does his face in a mirror. When he does and knows what is sin, he is
able, on imploring the Lord's help, not to will it but to shun it, then
to act contrary to it, if not freely, then by overcoming it through
fighting it, and finally to become averse to it and abominate it. Then
first does he perceive and also sense that evil is evil and good is good.
This, now, is self-examination--to see one's evils, acknowledge them,
confess them and thereupon desist from them.

[2] But as few know that this is the Christian religion itself, and these
alone have charity and faith and are led by the Lord and do good from
Him, something will be said of those who fail to examine themselves but
still think that they possess religion. They are 1. Those who confess
themselves guilty of all sins but do not search out any one sin in
themselves. 2. Those who neglect the search on religious principle.
3. Those who in absorption with the mundane give no thought to sins and
hence do not know them. 4. Those who favor them and therefore cannot know
them. 5. With all these, sins do not appear and therefore cannot be
removed. 6. Finally, the reason, so far unknown, will be made plain why
evils cannot be removed apart from their being searched out, appearing,
being acknowledged, confessed and resisted.

278 r. But these points will be considered one by one, for they are
fundamentals of the Christian religion on man's part.

First, _of those who confess themselves guilty of all sins, but do not
search out any one sin in themselves._ They say, "I am a sinner. I was
born in sin. From head to foot there is nothing sound in me. I am nothing
but evil. Good God, be gracious to me, pardon, cleanse and save me. Make
me to walk in purity and in a right path"; and more of the kind. And yet
the man does not examine himself and hence does not know any evil, and no