pertinent to this rule: "When your impure priests look after a pure sacrifice, why do they not rather inquire into their own heart, than into the lamb's appurtenance? Why do they not ask after the lust of the sacrificers, more than the little spot upon the bull's liver?"-The rites of sacrifices were but the monitions of duty; and the priest's inquiry into the purity of the beast was but a precept represented in ceremony and hieroglyphic, commanding us to take care that the man be not less pure and perfect than the beast. For if an unclean man brings a clean sacrifice, the sacrifice shall not cleanse the man, but the man will pollute the sacrifice; let them bring to God a soul pure and spotless, lest God espying a soul humbly lying before the altar, and finding it to be polluted with a remaining filthiness, or the reproaches of a sin, he turns away his head and hates the sacrifice. And God,-who taught the sons of Israel in figures and shadows, and required of the Levitical priests to come to God clean and whole, straight, and with perfect bodies,— meant to tell us, that this bodily precept, in a carnal law, does, in a spiritual religion, signify a spiritual purity. For God is never called the lover of bodies, but the great lover of souls; and he that comes to redeem our souls from sin and death, from shame and reproach, would have our souls brought to him as he loves them: an unclean soul is a deformity in the eyes of God; it is indeed spiritually discerned, but God hath no other eyes but what are spirits and flames of fire.

Here, therefore, it concerns us to examine ourselves strictly and severely, always remembering, that to examine ourselves (as is here intended) is not a duty completed by examining; for this carries us on to the sacrament, or returns us to the mortifications of repentance.

e Submouentur in his symbolis, ut, quoties accedunt ad altaria, vel nuncupaturi vota vel reddituri, nullum vitium, nullumque morbum afferant in animâ.-Philo.

d Conentur omnino nitidam et immaculatam animam in conspectum Dei producere, ne visam aversetur. - Philo. Si mortale corpus, multo magis immortalem animam.-Idem.

e Salvatorem nostrum, fratres charissimi, suscepturi, totis viribus debemus nos cum ipsius adjutorio præparare, et omnes latebras animæ nostræ diligenter aspicere, ne fortè sit in nobis aliquod peccatum absconditum, quod et conscientiam nostram confundat et mordeat, et oculos divinæ majestatis offendat.-S. Ambros. de Sacram.

But sometimes our sins are so notorious, that they go before unto judgment and condemnation, and they need no examining; and whatsoever is not done against our wills, cannot be besides our knowledge, and so cannot need examination, but remembering only. And, therefore, I do not call upon the drunkard to examine himself concerning temperance, or the wanton concerning his uncleanness, or the oppressor concerning his cruel covetousness, or the customary swearer concerning his profaneness. No man needs much inquiry to know whether a man be alive or dead, when he hath lost a vital part.

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But this caution is given to the returning sinner, to the repenting man, to him that weeps for his sins, and leaves what was the shame of his face, and the reproach of his heart. For we are quickly apt to think we are washed enough and having remembered our shameful falls, we groan in method, and weep at certain times; we bid ourselves be sorrowful, and tune our heart-strings to the accent and key of the present solemnity; and as sorrow enters in a dress and imagery when we bid her, so she goes away when the scene is done. Here, here it is that we are to examine whether shows do make a real change; whether shadows can be substances, and whether to begin a good work splendidly can effect all the purposes of its designation. Have you wept for your sin, so that you were indeed sorrowful and afflicted in your spirit? Are you so sorrowful, that you hate it? Do you so hate it, that you have left it? And have you so left it, that you have left it all, and will you do so for ever? These are particulars worth the inquiring after. How then shall we know?

Signs by which we may examine and tell, whether our Affections to Sin remain.

1. Because, in examining ourselves concerning this, we can never be sure but by the event of things; and the heart being deceitful above all things,' we secretly love what we profess to hate, we deny our lovers, and desire they should still press us; we command away the sin from our presence, for which we die if it stays away. Therefore, while we are in this preparatory duty of examination, the best sign whereby we can reasonably suppose all affection to sin be

gone away, is, if we really believe that we shall never any more commit that sin, to which we are most tempted, and most inclined, and by which we most frequently fall. Here is a copious matter for examination.

2. When thou dost examine thyself, thou canst not but remember how often thou hast sinned by wantonness, perhaps, or by intemperance; but now thou sayest thou wilt do so no more. If thou hadst never said so, and failed, it might have been likely enough; but the sun does not rise and set so often, as thou hast sinned and broken all thy holy vows; and thy resolution to put away thy sin is but like Amnon thrusting out his sister, after he had enjoyed her and was weary sin looks ugly, after it hath been handled; and having lost thy innocence and thy peace for nothing but the exchange of shame and indignation, thou art vexed, peevish, and unsatisfied, and then thou resolvest thou wilt sin no more. But thou wilt find this to be no great matter, but a great deception; for thou only desirest it not, because for the present the appetite is gone; thou hast no fondness for it, because the pleasure is gone; and like him who having scratched the skin till the blood comes, to satisfy a disease of pleasure and uncleanness, feeling the smart, thou resolvest to scratch no more.

