unborn) and that you are guilty of it before God, and must answer for it to God's justice, unless Christ do it for you.

The reason hereof is, because we are his seed and posterity, we were then in his loins, he was the Father of us all: and was not a private man as we are now, but a public person, the pledge of all mankind, and bore the person of us all at that time: therefore what he did then, he did it for himself, and for us. What covenant God made with him, was made for himself and us: what God promised him, and he to God, he promised for himself, and for us: what he received for himself, and for us: and what he gained or lost by his fall, he gained and lost for us, as for himself. He lost the favor of God, and original purity: therefore he lost it for all his posterity: guiltiness, and God's anger, and corruption of nature which he gained, he got for us all, as well as for himself. If we doubt of this point, it is proved by the Apostle: where the holy Ghost says; Sinne entred by one man, and death by sinne: and that sinne went over all, and that it went over all them, which sinned not in the like transgression with Adam, (that is, even our children) who as they are born, are born not only tainted with original corruption: but guilty also of Adam's sin. This is a most certain truth, though it seem strange, for few men think of it, that ever they shall answer for Adam's sin: and therefore if any object, what reason is there that I answer for another man's sin? I answer, true, if it had been Adam's sin alone: but it was his and yours also: for he was your Father, and stood in your room: and you also since you were born, have confirmed what he did.

Now therefore, though not one of many thinks seriously thereof: namely, that he should stand guilty of a sin committed five thousand years before he was born, yet seeing it is most true, both in Scripture and good reason: let every man subscribe in his conscience to this truth. And let this be your first resolution in this search, that you stand guilty of Adam's transgression.

The second rule to be known is, that in every man is all sins: more plainly, that in every man by nature are the seeds of all sins: and that not in the worst, but in the best natured men: make choice of the best man, and the greatest sin, and that worst sin is to be found in that best man. If any doubt of this, let him consider what original sin is, namely, a corruption of the powers of our souls; and that not of some, or in part, but of all, and wholly. This corruption has two parts. First, a want, not of some, but of all good inclination, a want of all goodness. Secondly, a deprivation and proneness, not to some, but to all evil: and not a proneness only, but original sin infuses into every man's heart the seed of all corruption.

Many men stand much upon their good meaning, and upright heart, and brag of a good nature: but they are foully deceived; for take the civilest man upon the earth, and the seeds of all sins in the world are in him by nature. But to explain this point fully, observe these 2 clauses.

First, I say not, the practice of all sins, but the seeds; for all men practice not all sin: the seeds are in their nature: but the practice is restrained, sometime by education, sometime by good and wholesome laws: sometime the constitution of men's bodies deny the practice of some sins, sometime the country a man dwells in, or calling a man lives in, keeps him from the practice of some sins: and always a general and limiting grace of God, restrains the nature of all men, from running into many sins: which hand of God, if God should take away, and leave every man to his nature, we should see that every man would practice any sin in the world; yes, even the greatest sins that ever we heard to be done in the world. All men which know themselves, know this to be true, and the more a man knows his own heart, the more he sees that his heart is a sea of all wickedness: and that it is the mercy and grace of God, that he has not fallen into the mightiest and most monstrous sins in the world.

Secondly, I say, by nature. For I know by good education, and by grace, it is otherwise: grace rectifies nature, but that is no thanks to nature: for it is as evil and corrupt still, being severed from grace: and therefore nature must be fully abolished, before man come to heaven. And yet (though all this be true) I say not that sin breaks out in all natures alike, though all natures be alike corrupt: for the course of nature is restrained in some more than others, by the means aforesaid; but this is the truth, that whereas some are not so angry, some not so wanton, some not so cruel, some not so covetous, some not so ambitious, etc. as others; that comes not from any goodness of nature in them, above the other originally, but from God's hand, which tempers, restrains, and moderates every man's nature as he sees good.

And if God did not thus moderate and restrain the natures of men, but suffer them to break out to the full: there would then be no order, but all confusion in the world; therefore, (as especially for his Church's quietness, so also for the preservation of public peace, and the upholding of society in the world, between man and man,) the Lord holds a hand over every man's nature, and keeps every one in a certain compass limited by the wisdom of his power, which restraining hand of his, if the Lord should take away, all societies and commonwealths would be turned upside down, because every man by the universal corruption of his nature, would break out into every sin. I end this point with appealing to the testimony of the consciences of all men, and especially of the best and holiest men, of whom I would ask this question: whether they find not in their natures an inclination, even to the foulest sins in the world; if shame, or fear, or else the grace of God restrained them not? So that the best men do know well enough, what ado they have with their corrupt natures, to keep them within the compass of obedience.

