<!DOCTYPE ETS PUBLIC "-//UMDLPS//DTD EEBOPROOF 2.0//EN">
<ETS>
<TEMPHEAD>
<REVDESCR>
<CHANGE>
<DATE>2011-12-13</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>Judith Siefring</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
</RESPSTMT>
<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed.</ITEM>
</CHANGE>
</REVDESCR>
</TEMPHEAD>
<EEBO>
<IDG S="marc" R="OX" ID="A94171">
<STC T="W">S6300</STC>
<STC T="T">E1504_3</STC>
<BIBNO T="umi">99867595</BIBNO>
<VID>119912</VID>
</IDG>
<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P>HYPOCRISIE DISCOVERED In its NATURE and WORKINGS.</P>
<P>Delivered in &s;everal Sermons, By That faithfull Mini&s;ter of the Go&s;|pell, Mr <HI>Cuthbert Sidenham,</HI> Late Teacher to a Church of Chri&s;t in <HI>Newca&s;tle</HI> upon <HI>Tyne.</HI></P>
<P><HI>LONDON,</HI> Printed by <HI>W. H.</HI> for <HI>Rich. Tomlins,</HI> at the Sun and Bible in <HI>Pye-Corner,</HI> 1654.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="dedication">
<PB REF="2">
<PB REF="2">
<HEAD>For the Honourable, Sir <HI>Arthur He&s;ilrig,</HI> Knight and Baronet.</HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>Sir,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>YOu that have &s;o long profe&s;|&s;ed the name of the Lord Je|&s;us, and have been honou|red to &s;uffer for him in no ordina|ry trials, and been drawn out to great employments, cannot but have met with various workings of your own heart in the&s;e times, e&s;pecially having gone both through good and evill report, all which will di&s;cover much of that
<PB REF="3"> which is within a man to him&s;elf; this being upon our &s;pirits (with the more than ordinary re&s;pects you &s;hewed to this precious &s;ervant of Chri&s;t, the Author of the&s;e Ser|mons) hath drawn us out to pre|fix your name to this worke, as be|ing willing to beare witne&s;&s;e to the world (though he be in his grave) how much he re&s;ented your favour and love towards him. Sir, the matter of this Book you will find very &s;earching, but Gold lo&s;eth no|thing by the criticall examination of the fire but its dro&s;&s;e, which no reall Saint but will rejoyce to part with. We que&s;tion not but in the reading of it you will find &s;peciall advantages for your &s;pirituall inte|re&s;t for the teachings of the &s;pirit of that God who hath hitherto helped
<PB REF="3"> you, who was with you in the field and covered your head in the day of battell, who made you a reall terrour to the enemies of his Son Ie&s;us in this Nation, and did by the good hand of his providence bring you among us when his ene|mies were very high and turbulent by your courage and faithfulne&s;s to calme and bring them under, who al&s;o drew out your heart to &s;o &s;ig|nall a proofe of your reall de&s;ire to &s;erve Ie&s;us Chri&s;t every way, in be|ing an In&s;trument to procure the three yeares Commi&s;sion for pro|pagating the Go&s;pell in the&s;e foure Northerne Counties. The&s;e things we mention as that which hath laid engagements upon our hearts towards you; Oh, that you may yet go on and pro&s;per, and do more
<PB REF="4"> worthily for God and his people, that your enemies may be found lyars, that after your many trials God may cleare up your integrity, that you may be as the light of the morning, 2 <HI>Sam.</HI> 23.4. Sir, we have this only to beg of you, look whol|ly to God in all, and walke humbly and clo&s;e with him, and learne that of the Apo&s;tle, he is only approved whom God approveth, thus will you engage the Saints more and more, and us to be</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED><HI>Yours in the &s;ervice of the Go&s;pell.</HI>
<LIST>
<ITEM>Tho. Weld,</ITEM>
<ITEM>Sam. Hamond,</ITEM>
<ITEM>Tho. Trurin,</ITEM>
<ITEM>Wil. Durant.</ITEM>
</LIST></SIGNED></CLOSER>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="to the reader">
<PB REF="4">
<HEAD>To all that profe&s;&s;e the name of the Lord Ie&s;us.</HEAD>
<P>_THe Apo&s;tle, &s;peaking of the la&s;t daies, cals them perilous times, or as the word is, dif|ficult times, not &s;o much up|on the account of per&s;ecuti|on, as the formality and hypocri&s;ie of many that &s;hall then profe&s;&s;e the Go&s;pell, and as in other prophe&s;ies the fullest opening of the book is the event of providences made out to Saints by the Spirit of God, &s;o in this the &s;ad influences that the hypocri&s;ie and formality of Profe&s;&s;ours hath had upon the Saints in the&s;e la&s;t daies, make us to un|der&s;tand where the perill and difficulty lies; and the rea&s;on why the Apo&s;tle &s;hould
<PB REF="5"> make it matter of prophecy and of imminent danger and difficulty to the Saints who &s;hall conver&s;e among them, how &s;oon was <HI>Peter,</HI> that great Apo&s;tle, leavened with hypocri&s;ie, and <HI>Barnabas</HI> al&s;o carried away with that di&s;&s;imulation, <HI>(Gal. 2.12, 13.)</HI> though men otherwi&s;e full of the Holy Gho&s;t? And have not we ground to thinke that the &s;leeping of the fooli&s;h virgins will be no &s;mall temptation to the wi&s;e to &s;lumber al&s;o, as Chri&s;t hath pro|phe&s;ied in that Parable, <HI>Mat 25.</HI> How hard is it to touch pitch and not be defiled? Oh that the danger of this, &s;o clearely held out by Christ and his Apo&s;tles, might leave a more powerfull impre&s;&s;ion upon the hearts of the Saints to be very circum&s;pect where they are nece&s;&s;itated, to have their conver&s;ation among the deceitfull &s;pirits of the&s;e times, we meane, men having the forme of godline&s;&s;e, but not the power of it; whoever of you are ob&s;ervers of your own hearts, &s;urely you have &s;ometimes found with what in&s;inuating po|wer the mi&s;carriages of &s;ome eminent profe&s;|&s;ors have crept into your hearts, and led you away into divers fooli&s;h lu&s;ts; Can you look back upon your walkings, for the&s;e ten yeares
<PB REF="5"> pa&s;t, without regret of &s;oule to review the many &s;ecret apo&s;ta&s;ies of your hearts from Chri&s;t? Doth not &s;o many of your unholy walkings, as you may find in the &s;earchings of your &s;oules, put you upon more thorow and &s;trict examination, whether this root of bitterne&s;&s;e do not &s;pring up and trouble you? It would &s;tagger a man to con&s;ider what an aptne&s;&s;e there is in many profe&s;&s;ors mo&s;t &s;in|fully to comply with, if not fully to act the de|generate mi&s;carriages of this pre&s;ent evill world; &s;hould holy <HI>Baynes,</HI> or <HI>Rogers,</HI> or <HI>Greenham</HI> ari&s;e from the dead, and take a view of &s;ome of the now-profe&s;&s;ors of <HI>England,</HI> who pretend to far clearer di&s;coveries of the Go&s;pell than they lived under; would not they ble&s;&s;e the Lord, that their portion was not ca&s;t to live in tho&s;e wicked daies? &s;hould they &s;ee the loath&s;ome fa&s;hions of many of you with powdered haire, painted faces, naked brea&s;ts, and &s;uch phanta&s;tick garbes, that yet would go for choice Saints and Chri&s;tians, would not they mourne in &s;ecret over the&s;e abomina|tions, and cry out, oh the hypocri&s;ie and de|ceitfulne&s;&s;e of your &s;pirits, and tell you, your light is darkne&s;&s;e, and that you are tho&s;e
<PB REF="6"> which do hold the truth of God in unrighte|ou&s;ne&s;&s;e? Hath not Satan hence taken his ground to oppo&s;e the truths of Chri&s;t, and to &s;peake evill of the good waies of God? Doth not the Quakers naturall con&s;cience (for that is his light and Chri&s;t within him) put him upon laying a&s;ide the ordinances, and divers other principles of the Go&s;pell, becau&s;e he &s;ees &s;o many of you living &s;o much in pride, and lu&s;ts of the fle&s;h, and walking according to the vanity of your minds, yet pleading for them under a pretence of Gospell-liberty? Doth not the Arminian make that one of his great Arguments for the Apo&s;tacy of the Saints, becau&s;e &s;o many of you pretending to be &s;uch, grow &s;o loo&s;e and vaine at la&s;t, and after you have pretended by the knowledge of Chri&s;t to have e&s;caped the pollutions of the world, are again intangled therein and over|come, <HI>2 Pet. 2.20.</HI> may he not be hardened by this generation, in his opinion, if that no &s;pecificall difference betwixt temporary and &s;aving grace; becau&s;e many under the bare authority of re&s;training grace come up to as high conformity to the Go&s;pell as you do, who yet would be taken as the great profe&s;&s;ors of
<PB REF="6"> it? Do not you ob&s;erve how many, alledging to be &s;candalized by your walkings, are tur|ned to embrace the gro&s;s Abomination of Po|pery? And however the goodne&s;s of our God hath been abundantly held forth in continu|ing that glorious light of the Go&s;pell which hath, and doth yet &s;hine among us, yet it is e|vident that the Lord hath given up very many to walke after their fooli&s;h hearts lusts, and to embrace delu&s;ions through their not walking clo&s;e with God under the&s;e di&s;cove|ries; Oh at what a high rate do you &s;in, that are profe&s;sors, who live thus, and walke car|nally under &s;o holy a Go&s;pell as that of our glorious Lord Je&s;us Chri&s;t. Brethren, though we thus &s;peake, yet we may not but faithfully witne&s;&s;e, to the prai&s;e of our ble&s;&s;ed Lord, that our lines are fallen into better places, where our &s;oules are not vexed with the be|holding &s;uch folly and abominable wicked|ne&s;&s;e in tho&s;e that do profe&s;&s;e the Go&s;pell; neither our Congregations pe&s;tered with &s;uch &s;pots of vanity: yet our deare Brother, the Author of the&s;e Sermons, doubtle&s;&s;e not without a &s;ecret impul&s;e of the ble&s;&s;ed Spirit, was moved to be &s;o large in opening the na|ture
<PB REF="7"> and workings of Hypocri&s;ie; for Hypo|cri&s;ie hath its &s;everall formes, and dre&s;&s;es, and may lye for a while undi&s;covered in the hearts and duties of the mo&s;t reall Saints, but where it workes mo&s;t &s;ecretly and &s;ubtilly there it requires a more quick eye, and faith|full hand to the anatomizing of it, which we can without flatery &s;ay, God had eminently be&s;towed upon him, of whom, to you that know him not, we &s;hall give this briefe te&s;ti|mony; He was trained up under Religious education from his Childhood, which made him often profe&s;s his jealou&s;ie of Profe&s;sors, e&s;pecially &s;uch who had the advantage of a godly education, through the many experi|ences of the deceits of his own heart, his &s;peciall in&s;ight into the my&s;teries of Christ, as you may ob&s;erve by his Sermons upon <HI>1 Tim. 3. ult.</HI> publi&s;hed by him&s;elfe a little before his death; his judicious and drawing di&s;coveries of the riches of grace, which if the Lord plea&s;e we &s;hall hereafter &s;hew to you, where you may &s;ee his tender bowels toward the poorest &s;oules under any of the workings of God, his unwearied paines, even to the vi&s;ible wa&s;ting of his owne bodily
<PB REF="7"> &s;trength in the work of the Mini&s;tery, and his great care over the Flock over which the Holy Gho&s;t had made him over&s;eer, all of the&s;e did be&s;peake him a ve&s;sell fitted for his Ma|&s;ters u&s;e, and it is not unknown to tho&s;e in chiefe&s;t places his otherwi&s;e u&s;efulne&s;s to the people of God in this Nation, thus did he &s;erve his generation with the&s;e many talents his God had furni&s;hed him with, and for the&s;e few Sermons we can only &s;ay, you have them as they were taken from his mouth in his ordinary Mini&s;tery, without any alteration, which is enough to exci&s;e the often inculca|ted expre&s;&s;ions you meet with in them, they were the la&s;t of his publike exerci&s;es among us, and now for the u&s;efulne&s;s of them we &s;hall &s;ay:</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, That here you &s;hall find out the tra|cings of the &s;ubtille&s;t hypocrite in all his formes and duties, even to his greate&s;t pre|tence of communion with God, for the devil hath not had a &s;tronger hold in the&s;e daies for the carrying on the mo&s;t terrible actings of profanene&s;s, as lying, cheating, pride, and lu&s;t, and the like, than by a pretence to commu|nion with God in light and love: we do not
<PB REF="8"> without &s;hame and griefe of heart mention tho&s;e things, but God will have them &s;earched out.</P>
<P>Secondly, Here thou wilt find, if a true Saint, how much of the Leven of Hypocri&s;ie is yet work<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 letter">ng in thy own heart; and is not this a mercy indeed to have the&s;e &s;preading iniqui|ties di&s;covered, as <HI>P&s;al. 139.23. Try me, O God, and know my heart: prove me, and examine my thoughts,</HI> and &s;ee if there be any way of wickedne&s;&s;e in me.</P>
<P>Thirdly, Here is a ground of e&s;tabli&s;hment to the mo&s;t di&s;couraged reall Saint again&s;t the feares of hypocri&s;ie, and how nece&s;&s;ary is this for poore weake &s;oules who are (how &s;in|cere &s;oever, yet) often tempted to conclude them&s;elves but very hypocrites; we have but one word more, and that is to tho&s;e profe&s;&s;ors that walke in the fellow&s;hip of the Go&s;pell, to put them in mind that the ve&s;&s;els of the Ta|bernacle were of pure gold, <HI>Exod. 25.29, 31,</HI> &amp;c. <HI>the di&s;hes, &s;poons, bowles, candle|&s;ticks, tonges, &s;nuffers, were all by Gods command of pure gold;</HI> and then to read the proph<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;ie of Church-members in the la&s;t daies, <HI>Zech. 14.20, 21. The pots in the
<PB REF="8"> Lords hou&s;e &s;hall be like the bowles be|fore the Altar, yea, every pot in Jeru&s;a|lem, and in Judah &s;hall be holine&s;&s;e to the Lord of Ho&s;ts;</HI> &s;o will the Lord be &s;erved in the beauties of holine&s;&s;e, and his Churches will be the prai&s;e of the whole earth.</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED>T. W.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<HEAD><PB REF="9">
<PB N="1" REF="9">Hypocri&s;ie di&s;covered in its Na|ture and Workings.</HEAD>
<DIV1 N="1" TYPE="sermon">
<HEAD>SERMON I.</HEAD>
<EPIGRAPH>
<Q><BIBL>Luke <HI>12. latter end of the fir&s;t ver&s;e.</HI></BIBL>
<P>Beware ye of the leaven of the Phari&s;ees, which is hypocri&s;ie.</P></Q>
</EPIGRAPH>
<P>_YOU &s;hall find, in the former Chapter, Chri&s;t charging of the Phari&s;ees for their un&s;u|table actings unto the rule, notwith&s;tanding all their profe&s;&s;ion, and pronouncing woes again&s;t them of all &s;orts of people: And here he
<PB N="2" REF="10"> takes occa&s;ion upon the addre&s;&s;e of peo|ple, to open tho&s;e things further, and to apply what he had &s;aid unto them; <HI>When he &s;aw a multitude of people,</HI> many people gathered together, <HI>in&s;omuch that they trode one upon another, he began to preach and ex|pound unto them;</HI> and this is the fir&s;t Le&s;|&s;on that he gave them, an admonition that they &s;hould <HI>take heed of the leaven of the Phari&s;ees, which is hypocri&s;ie.</HI></P>
<P>Now by <HI>leaven</HI> here of the Phari&s;ees, &s;ome take the <HI>doctrine</HI> of them to be meant: but you know Chri&s;t tels them in another place (<HI>Math.</HI> 23.2, 3.) <HI>they &s;it in</HI> Mo&s;es <HI>chaire, all therefore what&s;oever they bid you ob&s;erve, that ob&s;erve and doe:</HI> Yet certainly it may be taken for their do|ctrine here likewi&s;e, for they did manage their doctrine with hypocri&s;ie, and did not plainly and clearly open the nature of tho&s;e things the Law &s;pake of. But chiefly and e&s;pecially is meant here by <HI>the leaven of them,</HI> i.e. <HI>tho&s;e private and particular doctrines</HI> that they gave out from their <HI>owne</HI> Sect, from their <HI>own par|ticular judgment:</HI> For when they expoun|ded
<PB N="3" REF="10"> the Law, &s;o far as it referred to <HI>Mo|&s;es,</HI> the Lord Je&s;us gave them a warrant to heare them; but they have <HI>private in&s;tructions,</HI> and <HI>practices</HI> that will be as <HI>leaven</HI> to corrupt you, if you be not very exact. I need not to comment upon it, for my de&s;igne is only to open the <HI>nature</HI> of <HI>hypocri&s;ie,</HI> and di&s;cover it to you both <HI>in the Churches</HI> of Chri&s;t, <HI>and up and down the world.</HI> And I have cho&s;en this exam|ple of Je&s;us Chri&s;t: now it's mighty <HI>em|phaticall</HI> to con&s;ider, who are the <HI>per&s;ons</HI> he picks out, as who are the <HI>&s;ubjects</HI> of this admonition; The <HI>Phari&s;ees,</HI> the <HI>&s;tricte&s;t</HI> Sect among the Jewes, tho&s;e that had the <HI>greate&s;t name of Religion,</HI> that did mo&s;t <HI>exactly (outwardly)</HI> follow all the rules that the Law &s;eemes to command; they were expounders of <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> Law (to give you but a &s;hort hint of their life and actings) they gave them&s;elves up wholly to it: &s;o you &s;hall find up and downe all the New Te&s;tament, they were <HI>&s;equestred per&s;ons</HI> from all &s;orts of men, mu&s;t not be &s;o much <HI>as touched by any:</HI> For &s;o it &s;eems there when the poore woman came to
<PB N="4" REF="11"> Chri&s;t, <HI>and touched the hemme of his gar|ment,</HI> they wondred that Chri&s;t would &s;uffer him&s;elfe to be touched by her being a &s;inner; they were &s;o exact, that they would have no legall pollution upon them, they would not eat a bit of meat untill they wa&s;hed, e&s;pecially at a Fa&s;t, then &s;ome of them would even goe to wa&s;h their whole bodies, for feare any pollution &s;hould fall upon them; they were &s;o exact, that they counted all men but them&s;elves to be &s;inners: the&s;e things you &s;hall find up and downe the Scrip|tures, I need not name the places; they al|wayes were fa&s;ting twice a weeke, would not touch any meat, &s;o exact that they wore <HI>&s;chedules</HI> about their armes and necks, whereon the Law was written, the <HI>chiefe&s;t</HI> and mo&s;t <HI>po&s;itive</HI> Commande|ments; &s;o exact were they, as to outward appearance humbling them&s;elves on pur|po&s;e, &s;o that they &s;eemed to be mo&s;t ex|act (<HI>Paul</HI> was of the <HI>&s;ame</HI> Sect which he gloried of) and yet the mo&s;t hypocriti|call and unworthy generation of men that ever were, and the greate&s;t enemies
<PB N="5" REF="11"> of Chri&s;t that ever he had, and there's none he gave that bitter language to as to them.</P>
<P>They did ever endeavour the&s;e two things:</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, To <HI>intrap</HI> and intangle him with with their que&s;tions, to make him &s;peake &s;omething contrary to the Law.</P>
<P>Or &s;econdly, To <HI>blurr him</HI> if they could, to put a <HI>publique blot</HI> upon him before the people, and &s;uch a kind of calumny that they might all hate him; therefore the greate&s;t woes that <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> pronounces are again&s;t the <HI>Scribes</HI> and <HI>Phari&s;ees.</HI></P>
<P>But to goe no further, ob&s;erve only this;</P>
<P>Ob&s;. <HI>The more outwardly Religious men are, without &s;pirituall Principles, the more dangerous they are to conver&s;e withall:</HI> there's a <HI>leaven</HI> in them, there are no &s;uch per|&s;ons &s;o dangerous to conver&s;e with the Saints as the&s;e, a man is gone <HI>in&s;en&s;ibly,</HI> and taken <HI>in&s;en&s;ibly</HI> with the&s;e things be|fore he knowes where he is; the autho|rity of the per&s;on takes hold on his heart: Can &s;uch a per&s;on be &s;o and &s;o? he is
<PB N="4" REF="12">
<GAP DESC="duplicate" EXTENT="1 page">
<PB N="5" REF="12">
<GAP DESC="duplicate" EXTENT="1 page">
<PB N="6" REF="13"> rather fit for heaven then earth, and &s;o a man &s;ucks in all the venome of his &s;pi|rit and opinions; and &s;o it was with tho&s;e that went about to be fal&s;e Apo&s;tles, in 2 <HI>Tim.</HI> 4 <HI>chap.</HI> they went about <HI>cunningly</HI> to deale with men, and they gained <HI>excee|dingly;</HI> and I am confident that in the&s;e latter dayes more have been deceived by the &s;eeming profe&s;&s;ion of men &s;peaking <HI>great things,</HI> and lifted up high in e&s;teeme then by any otherway, as they &s;peak lyes &s;ecretly and with hypocri&s;ie; all their actings, and all they did was but hypo|cri&s;ie.</P>
<P>But the thing I &s;hall come to, is to open hypocri&s;ie: Now that which I &s;hall &s;hew in the generall, is,</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, what <HI>hypocri&s;ie</HI> is? what the <HI>nature</HI> of it is? 2. and the &s;everall <HI>&s;orts</HI> of it. 3. how it <HI>acts?</HI> 4. what the <HI>characters</HI> of hypocrites are, how they pa&s;&s;e through all &s;orts of duties?</P>
<P><HI>Hyprocri&s;ie</HI> may be con&s;idered the&s;e two wayes:</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, as oppo&s;ed unto the <HI>reality</HI> of the worke of the Go&s;pell in a mans heart, as
<PB N="7" REF="13"> oppo&s;ed unto what's reall in a man, that's hypocri&s;ie, when I have an appearance of what I have not; that's the fir&s;t thing. I doe, it may be, conceive I have this and that which I have not, and &s;o hypocri&s;ie lyes in a <HI>defect</HI> of tho&s;e <HI>Principles</HI> that &s;hould be in a man, it's oppo&s;ed unto that reall worke in a mans &s;oule, when I act tho&s;e things outwardly that I have no reall foundation for in my owne heart, pray, and preach, and heare, and doe all duties that are &s;uitable to the will of God, and no reality of the&s;e things in my owne heart, nothing within but the &s;tir|rings of my naturall affections, and the like; when as a man hath not that clear|ne&s;&s;e of judgement to di&s;cerne his owne &s;tate, and hath not that within him that is reall.</P>
<P>Secondly, hypocri&s;ie is oppo&s;ed to that <HI>inward &s;implicity of heart and intention</HI> in a mans &s;pirit, when I doe profe&s;&s;e that which I doe not intend, that's hypocri&s;ie; when I doe that in the Go&s;pell which my intentions are not reall in, and yet my in|tentions may be reall in the things I doe,
