This shows us that there is a way, 1. Of knowing ourselves. As the
water is a looking-glass in which we may see our faces by reflection,
so there are mirrors by which the heart of a man is discovered to a
man, that is, to himself. Let a man examine his own conscience, his
thoughts, affections, and intentions. Let him behold his natural face
in the glass of the divine law (Jam. i. 23), and he may discern what
kind of man he is and what is his true character, which it will be of
great use to every man rightly to know. 2. Of knowing one another by
ourselves; for, as there is a similitude between the face of a man and
the reflection of it in the water, so there is between one man's heart
and another's for God has fashioned men's hearts alike; and in many
cases we may judge of others by ourselves, which is one of the
foundations on which that rule is built of doing to others as we would
be done by, Exod. xxiii. 9. Nihil est unum uni tam simile, tam par,
quam omnes inter nosmet ipsos sumus. Sui nemo ipse tam similis quam
omnes sunt omnium--No one thing is so like another as man is to man. No
person is so like himself as each person is to all besides. Cic. de
Legib. lib. 1. One corrupt heart is like another, and so is one
sanctified heart, for the former bears the same image of the earthy,
the latter the same image of the heavenly.