Actus Reflexivus – A Work of Self-Examination

Self-examination is setting up a court in conscience and keeping a register there, so that, by strict scrutiny, a man may know how things stand between God and his own soul. Self-examination is a spiritual inquisition, bringing one’s self to trial. A good Christian begins, as it were, the Day of Judgment here in his own soul.

External acts of religion are facile; to lift up the eye to heaven, to bow the knee, to read a prayer, all require no more labor than for a Papist to count his beads; but to examine a man’s self, to turn in upon his own soul, to take the heart as a watch all in pieces and see what is defective – this is not easy.

Many take their salvation on trust. The foolish virgins thought they had oil in their lamps, the same as the wise. Some are not sure of their salvation, but secure. If one were to buy a piece of land, he would not take it upon trust, but would examine the title. How confident some are of salvation, yet never examine their title to heaven.

-Thomas Watson, Heaven Taken By Storm (The Northampton Press)