<PB N="8" REF="14"> but I have not a reality in the principle: but this is the gro&s;&s;e&s;t &s;ort of hypocri&s;ie, when it is oppo&s;ed to that <HI>&s;inglene&s;&s;e</HI> of &s;incerity and intention; they are as Stage-players, act the part of them they know they are not. A man doth out of &s;hew and vanity faigne him&s;elfe to be that which he is not; this is the &s;econd &s;ort of hypocri&s;ie, when I would be counted &s;o for &s;trictne&s;&s;e and holine&s;&s;e that I am not, and there's now in the very inten|tion of my &s;oule hypocri&s;ie. But hypo|cri&s;ie may be without the intention, where there is not that &s;poken of in the 1 <HI>Philip.</HI> 10. that you may be <HI>&s;incere,</HI><NOTE N="*" PLACE="foot"><GAP DESC="foreign"></NOTE> <GAP DESC="foreign">, which is a very large word, and &s;ignifies that cleare judgement a man &s;hould have, as if he were <HI>tryed by the beames of the Sun.</HI> Now though there be &s;incerity as to <HI>intention,</HI> yet there may be hypocri&s;ie as to the <HI>defect</HI> of the reality that &s;hould be in a mans &s;oule.</P>
<P>So that from the&s;e two con&s;iderations in generall, you may &s;ee that hypocrites may be of tho&s;e &s;orts.</P>
<PB N="9" REF="14">
<P>Fir&s;t, a man may be an hypocrite and may <HI>not know it;</HI> he may go on in all &s;orts of duties of Religion, and do all things <HI>exactly</HI> according <HI>to the letter</HI> of the Law, and do it with <HI>integrity</HI> in his <HI>&s;pi|rit,</HI> as he <HI>thinks,</HI> not knowing that he doth it out of any fal&s;e intention, hath not that cunningne&s;&s;e to deceive (as I &s;hall &s;hew you by and by,) not &s;o cunning a hypocrite as one who deales from the in|ward wickedne&s;&s;e of his heart, on pur|po&s;e to deceive: but yet he goes on, and never had the worke of God upon his &s;oule; he follows on the outward Letter of the Law, goes on in a <HI>drudging</HI> way, he finds &s;ome naturall propen&s;ity in his &s;pirit to it from ingenuity, and common principles which are left in him by the Go&s;pell: &s;o a man may be long in duties, (<HI>Paul</HI> was &s;o) he profe&s;&s;eth, that what he did was out of <HI>Ignorance,</HI> 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 1.13. he did not know he was an hypocrite, he had no de&s;igne to deceive the world, and to deceive him&s;elfe, he thought he was an exact man, and carried it as clearely as could be, he had no de&s;igne but to
<PB N="10" REF="15">propagate his own principles, and he was above all the Phari&s;ees, therefore he puts down him&s;elfe as the mo&s;t zealous of them, and &s;urely he had a good in|tention as to his own thoughts, as <HI>to de|&s;igne</HI> he was, as it were, an <HI>innocent</HI> hy|pocrite. And &s;urely &s;o it was with the <HI>fooli&s;h Virgins, Mat.</HI> 25. they went on <HI>&s;moothly</HI> a long time, and <HI>&s;lumbred,</HI> and &s;lept, and thought them&s;elves as pure Virgins as the wi&s;e untill <HI>midnight</HI> came. And the <HI>young man</HI> in the Go&s;pell, <HI>Mat.</HI> 19. he came to Chri&s;t with a confidence in his own intentions, that he had kept the Law, or el&s;e he would never have come to Chri&s;t as he did, but yet he <HI>lac|ked &s;omething,</HI> he wanted the maine principle, he wanted <HI>&s;elfe-deniall,</HI> never knew what it was to ca&s;t him&s;elfe upon the Lord Je&s;us purely: All his hypocri|&s;ie lay in that. If there be but a <HI>naturall ingenuity</HI> and <HI>&s;implicity,</HI> and it come under the Go&s;pell, it will be mightily impro|ved by a mans following the <HI>outward Let|ter</HI> of it, he will be as <HI>&s;imple-hearted</HI> in all duties, as much as formerly he was by
<PB N="11" REF="15"> following the common principles of ho|ne&s;ty: therefore when the <HI>young man</HI> came to Chri&s;t, there was a kind of affe|ction in Je&s;us Chri&s;t to him, and a love to him, and yet this was his hypocri&s;ie; he did all tho&s;e things, and had no inten|tion at all to deceive the world or him|&s;elfe by it, but he wanted the <HI>principle</HI> that &s;hould have carried him on in all things: So that a man appeares to be what he is not, appeares to be a Saint, and does duties well, but is not, this comes from a want of principles, a de|fect in that; <HI>It is not my intention that makes me a hypocrite before God,</HI> but if I go on in profe&s;&s;ion, and have not what &s;hould make out that profe&s;&s;ion to be from God, it is hypocri&s;ie. Only the&s;e are the mo&s;t to be pittied and bewailed that go innocently to hell; they thinke they have grace, and no man in the world can per&s;wade them to the contrary, and as &s;trong a faith as any in the world, and alas they have not; they thinke they love Chri&s;t, and would do any thing for him, but they never had that love flaming in
<PB N="12" REF="16"> them from the power of divine love, and &s;pirituall Go&s;pell-principles.</P>
<P>Now the rea&s;ons why men go on thus are.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, becau&s;e they never had the <HI>&s;ight</HI> of their own <HI>natures;</HI> they never were under the <HI>through</HI>-convictions of their <HI>&s;infull &s;tate by nature,</HI> only bred up <HI>faire|ly</HI> and <HI>ingenuou&s;ly</HI> in the Go&s;pell; God never &s;hewed them their own faces in the gla&s;&s;e of the Law, only they have looked on the Law with their own eye, in their own pro&s;pect; it is impo&s;&s;ible, if God &s;hewed a man his nature, he &s;hould go without principles in his heart.</P>
<P>Secondly, It comes from a <HI>generall view</HI> of the Go&s;pell, meerly from <HI>generall con|&s;iderations</HI> of the <HI>Go&s;pell,</HI> and <HI>outward rule,</HI> without any <HI>particular inward &s;en&s;e of the &s;pirit</HI> and <HI>frame</HI> that &s;hould be in him: men looke upon the Go&s;pell as a Hi&s;to|ry, and never come to &s;ee what &s;piritu|all frames &s;hould be in their hearts to every duty.</P>
<P>Thirdly, Men do find &s;ome kind of <HI>comfort</HI> in tho&s;e waies, and they have not
<PB N="13" REF="16"> tho&s;e <HI>checks of con&s;cience</HI> that others have, becau&s;e they are not &s;o <HI>gro&s;&s;e</HI> in their actings, but go on <HI>&s;moothly,</HI> without <HI>que|&s;tioning</HI> their own &s;tate, and their &s;pirits are pretty well compo&s;ed.</P>
<P>Fourthly, The maine and the great rea&s;on is <HI>want of through-examination,</HI> want of <HI>diving</HI> into the <HI>depths</HI> of the heart, not putting a mans &s;elfe to it every day, men take up meerly the <HI>imitation,</HI> as it were, of others, and the <HI>&s;hadow,</HI> and the outward <HI>expre&s;&s;ion,</HI> and con&s;ider them no otherwaies, whereas they are but &s;hews; men never go no further in their own &s;pirits than the out&s;ides, never &s;earch their hearts to lay them open before the Maje&s;ty and Authority of a great God, and &s;o they live and dye &s;ecurely. And is not this a &s;ad thing, that a man &s;hould thinke he hath grace, and have no inten|tion at all to deceive? That is, he hath not that cunning and de&s;perate frame, but only goes on and tru&s;ts his own judg|ment, and tru&s;ts his own generall appre|hen&s;ions, and hopes well of him&s;elfe, and thinkes &s;urely he would do no
<PB N="14" REF="17"> wrong, do no evill, and this man &s;lips down, and away to the bottome of hell; <HI>here is a hypocrite, though not a profe&s;&s;ed one,</HI> he is <HI>deceived,</HI> though he intend not to <HI>deceive,</HI> for here is that I would have you look to.</P>
<P>&rindx; It is not your <HI>thinking</HI> and <HI>&s;aying</HI> you have grace, you may be hypocrites for all that, if you are not what you ap|peare to be: you are a hypocrite what|&s;oever you &s;eeme to be, and whether you think &s;o or no. <HI>God thinkes</HI> &s;o, and <HI>know's</HI> &s;o, and you will find it &s;o one day, when you come to have the vaile taken off from your eyes; <HI>Paul</HI> wondred what he was a doing when God opened his eyes, what he had been doing all this while. Therefore you had need be <HI>trying</HI> your hearts every day, dayly fearing your hearts, and jealous over your &s;pirits, and &s;u&s;pecting every motion, untill you have tried your hearts by Law and Go&s;pell, yea, and waited upon the Spirit for a new triall.</P>
<P>Now there is a <HI>&s;econd &s;ort,</HI> and they are &s;uch as are con&s;cious to them&s;elves of
<PB N="15" REF="17"> their hypocri&s;ie, that they are not yet <HI>&s;ound</HI> in the <HI>maine,</HI> and yet go on in their profe&s;&s;ion from their education, or for &s;ome <HI>de&s;igne,</HI> and cannot leave it, have many &s;tirrings of God in their hearts un|der Ordinances from light convictions of the Lord upon their Spirits. And this is <HI>exceeding common,</HI> many go on a long time in profe&s;&s;ion and cannot leave it, but have many motions of God in their &s;oules, and many &s;harpe reproofes from God, and yet cannot &s;ee a through work upon their hearts, yet go on and profe&s;&s;e, and hope it may be, but take them&s;elves for Saints continually, and mu&s;t have their names enrolled for Saints in Churches, and yet have a jealou&s;ie of their own hypocri&s;ie, and go on &s;o for many yeares under many <HI>regrets</HI> and <HI>wounds</HI> of &s;pirit; they have many <HI>twangs</HI> that pierce them &s;ometimes, and yet the Conviction is not &s;o <HI>&s;trong</HI> as to &s;hew them their <HI>mi&s;erable and vile e&s;tate,</HI> or to pre&s;&s;e them on to the through worke of the Go&s;pell upon their hearts. And you &s;hall find tho&s;e per&s;ons very <HI>high in pray|er,</HI>
<PB N="16" REF="18"> and <HI>very able to &s;peake well</HI> in their conver&s;e with Saints: But they never met with God in duties, never had Gods a&s;&s;i&s;tance, never found that &s;pirituall &s;trength; when they heare men <HI>Anato|mi&s;ing</HI> of &s;oules, they are only for keep|ing up the <HI>glorious out&s;ide,</HI> and the glory of outward formes; they have been &s;ome ten or twenty years, and knew that Chri&s;t never appeared to them, and yet they cannot leave off duties, con&s;cience and the outward rule lies upon them &s;till: <HI>this is very common:</HI> And &s;o it was with <HI>Saul,</HI> he knew in his own heart that God had for&s;aken him, and yet he would be doing &s;omething, he would have <HI>Samuel</HI> to pray for him, but God had left him: he knew in his own con&s;cience he was un|&s;ound, and had not done the will of God. And &s;o a man may go up and down a great while, having a con&s;cience and abi|lity as to outward actings, and yet never be &s;ound: God improving a <HI>naturall light</HI> &s;o far as to outward actings, that he can|not chu&s;e but do tho&s;e outward duties, and yet he knows in his con&s;cience that
<PB N="17" REF="18"> he never met with God, and if he do, it is only to tell him thou art not &s;ound, and &s;ometimes he breakes out in extravagan|cies; the&s;e can find nothing in their hearts, but con&s;cience will be pre&s;&s;ing them on &s;till to keep up the forme. <HI>This is a mi&s;e|rable &s;oule.</HI> Certainely &s;ome men are <HI>&s;elf-condemned,</HI> and it is impo&s;&s;ible if &s;o be a man have any &s;tirrings of Con&s;cience, and live under the Mini&s;try of the Go|&s;pell, but he will &s;ome time or other (if he be a hypocrite) have &s;ome di&s;coveries of his owne heart, when he comes to prayer, there is not that working of a &s;pi|rit of Adoption; God may leave a man &s;o in a generall kind of way, that he may not at all &s;et out tho&s;e convictions, but tho&s;e that have their con&s;ciences convin|ced of particular acts of &s;in, when they turne Profe&s;&s;ors they have often times conviction, as to tho&s;e acts, but let a man have never &s;uch a daily hint that he is an hypocrite, yet it is no more to him to &s;trike him off his bottome and make him to be &s;ound, no more than if a man had a dayly &s;en&s;e of &s;in that he cannot get
<PB N="18" REF="19"> mortified, and he finds convictions not &s;o &s;harpe but that he can go under them and live, (though &s;ometimes they are <HI>&s;ore</HI> to him) and &s;top the mouth of con|&s;cience. The Lords power comes not in with the Conviction; and certainely tho&s;e &s;oules are mightily <HI>&s;tartled</HI> &s;oules, have mighty &s;harpe convictions upon their &s;pirits, but it is off againe, and they carry a generall kind of feare in their own hearts, but &s;till &s;omething or other there is, and they mu&s;t keep up: <HI>O take heed then.</HI></P>
<P>Looke to your own hearts, what &s;ecret hints you have of hypocri&s;ie, you that have lived long under the Go&s;pell, been given much to duties, look to your own hearts, how many <HI>twangs</HI> have you had in the night-&s;ea&s;on in your &s;pirits? You never met with God in the duty, though you prayed well, and read well in the &s;ight of men, though you have carried it faire up and down the world: what in|ward regret have you had in your own &s;pirits? This is a <HI>lamentable condition,</HI> for a man to be &s;o a hypocrite, that a man
<PB N="19" REF="19"> goes on under the conviction and cannot get from it, and yet goes on in duties &s;till. Now you have a third and la&s;t &s;ort, which is the gro&s;&s;e&s;t &s;ort.</P>
<P>Thirdly and la&s;tly, <HI>a de&s;igning</HI> hypo|crite, one that takes up Religion for &s;ome <HI>particular de&s;igne,</HI> which he knows the de&s;igne of in his own heart, as to get <HI>ho|nour,</HI> or <HI>profit,</HI> or the <HI>countenancing of &s;ome particular la&s;t,</HI> or whatever it be; meer|ly that a man may cover &s;ome &s;ecret lu&s;t, meerly to follow the opportunities and &s;ea&s;ons of the world: this is the <HI>gro&s;&s;e&s;t</HI> of all: <HI>State</HI>-hypocrites, as I may &s;o call them, tho&s;e that are only making u&s;e of the name of Religion on purpo&s;e to de|ceive, and <HI>begin all their evill in the name of God;</HI> the&s;e are the <HI>gro&s;&s;e&s;t</HI> &s;ort that can be po&s;&s;ibly. And there are &s;everall &s;orts of the&s;e. Some that are more <HI>refined,</HI> as to be honoured among men, as <HI>Simon Magus,</HI> he would give any thing that he might have had the <HI>gift</HI> of the Holy Gho&s;t, becau&s;e he thought it was a brave thing to do <HI>miracles</HI> that he might be ac|counted of among men, therefore he
<PB N="20" REF="20"> was in the <HI>Gall of bitterne&s;s.</HI></P>
<P>There are a <HI>more refined &s;ort,</HI> which care not &s;o much for outward kind of <HI>profit</HI> or <HI>honour,</HI> but they do follow on duties and the waies of God, meerly to <HI>quiet their con&s;ciences</HI> upon &s;ome &s;peciall guilt as to former actings, to <HI>cover</HI> &s;ome kind of corruptions that they may be <HI>hu&s;ht,</HI> and be counted Saints be&s;ides: That is a more &s;pirituall way, for there be &s;ome &s;o <HI>curious in a &s;pirituall hypocri&s;ie</HI> that no man can find them out, they have &s;ome old <HI>blot</HI> upon their con&s;ciences that they would take off by a new way of acting, take it off from the &s;ight of others, and be accounted as new: I only give you the&s;e in generall, they have &s;ome &s;ecret corruption that is their <HI>darling</HI> lu&s;t that they would <HI>nouri&s;h.</HI> This is now to be a <HI>Stage-player</HI> indeed: when I know I am a <HI>beggar,</HI> and yet &s;hall put on the <HI>Robes of a Prince,</HI> when I know I have that <HI>un&s;ound|ne&s;s</HI> in my heart, and yet would be ac|counted a <HI>&s;incere</HI> Saint, and would do &s;omething that &s;hall cover my corrupti|on, and I would do duties becau&s;e I
<PB N="21" REF="20"> would get &s;uch an honour: That is a mo&s;t <HI>&s;hamefull</HI> way: The&s;e are the wic|kede&s;t &s;orts of men in the world; cer|tainely there is none have more &s;hame in their own &s;oules than the&s;e, if they look into their own hearts.</P>
<P>I would therefore now apply this, and leave the re&s;t for &s;ome other time.</P>
<P><HI>Applic.</HI> I be&s;eech ye therefore every one take in the exhortation of Je&s;us Chri&s;t, <HI>take heed of</HI> this <HI>Leaven,</HI> this <HI>Hy|pocri&s;ie,</HI> this <HI>wicked venemous poy&s;on</HI> that lies in <HI>all &s;orts;</HI> mo&s;t in <HI>Churches</HI> and <HI>Congregations</HI> where the Go&s;pell is Prea|ched, we are leavened before we are a|ware, take all diligence and care, yet it comes in: This is that which Chri&s;t did advi&s;e his Di&s;ciples of: <HI>take heed</HI> of that above all things; but before I go on, I would leave the&s;e Con&s;iderations with you, that you may not mi&s;take.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t know, that there <HI>may be hypocri&s;ie in the &s;oule, and yet a man cannot be called a Hypocrite;</HI> There is Hypocri&s;ie in every &s;tate; you mu&s;t not thinke that if you find &s;ome Hypocri&s;ie you are a Hypo|crite:
<PB N="22" REF="21"> I &s;peake this for the <HI>comfort of poore Saints;</HI> if they find any deceit or cun|ning in their &s;pirits in their duties, then they &s;ay they are hypocrites; they are damned; no, I would have you to know, that <HI>Hypocri&s;ie lies very clo&s;e in the &s;oule of the be&s;t Saints;</HI> but only when the &s;traine of a mans &s;pirit goes on &s;o, then you had need looke to your &s;elves when you find that Hypocri&s;ie <HI>predominant.</HI></P>
<P>Secondly, <HI>There may be great charges of hypocri&s;ie as to particular actings, (nay, whole actings may be in hypocri&s;ie) yet not a Hypocrite. Gal.</HI> 2.13. as <HI>Paul</HI> charged <HI>Pe|ter</HI> with Hypocri&s;ie, the whole act was done hypocritically, and he brings in <HI>Barnabas</HI> as guilty with him, he did <HI>di&s;|&s;emble,</HI> &s;o it may be with a Saint; he may <HI>di&s;&s;emble</HI> in an action, in a duty, and yet not be &s;o in his <HI>whole &s;tate.</HI> Therefore judge not of your &s;elves by particular acts.</P>
<P>Thirdly, know that <HI>Hypocri&s;ie is not only as to an outward duty, but in every moti|on of your &s;pirits you mu&s;t looke;</HI> it lies not only in gro&s;&s;e de&s;ignes to advantage &s;elfe,
<PB N="23" REF="21"> but it grows &s;ecretly, you know not how it touches upon every part upon a &s;udden before you are aware of it; <HI>In your love to Chri&s;t,</HI> &s;trange Hypocri&s;ie! In <HI>your very motion to Saints, and expre&s;&s;ions,</HI> what won|derfull vailes of hypocri&s;ie. You mu&s;t therefore looke exceeding <HI>narrowly,</HI> you mu&s;t put on <HI>Go&s;pell-eyes</HI> to try hypocri&s;ie in your own hearts. But I &s;ay however, whatever you do in the world, and whatever you be, be not Hypocrites, <HI>Shew your &s;elves to be what you are,</HI> let the &s;en&s;e of things &s;o lye upon you, that you may not deceive. I &s;ay not, that profane hearts &s;hould vent their profane thoughts, but lye humbly before God in a deep &s;ence of your deceitfull hearts. And make not the world beleeve you have &s;uch and &s;uch <HI>enjoyments,</HI> and &s;ights of Chri&s;t, yet have none.</P>
<P>&rindx; Take the be&s;t of men in the world, <HI>we that preach to you,</HI> we are in &s;ome kind Hypocrites: we thinke we are &s;o and &s;o, and &s;peake nothing but from our own experiences in our hearts; <HI>we may &s;hew a perfect rule, and yet be Hypocrites in many
<PB N="24" REF="22"> things.</HI> Only there is the &s;pirituall inten|tion and reality to honour God, which is the only comfort; but we are not ful|ly what we appeare to be, yet are endea|vouring and pre&s;&s;ing on to be &s;o, and that &s;hews we are not hypocrites, <HI>though, in &s;ome &s;en&s;e, every man may be called a hypo|crite</HI> when he is not what he &s;hould be.</P>
<P>Oh! <HI>take heed, take heed.</HI> But I &s;ay, be what the Go&s;pell &s;aies, hold forth what you are indeed unto the world. I had thought to have named &s;everall &s;orts of per&s;ons, that had more need to looke into their own hearts about hypo|cri&s;ie.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>tho&s;e that are of popular &s;pirits,</HI> that are to conver&s;e with many, the&s;e had need looke clo&s;ely to their own &s;pirits, for the mo&s;t of our <HI>garbs</HI> and expre&s;&s;ions are but very <HI>&s;eldome true,</HI> and reall, but of the deep &s;ence of our duties to one ano|ther: Take heed therefore, le&s;t we ga|ther up a name of hypocri&s;ie: it is very hard to have much conver&s;e with the World, and not be much in hypocri&s;ie; without a man be much given up to <HI>rea|lity
<PB N="25" REF="22"> of &s;pirit:</HI> you will find your tempers, in that regard, how they are: you had need have more warine&s;&s;e in your owne &s;pirits.</P>
<P>Secondly, <HI>tho&s;e that are of a naturall cunningne&s;&s;e, a naturall craftine&s;s of &s;pirit,</HI> they had need to take heed, e&s;pecially when they come under the Go&s;pell, in opening their &s;oules, and conver&s;ing with Saints; then that naturall cunningne&s;&s;e will be mightily improved under the Go&s;pell; if not mighty wary it will come up to <HI>a &s;pirituall hypocri&s;ie,</HI> if a man have not an exceeding care, and it is dan|gerous dealing with a per&s;on that is apt to cunningne&s;&s;e. There are exceeding many that are thus in the&s;e daies.</P>
<P>Thirdly, Tho&s;e had need to looke to their own &s;pirits, <HI>who&s;e Religion begins with &s;ome particular occa&s;ion in the world;</HI> where Religion begins with the times, it is a thou&s;and to one but &s;uch will prove hypocrites, and dangerous ones too.</P>
<P>Fourthly, <HI>Tho&s;e that are given to an out|ward &s;trictne&s;s and &s;everity to externall things,</HI> ob&s;ervance of outward actings,
<PB N="26" REF="23"> and circum&s;tances of outward formes, without they be very careful in them, for here lies hypocri&s;ie, in doing all duties, in being mo&s;t exact in the outward form.</P>
<P>We &s;hall come to open &s;omething hereafter, that if it plea&s;e God all &s;hall &s;ee if they be hypocrites or no.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 N="2" TYPE="sermon">
<PB N="27" REF="23">
<HEAD><HI>SERMON II.</HI> Beware of the Leaven of the Phari&s;ees, which is Hypocri&s;ie.</HEAD>
<P>_THis is one of the <HI>&s;erious</HI> cau|tions of <HI>Je&s;us Chri&s;t</HI> to his owne Di&s;ciples; and to tho&s;e that had grace; yet he bids them, and all that ever he met with, to beware of the Lea|ven of the Phari&s;ees, which he &s;aies was hypocri&s;ie.</P>
<P>Now he calls the <HI>Doctrine</HI> of the Pha|ri&s;ees a <HI>Leaven.</HI></P>
<P>Fir&s;t, Becau&s;e of the <HI>&s;preading nature of it,</HI> there is nothing &s;o &s;preading as Leaven: put a little of it in, and it will go through the whole Lumpe. <HI>Hypocri|&s;ie is the mo&s;t &s;preading thing in the &s;oule,</HI> and goes over all the faculties, no faculty