No, I yet add further, the nature of men, and of all men, is so corrupt, since Adam: that even the seed of the sin against the Holy Ghost, and a proneness to it, is in the nature of every man (though not one man among many thousands does commit that sin,) for seeing in that sin there is a heap or sea of all sins gathered together, he therefore that has in his nature the seed of all sins, has also the seed of it.

And again, seeing that all evils tends to a perfection, as well as grace does; what reason therefore is there, but we may safely think, that the Devil would hale every one to that height of sin, if it were not that the powerful hand of God prevented him, who will neither suffer wicked men, nor the Devil himself to be so wicked as they could, and would be.

The use of this second rule, is notable. For in this searching of ourselves, it shows us what we are, without all color or deceit, and fully discovers to us, the ugliness of our natures: and it may teach us all how to think and esteem of ourselves, when we hear of Cain's unnatural murder, Pharaoh's unnatural cruelty, the Sodomites' unnatural lust, Achitophel's devilish policy, Sennacherib's horrible blasphemy, Judas's monstrous treason, Julian's fearful apostasy. When we hear of the fearful murders, treasons, perjuries, sins against nature, blasphemies, apostasies, witchcrafts, crafts, and other the horrible sins of the world: let us then return into ourselves, and look homewards, even into our own hearts, and confess every one that these should have been even your sins also, if God's grace had not prevented you.

This will humble you, and make you think vilely and basely of yourself, and so consequently bring you to repentance and true amendment: and the very reason, why men repent not, nor amend their ways, is because they are Pharisees by nature, and think highly of themselves, and of their own natures, and their natural inclinations: this will be a harsh and a strange doctrine to them; Oh, they have excellent natures, and they cannot endure such, and such sins, and they thank God, they are not as ill as others: but let all such men know, they must cease magnifying nature, and learn to magnify God's grace: Let them know, that nature in them, is in the root, as much corrupt, as in the worst man in the world, and every man's heart is a bottomless fountain of all sin; therefore praise not your nature, but God's grace and mercy, in giving you so good a nature; or rather, so well restraining, and rectifying your nature; and stay not there, but desire of the Lord, that as he has given you a better tempered nature, than to other men: so also he would bestow on you his especial and saving grace: and as he has kept you from the fearful sins of others (you being as ill naturally as they) so he would also lead you into the way of salvation, which else the best nature in the world can never attain to.

The third rule to be known and practiced of him, who will truly search himself, is, that every man born of Adam, is by nature the children of wrath, and God's enemy: this is true of all without exception; high or low, rich or poor, noble or simple, born in the visible church, or without. And further, by being enemy of God, he is therefore born subject to hell, to damnation, and to all other curses: so that look as a traitor convicted, stands thereby in his Prince's high displeasure, and is sure of death without special pardon; so stands every man when he is born, convicted of high treason against God, in his high disfavor; and is in danger of hell, which is the fulfilling of the wrath of God.

Thus David confesses of himself; I was born in iniquity, and in sin has my mother conceived me: If in sin, then in God's wrath, and under the danger of damnation. If any ask, how, or why this is so? I answer, the truth, as also the equity of this third rule depends on the two former: for, because every man is born guilty of Adam's great sin, and also tainted originally with all corruption, and a proneness of all sin: therefore it follows in equity and justice, that every man is born under the wrath and curse of God.

This point is a plain and evident truth: yet men in the world think not so, and it is the cause, why men repent not of their sins: for most men think that by nature, they are in God's favor; and therefore they need not so sue for it in humiliation and repentance; but only live civilly, and do no open wrong, and all is well: whereas (alas) there is no condemned traitor, more out of his Prince's favor, nor more sure of death without a pardon, than all we are out of God's favor, and sure of damnation, unless we procure God's favor again, by faith and repentance.

For the better opening of this third rule, and the manifesting of the truth: let us know further, that the curse of God, under the which we all are born, is three-fold.

