Direct. VIII. Also your successes must be the proof of the sincerity of your endeavours: for such striving against sin as endeth in yielding to it, and not in victory, is no proof of the uprightness of your hearts.
Direct. IX. Mark what you are in the day of trial; for at other times it is more easy to be deceived: and record what you then discover in yourself: what a man is in trial, that he is indeed.
Direct. X. Especially try yourselves in the great point of forsaking all for Christ, and for the hopes of the fruition of God in glory. Know once whether God or the creature can do more with you, and whether heaven or earth be dearer to you, and most esteemed, and practically preferred, and then you may judge infallibly of your state.
Direct. XI. Remember that in melancholy and weakness of understanding, you are not fit for the casting up of so great accounts; but must take up with the remembrance of former discoveries, and with the judgment of the judicious, and be patient till a fitter season, before you can expect to see in yourselves the clear evidence of your state.
Direct. XII. Neither forget what former discoveries you have made, nor yet wholly rest in them, without renewing your self-examination. They that have found their sincerity, and think that the next time they are in doubt, they should fetch no comfort from what is past, do deprive themselves of much of the means of their peace. And those that trust all to the former discoveries of their good estate, do proceed upon unsafe and negligent principles; and will find that such slothful and venturous courses will not serve turn.
Direct. XIII. Judge not of yourselves by that which is unusual and extraordinary with you, but by the tenor and drift of your hearts and lives. A bad man may seem good in some good mood; and a good man may seem bad in some extraordinary fall. To judge of a bad man by his best hours, and of a good man by his worst, is the way to be deceived in them both.
Direct. XIV. Look not unequally at the good or evil that is in you; but consider them both impartially as they are. If you observe all the good only that is in you, and overlook the bad; or search after nothing but your faults, and overlook your graces; neither of these ways will bring you to true acquaintance with yourselves.
Direct. XV. Look not so much either at what you should be, or at what others are, as to forget what you are yourselves. Some look so much at the glory of that full perfection which they want, as that their present grace seemeth nothing to them; like a candle to one that hath been gazing on the sun. And some look so much at the debauchery of the worst, that they think their lesser wickedness to be holiness.
Direct. XVI. Suffer not your minds to wander in confusion, when you set yourselves to so great a work: but keep it close to the matter in hand, and drive it on till it have come to some satisfaction and conclusion.
Direct. XVII. If you are not able by meditation to do it of yourselves, get the help of some able friend or pastor, and do it in a way of conference with him: for conference will hold your own thoughts to their task; and your pastor may guide them, and tell you in what order to proceed, and confute your mistakes, besides confirming you by his judgment of your case.