<PB N="28" REF="24"> is free of it; a little Leaven, once it is engendred, &s;aies the <HI>Apo&s;tle,</HI> will leaven the whole Lumpe, 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 5.6. A little Hy|pocri&s;ie in a mans &s;pirit it will &s;oone &s;pread (if it be countenanced) over his affections and faculties; and then</P>
<P>Secondly, he compares hypocri&s;ie to Leaven, becau&s;e of <HI>its in&s;en&s;ible way of &s;preading,</HI> no man knows it; a man puts but a little Leaven and it gives a Tincture of it pre&s;ently, &s;o it is in the heart; Hy|pocri&s;ie workes &s;o <HI>in&s;en&s;ibly,</HI> &s;o <HI>clo&s;ely</HI> in a mans <HI>&s;pirit,</HI> that if you be not excee|ding wary and carefull, it will undo your whole &s;oule; It will give you &s;uch a <HI>Tincture</HI> that you will hardly be able to take off the &s;avour of it without you have a mighty power from heaven; therefore you had need beware of the Leaven of Hypocri&s;ie. That is only for the Word.</P>
<P>But you may remember I began la&s;t time to open the nature of Hypocri&s;ie, and &s;hewed you that it was oppo&s;ed to two things.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, Unto the <HI>Truth</HI> and <HI>Reality</HI> of
<PB N="29" REF="24"> things, as they lay in their owne na|ture.</P>
<P>Secondly, Unto that <HI>&s;imulation,</HI> that <HI>fainedne&s;s,</HI> unto that &s;incerity of intenti|on, faining what a man doth.</P>
<P>As it &s;ignifies a faining in that,</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, It was oppo&s;ed unto the <HI>truth of things; that is Hypocri&s;ie that is not ac|cording to the nature of things as they are;</HI> &s;o he is a hypocrite that is not reallie &s;ound, though he may pretend he is &s;o, and thinke he is &s;o; for I &s;hewed you that is the <HI>gro&s;&s;er</HI> &s;ort of hypocri&s;ie to be fained &s;o; to <HI>faine</HI> my &s;elfe to be a holy per&s;on, to <HI>faine</HI> my &s;elfe to be Saint when I am not, that is the gro&s;&s;er &s;ort of Hy|pocri&s;ie; but there is Hypocri&s;ie lies clo&s;er, when I thinke I am a Saint and am not &s;o, I am a hypocrite.</P>
<P>So it is oppo&s;ed to a word in the Greeke, often-times u&s;ed and put for &s;inceritie, <GAP DESC="foreign">, and is a word that will expre&s;&s;e it exceeding clearly.</P>
<P>I &s;hall only &s;peake to the fir&s;t &s;ence at this time.</P>
<P>To open it more clearely to you.</P>
<PB N="30" REF="25">
<P>Fir&s;t, This <HI>Hypocri&s;ie is oppo&s;ed to the truth, the reality, and clearene&s;&s;e, the &s;incerity and &s;oundne&s;&s;e of things in their being and nature.</HI> As you know that is a fal&s;e <HI>Jew|ell</HI> and <HI>Diamond</HI> that hath not the <HI>proper nature</HI> and <HI>colour</HI> that belongs to it, it is counterfeit, it is not right, though I may thinke I am enriched by it; that makes not the thing the truer for that, they are but all counterfeit. I am not richer if I had many of tho&s;e glittering Diamonds, that is my mi&s;take; &s;o it is as to hypocri|&s;ie on this fir&s;t con&s;ideration if there be not a <HI>cleanne&s;&s;e,</HI> a <HI>perfection</HI> in the kind. If I be not a Saint reallie in my own Spirit, let my <HI>per&s;wa&s;ions</HI> be what they will of my &s;elfe, and others per&s;wa&s;ions be what they will be of me, yet I am a hypocrite in the eyes of God. Let my graces be never &s;o glittering and glorious in the &s;ight of my &s;elfe and others, yet if they be not &s;uch as can be tried according to that <GAP DESC="foreign">, that &s;inceritie, &s;uch that may abide the judgement of the Sun: If they cannot 'bide the pure &s;ight of God, and his Glorie, I &s;hall be found to be &s;till
<PB N="31" REF="25"> a per&s;on that I am not, I &s;hall be found in another condition.</P>
<P>This is that I would &s;peake unto:</P>
<P><HI>It is not my intention only that will make me a hypocrite,</HI> it makes me a gro&s;&s;er, to feigne and di&s;&s;emble; But it is as well the one as the other: the want of the reall principle, the want of a &s;ound worke upon my heart.</P>
<P>Take in the fir&s;t place this con&s;idera|tion:</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>I appeare to my &s;elfe and others to be what God will not own me to be at the la&s;t day;</HI> &s;o there is Hypocri&s;ie in <HI>Fundamen|tals;</HI> I &s;ay I have grace, and God &s;aies I have none. I &s;ay I beleeve, and God will never owne my faith when it comes to triall. I am as far to &s;eeke, and I am as much a Hypocrite, (for <HI>I</HI> have a fal&s;e faith, a fal&s;e motion after God and Chri&s;t) as much as if I did intend to palliate, to counterfeit my faith on pur|po&s;e: A man may have the <HI>complexion</HI> but not the <HI>con&s;titution</HI> of a Saint. If I appeare not really what I am before God, I am a hypocrite. Therefore this I
<PB N="32" REF="26"> &s;ay is the great thing that few in the world do know, <HI>that mo&s;t of Profe&s;&s;ors are Hypocrites;</HI> they are not throughly con|verted though they have (as they thinke) the glorious workings of God upon them, yet if they be not true and reall, and will go through the fire of a divine eye, and the &s;earch of that Omni&s;cien|cie of the Lord, they will never hold. <HI>I am an Hypocrite, though not &s;o in intention:</HI> I am not &s;o as to the <HI>formality</HI> of Hypo|cri&s;ie, but I am &s;o <HI>really</HI> as to God; there|fore con&s;ider of it, con&s;ider it; for the mo&s;t people think, if they have but a good ho|ne&s;t intention in what they do; they think they are perfectlie free of all danger of hypocri&s;ie; they are &s;afe and &s;ound in Religion if they pray and do not di&s;&s;em|ble in their prayers: that is, that their hearts and their tongues do not jar but do agree, they are then free from hypo|cri&s;ie: but that is a mi&s;erable mi&s;take. For alas, it is all one <HI>whether or no you feigne your &s;elves to be what you are not, or are not what you thinke your&s;elves to be;</HI> it is all one as to the thing it &s;elfe, you will
<PB N="33" REF="26"> find it &s;o one day in your own &s;pirits: when you &s;hall find all that ever you have done to be but glorious appearan|ces; What will it do you good when you can &s;ay only, I had a good intention, I thought I prayed well, and had the &s;traines of the Go&s;pell in my own &s;pirit, what will this do you good if you be not found &s;o? But this is that I &s;ay, that if I have not the truth in me of what I do profe&s;&s;e, though I do &s;incerelie and ho|ne&s;tly profe&s;&s;e what I thinke, it is all one (as to the nature of the thing) as if I do feigne what I am not: For I &s;hall be as well undone by the one as by the other, and I am not the per&s;on I thinke my &s;elfe to be, nor others thinkes to be, if God thinkes not me to be what I and others thinkes me to be; and to what end &s;hould we &s;oulke up and down and not be what we are in our own hearts, but delude our &s;elves, and not deale faithfull<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 letter"> with our own &s;pirits.</P>
<P>&rindx; As now take <HI>a Preacher of the Go|&s;pell,</HI> &s;uppo&s;e I preach the Go&s;pell; if I preach any thing that is untruth, or a lye,
<PB N="34" REF="27"> though I do it with never &s;o hone&s;t a heart, I &s;hall be damned for it: If I preach again&s;t Je&s;us Chri&s;t any thing that will <HI>de&s;troy the fundamentals</HI> of the Go&s;pell, I &s;hall be de&s;troyed for all that, though I be never &s;o hone&s;t in my intention; For our intentions are but naturall and com|mon: If I think I have grace, and a work of God upon my &s;oule, and yet have it not, it is all one as with tho&s;e that know they have no worke of God and yet pro|fe&s;&s;e.</P>
<P>Secondly, there is hypocri&s;ie &s;eene in it likewi&s;e, becau&s;e <HI>I take up things in a generall manner, and never try them, nor my own heart by them,</HI> that &s;hews my hy|pocri&s;ie, though I thinke I am reall in my intentions, I &s;hould try them over and over againe. But to make out this a little more cleare to you.</P>
<P>Let us con&s;ider in the <HI>generall the power that imagination hath upon the &s;pirits of men:</HI> Take <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="2 letters">y <HI>one that is thought to con|ver&s;e with the devill,</HI> and trade with him upon promi&s;e of Gold, and Silver, and the like. The power of <HI>imagination</HI> will
<PB N="35" REF="27"> worke upon &s;uch a man that he will be|leeve on the <HI>Devill,</HI> that he hath all the riches in the world, the gold of the <HI>In|dies;</HI> this the very power of <HI>imagination</HI> will do, he thinkes he can want nothing, and yet &s;o &s;trong is this power of imagi|nation upon him all his daies.</P>
<P>Do but take <HI>a man in a melancholly &s;traine,</HI> he will thinke really he is what he thinkes any other man to be: If any man be taken in a feaver, he will beleeve he is &s;o, he will &s;weat at it. If any one be thought to go mad, he will be the &s;ame; It is the &s;ame in Religion; the <HI>fancy</HI> and <HI>imagination</HI> of a man will work as &s;trongly in Religion and the Go&s;pell-per&s;wa&s;ion as a melancholy con&s;titution: I will per&s;wade my &s;elfe to be in heaven, and &s;ee Angels and glorious Saints, and be in the bo&s;ome of Chri&s;t, though I never heard his voice to my own &s;oule, and all this upon the power of imagina|tion, it is &s;o &s;trong upon our &s;pirits; if there were no more but that, it were enough.</P>
<P>Secondly, in generall know this, that
<PB N="36" REF="28"> <HI>you may &s;ee it by the contrary of &s;incerity;</HI> you know that is &s;aid to be &s;incere in the proper &s;ence of it that is <HI>not mixt,</HI> that is without any <HI>mixture</HI> at all; as that is pure wine that is not &s;ophi&s;ticated by any brewing, that is &s;incere that is not mixt, that is pure from the grape, &s;hines in its own lu&s;tre; we call that hypocriti|call that is mixt, or hath any thing to &s;et it off but its own nature, the&s;e things that come purely from it &s;elfe; &s;o it is in the &s;oule of a man that is hypocriticall in his owne &s;pirit: that is not &s;incere that hath a &s;hew of grace, and yet hath it not, that is hypocri&s;ie; he hath common and carnall principles, or, if you will, <HI>common grace and carnall principles mixt together,</HI> it is ordinary in the Go&s;pell; man hath his <HI>naturall principles;</HI> and <HI>&s;ome additions of a&s;&s;i&s;tance and power from God,</HI> and they are jumbled together, they are not &s;in|cere at all, but hypocriticall, nothing &s;hines in its own nature; &s;o it is with mo&s;t men in the world: there are other <HI>ingredients</HI> that are mixt with all their actings, there is &s;omething mixt with it
<PB N="37" REF="28"> in the Principles, in the very fir&s;t moti|ons. And certainly this is that which is &s;utable to this <HI>Text,</HI> where he &s;aies, <HI>Take heed of the leaven of the Phari&s;ees</HI> which is Hypocri&s;ie. <HI>You mu&s;t not thinke the Pha|ri&s;ees did preach Hypocri&s;ie,</HI> but only their doctrine tended to nothing el&s;e but &s;et|ting up an outward Religion, without any power, to lead men to holine&s;&s;e in &s;incerity: and &s;o they mixed their own intere&s;ts with any thing of the Go&s;pell; you mu&s;t not thinke they preached hy|pocri&s;ie, no, they were <HI>wi&s;e</HI> men and <HI>ob&s;ervant,</HI> but their doctrine did <HI>lead</HI> men alwaies to nothing but <HI>out&s;ides of Religion:</HI> to be common Profe&s;&s;ors, and look after nothing at all but the meere &s;hew of the Go&s;pell and of the Law; the Doctrine it &s;elfe was good, but they mixed it with &s;ome <HI>other ends;</HI> they had <HI>a da&s;h of their owne</HI> (as I may &s;ay) with what they &s;aid, they were never pure and &s;incere in their actings. Therefore the &s;ame word that is put for &s;inceritie is put for unleavened bread, that is, pure bread that is made up without any leaven. Now if a &s;oule be
<PB N="38" REF="29"> not cleare and &s;ound in the principles of the Go&s;pell, in the workings of it, he is a hypocrite be he what he will.</P>
<P>There may be <HI>mixtures in &s;econd actings,</HI> but if there be <HI>mixtures in principles,</HI> that is hypocri&s;ie.</P>
<P>And upon this account all Profe&s;&s;ors that live under the Go&s;pell, be they of what height they will, they are Hypo|crites, they never had a &s;ound worke of God: if there be a mixture in the prin|ciples and the end: They are hypocrites <HI>that never had a through worke of God, and pure divine principles acting in their &s;oules:</HI> But have a mixture of other ends in their hearts, that do leaven and &s;pread through their whole principles, they are Hypo|crites.</P>
<P>But for a &s;incere &s;oule, in principles and actings, they have really unmixt actings from heavenly and holy princi|ples, to a holy, and &s;pirituall, and divine end.</P>
<P>How many Hypocrites &s;hall we then find before we have done, if men will but &s;earch their hearts?</P>
<PB N="39" REF="29">
<P>But that <HI>men may be thus hypocrites, and thinke they have grace, and yet not know &s;o,</HI> do not beleeve they are &s;uch:</P>
<P>I will give you fir&s;t &s;ome <HI>demon&s;tra|tions.</HI></P>
<P>Secondly, Shew you that <HI>they may have &s;ome &s;incerity,</HI> and yet be hypocrites.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, That men may be hypocrites, and yet not know it in their own &s;pirits, take the&s;e demon&s;trations.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>From the generall rule that all Di|vines give; That what&s;oever grace is in a Saint, the likene&s;&s;e and imitation of it may be in a Hypocrite,</HI> and he may thinke he hath it &s;o; there is a <HI>faith</HI> in the Go&s;pell like the faith of a true beleever&punc; there is a <HI>joy</HI> in the Go&s;pell like tho&s;e that have &s;eene the face of God; there is a <HI>pati|ence</HI> in the Go&s;pell like that which comes to the perfect &s;ubmi&s;&s;ion to Gods will: and &s;o I might go over all the re&s;t. And &s;o there is a <HI>likene&s;&s;e</HI> of <HI>&s;incerity</HI> to that which is flowing out from a pure hea|venly &s;pirit: For look <HI>what&s;oever God hath imprinted, that the Devill can paint;</HI> what God leaves as a Character of the
<PB N="40" REF="30"> heart of a Saint, that the Devill may &s;trive to imitate, and from a compliance in a mans owne temper forme up the &s;ame, as Children do make up Babies in imitation of children which are reall: and tho&s;e that know not this know no|thing.</P>
<P>But &s;econdly, as another con&s;iderati|on and demon&s;tration to make this out, know, that <HI>all tho&s;e things we call morall virtues, that were in heathens, that is the very reliques</HI> and remainders of pure na|ture that God hath left in &s;ome mea&s;ure: <HI>tho&s;e morall virtues are as much improved in the Go&s;pell without grace, as any other con|&s;ideration, principle, or rule.</HI> I &s;ay, morall virtues, as the <HI>Ju&s;tice, Integrity, Patience, keeping of corruptions,</HI> and the <HI>evenne&s;&s;e of actings</HI> unto a Rule, the &s;ame are im|provable under the Go&s;pell with more advantage than by any other Rule.</P>
<P>Take <HI>Socrates</HI> and <HI>Seneca,</HI> two of the great paterns of morality that ever lived in the <HI>Heathen</HI> world; had they been un|der the Law with <HI>Paul,</HI> and brought up under the legall di&s;pen&s;ations as <HI>Paul</HI>
<PB N="41" REF="30"> and the <HI>young man</HI> in the Go&s;pell were, <HI>Mat.</HI> 19. they would have as ea&s;ily com|plied with that Rule, that is, been as faire, as improved men as ever <HI>Paul,</HI> or as the young man, that came to Chri&s;t, and &s;aid, he did never omit any of tho&s;e things from his youth.</P>
<P>They did all that the light of nature did &s;hew them, and their con&s;ciences, and <HI>Paul's</HI> con&s;cience did not check him doubtle&s;&s;e, as to his exact walking accor|ding to the Rule of the Law: Now as the Law was a higher Rule than the Light of Nature, becau&s;e it was expre&s;|&s;ed and given more po&s;itively by God, and &s;ome &s;pirituall addition given to it being writtten by that finger of God; the other had as it were the <HI>whole Copy.</HI> So <HI>Socrates</HI> and <HI>Seneca,</HI> had they been un|der the Law, and brought up as well as <HI>Paul</HI> was, Phari&s;ees, they would have ta|ken in as ea&s;ily tho&s;e things, and have brought up under it with as much zeale, and largene&s;&s;e, and refinedne&s;&s;e of their natures as he.</P>
<P>And my rea&s;on is this; becau&s;e <HI>out|ward
<PB N="42" REF="31"> Rules are as improvable by one as ano|ther,</HI> according as a man is but under the knowledge of them; A man can as well take in the &s;en&s;e of the one as of the o|ther, while he is inured to them he &s;ees &s;ome conveniencie, &s;ome goodne&s;&s;e in them; &s;o that con&s;ider all th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;e things are <HI>improvable</HI> in the Go&s;pell, and then you will &s;ee how nature may be <HI>refined</HI> by the Go&s;pell; and if the very meere light of nature imprinted, and glimme|rings in a mans con&s;cience could learne a man &s;o far, how would a man come to be when he was under the Letter of the Law: and beleeve it was writ by the finger of God; and then if a man &s;hould pa&s;&s;e through the Law, and come to the Go&s;pell Letter, and beleeve in a common manner, that this <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 word"> a more pure and refi|ned Rule, &s;till <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 word"> &s;pirit goes on, and is more heig<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="5 letters"> to a more bright frame, that <HI>a m<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="2 letters"> thinks all the&s;e morall virtues even perfectly to be graces:</HI> For a man acts but the &s;ame principles, the &s;ame faculties &s;till in the Go&s;pell, only they are changed, transformed: But how|ever
<PB N="43" REF="31"> there is enough in the Go&s;pell to &s;uit all the&s;e principles, to <HI>refine</HI> them, and make them more <HI>curious</HI> than ever they were by any other principle or Rule.</P>
<P>Thirdly, Adde this, <HI>the voluntary agen|cy and power of the &s;pirit,</HI> and workings of the Holy Gho&s;t, who workes as he plea&s;es, and how he will, and is not bound to worke the uttermo&s;t of his &s;trength upon a &s;oule, but he may work upon nature, and glance upon nature, and leave it &s;till in its own condition, and yet mightily improved as to tho&s;e <HI>ta&s;tings</HI> and <HI>enlightnings, Heb.</HI> 6. there is even in nature a kind of <HI>ta&s;te</HI> of Heaven and Grace, which will make a man thinke he hath the <HI>power of the world to come,</HI> as you have it in the <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 word"> of the <HI>Hebrews.</HI></P>
<P>And, as I told you before, there are:</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>the &s;ame <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 word"> that grace is &s;ealed upon,</HI> as <HI>nature,</HI> the &s;ame <HI>under&s;tan|ding,</HI> the &s;ame <HI>will.</HI></P>
<P>Secondly, the <HI>&s;ame kind of motions,</HI> as I mu&s;t <HI>know Chri&s;t,</HI> and <HI>will Christ,</HI> and <HI>go out to Chri&s;t,</HI> and <HI>breathe after Chri&s;t,</HI> only
<PB N="44" REF="32"> they are; they have the &s;ame <HI>motion</HI> as to will and de&s;ire, but not the <HI>&s;ame prin|ciples.</HI> And therefore it is no wonder a man may be deceived in his own &s;pirit, and thinkes he knows <HI>Chri&s;t,</HI> and beleeves on <HI>Chri&s;t,</HI> and hath many motions of him, and all it may be are of outward con&s;i|derations of him: never hath a pure light &s;hining from heaven upon his &s;oule, &s;o that, I &s;ay, it is a very ea&s;ie thing to &s;ee how a man can be a hypocrite and not know it: to con&s;ider what voluntary motions there are of the Holy Gho&s;t up|on a mans &s;pirit, yet not a &s;aving worke; for as the Spirit blows upon whom he will, is not bound to convert you: &s;o he may pre&s;ent the <HI>outward &s;pecies</HI> of <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> to you, and never change your will, nor under&s;tanding, and yet a man may thinke he knows perfectly what's the nature of the whole Go&s;pell in his &s;oule.</P>
<P>For a man hath to be improved in the Go&s;pell <HI>a rationall under&s;tanding,</HI> the Go|&s;pell can improve as well as any other Rule.</P>
<P>Secondly, <HI>There are tho&s;e pa&s;&s;ionate love-expre&s;&s;ions
<PB N="45" REF="32"> that will worke mightily upon the affections,</HI> as they are taken in with &s;o much fulne&s;&s;e and variety as to thinke of <HI>Chri&s;ts</HI> dying, that was innocent, and out of love, if it were but read in a Hi&s;tory would worke upon the affections, and yet leave nature as nature; a man thinks he loves <HI>Christ,</HI> and may weep at the thoughts of <HI>Christs</HI> death, and yet be un&s;ound for all this.</P>
<P>Fourthly, if you con&s;ider <HI>the variety of Gods workings upon &s;oules in conver&s;ion;</HI> how many waies he workes, he may thinke he is perfectly converted, and yet an un&s;ound man for all this: Alas the ways of God are &s;o <HI>my&s;terious</HI> it is comap|red to a <HI>new birth, Joh.</HI> 3. who knows how a child is borne in the womb? A man mu&s;t have a divine light in his &s;oule to &s;ee through and through his &s;oule; Take a Saint him&s;elfe in his cleare light, he can hardly tell how to di&s;cerne into the va|riety of Gods workings: what hath been the pure working of God: where lies the Child; the new-borne babe, as it were. It hath come and pa&s;t through the
<PB N="46" REF="33"> many varieties of Nature and Grace; and then if I &s;hould adde, <HI>how apt men are to be per&s;waded of the goodne&s;&s;e of their con|ditions,</HI> and not know the badne&s;&s;e of them, and how ea&s;ily <HI>&s;elfe-love</HI> will be trying to &s;et off what hath but a &s;hadow of Religion, with many other deceits: then you will ea&s;ily &s;ay, A man may be un&s;ound and never know it in his own &s;pirit for a long while.</P>