3. But consider, I pray, and examine better; is the disease cured, because the skin is broken? will the appetite return no more? and canst not thou again be tempted? is it not likely that the sin will look prettily, and talk flattering words, and entice thee with softnesses and easy fallacies? and wilt not thou then lay thy foolish head upon the lap of the Philistine damsel, and sleep till thy locks be cut, and all thy strength is gone? wilt not thou forget thy shame and thy repentance, thy sick stomach, and thy aching head, thy troubled conscience, and thy holy vows, when thy friend calls thee to go and sin with him, to walk aside with him in the regions of foolish mirth, and an unperceived death? Place thyself, by consideration and imaginative representment, in the circumstances of thy former temptation; and consider when thou canst be made to desire, and art invited to desire, and naturally dost desire, can thy resolution hold out against such a battery?

4. In order to this, examine whether there be in thee any

good principle stronger than all the arguments and flatteries of thy sin: but above all things, examine whether there be not in thee this principle, that if thou dost sin again in great temptation, thou wilt and mayest repent again: take heed of that, for it is certain, no man lives in the regions of temptation, to whom sin can seem pleasant, but he will fall when the temptation comes strongly, if he have this principle within him, that though he do commit that sin, he may and will repent. For then sin hath got a paranymph and a solicitor, a warrant and an advocate: if you think that you can so order it, that you shall be as sure of heaven, though you do this sin as though you do it not, you can have no security: your resolutions are but glass; they may look like diamonds to an undiscerning eye; but they will last no longer than till the next rude temptation falls upon them.

5. Examine yet further: is your case so, that you have no reserves of cases, in which your sin shall prevail? you resolve to leave the partner of your follies, and you go from her lest you be tempted: it is well, it is very well: but is not your heart false as water? and, if you should see her again, do not you perceive, that your resolution hath brought you to a little shame, because it will upbraid thy falsehood and inconstancy? You resolve against all intemperate anger, and you deny the importunity of many trifling occurrences: but consider, if you be provoked, and if you be despised, can your flesh and blood endure it then? It may be, Calphurnius and Tucca shall not persuade thee to go to the baths of Lucrinus; but if Mecænas calls thee, or the consul desires thy company, thou canst resist no longer. Thou didst play the fool with poor Calenia, and thou art troubled at thy folly, and art ashamed when thou dost remember how often thou wentest into the Summonium, and peeped into the titles of those unhappy women, whose bodies were the price of a Roman penny;-but art thou so severe and chaste, that thou wilt die rather than serve the imperious lust of Julia? or wilt thou never be scorched with the flames of Corinna's beauty? It is nothing to despise a cheap sin and a common temptation; but art thou strong enough to overcome the strongest argument that thy sin hath? Examine thyself here wisely and severely. It is not thy part, saying, ' I will sin no more.' He that hath new dined, can easily resolve to fast

at night; but when thou art hungry and invited, and there is rare meat on the table, and thy company stays for thee, and importunes thee, canst thou then go on with thy fasting day? if thou canst, it is as it should be; but let not thy resolution be judged by short sayings, but first by great considerations, and then by proportionable events. If neither the biggest temptation, nor thy trifling hopes, nor thy foolish principles, nor weak propositions, can betray thee, then thou mayest with reason say, that you have no affection so strong as the love of God, no passion so great as thy repentance, no pleasure equal to that of a holy conscience; and then thou mayest reasonably believe that there is in thee no affection to sin remaining. But something more is to be added.

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6. In the examination of this particular, take no accounts of yourself by the present circumstances, and by your thoughts and resolutions in the days of religion and solemnity; but examine how it is with you in the days of ordinary conversation, and in the circumstances of secular employments. For it is with us in our preparations to the holy communion, as it is with women that sit to have their pictures drawn, they make themselves brave and adorned, and put on circumstances of beauty to represent themselves to their friends and to their posterity with all the advantages of art and dressing. But he that loves his friend's picture, because it is like her, and desires to see in image what he had in daily conversation, would willingly see her in picture as he sees her every day; and that is most like her, not which resembles her in extraordinary, and by the sophistry of dressing, but as she looked when she went about in the government of her family: so must we look upon ourselves in the dresses of every day in the week, and not take accounts of ourselves as we trick up our souls against a communion-day. For he that puts on fine clothes for one day or two, must not suppose himself to be that prince, which he only personates. We dress ourselves upon a day of religion, and then we cannot endure to think on sin; and if we do, we sigh; and when we sigh, we pray, and suppose that if we might die upon that day, it would be a good day's work, for we could not die in a better time. But let us not deceive ourselves. That is our picture that is like us every