The first, is a bondage under Satan: It is a certain truth, that every man as he is born of his parents, and till he repent, is a slave of Satan: man or woman, high or low, Satan is his lord and master. He sits as judge in his heart; and in his sense Satan is the king of the nations, and god of the world. Men will in words defy Satan, and not name him without defiance: and spit at him; and yet (alas) he is in their hearts: they spit him out of their mouths, but he is lower; they should also spit him out of their hearts, and that is true defiance indeed: for alas, he lodges in your heart, and there he makes his throne, and reigns until the spirit of regeneration dispossess him: and till then, no servant is subject to his master, no slave to his lord, as is the heart of man by nature to Satan, the Prince of darkness. No, our bondage, is more fearful, than the slavery of any poor Christian, in the Spaniards', or in the Turks' galleys: for their bodies are but in bondage, and at command, and under punishment, but our best part, our heart, our conscience, our soul itself is captivated to him, and under his command, who is the king of cruelty, and confusion, and lord of hell, whose commandments are injustice, whose service is sin, and whose hire is damnation.

The second part of the curse of the first death, or the death of the body: that is, a separation of the soul and body asunder for a time, namely, till the last judgment. This death is duly and justly the punishment of any one, or the least sin: therefore, how due and just a punishment, upon that horrible heap of sinfulness, which is in every man's nature? And it is a most terrible curse. For it is the very gate of hell, and the downfall of damnation to all men, but such as by faith and repentance do get their death sanctified by the death of Christ: to such men indeed it is no curse, but a gracious and glorious blessing, for it is altered by Christ his death. But to all men by nature, and which repent not, it is the heavy curse of God's wrath, and the very downfall into the gulf of hell.

The third part of the curse under which every man is born, is, the second death: the death of soul and body; which is the eternal want of God's presence, and the accomplishment of his wrath: and an apprehension and feeling of that wrath, seizing on body, soul, and conscience. The first curse was a spiritual death; the death of the soul. The second, a temporal death, the death of the body. The third, is an eternal death, a death both of soul and body together; and for ever. This eternal death is the curse of all curses, the misery of all miseries, and torment of all torments: and I show it thus. Often when your tooth aches, and sometime when your head aches, or in the pain of the stone or colic, you would give all that you have in the world to be eased of that pain: no, in the extremity of some fits, many will wish themselves even out of the world: Now, if the pain of one tooth, can so far distemper mind and body, that it cannot be relieved with all the pleasures of this life; Oh then, what a torment shall that be, when not one kind of pain, but the whole vial of God's wrath shall be poured, not on one member, but on the whole soul, body, and conscience, and that not for a time, under hope of better: but eternally without hope of release; and that not in this world, where there are comforts, helps, and remedies: but in that ugly and darksome place of torments: and that not among living men, which might mitigate your pain, or else bemoan you, and bewail it with you: but with the devils, and damned spirits, which will now laugh at your destruction, and solace themselves in this your misery, and will rejoice, as you did serve them in earth, so now in hell, to be your tormenters. It may be therefore (by the way) a good warning and wisdom to us all, when we feel the extremity of some bodily pain, to consider with ourselves, and say; Oh then, what shall be my misery and torment, if I repent not? When not one member, but soul, body, and conscience, shall be racked and tormented in the feeling and apprehension of the anger of the Lord of Hosts.

In these three points stands that curse and wrath of God, under which every man is born. And these do answer to the three degrees of sin, which are in us: for as the two first rules taught us, there is in every man by nature, till he repent, a threefold guiltiness. First, a guiltiness of Adam's sin. Secondly, the taint of original and universal corruption. Thirdly, a pollution by many outrageous actual sins. In the first of these every man is equally guilty. In the second, every man is equally corrupt. But in the third, every one keeps that compass, within which the Lord will keep them by his limiting power.

Now as in our guiltiness of Adam's sin, sin has his beginning: in original sin, his continuance: in actual sin, his perfection: So answerable hereunto, the wrath of God (which always stands opposite to sin) is begun in leaving us by nature to the slavery of Satan, is continued by death, and is accomplished in damnation.