<P>Secondly, A man may be &s;incere, and have hone&s;t intentions in all his duties and actions, and yet be an hypocrite. And that it may be &s;o, I &s;hall demon&s;trate it thus to you.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, There is in &s;ome men &s;uch <HI>a mo|rall,</HI> &s;uch a <HI>naturall &s;incerity</HI> (as I may &s;o &s;ay) in their actings, that they are not di&s;po&s;ed unto the <HI>contradicting of their principles, and their actings,</HI> they are <HI>tem|pered</HI> within them&s;elves; they are not di&s;po&s;ed to contradict their actings, &s;o it is &s;aid of the &s;incerity of <HI>Alimelech,</HI> as concerning <HI>Abraham's</HI> wife, he appealed to God in <HI>Gene&s;is</HI> 20. in the beginning, Saies he, in the integrity of my heart,
<PB N="47" REF="33"> and innocency of my hands have I done this: &s;aies God, I know thy integrity. Now there is &s;uch a &s;inceritie even in men that have not grace, that they would not do &s;uch a thing if they knew it to be unju&s;t, according to their Principles, they would not do it for a world: or if they had taken up an opinion, they would not go again&s;t their opinion, there is &s;uch a kind of &s;incerity. Now the &s;ame may be in the Go&s;pell; that is, I go on ho|ne&s;tly as I think, able to preach, and pray, and I have no kind of ill intention to de|ceive, only <HI>I have not a &s;pirituall principle to act me, there is my mi&s;ery;</HI> I come not &s;o much to be &s;een of men as from the intention of my heart; but I come not to have <HI>Chri&s;t,</HI> or to meet with <HI>Chri&s;t;</HI> &s;o I am a hypocrite, becau&s;e I come not from the maine principle. Therefore fir&s;t know this as a Rule, that you may &s;ee this cleare: That <HI>&s;implicity of intention cannot ju&s;tifie any acts of men that are bad,</HI> all will grant that: for as it was with <HI>Pilate,</HI> he wa&s;hed his hands, yet that did not ex|cu&s;e him.</P>
<PB N="48" REF="34">
<P>Secondly, <HI>My intentions in any action doe not make a thing to be true or good in it &s;elfe at all;</HI> as if I have a <HI>Jewell</HI> to &s;ell, my intention in the &s;elling it for a good one may deceive the buyer, it being coun|terfeit; no act can be good without a good intention, but my good intention makes not the thing really good in it &s;elf: if the thing in it &s;elfe be not perfect and good, it is hypocri&s;ie.</P>
<P>Thirdly, know, that <HI>a meere good in|tention may proceed from the naturall con&s;ti|tution of a per&s;on, not from the goodne&s;&s;e of his heart.</HI> It may be I am not given &s;o much to cunning and deceit as other men, but have a plaine naturall con&s;titution; but if it come to a particular, it may be I have as much in my intention (if I were put to it) as others.</P>
<P>Fourthly, know this about intentions, and the &s;incerity of them: That &s;incerity that will demon&s;trate a man to be a Saint, <HI>mu&s;t flow from the pure and even wor|kings of principles towards their ends:</HI> &s;in|cerity mu&s;t flow from the even acting of faculties within towards their ends: I do
<PB N="49" REF="34"> not act &s;incerely to God though I pray never &s;o much in duties, if I have not a divine <HI>&s;pirituall &s;pring of love</HI> to God, A heart <HI>impul&s;ed,</HI> moved to God from the power of his own &s;pirit: If I have not <HI>graces acting together in a harmony</HI> (faith, and love, and all other graces) purely and really working to God: For &s;incerity (as I may &s;ay) is but the &s;pirituall <HI>tune</HI> of the motions of all graces in a mans &s;oule, it is no more. But I will clo&s;e up all, there are many things I &s;hould have &s;hown you.</P>
<P>But now for di&s;tinction &s;ake, having laid down this: That a man may be a hy|pocrite and not know it, thinke he hath grace and hath it not: I &s;hall therefore come and &s;hew you the &s;everall &s;orts of hypocrites; I will but name them.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, there is <HI>a meer formall hypocrite</HI> that in&s;en&s;ibly <HI>drudges</HI> on in his duties, praies, and heares, and comes to Church, and no more, and hath no inward power nor vir|tue in his own &s;oule, nor is convinced of any thing to the contrary; as <HI>Papi&s;ts</HI> &s;ay over their <HI>beads</HI> whil&s;t they are &s;leeping;
<PB N="50" REF="35"> I confe&s;&s;e every Formali&s;t is a hypocrite, but there is a low &s;ort of Formali&s;t that meerely drudges, and that is all, there is &s;omething wanting within.</P>
<P>Secondly, there is <HI>a zealous hypocrite,</HI> and he &s;eemes to <HI>actuate his Forme,</HI> a <HI>fiery</HI> hypocrite, (as I may &s;o &s;ay) one that you would thinke had life and &s;oule indeed, and follows on Religion to purpo&s;e, and yet <HI>it is but his pa&s;&s;ion and humour,</HI> no grace at all: Some men have taken up an opinion, and are devoted to a way, and their heat is &s;o much as they follow it on with might and maine, and &s;pits in the faces of others be&s;ides: Such a hypocrite was <HI>Paul,</HI> as to zeale-per&s;ecuting the Church, I followed them on, I dragg'd them to pri&s;on, &s;aith he: &s;o it is certaine, there are &s;ome men have taken up <HI>an opinion</HI> &s;ome way or other, and have no more Religion than the &s;tones in the &s;treet; and that they will follow with fire and &s;word, and thinke all Religion is lo&s;t if that be lo&s;t, that is their end and Centre; That is a zealous hypocrite, I call him &s;o, <HI>for he hath nothing at all but
<PB N="51" REF="35"> that opinion;</HI> come to aske him of <HI>Faith,</HI> and <HI>Chri&s;t,</HI> and the <HI>Worke</HI> of God upon his &s;oule, and he can tell you no more than a Heathen: and commonly where|ever <HI>you find &s;o much zeale and fire there is hypocri&s;ie;</HI> for the fire of the Sanctuary will enflame a &s;oule, there is that: but it will not &s;corch the fle&s;h, nor burne the heart; We have enough of tho&s;e zea|lots in our daies, that without they have their own opinions maintained, they do not mind Chri&s;t or the Go&s;pell; nor ob&s;erve how it will go with their own immortall &s;oules no more than if they were heathens.</P>
<P>Thirdly, <HI>There are confident and lofty hypocrites upon thi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 letter"> opinion:</HI> They are full of per&s;wa&s;ions of the love of God, and grace in their hearts, they have lived under the bright &s;un-&s;hine of the Go|&s;pell, and never came to the truth of the Go&s;pel, never &s;aw their own &s;oules and hearts, never came to the furnace of the Law and Go&s;pell; they have met with &s;ome good notions of grace and mercy, and apprehen&s;ions of Gods love and joys
<PB N="52" REF="36"> in their &s;pirits, have had &s;ome little twangs of con&s;cience now and then, which have put them to &s;eeke after the be&s;t kind of remedy, and <HI>of a &s;udden, are got to a great height in the apprehen&s;ions of Gods love,</HI> tho&s;e I call <HI>lofty, confident hypocrites:</HI> yet it is &s;aid in <HI>Job</HI> 8. the hope of the hypocrite &s;hall peri&s;h; many &s;oules have great <HI>flouri&s;hings,</HI> mighty bud|dings, they thinke Summer is come and Winter is pa&s;t, and no more but an e|ternall &s;pring in the &s;oules; like the <HI>&s;tony ground,</HI> they beleeved for a time, and immediately received the word with joy.</P>
<P><HI>Ob.</HI> How can they receive the Word with joy? That is &s;trange that a man &s;hould receive the Word with joy and wither pre&s;ently.</P>
<P><HI>Sol.</HI> Truly they had &s;ome workings on their &s;oules, and pangs in their con|&s;ciences, they &s;aw &s;ome &s;ins, and had &s;ome feares, and lived where (it may be) they had &s;ome &s;weet notions of the Go|&s;pell was, and they had a promi&s;e, and tooke it in pre&s;ently before ever they knew the nature of it, and rejoyced, and
<PB N="53" REF="36"> were confident of their own e&s;tate, and of the love of God, &s;o they go away merry from Sermons, and duties, and nothing at all of true grace; this is the highe&s;t judgement of God upon &s;oules; in 2 <HI>The&s;.</HI> 2.11. the Apo&s;tle &s;peakes of gi|ving men up to &s;trong delu&s;ions: Though it is taken for delu&s;ion of doctrines, yet it may as well be taken for mens being gi|ven up to their own &s;trong per&s;wa&s;ions of that they have. This is a &s;trong delu|&s;ion, &s;aying, I have &s;eene heaven, and the face of <HI>Chri&s;t,</HI> and yet deluded in my own &s;pirit. I will adde but one more.</P>
<P>Fourthly and la&s;tly, <HI>A demure and &s;tately hypocrite,</HI> this is the highe&s;t &s;ort of them: as upon this principle, one that will walke &s;o exactly and <HI>curiou&s;ly,</HI> ha|ving conver&s;ed with all the notions and rules of the Go&s;pell, that hath <HI>&s;prung up</HI> &s;o curiou&s;ly, and yet is choaked with &s;omething at the bottome of his own heart; he goes on with that &s;trictne&s;&s;e, that gravity in the Go&s;pell, that he con|demnes all others as unfit, as below him, as one above all others, he hath all kind
<PB N="54" REF="37"> of <HI>Artificiall motions,</HI> one that hath a pret|ty even temper in his naturall con&s;tituti|on; and what through <HI>re&s;training grace,</HI> and what with <HI>morall con&s;iderations,</HI> and <HI>enlightnings</HI> of the Go&s;pell, he hath got &s;ome <HI>exact formes</HI> of the Go&s;pell; this man walkes &s;o &s;trictly, &s;o curiou&s;ly, that none can di&s;cover him: Such a hypocrite there is in the world. Look to it, this man walkes &s;tep by &s;tep, he walkes &s;o exactly that all the Saints may admire him: &s;o curiou&s;ly that none can di&s;cover him: But for tho&s;e glorious conver&s;es with <HI>Chri&s;t,</HI> and through powerfull wor|kings he never knew them; he is the fai|re&s;t to looke upon of all &s;orts of hypo|crites: Now there be many things I &s;hould have &s;hown to you, how to di&s;cover tho&s;e &s;orts of hypocri&s;ie; As,</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, to &s;hew to you that of all &s;orts and &s;traine, <HI>&s;elfe is the bottome</HI> of all they do, that is the &s;ecret of all their moti|ons; and indeed <HI>&s;elfe-love is the ground of all hypocri&s;ie;</HI> for it makes a man per|&s;wade him&s;elfe he is that which he is not, and feigne him&s;elfe to be what he knows
<PB N="55" REF="37"> he is not, &s;elfe-love is at the bottome: and that workes at the heart &s;ecretly and clo&s;ely; there be two things I would have &s;hewed you about this acting of &s;elfe. That</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>a man acts purely, and moves mo&s;t &s;trongly from &s;elfe-love, and &s;elfe-con&s;idera|tions;</HI> and then,</P>
<P>Secondly, <HI>Selfe-&s;atisfaction is the utter|mo&s;t of the de&s;ires of the be&s;t &s;ort of hypo|crites in the world.</HI></P>
<P>Secondly know this likewi&s;e, (that you may di&s;cover &s;uch an hypocri&s;ie in your own hearts) that <HI>all &s;uch &s;orts of hy|pocrites, as are known to them&s;elves, cannot abide to be tried,</HI> to be unript, doth not love launching and piercing, he loves not to have his bowels turned up, he cannot endure to thinke to be put to the utter|mo&s;t of his own &s;pirit, that is a perfect &s;igne of &s;uch a hypocrite; The&s;e things that go between the marrow and the bone, the &s;oule and the &s;pirit, he cannot endure that: he would avoid the dints of the &s;harpe&s;t Arrows in the Go&s;pell, if po&s;&s;ible. Looke how much flinching you
<PB N="56" REF="38"> find in your own &s;pirits &s;o much hypo|cri&s;ie. A hypocrite cannot abide to be touched fully to the quick, and laid open: to be ripped at the heart, to have the naile driven into the vitals, which a gracious heart longs for.</P>
<P>Thirdly, <HI>There is ever &s;ome &s;ecret un|mortified lu&s;ts under all tho&s;e &s;eeming gra|ces of a hypocrite;</HI> ever &s;ome &s;ecret un|mortified lu&s;t, either pride, pa&s;&s;ion, or co|vetou&s;ne&s;&s;e, or concupi&s;cence, &s;omething or other, which will, and doth breake forth &s;ome time or other; and looke to your &s;elves, you that have been ten or twenty yeares under the power of a lu&s;t, and it breakes forth continually upon you: if you be not hypocrites, you are as nigh them as ever was egge to egge, as to the likene&s;&s;e of them; you that have been known to be what you are &s;o many yeares together, I dur&s;t denounce &s;uch a man a hypocrite that hath lived &s;o many yeares under a &s;ecret lu&s;t unmortified; what, is there no power in Chri&s;t? ha&s;t thou not kept thy lu&s;t clo&s;e all this while? It may be thou goe&s;t to prayer after|wards,
<PB N="57" REF="38"> and thinke&s;t that will make it up, but thy prayer &s;hall &s;hew thy hypocri&s;ie more, &s;eeing thy lu&s;ts live.</P>
<P>Fourthly and la&s;tly, tho&s;e are the highe&s;t hypocrites of this kind: <HI>They &s;e|cretly envy the brightne&s;&s;e and glories of the gifts and graces of other Saints that goe be|yond them;</HI> and that is the perfect Cha|racter of a hypocrite where ever it is found, if that be not a hypocrite there is none in the world; when a &s;oule can|not abide to be out&s;hined, it is a &s;igne that a man never loved grace for grace, for then he would love it where it is mo&s;t pure, and &s;hines mo&s;t gloriou&s;ly, and this the Phari&s;ees were vext at, they ha|ted Chri&s;t perfectly, becau&s;e he went be|yond them, and was a conviction to them: the&s;e and &s;everall other Characters I had thought to given you; but to &s;atisfie &s;ome &s;oules that will be apt to &s;ay: every one will be a hypocrite if this be &s;o, I an|&s;wer:</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>My de&s;igne is to bid you beware of hypocri&s;ie as Chri&s;t doth:</HI> Try your hearts, take not things up in ordinary and com|mon
<PB N="58" REF="39"> waies, be not unbeleeving and doubting, that is not the thing I would be at, <HI>it is not to &s;care you off the Go&s;pell;</HI> be cu|rious and criticall, <HI>be &s;erious in the viewing of your own hearts,</HI> and &s;earch to the bot|tom, and <HI>tru&s;t not your &s;elves</HI> with feigned enjoyments, &rindx; <HI>I would not di&s;courage the poore&s;t looker after Chri&s;t for all the world,</HI> only I would have all men to be pure in their &s;pirits, and let every man put him|&s;elfe to it; let a man have gold that hath pa&s;&s;ed through the furnace; let a man that will be rich be rich with tho&s;e pre|cious things that are of an eternall na|ture.</P>
<P>Secondly, to an&s;wer that, <HI>you will find grace will lye but in a little roome,</HI> there|fore I put you to it, true grace is like a <HI>Diamond,</HI> very <HI>little</HI> in bulke, but of a <HI>high</HI> price, and mighty value; therefore I be&s;eech you be through in your own hearts, thou poore looker after Chri&s;t, Grace lies in a little roome, more may be in one motion than in all the acts of the world: you may have more grace than the greate&s;t and gloriou&s;e&s;t Preacher of
<PB N="59" REF="39"> the Go&s;pell, therefore try thy &s;oule, and be not di&s;couraged though thou art not &s;uch a flouri&s;hing and glorious profe&s;&s;or as another, yet thou maie&s;t be a greater Saint.</P>
<P>Thirdly, <HI>I would have none taken up with any out&s;ide or glorious formes in the world, but be looking within what inward frames you have</HI> in all your duties; no, I would have no &s;oule taken up with <HI>any opinion, with any religion</HI> that is <HI>externall</HI> at all, but that carries out purely to hea|ven, as the very heart is meeting with the <HI>Lord Je&s;us,</HI> and as he hath a &s;pirit acted in every word he &s;peakes in the Go&s;pell, not to <HI>dant you from Religion,</HI> that is not my de&s;igne, <HI>but to keep you only from the leaven of the Phari&s;ees;</HI> externall depen|dencies, that your &s;oules may not be lo&s;t with the greate&s;t mi&s;ery to all eternity.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 N="3" TYPE="sermon">
<PB N="60" REF="40">
<HEAD><HI>SERMON III.</HI> Beware of the Leaven of the Phari&s;ees, which is Hypocri&s;ie.</HEAD>
<P>_I Have endeavoured to &s;hew you in <HI>general</HI> what Hypocri&s;ie is, and the la&s;t time gave you a hint of &s;everall &s;orts of hy|pocrites; for <HI>hypocri&s;ie lies not in one &s;traine.</HI></P>
<P>Now we will lay this down as a foun|dation, (which was named before) that looke <HI>as many &s;orts of tempers as there are, and humours, and con&s;titutions of men, and de&s;ignes that men have in Religion, and as many waies as there are, &s;o many common workings as God may have upon men; &s;o ma|ny &s;orts of hypocrites may you have entring upon Religion on tho&s;e grounds;</HI> for looke
<PB N="61" REF="40"> as it is with grace, where it worketh ef|fectually, it changes not the faculties, nor con&s;titutions: A melancholly man is &s;o &s;till though he have grace, and &s;o you &s;hall find; his actings will &s;hew &s;ome|thing of his temper and nature, &s;o as to hypocri&s;ie and demon&s;trations of hypo|cri&s;ie, &s;o many &s;orts of tempers as there are in the world, when men enter on the ways of Godlines upon un&s;ound grounds, not being wrought upon throughly by God, &s;o many &s;orts of hypocrites you will have. I told you of foure Sects the la&s;t time; now I &s;hall go on and &s;hew you more.</P>
<P>Looke as <HI>a man is by nature of a duller and heavier constitution,</HI> and hath got the <HI>outward forme</HI> of Religion, he <HI>will be a meere formali&s;t, drudging</HI> on in duties, and no more: nothing of the &s;pirituall na|ture of it, taking abundance of paines without &s;en&s;e, go on in his waies, and his duties without any power at all, and that was the <HI>meere formall hypocrite</HI> I told you of, he hath had &s;ome little touches upon his &s;pirit that moves him, and together
<PB N="62" REF="41"> with education hath gone on as in a Tract.</P>
<P>If a man be of a <HI>hot temper</HI> and <HI>con&s;ti|tution, fiery</HI> in his nature, and enter on Religion upon &s;uch common grounds and ordinary frames (as the mo&s;t do) <HI>he will be a zealous man, exceeding zealous:</HI> Some opinion or other, &s;ome particular forme his heart is mo&s;t in, and <HI>he is the zealous hypocrite</HI> I &s;pake of; he will &s;tick to his opinion and hazard all, and never care for the other part of Religion if they can but maintaine that; &s;o it is with many in the&s;e times, never care how the work of God goes on in the world, or their own &s;oules, &s;o they have their opinion. So if a man be of a <HI>facile and ea&s;ie na|ture</HI> to be per&s;waded, and enter upon Re|ligion, he will ea&s;ily conclude that all the promi&s;es are his, Take every thing for granted in the Go&s;pell, and apply it to his own &s;oule, as if he had a peculiar in|tere&s;t to all the promi&s;es, and &s;o grows in a confident &s;ecure frame, and that is the hypocrite I told you was confident, that out of the ea&s;ine&s;&s;e of his nature
<PB N="63" REF="41"> takes all things in the Go&s;pell as his owne, though he never &s;aw the need and want of them, and never knew the worth of them; for I told you, that <HI>&s;elfe-love is the ground of all hypocri&s;ie in a mans &s;pirit:</HI> If a man can get any thing for him&s;elfe, as &s;elfe-love acts, &s;o a man gets into &s;uch and &s;uch a frame, as it was with a mad man that &s;ate at a Port, that when all the &s;hips came by, &s;aid, this is mine, this is mine: &s;o doth all men &s;ay, without ei|ther Religion, or the knowledge of the nature of the promi&s;es of the Go&s;pell, challenging them without a need of them, or a knowledge of the glorious de|&s;igne of God in them.</P>
<P>Then againe, if a man <HI>be of a more for|ward and daring &s;pirit,</HI> and if he get into a profe&s;&s;ion of Religion, he will prove a <HI>pre&s;umptuous hypocrite,</HI> to pre&s;ume excee|dingly upon the Go&s;pell, and the things of it; he will vent the opinions he hath taken into his con&s;ideration, and that he &s;ees mo&s;t &s;utable to the world.</P>
<P>If a man be of a <HI>more grave and &s;ober temper,</HI> and hath got &s;uch a cu&s;tome of
<PB N="64" REF="42"> Religion and duties, and taken up the profe&s;&s;ion of it with a &s;ecret inward de|&s;ire of applau&s;e to be &s;omewhat in the world, he will be mo&s;t curiou&s;ly exact in all his frames, &s;uch a man will cut to a hair, and he will ob&s;erve the lea&s;t thing in others that may be as a blot in them, and him I called <HI>a &s;tately and curious hypocrite,</HI> he will not be blamed in the world, that is all his de&s;igne; he will keep all plots and &s;pots off him, if out of mi&s;take he be wrung, he will mend it next time; his name lies at the &s;take for it, and all his comforts lies only in a faire hand&s;ome neat carriage in his duties to the Sons of men, that he may be able to be blame|le&s;&s;e in his reputation in the world, and &s;ome men have been &s;o curious in their actings and ob&s;ervances, that they have &s;hamed many precious people; that was <HI>Pauls temper</HI> and care alwaies, that he might be <HI>without blame</HI> to the world; as <HI>to the Law he was blamele&s;&s;e, Phil.</HI> 3. and it is as great a thing as a man can &s;peake, and doubtle&s;&s;e the Phari&s;ees had a hand&s;om|ne&s;&s;e and neatne&s;&s;e in all their ob&s;ervan|ces,
<PB N="65" REF="42"> that they were very much admired by the People: A &s;trictne&s;&s;e, that they looked at a <HI>Point,</HI> at a <HI>Latchet,</HI> though the great and eternall things lay with no weight on their &s;pirits: &s;uch kind of hy|pocrites will go on <HI>&s;moothly</HI> in the world, that a man &s;hall <HI>admire</HI> them, and <HI>check</HI> his own heart, &amp; &s;ay, I am a <HI>hypocrite,</HI> cer|tainely I never came up to tho&s;e frames; This man <HI>dazels</HI> the eyes of men, and all his de&s;igne is to carry on a hand&s;ome garbe, and go for &s;omebody in the world. Oh! this is that, that many in the&s;e times had need looke to their own hearts in; <HI>Tithe mint and cummin,</HI> and <HI>neglect the mo&s;t weighty things of the Go&s;pell;</HI> they have hand&s;ome apparell without, but never look within to the eternall wor|kings of their poore &s;oules, and that &s;tate that mu&s;t be before God for ever.</P>
<P>And againe, If a man be of a <HI>crafty cunning temper,</HI> of a <HI>naturall &s;ubtilty,</HI> and he begin to profe&s;&s;e the Go&s;pell, he will play the part of a hypocrite to purpo&s;e, he will <HI>&s;hift</HI> at every turne, and <HI>change</HI> every time; he will not be found at any
