The Manuscript Title Page of the following Sermon being loft, and no Memorandums written upon it, as there were upon the others, when and where it was preached, made the Editor doubtful whether he should print it as the DEAN'S, or not. But its being found amongst the same Papers; and the Hand, although written somewhat better, bearing a great Similitude to the DEAN'S, made him willing to lay it before the Publick, that they might judge whether the Stile and Manner alfo do not render it ftill more probable to be his. ΤΗ Ε DIFFICULTY O F KNOWING ONE'S SELF. 2 KINGS viii.. Part of the 13th Verse. And Hazael faid, But what, is thy Servant a Dog, that he should do this great Thing? WE E have a very fignal Inftance of the Deceitfulness of the Heart, reprefented to us in the Perfon of Hazael; who was sent to the Prophet Elisha, to enquire of the Lord concerning his Mafter the King of Syria's Recovery. For the Man of God having told him that the King might recover from the Disorder he was then labouring under, began to fet and fasten his Countenance upon him of a fudden, and to break out into the most violent Expreffions VOL. VIII. Y Expreffions of Sorrow, and a deep Concern for it; whereupon, when Hazael, full of Shame and Confufion, asked, Why weepeth my Lord? He answered, Because I know all the Evil that thou wilt do unto the Children of Ifrael; their ftrong Holds wilt thou fet on Fire, and their young Men wilt thou lay with the Sword, and wilt dash their Children, and rip up their Women with Child. Thus much did the Man of God fay and know of him, by a Light darted into his Mind from Heaven. But Hazael, not knowing himself so well as the other did, was startled and amazed at the Relation, and would not believe it poffible, that a Man of his Temper could ever run out into fuch enormous Inftances of Cruelty and Inhumanity. What, fayeth he, is thy Servant a Dog, that he should do this great Thing? And yet, for all this, it is highly probable, that he was then that very Man, he could not imagine himself to be; for we find him, on the very next Day after his Return, in a very treacherous and difloyal Manner, murdering his own Master, and ufurping his Kingdom; which was but a Prologue to the fad Tragedy which he afterwards acted upon the People of Ifrael. ; And now the Cafe is but very little better with most Men, than it was with Hazael however it cometh to pass, they are wonderfully unacquainted with their own Temper and Difpofition, and know very little of what paffeth within them: For of fo many proud, ambitious, revengeful, envying, and ill-natured Perfons that are in the World, where is there one of them, who, although he hath all the Symptoms of the Vice appearing upon every Occafion, can look with fuch an impartial Eye upon himself, as to believe that the Imputation thrown upon him, is not altogether groundless and unfair? Who, if he were told by Men of a difcerning Spirit and a strong Conjecture, of all the evil and abfurd Things which that falfe Heart of his would at one Time or other betray him into, would not believe as little, and wonder as much, as Hazael did before him? Thus, for Inftance: Tell an angry Person, that he is weak and impotent, and of no Confistency of Mind; tell him, that fuch or fuch a little Accident, which he may then despise, and think much below a Paffion, shall hereafter make him fay and do feveral abfurd, indiscreet, and misbecoming Things: He may perhaps own, that he hath a Spirit of Refent ment within him, that will not let him be impofed on, but he fondly imagines, that he can lay a becoming Reftraint upon it when he pleaseth, although it is ever running away with him into some Indecency or other. Therefore, to bring down the Words of my Text to our present Occasion, I shall endeavour, in a further Profecution of them, to evince the great Neceffity of a nice and curious Inspection into the feveral Receffes of the Heart, that being Y 2 |