And now these three rules, I commend to the careful and Christian consideration of you all: certifying you from God, that as you can never be saved, unless you repent: nor repent, unless you search yourselves, (as here the Prophet bids.) So, that you can never search yourselves aright, till you be persuaded, and resolved of these three rules, and of the truth of them all, even in your hearts and consciences: Namely; First, that you are guilty of Adam's sin. Secondly, that you are prone by nature to all evil in the world. Thirdly, that for these you are subject to the wrath of God, and to all the curses of his wrath: but when you are in heart and conscience resolved, that these are true; then you are a fit scholar, for this Lesson of the Prophet, Search yourself. For when you go, thus prepared to this search, and esteem of yourself, as the three rules have described you: then if you search into yourself, you will find yourself, and your estate to be such, as will cause you to repent, return and take a new course: therefore what the Prophet said to those Jews, I say to you also, My brethren of this Realm of England, who are now here gathered together, out of so many countries, and quarters of this Realm: yes, in the name of the same God, I cry to you; Search. O Search yourselves: and think it not a matter indifferent to do, or not to do it? But know it, that God commands you, as ever you will come to salvation: Search yourselves. And the rather, because by these three rules you see how much chaff of corruption is in your nature, and what need therefore it has to be searched into, and fanned by repentance. Be well assured you man, whatever you are: there is so much chaff in you, that if you search not, and fan it not out, you will prove nothing but chaff at the last day, and so be blown away with the wind of God's justice into Hell. Take hold therefore of this exhortation, and defer it not.

You will not suffer your wheat to lie too long in the chaff, for fear of hurting it: is it then safe to suffer the chaff of your sins and corruptions to lie cankering and rotting in your heart? Be sure that that little portion of grace, which you attain to, by living in the Church, and under the ministry of the word of God, will be putrefied, and clean corrupted with the chaff of your sins: therefore again, and again, I exhort you to make conscience of this duty: search into yourselves, fan out this chaff, this presumption of ours, and high esteeming of our own nature, and conceits of God's favor before we have it: that so this chaff being blown away, the Lord may then bestow upon us soundness of grace, and the foundation of all goodness, which is a holy and humbled heart.

Salvation is such a building, as the foundation thereof had need to be sure and strong: ignorance, blindness, and presumption, are not sufficient foundations for such a building: therefore as no man will build a strong house upon any earth, but he will first search it, lest it prove sandy, and so overthrow all: so a wise Christian will not build his salvation, upon fancies and conceits, and natural presumptions: but will search, and look into his heart: and finding these to be sandy, and rotten, and therefore too weak for the foundation of so glorious a building, will refuse them all, and labor to furnish his heart with such sound grace, as whereupon he may trust so weighty a work, as is the salvation of his soul. Again, if you will stand in the day of trial, then search your heart betimes, and discern between chaff and wheat: you see, that chaff flies away before the wind; but good corn endures the fan, and the fury of the wind: so in the day of trial, temptation, sickness, or open persecution, the chaff of natural presumption, and outward formality in religion, will fly away: and it must be the penitent, humbled, and believing heart, which must then abide it out, and endure the fan of temptations and persecutions.

And to conclude, let not the Devil deceive you, in making you imagine or hope to please God, and yet to let your corruptions lie unseen, and your sins unsearched out, lest thereby you mar all: for you do not use to lay up wheat in your garners, until it be purged from the chaff: so think not to store up any saving knowledge, or any other grace of God in your heart, until the chaff of vanity be first blown away, that so, the holy graces of God may be laid up in the garners of your soul.

And therefore questionless, (to speak one word to touch our common professors, in the very sore of their souls) all knowledge that is stored up in these impure and unsearched hearts: is even as wheat laid up in the chaff, which is, (a thousand to one) sure to be eaten up by the chaff, so that, when the winnowing time of trial and persecution comes: I fear, that such men will (for all their knowledge) shrink aside, and betray the truth: their knowledge then proving no better than chaff, because it was laid up in an unholy heart. If therefore you would stand and endure, when Popery, or persecution, or temptations come, if you would abide the fury of the fan of temptations: now then exercise your heart with the fan of God's law, search and ransack it, purge out the chaff of corruption, and store up knowledge in a holy heart, and a good conscience, and that will abide the violence of all temptations: yes, when God suffers the Devil to do with us, as he did with Peter, to winnow us like wheat, to sift and try us, as he did Job, with the furious wind of all his malice: then knowledge will prove wheat, that will abide the wind, and gold that will abide the fire: thus glorious will it be in the end, if we follow this holy prophet's counsel, and search our hearts.

¶And thus much for the first point (namely) the duty of searching here commanded, in which we have stayed the longer, because it is the foundation of all the rest: and this being well laid, the whole building will go up the faster.