<PB N="66" REF="43"> time un&s;utable, he will tell you he mu&s;t change with <HI>providence;</HI> he will be &s;ure to mannage all that naturall &s;ubtilty in Religion to his owne de&s;igne perfectly: and truly <HI>there are no per&s;ons &s;o perfectly hypocrites as the&s;e,</HI> that out of craftine&s;&s;e begin to be hypocrites; upon <HI>&s;ubtle prin|ciples</HI> are privy to their own deceits, they are out of <HI>intention</HI> hypocrites, and they know they can &s;hift and comply with any occa&s;ion; there are thou&s;ands of the&s;e hypocrites in the&s;e times in <HI>Eng|land,</HI> that conclude with the times, that make u&s;e of the time and occa&s;ion, and have no more grace in them than <HI>Hea|thens.</HI> So take it as to any other temper, whatever you will, if a man be not throughly converted and enter upon Re|ligion; looke <HI>as his temper is naturally, &s;o will his hypocri&s;ie be;</HI> and that I may go on a little clearer, take it now as to the temper of <HI>feare</HI> on a man, and the wor|kings of God upon him: If a man be apt to feare, and God lay any thing up|on a mans con&s;cience, (for God &s;ome|times keeps &s;uch all their life-time in
<PB N="67" REF="43"> feare) you &s;hall find that there will a|bundance of hypocri&s;ie appeare in tho&s;e actings, and &s;uch a man &s;hall be a <HI>terri|fied hypocrite;</HI> he &s;hall live under terrours, and make abundance of worke through his feares, <HI>[for feare may put a man ex|ceedingly on to duties]</HI> and be but a hypo|crite all this while: Now of the&s;e there be two &s;orts that live under terrours, and I will e&s;pecially &s;peake to the&s;e; for ma|ny thinke if they be under trouble of con&s;cience and terrour, they are pa&s;t the wor&s;t, and in the be&s;t frame that can be: Therefore,</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, there are &s;ome that <HI>are but more generally touched with the &s;en&s;e of &s;ome &s;in</HI> that God meets them with, and laies up|on them, and at every turne checks them for, and lets in glimp&s;es of his wrath now and then upon his con&s;cience, and they get into a &s;trange kind of temper, of <HI>complaining,</HI> and <HI>whining,</HI> and <HI>whimpe|ring</HI> in their owne &s;pirits, and go on in their duties, (for they dare not but go to duties) but yet it doth not worke &s;o much upon them as to cry out with hide|ous
<PB N="68" REF="44"> noy&s;es of damnation, yet are kept under feare, and <HI>bondage</HI> of &s;pirit, and cannot get out of it, and all their de&s;ign is to whine at it, and complaine of it to others abroad: that as we &s;ay in griefe, (to open a mans mind is a mighty ea&s;e) &s;o you &s;hall find them open their hearts, and &s;ay, they are under the&s;e and the&s;e &s;ins, talking of their corruptions, telling how they are under &s;uch trials, under &s;uch feares of their pa&s;&s;ions, and tell you of hypocri&s;ie, and thus they go from doore to doore, and from Profe&s;&s;or to Profe&s;|&s;or, and all to no purpo&s;e, for they ne|ver knew, nor never found the weight and power of the Go&s;pell lying upon their &s;pirits, never &s;ee the depth of a de|ceitfull heart for all this; But only &s;ay, alas! <HI>I have &s;uch and &s;uch corruptions, I am afraid of my e&s;tate and condition;</HI> and &s;o take a <HI>plea&s;ure</HI> in their complaining. Now there are three waies wherein they &s;hew their hypocri&s;ie.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>By this way of complaining they thinke to get off from &s;u&s;pition of hypo|cri&s;ie:</HI> Such Soules, &s;uch creatures are al|waies
<PB N="69" REF="44"> complaining of their conditions; and &s;o they thinke to be free of hypo|cri&s;ie by this kind of <HI>whining,</HI> though they never knew what the hatred of &s;in was, never knew what it was to be pier|ced through with the darts of the Go&s;pel for &s;in.</P>
<P>Secondly, they thinke by this <HI>to get the pity and compa&s;&s;ion of other Saints,</HI> to pitty and bemoane them, and we ought (&s;ay they) to &s;peak a good word to com|fort them: Though Saints nor Angels cannot &s;peake a good word to &s;oules, yet they looke for it.</P>
<P>Thirdly, they &s;hew their hypocri&s;ie by this, <HI>They looke upon them&s;elves by it as poore in &s;pirit,</HI> alwaies in &s;en&s;e of &s;in, and under a &s;en&s;e of their lo&s;t condition, and would have others thinke &s;o too: there is a poore &s;pirit, nothing but poverty of &s;pirit, never come to him but he hath low e&s;teeme of him&s;elfe.</P>
<P>Fourthly, But the <HI>great &s;traine</HI> of hy|pocri&s;ie lies in this, <HI>they perfectly rest in this &s;traine of complaining, and never look after Chri&s;t,</HI> they get ea&s;e by opening their
<PB N="70" REF="45"> minds, and if they can but get a good an&s;wer to quiet them for the pre&s;ent, they go away content; I have abominated this frame of any frame in Profe&s;&s;ors; A &s;trange ugly whining frame of &s;pirit con&s;tantly upon a &s;oule, which &s;hould not be upon a Profe&s;&s;our but in the <HI>ab&s;o|lute&s;t</HI> ca&s;es of nece&s;&s;ity, and extraordina|ry occa&s;ion, for he &s;hews he hath not been at <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> and opened his condition to him, but he mu&s;t have this and that outward help fir&s;t, and if he cannot help him&s;elfe, then go to him. It is common, you &s;hall find people complaining and &s;peaking &s;trangely of their condition, and by a poore common word &s;peaking to them they go away content, though they ne|ver had the thoughts of <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> in their hearts, many make <HI>a trade</HI> of it; you &s;hall find an <HI>old</HI> Profe&s;&s;our &s;ay, I am of a &s;trange <HI>pa&s;&s;ionate</HI> &s;pirit, and have been &s;o many yeares, of a &s;ullen, ugly, peevi&s;h &s;pirit, that none can deale with me, I have &s;uch and &s;uch a corruption, and I am afraid that I am a hypocrite. [Aye, &s;o thou maie&s;t know thou art one.] They
<PB N="71" REF="45"> will complaine, Oh! what a wicked wretch am I; give him but one word of comfort in an ordinary manner, they are content, though the corruption be lying &s;till, be living in the heart &s;till; I told you the la&s;t time, <HI>I would pawne my life that he was a hypocrite that lived &s;o long time under the Go&s;pell under the power of one corruption, having no power again&s;t it,</HI> ha|ving no grace to ballance his corruption, and though the corruption might act, yet a &s;oule might &s;ee there are other glori|ous graces be&s;ides; and do you thinke, that complaining of your corruptions, can that &s;erve your turnes? you will come to a <HI>Mini&s;ter,</HI> or a &s;erious Saint, and &s;ay, thou art troubled <HI>for</HI> thy &s;in or corruption: Art thou troubled <HI>with</HI> thy corruption? Then thy trouble would be known, the very bowels of thee would be &s;eene working out, one way or other; thou would&s;t never let <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> re&s;t, but get pardon, and power to kill thy corrupti|on, and if it &s;hould breake out, it would be the con&s;tant &s;hame of thy &s;oule night and day before all the Saints; <HI>Never tell
<PB N="72" REF="46"> me of Religion if it lies not in the vitals of men, and kills the vitall corruptions, and actuates the &s;oule into the eternall wor|kings.</HI> And a man may be found to be a hypocrite for all the&s;e things: Art thou troubled with a corruption and complai|ne&s;t of it, can&s;t thou be quiet with com|plaining? Can any word comfort thee but the <HI>death</HI> of it, and the <HI>&s;ence</HI> of the death of it every day? Can any <HI>promi&s;es</HI> comfort thee, but as they tend directly <HI>to de&s;troy</HI> thy corruption? Is it po&s;&s;ible if a &s;oule have any reality of grace in his own heart: I had rather [&s;aies a grati|ous heart, &s;aies a poore &s;incere &s;oule] go to the <HI>funerall</HI> of that corruption, and &s;ee it buried, than be the greate&s;t <HI>Emperour</HI> of the world, or in the glorious frame in the world, be it <HI>Pride, Pa&s;&s;ion, Lu&s;t,</HI> or whatever it be in a mans &s;oule. But this is the mi&s;ery of men taken up with meer complainings: of all Profe&s;&s;ors this &s;ort goes on mo&s;t cunningly, for we common|ly judge of men by their <HI>&s;ence</HI> and <HI>&s;ight</HI> of &s;in, and thinke they are in the mo&s;t <HI>fundamentall</HI> way of the Go&s;pell; and
<PB N="73" REF="46"> they have the <HI>root of the matter,</HI> and <HI>God</HI> hath touched them indeed; and yet <HI>God</HI> hath done nothing for all this.</P>
<P>Secondly, there is another &s;ort that lie under terrours <HI>&s;harply, flaming ter|rours,</HI> and are <HI>&s;corched,</HI> in their con&s;cien|ces for &s;ome <HI>&s;peciall</HI> &s;in; and mighty <HI>vio|lent</HI> in duty: they will run here and there, and &s;ay, <HI>I am damned, I am damned,</HI> what &s;hall I do, I am <HI>lo&s;t</HI> for ever, they will come with &s;uch hideous noi&s;es and cries to men, and run any where, the flame is &s;o hot; yet all this while &s;in not di&s;|covered, nor the &s;ence of <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> taken in upon the &s;oules of men.</P>
<P>Now know the&s;e two things:</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, That the <HI>greate&s;t unbeliefe</HI> is hid under the <HI>greate&s;t terrours.</HI></P>
<P>Secondly, that the <HI>greate&s;t hypocri&s;ie is under the &s;ights of &s;in,</HI> and <HI>greate&s;t terrours,</HI> [for a man will do any thing to avoid that] that if he be mightily terrified he will <HI>be</HI> any thing, <HI>do</HI> any thing to take off that &s;in: herein lies</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, the hypocri&s;ie, that <HI>he does no|thing but to ea&s;e him&s;elfe,</HI> quiet his con|&s;cience,
<PB N="74" REF="47"> and he lets &s;in alone: that he may but live quietly, he de&s;ires no more.</P>
<P>So I have known &s;ome Profe&s;&s;ors that have been in <HI>mighty terrours for one halfe yeare, and the other halfe yeare been as joy|full as could be:</HI> Going to others, &s;aying, <HI>pitty</HI> me, <HI>&s;ave</HI> me, do any thing with me and &s;ave me, and when <HI>God</HI> hath with|drawn the violence againe from them, when any con&s;iderations have come in, they have falne to their old corruptions againe.</P>
<P>Secondly, Their hypocri&s;ie lies in this, <HI>they will &s;natch at any thing to comfort them,</HI> take any hand as &s;oone as <HI>Chri&s;ts.</HI> But a truly touch'd &s;oule will not be comfor|ted; <HI>a poore &s;oule indeed cannot be quieted or comforted by any but Chri&s;t,</HI> or the <HI>mani|festations of his love;</HI> but as for this terri|fied hypocrite, he will &s;natch at any thing as &s;oon as Chri&s;t; give him but a <HI>Promi&s;e</HI> [though it no more concerne his condi|tion than if it were never named, yet he will have it as if it had been made for him,] he will be &s;ure to catch at it, if you can <HI>divert</HI> his thoughts, it &s;hall be as much
<PB N="75" REF="47"> to him as <HI>Chri&s;ts bloud:</HI> take off the <HI>&s;trength</HI> of his terrours he is <HI>plea&s;ed.</HI> And the truth is, mo&s;t kind of hypocrites are under &s;ome kind of terrours or other; they would never have &s;uch twangs of con&s;cience as they have, but that they are under &s;ome terrours of con&s;cience from <HI>God</HI> upon their &s;oules: But as for this kind of hypocrite, he may be &s;o carried on, that he may do all du|ties with the mo&s;t zeale and violence: he may pray with great pa&s;&s;ion, and be|moane his condition, that it would make a mans heartake [if you could but heare him praying] &s;ometimes, if you could but be privy to his cryings, which &s;ome|times he makes loud ones, and every man may heare him; but &s;till his <HI>con&s;ci|ence</HI> grows more <HI>in&s;en&s;ible</HI> and his heart <HI>hardened,</HI> and grows <HI>common</HI> to him at la&s;t. And &s;uch a hypocrite will live in the <HI>fire,</HI> if he can but get off the <HI>violence</HI> of terrours, his heart &s;hall be as black as hell, with the very burnings of corrup|tion, and certainly that which the <HI>Apo|&s;tle</HI> &s;aies of a con&s;cience <HI>&s;eared with a hot
<PB N="76" REF="48"> Iron</HI> may referre exceeding much to this, that God may with terrours &s;eare up a mans heart, for the devill is the greate&s;t hypocrite, and he lives under the grea|te&s;t terrours, the flame of wrath hath hardened his heart infinitely again&s;t God, that there can be no place of repen|tance; &s;o the&s;e hypocrites goe on by degrees, and only in a generall manner find the terrours of God upon their con|&s;ciences, and never &s;ee the nature of &s;in and vilene&s;&s;e of it to the &s;oule. So that this I &s;ay, do not thinke, that becau&s;e you are troubled in your con&s;ciences, or un|der terrours, that you are free from hy|pocri&s;ie; nay, there is mo&s;t hypocri&s;ie there; plainne&s;&s;e of heart is under cleare light, when a man is free from advantage of feare, or terrour, and too much com|forts, then is the be&s;t time to try a mans heart.</P>
<P>Secondly, Take one in the &s;econd place as to Gods workings, <HI>one of a naturall capacity,</HI> that is, he is capable of under|&s;tanding of things; he begins to profe&s;&s;e the Go&s;pell, and comes under a kind of
<PB N="77" REF="48"> enlightning of God, God giving a man [as he may] a common gift of grace by com|mon notions of the Go&s;pell, here is one will come to be a mo&s;t glorious hypocrite; I call a hypocrite, becau&s;e the fundamen|tall worke is not done, becau&s;e he is not what he &s;hould be, nor what he &s;eemes to be. <HI>Now as the former &s;ort his con&s;cience was enlightned with flames, this man he is enlightened with more calme and &s;un-like beames;</HI> this man can now &s;ee into the Rules of the Go&s;pell, he can be able by degrees and time to forme and worke in all the notions of the Go&s;pell into his head, that he now comes to be a profi|table hypocrite unto others, comes to be able to &s;peake very great things of the Go&s;pell, and can tell you as perfect truths as any experienced Saint in the world can do; and e&s;pecially if he have edu|cation, and time, and acquaintance to communicate them to: he will come to be able to delude any Saint in the world, for now he is not a meere out-&s;ide man in &s;ight, but one that <HI>brings out of his trea|&s;ury things new and old,</HI> that hath got a vein
<PB N="78" REF="49"> of di&s;cu&s;&s;ing and &s;peaking as reall things as any man can &s;peake in the Go&s;pell; how far may this man go? and yet here lies his hypocri&s;ie.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>All the&s;e things goe no further than the head;</HI> they were never &s;tamped upon the heart, never upon the brea&s;t, they are <HI>Artificially</HI> formed in the under|&s;tanding, never come down to be imprin|ted in the &s;oul, upon the will &amp; affections, never had tho&s;e heavenly influences dropping in the favour, the &s;weetne&s;&s;e, the power, and the virtue of that know|ledge, proportionably working in their &s;pirits: and there lies their hypocri&s;ie, that all tho&s;e things are but artificially formed in the under&s;tanding.</P>
<P>Secondly, <HI>All that &s;uch a man doth act in the expre&s;&s;ion of any knowledge he hath, it is with &s;ecret glory;</HI> he joyes, he takes him&s;elfe to be &s;omewhat now, and makes all the&s;e things to be his own, as though he received them from Chri&s;t, he glories in them, there is all, <HI>&s;hame him,</HI> there you make him <HI>mi&s;erable,</HI> if you hit him there you cut upon his heart veine. And that
<PB N="79" REF="49"> is the way of God commonly with tho&s;e &s;orts, their <HI>parts</HI> die, and God with|draws by degrees, and lets knowledge dye, letting corruption come in &s;o much upon them as they lo&s;e all at la&s;t. But it is wonderfull to conceive how far the&s;e convictions will carry a man, when he hath a <HI>Candle lighted</HI> by God how far he may walke in the Go&s;pell; when God &s;hall &s;hine in (as it were) upon nature, how it will appeare before the Sons of men: It lies in the head, and <HI>&s;elfe</HI> is com|monly advanced, not <HI>Je&s;us Chri&s;t;</HI> that Chri&s;t may have all the prai&s;e and ho|nour, as it is &s;aid in <HI>Job</HI> of the hypocrite, <HI>the heart of him is little worth;</HI> he may have &s;ome fine parts and be <HI>ingenuous</HI> in his under&s;tanding, but his heart is the wor&s;t, there is nothing but &s;in and &s;elfe together, and inward &s;ecret contradi|cting and working again&s;t God, and the power of Religion; &s;o it was with the <HI>fooli&s;h Virgins,</HI> they went on gloriou&s;ly, but at la&s;t they &s;aid, <HI>our Lampes are gone out,</HI> we have lo&s;t our light, we have &s;lum|bered and &s;lept away our time, we de|pended
<PB N="80" REF="50"> upon our gifts and endowments, and our faire actings in the world, and our Lamps are gone out, and now we have nothing to &s;hew for all our profe|&s;|&s;ion. I will a little &s;et home this with a word or two of U&s;e.</P>
<P><HI>U&s;e.</HI> Fir&s;t therefore, if this be &s;o, that there may be &s;o many &s;orts of hypocrites and &s;traines, I be&s;eech you <HI>examine</HI> your own hearts, and put your &s;oules upon it, <HI>find out this Leaven;</HI> I told you why hypo|cri&s;ie was called Leaven, becau&s;e of the &s;preading nature of it, none knows how it &s;preads; Hypocri&s;ie hath many <HI>vizards,</HI> many <HI>waies,</HI> you may go on &s;o fairely, and &s;o painted, that no man, nor your own hearts can di&s;cerne you: But looke &s;eriou&s;ly, looke every day what is with|in you, aske your owne &s;oules <HI>what is within;</HI> bring your &s;elves before a <HI>divine eye,</HI> looke to every <HI>part,</HI> to every <HI>motion,</HI> let nothing pa&s;s you without a <HI>divine and exact &s;crutiny,</HI> never be quiet till you have get a through definition of your owne e&s;tate, &s;tand <HI>Sentinell</HI> to your own hearts; &s;ay not, I am a Saint till you have found
<PB N="81" REF="50"> clearely, both by Law and Go&s;pell, till it be written with the beames of the Sun upon your own hearts; Oh! <HI>I am afraid the mo&s;t Profe&s;&s;ors will be found hypocrites at the la&s;t day;</HI> that tho&s;e that have the fai|re&s;t faces to us will have the foule&s;t rip|pings up before the Lord; many that go &s;o neately now will have a black Cha|racter at la&s;t; Oh! for <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> to &s;ay, <HI>go you cur&s;ed,</HI> at the la&s;t day, to a glorious Profe&s;|&s;or, what a word will that be? Appeare to what you are indeed, and &s;trive to be what you &s;hould be; take not up ordi|nary and common things in your owne &s;pirits; lay not the weight of God up|on tho&s;e things that are not reall, that are but meere gilt upon Copper, that will not endure; men are apt to take them&s;elves up with profe&s;&s;ion if they have but a faire face, if they have but a hand|&s;ome carriage in the world: Oh! that <HI>Christ</HI> would have charity to you at the la&s;t day, as we mu&s;t have now: Chri&s;t loves tho&s;e that are holy, and he loves to make them holy: He mu&s;t judge you as you are, no charity after the Go&s;pell is
<PB N="82" REF="51"> pa&s;t, therefore look to your own &s;oules; there is a day when <HI>every thing that is hid &s;hall be revealed,</HI> there is no halting be|fore the Almighty, he hath an eye on you: Chri&s;t will find you out in the croud of Men, Devils, and Angels, and pick you out with his eye, and &s;ay, <HI>Friend, how came you hither?</HI> You never had the power of the worke of God upon your heart: do not thinke to deceive your own &s;oules by the&s;e pretences.</P>
<P><HI>Object.</HI> But you will &s;ay, What &s;hall I do then? You make all men hypocrites, how &s;hall I know whether I be a hypo|crite yea or no?</P>
<P>I gave you three things the la&s;t time in the generall to con&s;ider of:</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, I told you my de&s;igne was <HI>to pre&s;&s;e you on to try your &s;elves,</HI> and to &s;ecure your own e&s;tates.</P>
<P>Secondly, <HI>Grace will lye in a little roome,</HI> in a very little compa&s;&s;e, it lies not in the flaunting garbes and modes of the times, it is like a Diamond, little, but of great prize.</P>
<P>Thirdly, <HI>I would have no man taken up
<PB N="83" REF="51"> with &s;hews:</HI> It is not my de&s;igne to make you Hypocrites, but to di&s;cover Hypo|cri&s;ie to you: Therefore looke to your own hearts that you be not Hypocrites. I would not di&s;courage any poore &s;oule that is panting after <HI>Chri&s;t.</HI> Therefore</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, know in generall, <HI>though thou maiest be no hypocrite, yet thou maie&s;t &s;u&s;pect thy &s;elfe for hypocri&s;ie</HI> every day, in every duty, though thou bee&s;t none &s;o called, nor &s;o accounted by God, yet thou mu&s;t &s;u&s;pect thy &s;elfe.</P>
<P>Secondly, know this in the generall, <HI>Thou &s;hould&s;t not charge thy &s;elfe to be a Hy|pocrite for every &s;ight of Hypocri&s;ie:</HI> And the more &s;pirituall you grow under the Go&s;pell, the more you will &s;ee of the de|ceitfulne&s;&s;e of your heart every day.</P>
<P>But I will give you the&s;e &s;ix <HI>Characters,</HI> that no hypocrite can ever have in their hearts, nor attaine to: and I hope &s;ome poore &s;oules will be comforted, and they are the poore&s;t things you would thinke to fle&s;h and bloud in the world: tho&s;e things that a man would never imagine, e&s;pecially tho&s;e high-grown men in No|tion.</P>
<PB N="84" REF="52">
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>Can you hate &s;in as &s;in,</HI> that is, in its whole nature, in every appearance of it, in its fir&s;t motion, in the fir&s;t hints of it, in the &s;ins that are mo&s;t deare, that I tooke mo&s;t plea&s;ure in? Hypocri&s;ie in its actings towards &s;in picks and choo&s;es here and there, it may be <HI>angry</HI> with &s;ome &s;in that di&s;turbes it, but it never <HI>hates</HI> it, no hypocrite <HI>can have a hatred of &s;in as &s;in;</HI> hate the fir&s;t of the fir&s;t as it were, though it comes never &s;o glori|ous, never &s;o &s;et as it were, hates it as &s;in upon no other con&s;ideration; not be|cau&s;e it troubles my con&s;cience, and brings me to hell and wrath, and renders me un&s;utable to my relations and de|&s;ignes in the world: He is a Saint, looke to it, the very Embryo of &s;in, the &s;incere &s;oule hates, it hates it as &s;in.</P>
