The Preface, the offendor, , till he heard from Nathan, Thou art the man. 1-low hard is it to convince a ielfilh hypocrite of any fin that will admit of an excufe or cloak,? All the town can fee the Pride of fome, the Covetoufnefs of others, the unpeaceable unchriftian be- haviour of others ; and yet themfelves , that fhould moft obferve it, and belt difcern it, perceive it not, nor will by any means be brought tofee it. No Minifier can put them down, when they arelitftifyingthemfelves nor make them humbly and heartily confefs that theyhave finned. ( But God will ere long convince them irrefiflibly , and teach their tongues another kind of lan- guage.) Let the cafe of another come before them , and how rea- dily willthey adjudge him to penitent confefficn,reparation, refti- tution, and through-reformation ! But the cafe is altered, when it becomes their own. Such incompetent judgesare thefe felfifh hy. pocrites. 5. Obferve but how eafily men fall out with one another and how hardly they are reconciled , and howmuch ado any peace-maker shall have to end the difference ; and obferve al- lowhether all the quarrel benot about fome felfifh Intereit : andjudge by this of their felf-denyal. When do they fo fall out with men, for wronging God, or the Goifrel , or their own fouls , as they do for wronging them ? And if a Minifter that can bear an injury againft himfelf, dp faithfully rebuke, them that deal injurioufly againft Chrift , and againft the Church, and the fouls of men, ( efloecially if they be Great men in the world that are reproved ) its ftrange to fee how felf makes them form ; though they haqie read what amark of rebellion, and prognoftick 6f mifery, it was even in Kings, to rejeS. the reproofs of the Meffengers of the Lord ? much more to hate or perfecute the reprover. 6. Obferve alrohowforwardmany are, unreafonably to exalt their own underftandings , above thole that are far ',Pifer then themfelves : cnd judge by this of their felf-denyal. Though their Brethren or Teachers, have fludyed , andprayed, andfought after knowledge, ten times, or twenty times more then they , and have asfaithfully obeyedaccording to their knowledge , and indeed be incomparably beyond them in linderftanding : yet how commonly /ball you meet with unftudied , unexperienced novices (notably (f z) defcribed,
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