<P>Secondly, <HI>No hypocrite can delight to be a&s;hamed by God in his duties,</HI> in his actings, lye under the &s;hamings of God, and made purely nothing in its own eyes and others, that the Hypocrite cannot do; and yet a poore &s;imple &s;incere &s;oule can do it, a poore &s;oule, that may be
<PB N="85" REF="52"> can hardly &s;peak two words with &s;ence, and &s;utablene&s;&s;e of expre&s;&s;ion, yet he can do it; he can delight as well to &s;ee God &s;haming his &s;oule, bringing him to no|thing, humbling of him to the du&s;t, as if he were to be in the Armes of the Lord, <HI>taking plea&s;ure in his humbling acts;</HI> &s;up|po&s;e God deny him any a&s;&s;i&s;tance in a duty, or in the opening of his heart, that if he be in company, he is a&s;hamed to looke upon his own heart, here the &s;oule takes plea&s;ure to be a&s;hamed, no hypo|crite can endure that, to be a&s;hamed in his actings and relations; for &s;elfe-love is the principle of hypocri&s;ie in the heart of a hypocrite: <HI>He cannot endure to be out-&s;hined, that is the wicked frame of him;</HI> if a Saint go beyond him in grace, and communion with God, he cannot en|dure it, and therefore cannot endure to be a&s;hamed; Oh! how do the Saints love to be laid low before God, that they may have the pure glory of him &s;hining upon their &s;oules. Then</P>
<P>Thirdly, know this as a &s;peciall one, <HI>No hypocrite can ble&s;&s;e God, and love him
<PB N="86" REF="53"> from his heart, when God &s;mites him in his deare&s;t enjoyments, or neare&s;t lu&s;ts,</HI> where|in he hath delighted; take away his com|forts, take away tho&s;e things he hath en|joyed formerly, and he cannot love Chri&s;t, nor ble&s;&s;e him in his heart; &s;trike him in any thing that the eye and heart of him hath been upon, he &s;ecretly hates Chri&s;t: Now a Saint can cling to Chri&s;t, love him &s;ecretly in his own &s;oule, though he &s;eeme to be as an enemie to him, he cannot but love him for all this; no hy|pocrite can do this; take away what plea&s;es his nature, and he cannot love him. Try your hearts by the&s;e things.</P>
<P>Fourthly, know this, <HI>No hypocrite can love the per&s;on of the Lord Je&s;us Chri&s;t, nor a Saint as a Saint,</HI> I put the&s;e both toge|ther; he cannot love the per&s;on of the <HI>Lord Je&s;us,</HI> for he never had the <HI>glimp&s;es</HI> of his glory on his heart, he only loves to be pardoned, and have &s;ome comfort from him, but he never finds his heart to worke in love to the Lord Je&s;us; and have an union with him, as the funda|mentall ground of all his comforts, for
<PB N="87" REF="53"> love you know it longs for union: Nor he cannot love a Saint as a Saint purely: but a Saint &s;o tempered, &s;o conditioned, he cannot love a poore &s;aint, nor a weak Saint, he cannot purely clo&s;e with him, and have his bowels working towards him purely as a Saint.</P>
<P>Fifthly, <HI>No hypocrite can go on in any &s;pirituall worke or &s;ervice for Chri&s;t with any contentment, with any plea&s;ure, without &s;en&s;ible comforts, or outward re&s;pects;</HI> pray ob&s;erve; for if he want inward &s;en&s;ible comforts, yet the wind of men will fill his &s;ailes; but a poore Saint can take plea&s;ure in the meere mention of Chri&s;t, in the poore&s;t worke of Chri&s;t, wherein he is lea&s;t &s;eene, wherein he hath hardly a name, only with &s;hame and re|flection: this will try a man, if I had time to open it throughly.</P>
<P>Sixthly and la&s;tly, <HI>No hypocrite in the world can long to be like Christ, as to be re|&s;pected by Chri&s;t,</HI> either as to inward com|forts, or trade in the world. Or thus, No hypocrite <HI>can love the holine&s;&s;e of Chri&s;t as the good things he gets of Chri&s;t;</HI> he can|not
<PB N="88" REF="54"> abide to be out of his owne forme, and in the forme of the nature of the <HI>Lord Je&s;us Chri&s;t;</HI> but a Saint, if he have never &s;o much <HI>comfort</HI> and <HI>&s;weetne&s;&s;e,</HI> and his &s;oule alwaies drawing honey, with marrow and fatne&s;&s;e, yet if he have not the <HI>likene&s;&s;e of Chri&s;t,</HI> and be like Chri&s;t, he is not plea&s;ed; no hypocrite can love the holine&s;&s;e of the Lord Je&s;us Chri&s;t with a pure love that may de&s;troy his corruption, that may unbottome him, bring him perfectly out of &s;elfe, and transforme him into that glorious Image.</P>
<P>Try your &s;elves by all the&s;e things; I had thought to have &s;hewn you wherein the &s;traines of hypocri&s;ie lie to all &s;orts of duties, and the &s;pirituall workings of it in the hearts of men, but I mu&s;t leave that to &s;ome other time.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 N="4" TYPE="sermon">
<PB N="89" REF="54">
<HEAD><HI>SERMON IV.</HI> Beware of the Leaven of the Phari&s;ees, which is Hypocri&s;ie.</HEAD>
<P>_I Have &s;hewed you in &s;eve|rall exerci&s;es what the nature of hypocri&s;ie is, and have di&s;tingui&s;hed to you the &s;everall &s;orts of hypocrites under the Go&s;pell: &s;hewed you how <HI>cunningly</HI> and <HI>clo&s;ely</HI> men may act, and yet &s;till have this leaven in them, pa&s;&s;ing through all their parts; there is &s;ome little thing or other that is in&s;en&s;i|ble to &s;ome men, known to others, wher|by they are mi&s;taken and undone under all their profe&s;&s;ion.</P>
<P>I &s;hall not be able to repeat any thing: but in the latter end of the la&s;t Sermon I told you of <HI>Six</HI> things that no hypocrite
<PB N="90" REF="55"> could do, or attaine unto: and I will adde but this one to all the re&s;t.</P>
<P>Seventhly, <HI>No hypocrite in the world can de&s;ire Chri&s;t, that God might be glorified in the utter &s;haming of him&s;elfe, as to all pri|viledges, and to all enjoyments, and abate|ment of comforts to him&s;elfe,</HI> pray ob&s;erve it: this is that which &s;trikes at &s;elfe-love perfectly, which is, as I told you, the o|riginall of all hypocri&s;ie in a mans &s;pirit: and I &s;peake this as a tryall, that is very clo&s;e and narrow to the &s;pirits of men, and likewi&s;e to di&s;tingui&s;h in this point between a Saint and a hypocrite.</P>
<P>For I will not go &s;o high as &s;ome Chri|&s;tians have often &s;aid, and given it as a Character of a gracious and ble&s;&s;ed frame (but I will not go &s;o high) that they could be content to be damned: <HI>that I take is a pa&s;&s;ionate expre&s;&s;ion</HI> of Chri&s;tians not under&s;tanding. But as to all <HI>enjoy|ments,</HI> all things that concerne not purely the glory of God, and all priviledges, and comforts of this life, either inward or outward, that &s;oule that is a Saint can &s;ay, he can be really willing to part with|all,
<PB N="91" REF="55"> that Chri&s;t may be all (if he be but him&s;elfe, and have a freedome from temptations, no hypocrite can &s;ay it, cut him in his priviledges and enjoyments, there he will fret: <HI>But for any Saint to be willing to be damned for Chri&s;t,</HI> it is an ex|pre&s;&s;ion that will never hold weight in the Go&s;pell, if it be con&s;idered.</P>
<P>For fir&s;t, know this, <HI>I cannot de&s;ire that which is not Gods will to grant,</HI> nor ought to de&s;ire it; it is a &s;in to de&s;ire any thing again&s;t Gods will: it is not Gods will that a Saint &s;hould be damned.</P>
<P>Secondly, <HI>Damnation is not an immedi|ate act of Gods Soveraignty, but of his vin|dictive ju&s;tice,</HI> for indeed, I am damned, becau&s;e I have &s;inned, not becau&s;e God hath willed that I &s;hould be in that &s;tate, for it follows only &s;in; damnation, it doth not follow immediately the &s;overaignty God, who chu&s;eth whom he will, he cals one, rejects another, gives grace to one, leaves another in a &s;tate of damnation: that is not immediately an act of Gods &s;overaignty, though it be con&s;equently.</P>
<P>Then againe thirdly, <HI>it is again&s;t na|ture;</HI>
<PB N="92" REF="56"> God will never de&s;ire any thing of any that is again&s;t the con&s;titution of that nature which God hath put in him: that is, to be willing to be &s;eparated from God, God cannot command you, nor give it as a rule to you to will it, that any of his Creatures &s;hould de&s;ire to be &s;epa|rated from him. Therefore take it as a <HI>fla&s;hy</HI> expre&s;&s;ion of a Profe&s;&s;or to &s;ay, he can be willing to be damned; and <HI>I &s;hould &s;u&s;pect that &s;oules truth of grace that &s;hould &s;ay &s;o, if I did not know the temper of that per&s;on;</HI> As for tho&s;e expre&s;&s;ions of <HI>Paul,</HI> and <HI>Mo&s;es,</HI> and the like, pray con&s;ider of it, and you will ea&s;ily find the an&s;wer; it is not the meaning that they de&s;ired to be <HI>&s;eparated from God,</HI> for <HI>Pauls</HI> ca&s;e, and <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> ca&s;e was about the <HI>People of God;</HI> the <HI>Children of I&s;rael</HI> they had &s;inned again&s;t <HI>God,</HI> and <HI>God</HI> was angry with them, and would take the outward Or|dinances from them, and ca&s;t them out of the priviledge of being a Church, (&s;aith <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> blot out me rather, let me ra|ther lo&s;e the priviledges than they;) <HI>but to be de&s;irous to be damned, none could do it
<PB N="93" REF="56"> without &s;in:</HI> for it is to de&s;ire to be &s;epa|rated from the greate&s;t good, that I may be perpetually incapacious of &s;erving the living God, or knowing any thing of his love. Neither doth God will it, nor law|fully may a Saint, a Saint cannot will it, becau&s;e it is again&s;t God, and for God to do it he cannot, for it is again&s;t him|&s;elfe, but that only by the by.</P>
<P>But this is that I &s;ay, a Saint can be content and willing if God &s;ee it fit to be <HI>ab&s;tracted from all priviledges,</HI> from all <HI>en|joyments,</HI> from all tho&s;e things that are deare to him, if he knows it to be Gods will, and mind, and the glory of God is concerned in it, from all &s;elfe-willing, though he &s;hould never enjoy any more comforts in the world; for <HI>here is &s;elfe-deniall: to be willing to be ab&s;tracted from tho&s;e things that hinder communion with God,</HI> to be willing that God for the glo|rifying of his name &s;hould leave me in the darke &s;o long as I have but uni|on with him&s;elfe, is but only as to the con|veniency, and the acting of that glorious love to my &s;elfe, el&s;e it is unworthy for a
<PB N="94" REF="57"> Saint to will &s;uch a thing. But I &s;ay, here is that a hypocrite cannot do, he cannot be willing that God &s;hould <HI>&s;hame</HI> him to <HI>glorifie</HI> him&s;elfe, he cannot de&s;ire to be <HI>bla&s;ted</HI> in tho&s;e things, tho&s;e comforts which he mo&s;t gloried in, he will fret again&s;t God, he can never endure it. A Saint, like <HI>Jonah,</HI> may be <HI>petti&s;h</HI> for the pre&s;ent when the <HI>Gourd</HI> is gone, but he continues not &s;o: But a hypocrite let him be poore in the eyes of tho&s;e Saints he conver&s;es withall, and his heart will ne|ver &s;ubmit to God. But I go on now, and come to &s;hew you the &s;traines of hy|pocri&s;ie in tho&s;e three things:</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, As <HI>to duties</HI> in generall.</P>
<P>Secondly, <HI>In prayer</HI> in &s;peciall.</P>
<P>Thirdly, In <HI>conver&s;es with Saints, and in the world;</HI> we will go as far as we can at this pre&s;ent.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>A Hypocrites acting as to duties in generall;</HI> take all the Commandements of God, and that in the&s;e ten particulars at lea&s;t, <HI>I de&s;ire you to ob&s;erve them, and try your own &s;pirits.</HI></P>
<P>Fir&s;t, Every one that is an hypocrite
<PB N="95" REF="57"> <HI>hath a byas in every duty,</HI> &s;omething that <HI>turnes</HI> him alwaies; though he may &s;eeme to looke at <HI>Chri&s;t,</HI> yet certainly he looks another way; though he may &s;eeme to go to the promi&s;es, yet he hath another end than to be &s;anctified and made pure by them: there is never a hypocrite in the world but he hath &s;uch a byas, that ca&s;t him which way you will, that &s;hall lead him, either applau&s;e of men, or &s;ome &s;ecret corruption that acts within him at the &s;ame time if he be faithfull to his own heart: and it is the end rules the action; what a man's aimes are, that a man is in his duties; if nothing but pure grace, and Chri&s;t, and glory will be of only concernment, then it is a &s;igne I am carried out by other principles than hy|pocrites act from, but I &s;hall know com|monly this at the end, or beginning, or at the fir&s;t moving to a duty, or the turne of it what hath been that which carries me on, &s;till there is a byas: after I have done, what is that which poy&s;es my &s;pi|rit in the duty, or what moves me to it, or what is that I aime at in it: If a mans
<PB N="96" REF="58"> aimes in every duty be not <HI>primarily the glory of God, &s;econdarily to de&s;ire the enjoy|ment of God in a mans own heart, it is an hypocriticall act:</HI> O it is &s;trange to &s;ee, when a man runs on a long time fairely, evenly, as it were, when the byas comes to have his weight, then you &s;hall &s;ee him at length turne with the byas. As the &s;trength of a mans hand in throwing a bowle is &s;o much, that there will be no &s;ight at pre&s;ent of a byas, but when it is &s;et, and the &s;trength of the hand off, then you &s;hall &s;ee which way it will turne: So you may try your own &s;pirits; there is a thou&s;and &s;ecret kinds of &s;hifts that pa&s;s up and down a mans &s;pirit &s;o in&s;en&s;ibly in duties, that none knows them but a mans own heart, if he be faithfull; if a man be not high in his aimes, and high in his ends, all his duties are lo&s;t, they are to no purpo&s;e at all.</P>
<P>Secondly, know this, that you may know a hypocrite in his duties, that <HI>he is mo&s;t forward and zealous in externall du|ties, more than in internall.</HI></P>
<P>For the opening of that, know there are two &s;orts of duties.</P>
<PB N="97" REF="58">
<P>Fir&s;t, The&s;e that are purely the acts of the &s;oule within a man, as &s;elfe-examina|tion, and meditation, and inward hum|blings, and mournings of the &s;oule be|fore God: they are perfectly the wor|kings of the &s;oule within from the con&s;i|deration of the things laid before them, as the object is, as the grounds and rea|&s;ons of mourning and rejoycing are, &s;o tho&s;e inward actings are: the&s;e you &s;hall find that a hypocrite &s;eldome takes de|light in, or is con&s;iderate about.</P>
<P>Secondly, there is a &s;econd &s;ort of du|ties, which I call externall, and they are of two &s;orts, and hypocri&s;ie is &s;een in both: they are externall both, but the one is more <HI>publike,</HI> the other <HI>more &s;e|cret,</HI> as to preach or pray among others, that is more publike: Now you &s;hall find a hypocrite is more forward, more &s;trict in tho&s;e duties than in &s;ecret duties, more in the externall than in the inter|nall. You &s;hall find that hypocri&s;ie it lies in this; fir&s;t,</P>
<P><HI>There will be a perfect carele&s;&s;ene&s;&s;e as to the&s;e duties that are inward,</HI> &s;eldome exa|mining
<PB N="98" REF="59"> and ripping up the heart: &s;el|dome going to God in the humbling frame of a mans heart, &s;tudying the na|ture of humiliation, that mourning and humbling of a mans &s;oule in dutie, and for duties, and as to meditation, to me|ditate what is Chri&s;t, and what I have done again&s;t Chri&s;t what is the frame of my own heart, very &s;eldome any of tho&s;e things at all: And if it comes to a pinch the man is quiet, or at lea&s;t he finds a conveniency to turne it off: If upon examination of his heart he finds not things &s;o well as he would, he will turne off them by &s;ome trick: whereas a graci|ous heart is never well, never better than when he is ripping up all his bowels, than when he is in &s;oule-worke, when he can looke within, there is his great and migh|ty worke he looks after: you &s;hall very &s;eldome find that the Clo&s;et-hypocrites if they do the&s;e things, and make &s;ome triall of them, yet when they come to the pinch they will have &s;omething to di|vert them from the &s;trength of their ob|jections.</P>
<PB N="99" REF="59">
<P>Secondlie, And &s;o now as to externall duties, do but compare &s;ecret to publike, they are mightily taken with tho&s;e duties that are mo&s;t publike, will be mighty cu|rious in them; but if you come to &s;ecret duties they &s;lubber them over, any thing will &s;erve that; if they can but &s;ay they have been upon their knees, or done a dutie in their Clo&s;et, or in their Fami|lies, although no care of the nature of tho&s;e things. That is the &s;econd thing: and my Brethren, you &s;hould feare and try your own hearts by it, if you have but any con&s;ideration, looke &s;eriou&s;ly into your own &s;pirits what is that that takes you up mo&s;t, whether tho&s;e things that are the immediate things of the &s;oule, tho&s;e duties that do &s;o purelie belong to the nature of your condition, tho&s;e things that are &s;o within, that they can only be tried by your own &s;pirits, and the &s;pirit of God in them, or whether you are more choice in externals.</P>
<P>Thirdly, know this as to duties in ge|nerall, <HI>Hypocrites have their exceptions, and limitations,</HI> they have their choice, they
<PB N="100" REF="60"> will pick and chu&s;e, have what is mo&s;t &s;utable to fle&s;h and bloud, and what is mo&s;t &s;utable to their condition, what is mo&s;t plau&s;ible, tho&s;e duties they will clo&s;e in withall. But it is, my Brethren, contrary to a Saint; indeed he knows there are the great things of God that his heart is taken up with. But as <HI>David</HI> &s;aies, <HI>then &s;hall I not be a&s;hamed when I have re|&s;pect to all thy Commandements;</HI> a hypocrite will neglect his duty if he finds it too re|dious, or if it be a hinderance to him in the world, he loves not duty in it &s;elfe, but he hath his choice, and tho&s;e that are &s;utable and convenient, tho&s;e he follows on; and this you will find to be a clo&s;e tryall for the be&s;t &s;orts of them, you have &s;ome &s;o zealous in &s;ome duties, that you would thinke their &s;oules were in them, but come to other duties, they have no &s;ence of them: for if I did love duty in it &s;elfe, I would not baulke any thing, be glad of every opportunity, there is Chri&s;t and heaven in this as well as in the other; but few hypocrites ever looke after this, they will pick out duties &s;utable to the
<PB N="101" REF="60"> times, and &s;utable to their own humours, and fit to the places they live in, but if they come to a dutie that will put a man to it, and wherein a man mu&s;t be laid in the du&s;t there will be a &s;hrinking of the &s;oule of a hypocrite; pray con&s;ider of it, and apply tho&s;e things home to your own hearts; <HI>he that doth not love every dutie, that he knows to be a duty, and would gladly do it with all his &s;oule, and doth not &s;tudy to know his duty, he is an hypocrite.</HI> Oh, to &s;ee &s;ome men, and &s;ome great Profe&s;&s;ors, how faire they will be in &s;ome actings and duties, but come to others, they cannot abide them, they cannot away with them, there are &s;uch win&s;ings, &s;uch turnings and deviations in their &s;pi|rits.</P>
<P>Fourthly, know <HI>that hypocrites in their duties make a great deale adoe about little things, and neglect the greater and maine things,</HI> and this is one of the great things Chri&s;t chargeth the Scribes and Phari&s;ees withall, they make a great deale of adoe about little things that are in them&s;elves fit to be done, but neglect
<PB N="102" REF="61"> the greater and the more weighty and con&s;iderable things, &s;o &s;aies Chri&s;t, <HI>Mat.</HI> 23.16. <HI>Woe unto you Scribes and Phari&s;ees, Hypocrites, that &s;ay, if a man &s;weare by the Temple it is nothing, but if he &s;weare by the Gold of the Temple he is a debtor,</HI> and <HI>Luk.</HI> 11.14. <HI>You tythe mint and cummin,</HI> &amp;c. Now if you find you are curious in your owne &s;pirits about outward little things, (&s;uppo&s;e garments) and are not &s;o curi|ous about &s;pirituall things, which &s;hould be acted in a mans &s;oule and &s;pirit, it is a mo&s;t dangerous &s;igne of hypocri&s;ie, tho&s;e things, &s;aith he, ought to be done; you ought to be exceeding carefull, even of tything mint and cummin, you ought to be carefull how you carry your &s;elves in every thing in the world, but you ought not to have left the other undone; to put weight upon this, and the &s;trictne&s;&s;e of the Go&s;pell upon this, and yet do far wor&s;e, never looking at the wicked|ne&s;&s;e of your own hearts within, and the envyings of your own &s;oule, and pa&s;|&s;ions, but you can for a pin or a point be carefull, this is hypocri&s;ie, neglecting
<PB N="103" REF="61"> the great things of the Go&s;pell, the&s;e ought to be done, but the other ought not to be undone. An hypocrite deales in &s;mall ware, as I may &s;ay, he takes care only for a little outward concernments, and garbe of Religion, that is all.</P>
<P>Fifthly, This is a di&s;coverie of a hypo|crite as to duties in generall, wherein his hypocri&s;ie is &s;eene, <HI>that he never minds to get the &s;pirit of a duty, or to a dutie, that is the holy ble&s;&s;ed frame of it, but only cares how to act hand&s;omly and takingly in his du|ties abroad in the world,</HI> (for in truth there is mo&s;t of his actings abroad in the world) he cares not to get the frame and the &s;pirit of his dutie, he only cares for a hand&s;ome deportment in it.</P>
<P>Now the <HI>frame of a duty in the generall is thus, to get our hearts in a po&s;ture fit for the nature of the duty we are about;</HI> for,</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, The frame of a dutie, and the &s;pirit of it, <HI>is to get your heart in a prepa|ration to meet with God,</HI> that is one thing which a hypocrite never lookes after; how &s;hall I meet with God? What frame &s;hould I be in when I come to meet with
<PB N="104" REF="62"> God? What &s;hould I meet with God about?</P>
<P>Secondly, The frame of a duty is <HI>to get the heart &s;piritually behaved before God in a duty:</HI> truly few looke after it. I wi&s;h that the be&s;t Saints did looke after it more, but a hypocrite never looks after it at all almo&s;t, a &s;piritual behaviour that lies in that inward proportion of a mans &s;oule before God, according as he is to act to God, or expect from God; if I go to God in a mourning frame, to beg &s;omething from him, then can my &s;oule behave it &s;elfe in that poore and low con|dition, as one that expects purelie that which I want from heaven; I ought then to be mightie humble, and in a frame to get that of God; if I come to rejoyce and joy in God, then mu&s;t I be in that frame that all the faculties of my &s;oule may rejoyce in him, and be in a heaven|lie &s;pirituall tune, this &s;hould be the frame of my &s;oule, that &s;pirituall be|haviour which I cannot tell how to ex|pre&s;&s;e &s;o well, as in that inward decorum, in that inward proportion of a mans
<PB N="105" REF="62"> &s;oule unto God, according to the nature of his dutie. And then</P>
<P>Thirdly, which a hypocrite never looks after, <HI>it is to have workings in them &s;uta|ble to expectation, and to what I would ex|pre&s;s to God,</HI> and expect from God, which a hypocrite never hath, tho&s;e glorious de&s;ires and breathings in the vigour of my &s;oule carried out according to the weight and nature of things; &s;o that I &s;ay all tho&s;e things &s;hew you what is the frame of a hypocrite in a duty: If he can but carrie it on hand&s;omely, with quietne&s;s, and conveniencie, and come off fairelie to his own con&s;cience, and to Saints, he little minds what his &s;oule hath been do|ing, what his heart hath been acting all the while. And then</P>
<P>Sixthly, Pray you ob&s;erve this: <HI>That a hypocrite in the mid&s;t of all his zeale, and glory of his duties, he is &s;ecretly weary of them:</HI> you &s;hall find it cleare in your own &s;pirits, if ever you have been con|vinced of the workings of this &s;in in your &s;oules, e&s;pecially if they be duties that do not bring him in pre&s;ent profit, &s;ome
<PB N="106" REF="63"> internall, or externall things he wants. This is that which God complaines of in <HI>Malachy, They were weary of the Sabbath,</HI> when will the Sabbath be over that we may go to our buying and &s;elling? For the truth is, a hypocrite is but a perfect &s;lave and drudge to duties, he is hurried on either by nece&s;&s;ity within, or &s;ome lu&s;t or feare which moves him outwardlie, but he is wearie, it is a burthen to him, he hath no freedome at all, for no man can have a freedome that hath not a prin|ciple; it is again&s;t his nature, he is for|ced to it, he hath weights hang upon him that moves him to it; but it is not &s;o with a gracious man: <HI>thy Commandements are not grievous,</HI> he can be content to do all duties ever, for &s;aies <HI>David, How do I delight in thy Law, it is my meditation day and night:</HI> but a hypocrite can be willing to be free, if it were not on &s;ome other ground, he thinkes them to be <HI>&s;hackles of gold</HI> at the be&s;t, no more: he cannot be without them, becau&s;e of tho&s;e things he laies before him as his ground, and aime, and end: but he would be glad to be
<PB N="107" REF="63"> hand&s;omelie freed of them. Now with a Saint it is not &s;o: his knees may faile, and his hands hang down, but his heart never: he would do all Gods will, and he is &s;orry he can do no more than he doth, he is &s;orry the body &s;hould faile when the &s;pirit lives; a Saint &s;eldome failes in his heart and will, for the mo&s;t part the will is pre&s;ent. I would do more, but I have a cloggy body, and I have a nature which is contrarie to it, but I have a reall will. Now it is not &s;o with a hy|pocrite, he is &s;ecretly weary of his du|ties in the mid&s;t of all his enjoyments.</P>
<P>Seventhly, pray take this along with you: <HI>That you have all his Religion in a few duties, take him out of duties and he is a common man:</HI> this will be a triall to your hearts if you put them to it &s;eriou&s;lie; take him out of prayer and preaching (if he be one called to that worke) there is all his Religion, come to any dealing of corruption, there is his be&s;t part pa&s;t, he is no more religious than he is in the&s;e duties; whereas Religion is a life out of duties as well as in duties, a man is every
<PB N="108" REF="64"> where going out after God, Religion will move him and breath in him: but a hy|pocrite take him out of any dutie he is about, and you have no more Religion, he will be as vaine and fooli&s;h afterwards as you can imagine; but if ever you would know a Saint, take him out of his duties as well as in his duties; &s;ee how the feare of the Lord is upon him in eve|ry way, in every walking, how the dread of the Almightie aws him; but a hypo|crite it is a wonder to &s;ee how flouri|&s;hing he will be in duties; but come and take him out of the&s;e, he knows in his con&s;cience there is nothing left, no power, only he was carried out to the dutie by &s;omething that lay upon him externallie: therefore lay this to heart.</P>
<P>Eighthly, all duties that hypocrites do <HI>are but the colourings of &s;ome corrupti|ons that they keep privately in their owne hearts,</HI> that they may keep them more undi&s;cernable from the world, looke to it; all their duties do but cover lu&s;ts, do but nouri&s;h corruptions, they do pray, and heare, but it is to keep in ambition,
<PB N="109" REF="64"> or pride, or lu&s;t, or what&s;oever it be, that is all they do, or to keep up a con|&s;tant kind of corre&s;pondency with their relations: and this advantage a hypocrite makes of his duties, that after he hath done with duties, he takes an advantage to act his corruptions; How many men they go to prayer, if it be a fa&s;t-day, they go to fa&s;t, and after they have done their duties, they thinke they are &s;ecure, then they may to their lu&s;ts and the world a|gaine more eagerly, they may then give them&s;elves a little more way, they have been &s;o long in duties, and their hearts are now warme to their corruptions after they have done their duties: Oh the&s;e are the &s;ecrets of &s;ome mens thoughts and hearts; I heard of a known Profe&s;&s;or in <HI>London,</HI> who would be all the morning two houres in prayer, and then he would &s;ay, now let the Devill do his wor&s;t, and then play all his rea<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 letter">s; Oh, the damna|ble deceits that are in mens hearts, as to deceits in that regard: and &s;o a hypocrite if he can but &s;huffle off his duty, thinkes then he may act and &s;peake more freely
<PB N="110" REF="65"> than if he had not done his duty: this is a wicked &s;traine of hypocri&s;ie that is found in many mens &s;pirits. Then again,</P>
<P>Ninthly, herein lies the hypocri&s;ie of men in duties, <HI>that they can be content with the performance of the duty though they have not dealt with Christ in it, and gotten &s;ome|thing purely from him in it:</HI> And this, my Brethren, is a certaine veine of hypocri|&s;ie, and the common frame of hypocrites, they will be upon their knees a long time together, and never looke for one recep|tion from Chri&s;t, and go off their knees, though they have not had any di&s;covery of God unto their poore &s;oules at all. A Saint, though he &s;hould pray like an An|gell, I meane, &s;peake the mo&s;t high and and glorious words in the world, and if he &s;hould have all the whole world of Saints to applaud him in his duties, he would hate him&s;elfe, and abhorre his du|ties and all, if he cannot meet with Chri&s;t in them it is impo&s;&s;ible he &s;hould be plea|&s;ed, for his &s;oule is &s;et upon it, and it is that which is the object, that which the &s;oule hath in his eye, he cannot be with|out
<PB N="111" REF="65"> Chri&s;t; The power of a Command will force a hypocrite to his dutie, but the reallitie of the enjoyment is that which a Saint lookes after; If I have not gotten &s;ome love-token from the Lord Je&s;us, if my heart be not in a &s;pi|rituall frame through the operation of the &s;pirit, and communion with Chri&s;t, the &s;oule is not &s;atisfied; looke to your &s;oules what manner of frames you have.</P>
<P>Tenthly and la&s;tly, to adde no more at this time; <HI>A Hypocrite never grows in or by his duties at all,</HI> he is the &s;ame man he was to his corruptions and enjoy|ments, he may grow more fluent in his expre&s;&s;ions, mannage them externally more neatlie, have an ea&s;ine&s;&s;e of utte|rance, and a frequencie, but he grows not at all, as to inward &s;pirituall enjoy|ments, his corruptions never dye, and this is a &s;ad &s;ymptome to many &s;ouls that have run a long time in duties, and no body can perceive the lea&s;t &s;en&s;ible growth in the world, nor they them|&s;elves, though they have lived &s;o long
<PB N="112" REF="66"> under the Go&s;pell of the Lord Je&s;us Chri&s;t, praying zealou&s;lie with much heartine&s;&s;e, one would thinke, and no fruit, no corruptions mortified, there is no more inward apprehen&s;ions of things, no more growth than if they had never begun the Go&s;pell, now, I &s;ay, that is hy|pocri&s;ie.</P>
<P>Now &s;ome may &s;ay, what is it to grow in duties?</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, Then a man grows in and by duties, <HI>when a man is more endeared to the &s;pirituall nature of tho&s;e things,</HI> his heart more affected with the heavenly nature of what he is about.</P>
<P>Secondlie, Then a man grows in and by duties, <HI>when the &s;oule finds more &s;piri|tuall power to performe his duties,</HI> he goes on more ea&s;ilie, more &s;pirituallie, and more freelie.</P>
<P>Thirdlie, Then a man grows <HI>when a man is fitted by one duty to performe another:</HI> when in one dutie, I pray now, I can pray anon in my own heart, as to the inward frame, I do not &s;peake of the outward expre&s;&s;ion, for that will grow
<PB N="113" REF="66"> by cu&s;tome, but now I heare, and I can heare better the next time, be more open to take in the things of God: he grows in it; &s;o it is as to meditation and &s;elfe examination, when I can come and try my own heart now, and I can every day get more &s;pirituall in&s;ight into my own &s;oule.</P>
<P>Fourthly and la&s;tly, I grow in and by my duties, <HI>when as I get a dayly life in them,</HI> an addition, a vigour, and &s;pirit, and life, that whereas I began with a fainting &s;pirit, and feeble knees, my heart now grows warmer every day, my &s;pirit grows &s;tronger: and as a Child finds dayly &s;trength and vigour of &s;pirit, &s;o I find a vigour in my &s;pirit. A hypo|crite runs his round, he grows not at all, there is no &s;pirituall motion in him, but ju&s;t the &s;ame as to the inward frame of his heart; though you and I may thinke he grows, yet he doth not grow, for all growth is by an addition to the &s;ame na|ture; if you &s;hould &s;ee a heape of &s;tones heaped up, you do not &s;ay it grows, it is not a growth, but an adding &s;tones to
<PB N="114" REF="67"> &s;tones, it mu&s;t be in the degrees, and &s;pi|rit, and life of the &s;ame nature, there lies growth.</P>
<P>I &s;hould now have come to the &s;econd thing, which is <HI>hypocri&s;ie of men in prayer,</HI> which is a thing e&s;peciallie to be di&s;co|vered, for there is nothing a hypocrite is more excellent in, than in prayer, and nothing he e&s;teemes more than that; and there is nothing by which a hypocrite gets more e&s;teeme and a better opinion in the world than by prayer, for it is a dutie &s;o much commended in the Go&s;pel, that all the wor&s;hip of God is placed in it. <HI>My hou&s;e &s;hall be called the hou&s;e of pray|er,</HI> it is made the Character of a Saint: behold he praies; it is that which every Saint hath need of every moment, and it is is that the Saints are mo&s;t in of any other duty in the world, and there is the greate&s;t excellency of a hypocrite of any thing, and to di&s;cover him there, you would find him out to purpo&s;e; for a man in prayer, if he hath got that curio|&s;itie, as &s;ome have done, he &s;peakes as if he were wra&s;tling with the Almightie,
<PB N="115" REF="67"> and as if he were prompted by &s;ome E|vangelical &s;pirit, and a&s;&s;i&s;ted by a migh|tie &s;pirit from above, that a man thinks he is a perfect Saint if he have a mightie fluencie as to expre&s;&s;ion. I &s;hould in many particulars have &s;hewed you the deceit of this.</P>
<P>But I will conclude all with a word or two of U&s;e.</P>
<P><HI>U&s;e.</HI> Fir&s;t, to every &s;oule to looke to his own heart in his duties, there is mo&s;t hypocri&s;ie in duties, more than in any other way of acting, there is the clo&s;e&s;t hypocri&s;ie in a mans duties that can be: there is his pride, and &s;elfe-ends acted to purpo&s;e, all other actings are but gro&s;&s;e, a man may &s;ee them ea&s;ilie, but as to duties they are carried &s;o clo&s;ely no man can know them; Alas, if a man &s;hould be found in his Studie alwaies praying, who would not thinke him an excellent Saint? yet he may be the perfecte&s;t hypo|crite in the world, nothing of God and Chri&s;t in his prayer, it is not the length or the mea&s;ure you mu&s;t looke after, nor how you have acted them, but how you
<PB N="116" REF="68"> are moved and acted in them: Oh, my Brethren, mo&s;t glorious Profe&s;&s;ors in du|ties will be found another day in &s;trange frames before God. We have preached in thy name, O Lord, &s;ay they, &s;o Lord we have prayed night and day, kept all meetings in the Towne or place where we lived, and been at &s;o many fa&s;ts, and kept all publike daies, and kept them clo&s;ely: Yea &s;oule, &s;o thou maie&s;t: but if you have no more than that, depart from me, I know you not; you are no better, you never minded me, you never had the frame of the Go&s;pell in your own &s;pirits, you never knew what it was to be out of your duties, and have the workings of my power in your hearts, you never knew what it was to denie your &s;elves in your duties, to be made no|thing for my name and glory.</P>
<P>Secondly and la&s;tly, I be&s;eech you (my Brethren) be not content with any thing but what is purely of God, what is a reality in the Go&s;pell, pure realities. Truly, my Brethren, the faire&s;t faces will one day looke like death when God
<PB N="117" REF="68"> comes to view them; be more afraid in duties than in any other way, the mo&s;t &s;pritefull men in duties, that we little thinke of, will be wrinckled like old men one day upon a &s;udden when God comes to deale with them about the things of the Go&s;pell; be more afraid of your &s;elves in duties than in any other way, for though you are in the waies of God as to outward actings, yet you are under the mo&s;t &s;pirituall temptations that can be, you will wonder to &s;ee one day how many thou&s;ands will be placed at the left hand, that have pa&s;&s;ed through all the formes of duties to the uttermo&s;t; there|fore be not content with any thing, but what you find perfectly reall, bring it to the touch&s;tone againe, and againe, let it be written with the Sun-beames in your hearts; looke to your principles and ends, mind the vigour and &s;traines of your &s;pirits in duties, ob&s;erve at what rate you act, &s;till be looking that way; Oh, to be a &s;ound Chri&s;tian is a mo&s;t glorious thing. Give me that &s;oule that can &s;ay, I have many things that I am
<PB N="118" REF="69"> a&s;hamed of before God night and day, but I am &s;ound, I am reall, though I were to be &s;earched by God. I have that <GAP DESC="foreign">, that inward &s;inceritie, that is, not only a &s;implicity of &s;pirit, but &s;uch a &s;hining judgement upon my own condi|tion, that I know how I &s;tand before God, and I know whom I have belee|ved, and how I have beleeved, and how I have prayed, and heard in the Go&s;pell; I know it, the divine &s;pirit was in my bo|&s;ome in &s;uch a place, in &s;uch a corner, the Holy Gho&s;t was in my &s;pirit; I know that I was carried out in &s;uch a duty meerly by the life and &s;trength of God, when I had no power, when I was as weake as water: Oh! this would be a comfort indeed to a poore &s;oule. Many are glad to be lulled a&s;leepe, if they can but be &s;aid to be religious and &s;aints, and follow the things of the Go&s;pell, they thinke they are happy. No, &s;oule: thou mu&s;t have a principle in thy &s;oule, and an eternall worke upon thee; thou mu&s;t know what God is, and what Chri&s;t is, and what God in Chri&s;t is, what it is to
<PB N="119" REF="69"> have thy corruptions &s;truck at the heart, and be laid as low as hell in thy owne &s;oule, before ever thou enjoy any thing of God in thy owne &s;oule. And when thou ha&s;t done &s;o, thou mu&s;t try all over againe by a &s;pirit of fire and burning, and have not only thy own rea&s;on to witne&s;&s;e, but the Holy Gho&s;t and Scriptures to witne&s;&s;e to what is in thy heart, to what thy con&s;cience &s;peakes, and all the&s;e things will be brought to you one day, though you looke &s;lightly over them now.</P>
<P>Oh that men would be carefull to a|void hypocri&s;ie, this wicked leaven that is in &s;o many &s;oules, to di&s;cerne the lea|ven that workes in every part &s;o invi&s;i|bly: Beg of God a &s;pirit of &s;inceritie, to keep you from your own hearts, beg of the Lord that he never would leave you under any &s;light ordinarie common wor|kings of &s;pirit, but put you to it every day, &s;hew you your own frames, never be quiet untill you find tho&s;e reall things, and then having a little grace, yet if in &s;inceritie, you will find your &s;oules in a
<PB N="120" REF="70"> happy e&s;tate: Oh you &s;oules that have this mercie from God, ble&s;&s;e him, and magnifie him for ever, you have the earne&s;t of immortalitie in your owne &s;oules.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 N="5" TYPE="sermon">
<PB N="121" REF="70">
<HEAD>SERMON V.</HEAD>
<EPIGRAPH>
<Q><BIBL><HI>LUKE 12.1.</HI></BIBL>
<P>Beware of the Leaven of the Phari&s;ees, which is Hypocri&s;ie.</P></Q>
</EPIGRAPH>
<P>_I Have in many exerci&s;es endeavoured to open to you the nature of hypo|cri&s;ie, what kinds and &s;orts of hypocrites there are in the world; and the la&s;t time you may remember we &s;hewed you the actings of hypocri&s;ie, as to duties in ge|nerall, for hypocri&s;ie is mo&s;t acted in duties; a man may find out his own de|ceits in many things more ea&s;ilie than in duties, for in duties there are &s;uch faire colours, no man knows how to di&s;cover him&s;elfe or others, if he be not carefull in his own heart.</P>
<P>But there were three things propoun|ded
<PB N="122" REF="71"> at the latter end, which we could not come to: not only as to duties in ge|nerall;</P>
<P>But fir&s;t the hypocri&s;ie of men in prayer, and how a hypocrite is di&s;cove|red there.</P>
<P>Secondlie, as to communion and con|ver&s;e with Saints and godly per&s;ons.</P>
<P>And thirdly, as to his carriage in the world, tho&s;e three we would &s;peake to at this time.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, Hypocri&s;ie as to prayer, which is a dutie that hypocrites mo&s;t glory in of any; that is the dutie wherein Saints get &s;o much of God, and have &s;o much experience of God in, it is a dutie that is u&s;ed as the common way to get what&s;o|ever a &s;oule would have; <HI>let your reque&s;ts be made known to God,</HI> therefore there is no dutie a hypocrite is more exact in than that, for he imitates a Saint, that is the nature of a hypocrite that he imitates a Saint in tho&s;e duties he is mo&s;t in, that he gets mo&s;t by: none knows the incomes that Saints have in the dutie of prayer, how much of God is let into them, and
<PB N="123" REF="71"> how much their &s;oules are let out unto God, when none know it; it is a dutie that is of that reque&s;t among tho&s;e that are godlie, that if a hypocrite be not good at that, he is good at nothing, if he be not very curious there he will be of little account; for it is common for one to de&s;ire to pray one for another, and with one another, abundance of in|comes come by it in a &s;pirituall way; and therefore that is the care of a hypo|crite to do that well whatever he neg|lects, and you &s;hall find that as to their parts they never excell &s;o much as in that dutie, wherein they excell and go beyond many Saints, as to the outward perfor|mance of it. I &s;hall &s;hew their hypocri|&s;ie therefore as to this.</P>
<P>And fir&s;t in generall, <HI>know that all that a hypocrite doth, as to prayer, is from an art of it, not from a &s;pirit of it within him;</HI> &s;ome do di&s;tingui&s;h it thus, between a gift of prayer, and a grace of prayer; but I had rather take it in the&s;e termes, for graces are gifts, and we mu&s;t come and di&s;tingui&s;h again and againe of com|mon
<PB N="124" REF="72"> gifts, and &s;pirituall gifts, and &s;uper|naturall gifts, and &s;upernaturall gifts of &s;uch a kind, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> but this is cleare, that all that ever a hypocrite doth in prayer is from an artificiall motion in his &s;pirit; my meaning is thus: he hath gotten by indu&s;trie, by imitation, by conver&s;e, by cu&s;tome, and u&s;e in that dutie, &s;uch an art, that there is nothing either belongs to prayer, or the exact performance of it outwardlie, but he hath it with more abundant curio&s;itie than the be&s;t Saint hath, that he &s;trives to perfect him&s;elfe in exceedinglie.</P>
<P>But take this for the generall rule, that is rather from an art than from the &s;pirit prayer, and many times he gets the art &s;o curiou&s;lie, that he refre&s;heth many Saints and poore &s;ouls by it, though he have lit|tle of the &s;en&s;e of it on his own heart; he acts that part &s;o exactlie and carefullie to the &s;ight of men, that it works much upon the affections of all that heare him, and conver&s;e with him: This I &s;peake now as to tho&s;e that are mo&s;t carefull. Indeed there be &s;ome &s;orts of hypocrites that are
<PB N="125" REF="72"> not &s;o curious, that are rather for a meer outward forme, and are very dead in it, and make it up &s;ome other way, but take hypocri&s;ie in generall, it is &s;eene mo&s;t in prayer.</P>
<P>In the &s;econd place, and more particu|larlie to di&s;cover this hypocri&s;ie to you as to the art.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, know, that <HI>the great &s;tudy of a hy|pocrite is about his expre&s;&s;ions more than for any impre&s;&s;ions, or any reall &s;ights of the na|ture of his condition or estate;</HI> as if he were to mourne for &s;in, and open his own heart, he &s;tudies to &s;et it out in the mo&s;t melting way, though his heart be not melted, or if he be to &s;et out the love of God, he will do it with the exacte&s;t expre&s;&s;ions, but he finds not the love of Chri&s;t con&s;training, and tho&s;e expre&s;&s;i|ons flowing from that love in his heart.</P>
<P>Secondlie, as to that, as his expre&s;&s;ions, <HI>&s;o his greatest enlargements in that duty of prayer is when he is mo&s;t in publike, not &s;o much in private and &s;ecret dealings with his own heart;</HI> this is now to tho&s;e that deale with others, dead at home, enlarged
<PB N="126" REF="73"> abroad: Oh my Brethren, this is a mo&s;t wicked frame of hypocri&s;ie in that duty, when men look at their words, not at their hearts, to make their hearts &s;peake within them; if I be enlarged in prayer when I am with others, and dead when I am in private, it is a certaine &s;igne I have nothing in my heart, only &s;ome out|ward gales fill my &s;ailes.</P>
<P>Thirdly, as to that know, there is a <HI>&s;ecret rejoycing in the very manner of the expre&s;&s;ions of a mans wants or of his Petiti|ons,</HI> what&s;oever he de&s;ires of God, which none but tho&s;e find that have to deale with tho&s;e things in their owne hearts.</P>
<P>Fourthly, And which is as to expre&s;|&s;ions againe, know that a hypocrite, in the fourth place, <HI>is more troubled when he wants an enlargement as to expre&s;&s;ions, than when he wants a power of affection to duties, and to God,</HI> according to the whole na|ture of what he is to act in that dutie; a Saint can content him&s;elfe more with a &s;igh and a groane, than all the externall enlargements that can be; if a hypocrite
<PB N="127" REF="73"> can be enlarged as to gifts, he can ea&s;ily di&s;pen&s;e with &s;ome deadne&s;&s;e as to the frame of his owne heart, pray you ob|&s;erve that; if you cannot be in your clo|&s;et as vehement in &s;ighs and groanes as if you were in companie with others, if your inward motions do not prompt you to as much vehemencie of &s;oule to go out to God to beg what you want, and longings after him to enjoy what he hath communicable to your &s;oules, when alone as well as when before others, it is a dangerous &s;ymptome of hypocri&s;ie, it is a &s;igne certainly that I have &s;omewhat at the bottome that is not &s;ound; therefore con&s;ider that.</P>
<P>Secondly, As to particulars, know, <HI>that a hypocrite loves to lengthen out his du|ties when he is to performe them before o|thers, and to hurrie them over in private;</HI> truly mo&s;t Profe&s;&s;ours are as Papi&s;ts in that, for they tell over their private du|ties as &s;o many beads, till they come to a publike Ma&s;&s;e, then they are &s;olemne, but there is nothing of Religion in all tho&s;e things: if they come to company, then
<PB N="128" REF="74"> they do every thing circum&s;tantially, ex|actly, then they lengthen them out ac|cording to time and every proportion, and this is a very clo&s;e di&s;covery of hy|pocri&s;ie in any &s;oule, that is &s;light in pri|vate, and can hurry over his duties there, yet can be mighty &s;olemne when he is in a publike place; pray you con|&s;ider that.</P>
<P>Thirdly, Take this for a Rule, a hypo|crite both in private and publike pray|ers, <HI>he flags at la&s;t,</HI> this will come clo&s;e to every ones heart, the longer he prayes the wor&s;e he is, the heart more dead, be&s;t at fir&s;t, at the beginning he is zealous: it may be &s;ence of wants pre&s;&s;es him, &s;ome|thing holds him up, but the longer he goes on the wor&s;e he is. But the contrary is now in a Saint, the longer he is with God, the more his heart is with him, he grows in his duties; though he be dead at fir&s;t, he will be &s;ure to get &s;ome re|view of God, &s;ome quicknings, &s;ome enlivenings, though he have been long getting up his heart to a duty, yet when once it is up, he finds the water flows in,
<PB N="129" REF="74"> the more he is with God, the more he gets up his &s;oule, the divine nature gets more breath and &s;trength by breathing after God, the longer it breaths the &s;tron|ger it breaths; a hypocrite hath much adoe to keep up his affections to the fir&s;t &s;tart, either privately, or publikely, hardly able to keep in his &s;pirit, but he is at a lo&s;s as to the divine nature of tho&s;e things as to the glory of them; therefore he is fain to pumpe and &s;train for expre&s;|&s;ions when his affections are lo&s;t; this you will find as a perfect &s;ecret in your own hearts that know and are privie to your own &s;oules.</P>
<P>The Spirit may indeed withdraw &s;ometimes, but takes it commonly and ordinarily, the &s;oule is never &s;o moved as when it is touched in the heart; but a hypocrite you &s;hall have his duties done very &s;leightlie at the latter end, when there &s;hould be mo&s;t vigour, but you &s;hall find the duties of Saints, when once the &s;oule begins to get heat and warmth with the love of Chri&s;t, and &s;ence of wants, and pure thoughts of the love of
<PB N="130" REF="75"> Je&s;us Chri&s;t, it can pray everla&s;tinglie, if he had a body fit to his &s;oule he could be alwaies praying; and though a Saint may faile in expre&s;&s;ions towards the lat|ter end, yet his affections are higher, he can hardly leave Chri&s;t, or the thoughts of him, he would be alwaies with him; there is abundance of adoe to get up our hearts to any frame, but when once it is up, and goes on with the &s;trength of God, then he finds new a&s;&s;i&s;tance every moment comming in; you &s;hall have a hypocrite at fir&s;t, like a fountaine, flowing in expre&s;&s;ions, but he begins to grow low at la&s;t, and ju&s;t &s;o much water let out as may maintaine him for a while, and turne his wheele and motion: but take a Saint, he is commonlie be&s;t at la&s;t, as to faith, and &s;pirituall workings in his own heart; And this, my Brethren, will a little in|forme you of the nature of hypocri&s;ie as to prayer; for a hypocrite acts for him|&s;elf, and from &s;elf-&s;trength, and any artifi|ciall motion, as a Clock or &s;o, grows &s;lower at latter end, untill it be woond up againe; &s;o it is really with tho&s;e men.</P>
<PB N="131" REF="75">
<P>Fourthly, The hypocri&s;ie of men in prayer is &s;een in this, <HI>that an hypocrite ne|ver goes with an ab&s;olute pre&s;ent &s;ence of his needs of a&s;&s;i&s;tance, or of acceptance, either of the Spirits power, or of Chri&s;ts interce&s;|&s;ion;</HI> if he go to Chri&s;t for &s;trength, it is to employ it to his own ends. But, my Brethren, there is no Saint goes to a du|ty ordinarilie and commonly, but he goes with that deep &s;ence of that perfect need he hath of the Holy Gho&s;t to &s;upply him, he can do nothing; though he have parts, yet he &s;ees he mu&s;t have his a&s;&s;i|&s;tance, el&s;e he cannot act, and when he hath acted, he &s;ees as much need of accep|tance at la&s;t as of a&s;&s;i&s;tance at fir&s;t. A hy|pocrite acts meerlie from his owne &s;trength; in &s;ome extraordinarie dutie it may be he may ca&s;t up his eye, and &s;ay, Lord carry me on in this extraordinary dutie, but commonly in prayer he never fees the need of the Holy Gho&s;t to teach him how to pray, how to move to God, and what to pray, and that Je&s;us Chri&s;t &s;hould hold out his mediation, and &s;tand betweene him and the Father to make a
<PB N="132" REF="76"> perfect attonement; there is nothing will di&s;cover hypocri&s;ie more than this, if you do but con&s;ider it &s;eriou&s;ly; for there is no hypocrite that ever was un|bottomed of him&s;elfe, his own &s;trength, that ever &s;aw the eternall con&s;tant need of Chri&s;t.</P>
<P>Fifthly, That I may not hold you long; a hypocrite in his duties <HI>he praies for tho&s;e things with &s;eeming earne&s;tne&s;&s;e that he ne|ver prized, nor knew the worth of;</HI> He praies for pardon, it may be elegantlie, with exceeding affections, as to our hea|ring, but he never knew what it was to have pardon, to have divine incomes in his heart; he praies for enjoyments of Chri&s;t, but yet he never knew the worth of an enjoyment of Chri&s;t; and that is <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="2 letters">&s;covered in the&s;e particulars.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>In that he can quiet him&s;elfe with common hopes of him;</HI> I hope I &s;hall have him, though now I have him not, and &s;o takes his duties in&s;tead of Chri&s;t for pre|&s;ent; he can pray for Chri&s;t, and yet con|tent him&s;elfe with a generall common ap|prehen&s;ion that he will &s;hew him&s;elfe
<PB N="133" REF="76"> good at la&s;t, though he have no earne&s;t pre&s;&s;ing, nor longing for him at pre|&s;ent.</P>
<P>Secondly, it is &s;een in this, <HI>that the &s;oule &s;ecretly di&s;likes what he praies for, as to tho&s;e enjoyments, as to the power, and &s;pirit, and life of them;</HI> there is no hypocrite, but if he pray for to be transformed, to be made like unto Chri&s;t, and be &s;anctified, but oh, he hath a &s;ecret regret, when he comes to the practicall part of it, he could rather wi&s;h there were no &s;uch thing, or he had &s;tood upon his own bottome.</P>
<P>Thirdly, and e&s;peciallie it is &s;een in this, <HI>that tho&s;e things are matter of petiti|on, but not any ground of endeavour after the enjoyment of them,</HI> they are only the bare matter of Petition: I pray for them, and &s;eek after them, but I never endea|vour for them; I pray for Chri&s;t, but never look after him; I pray to have my &s;ins mortified, but I never take the cour&s;e to have that vertue, and that power from Chri&s;t that may kill my corruptions: we only put it into our prayers as comple|mentall acts and no more. Tho&s;e prayers
<PB N="134" REF="77"> that are not accompanied with earne&s;t heartie endeavours to get the things prayed for, according to the rule pro|pounded, are hypocriticall. I pray I may be pardoned, and I go on in &s;in, and never looke after the mediation of the Lord Je&s;us, nor &s;tudy how the&s;e ble&s;&s;ed conveyances are made over to my &s;oule; Oh there is a mightie &s;traine as to that.</P>
<P>Sixthlie, A hypocrite in <HI>prayer calls God Father by his own &s;pirit, not by the &s;pirit of adoption,</HI> pray you ob&s;erve that; by his own &s;pirit, for he hath not the &s;pirit of prayer, which is the &s;pirit of adopti|on; now that you may know the &s;pirit of prayer, what the meaning of that is, he calls God Father by his own &s;pirit, not by the &s;pirit of adoption.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>He goes not to God from an inward &s;ence of fatherly love,</HI> there is no hypo|crite in the world but he hath a &s;ecret in|ward frame of &s;pirit, whereby he looks upon God as an enemie, and judge to him in his greate&s;t enlargements; he goes not to God from the &s;ence of fatherlie love,
<PB N="135" REF="77"> though he may call God father with abundance of varietie in expre&s;&s;ion; pray you con&s;ider that: no man can call God father but from the &s;pirit of adop|tion, but from the &s;ence of his love &s;hed abroad in his heart in prayer; I go to him, becau&s;e his love as well as my needs workes me up to go to him, the ta&s;tes of the &s;weetne&s;&s;e of that fatherlie love workes up my heart, I cannot but go to him.</P>
<P>Secondlie, <HI>this &s;pirit of prayer lies in that &s;utable&s;&s;e of a &s;on-like affection unto God:</HI> that &s;utablene&s;&s;e of a &s;on-like affe|ction and nature unto God, whereby I go as a Son unto a Father. Now that is certaine, a hypocrite hath no relation to God, he never minds him as a father, he hath not that inward propen&s;itie, that in|ward love and affection unto God as a Son, which lies in the working of the heart inwardlie unto God as unto a Fa|ther: as it is in nature, &s;o it is in grace; take a child, and tell him it is his Father, from once he knows it is his Father, there will be an inward working towards
<PB N="136" REF="78"> him more than to any per&s;on in the world, there will be &s;ome di&s;po&s;ition in the heart that will an&s;wer pre&s;ently your repre&s;entation of him as a Father; &s;o it is in the Go&s;pell, when you go to the Father, there will be &s;omething that will an&s;wer this; <HI>thou art our Father, though</HI> Abraham <HI>be ignorant of us:</HI> the &s;oule mu&s;t cry <HI>Abba, Father:</HI> that no hypo|crite can do in the world, he cannot act as to a Father, but his own &s;pirit prompts him: &s;trength either of his nece&s;&s;ities, or the &s;trength of his abilities carries him on.</P>
<P>Seventhly, know this as to a hypocrite in prayer: <HI>his heart failes him when his enlargements faile him,</HI> which is contrary to a Saint, which is contrarie to the heart of a Saint; his heart though he can but groane, though he can but chatter as a Crane, yet his heart is up, if he have any promi&s;e, there he hangs, if he can have any thing to build up his &s;oule in, it keeps up his heart, any twig to hang on. But nothing but comforts and enlargements can keep up the heart of a hypocrite; but
<PB N="137" REF="78"> a Saint from the inward working of the Spirit can keep up, though he &s;hould have nothing el&s;e; but a hypocrite in duties, if he &s;hould be but once denied enlarge|ments, he is as dead as a &s;tock. Take but a Saint under a promi&s;e, though he wants enlargements, let God &s;hame me as to that, I have enough in the promi&s;e, and the inward groanings of my &s;oule are more to me than all enlargements.</P>
<P>Eighthly, take in this too: a hypo|crite &s;hews his hypocri&s;ie in prayer, <HI>that he makes his prayer his &s;hift upon every turne, upon every occa&s;ion, it is his prayer beares him up &s;till.</HI> After that he hath done any thing that is un&s;utable to the Go&s;pel, if he can but go and powre out a prayer he is well enough; his prayer is that which charmes him into quietne&s;&s;e after guilt; by prayer he gets his ea&s;e, and re|tires to it; if he have committed &s;ome fault in his ordinary cour&s;e of life as to his relations, if he can but go to prayer, there is all his life and refuge, that is all; he licks him&s;elfe whole by prayer: for it is a dutie man &s;hould go to God in, and a
<PB N="138" REF="79"> dutie of drawing a &s;oule to God, and when I beg of God pardon, I am &s;o qui|eted, though I never get the ground of pardon, he cannot be quiet untill he hath been upon his knees, and then he is well, this is his common &s;hift: but a Saint can never be quiet, though he pray night and day, untill he hath gotten in prayer Chri&s;ts bloud, and have hold upon Chri&s;t as the attonement and propitiation.</P>
<P>Ninthly, Then e&s;peciallie take in but this, that I may adde no more upon this head; if he can but <HI>ninthly get teares in prayer, then he is well, for he makes his teares to wa&s;h away his guilt,</HI> and mingles his teares with Chri&s;ts bloud; if he can but blubber his cheeks in teares, oh how is he content? how much is he &s;atisfied? whereas teares are the mo&s;t dangerous &s;ignes of Hypocri&s;ie in the world, if they be not the juyce of a broken &s;pirit, the droppings of a melted heart, the dews of a &s;oule that hath been under the &s;ights of love; there is the mo&s;t dangerous &s;ignes of hypocri&s;ie that can be po&s;&s;ible, that when a mans prayers are bedewed with
<PB N="139" REF="79"> teares, then he is well, he hath then no need of Chri&s;ts bloud, he mingles his teares with his &s;acrifices, and that is &s;a|tisfaction enough at pre&s;ent. You will in the&s;e things &s;ee enough of your owne hearts, if you have had any dealing with them.</P>
<P>Secondly, Now let us view a hypocrite as to his conver&s;e with Saints, his commu|nion with them, and &s;ee how we can trace him there.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, In the generall you mu&s;t know, <HI>he is very carefull to keep in, and keep a cor|re&s;pondencie with Saints:</HI> el&s;e he would be a profane per&s;on, and would not be re|&s;pected by Saints, all his &s;trivings are that he may keep in there, and common|ly he &s;teales in &s;o &s;ecretly, &s;o clo&s;elie among them, that none knows how he is gotten in.</P>
<P>But you &s;hall &s;ee his hypocri&s;ie.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, This is the hypocri&s;ie of men as to conver&s;e Saints, <HI>that they have in|ward prejudices against convincing wal|king Saints (if there be any &s;uch in the world,)</HI> he will be &s;ure to have his heart
<PB N="140" REF="80"> worke &s;ecretly again&s;t them, however he carry it to them&s;elves, he hath a &s;ecret inward regret again&s;t clo&s;e convincing walking Saints. I would I could &s;peake that word &s;o loud that it might be under|&s;tood, for it is hard to find &s;uch a Saint in the world; yet take one that hath a watchfull and ob&s;ervant eye, he cares ve|ry little for his company, but only for a de&s;igne.</P>
<P>Secondlie, as to conver&s;es with Saints, <HI>a hypocrite labours alwaies to dre&s;&s;e him&s;elfe &s;o, that he may be very hand&s;ome when he goes abroad: that is his care alwaies, he cares not how he is at home, how carele&s;&s;e, and neglective, how &s;leight in his duties, how unworthy in his actings,</HI> &s;o he may but keep up a faire corre&s;pondencie with tho&s;e he is &s;till abroad with; he will &s;peake much of heaven and Chri&s;t, tell you of repentance, and experiences abroad: but oh, not a word of examining his owne &s;oule, or a word of God at home, and this is the mo&s;t wicked &s;traine of hypo|cri&s;ie that can be, for all his de&s;igne is to gather all the good thoughts of men up
<PB N="141" REF="80"> and down the world, keep him&s;elfe &s;o, that if he &s;hould come to fall or falter (as he feares he &s;hall) he might have abundance of votes of good men for him.</P>
<P>Thirdly, as to conver&s;e with Saints, <HI>an hypocrite hath an affected tone, or garbe, or carriage, whereby a man may be thought to be &s;ingular, to have &s;omewhat more than or|dinary of mortification, or &s;pirituall &s;traines of glory:</HI> this is as wicked a &s;traine of hypocri&s;ie as can be; Some men affect a particular tone of language, or expre&s;&s;i|on, &s;ome a whining expre&s;&s;ion, &s;ome &s;o neatly, and others &s;o &s;eriou&s;lie, that they would be thought to be grave and migh|ty &s;ober men and Chri&s;tians, and they have an affected tone of their own; it is the vaine&s;t way of hypocri&s;ie that can be to &s;peake of divine things, as if they were whining them out, and weeping them out, and &s;peaking with &s;uch ge&s;tures as may give the world too much ground to make Religion ridiculous, whereas their naturall language is not &s;o, but they have affected &s;uch a way and garbe that they
<PB N="142" REF="81"> would be thought &s;ome body; and this, that in praying, and preaching, and con|ver&s;ing with &s;ome per&s;ons, they would be thought to be them alone that take in all the &s;ence of things, and they have no more &s;ence than Po&s;ts.</P>
<P>Fourthly, which is a maine one, as to conver&s;e with Saints, <HI>a hypocrite hath his heart ri&s;ing again&s;t a clo&s;e, faithfull, nipping reproofe of other Saints. Saul</HI> could never endure <HI>Samuel</HI> after he told him &s;o faith|fully about that bu&s;ine&s;&s;e of his Sacri|fice, out of my &s;ight, &s;o you have many in&s;tances about the Prophets and the Kings, <HI>you have &s;ome hypocrites carries it &s;o cunningly, that they will take a reproofe ve|ry well, but hate you ever after,</HI> have an evill eye upon you that you mu&s;t keep out of the way of him; a hypocrite would not have others know his di&s;tem|pers, he is afraid he &s;hall here &s;ome|thing he knows he is guiltie of, and he cannot abide that, he would be thought &s;omewhat by others, though he knows &s;omewhat by him&s;elfe: he is afraid he will be put to it, which he cannot en|dure,
<PB N="143" REF="81"> to have his graces que&s;tioned; that is a perfect &s;igne of a hypocrite as any in the world; he would have all men take it for granted: what, not I a Saint? that have been accounted a Profe&s;&s;our &s;o long, and now be que&s;tioned for my graces? yea &s;oule, and be damned for it too: thou a &s;oule that cannot endure to be repro|ved? I confe&s;&s;e there be &s;ome waies of reproofe that would make a man hate reproofe, when it is for things that are common, when it is for poore and vaine things, when done out of pa&s;&s;ion, and not done with care and tenderne&s;&s;e to a per&s;on, and with the weight of the glory of God upon a man, it is hard for the be&s;t Saint to take a reproofe &s;o; but when there is faithfulne&s;&s;e, and realitie to men, dealing with their &s;oules, and purely touching their con&s;ciences, and ri&s;ings of heart, and then cannot endure reproofe: I may &s;ay, if thou be not a hy|pocrite, or will prove one, there is none in the world: it is a &s;igne thou art dive|li&s;h proud in thy heart, and love&s;t a cor|ruption, and ha&s;t a lu&s;t thou art loath
<PB N="144" REF="82"> to part with, and would'&s;t gladly cover in thy owne &s;pirit, thou would&s;t live at large, and not have thy heart known to thy &s;elfe, nor others; thou would&s;t live at large, thou love&s;t &s;ome corruption. A Saint de&s;ires to have corruption killed every day: Oh that I did but know wherein the flaw lies of my graces, wherein the mi&s;take in my owne &s;pirit lies, he would be glad of it. Thou art a wicked hypocrite that love&s;t not a &s;cri|ous clo&s;e reproofe, though it cut thee at the heart; and then I would &s;ay this: that it is the perfect character of a Saint, if he can take in a reproofe in the &s;har|pe&s;t manner, from the &s;harpe&s;t tongue in the world, if it di&s;cover his corruption, and &s;trike at it, it is a &s;igne a man is out of love with his &s;ins, and wants a way only to be rid of them, he is glad when it is made odious to him by any body.</P>
<P>Fifthly, <HI>The &s;traine of hypocri&s;ie, as to communion, lies in this, that a hypocrite doth inwardly &s;leight and contemne Saints below him, and envy Saints above him,</HI> you will find it too true in the hearts of many: he
<PB N="145" REF="82"> &s;leights fir&s;t any that is below him, he hath a poore and low e&s;teeme of them, he is a poore ignorant fellow that under|&s;tands not any thing of God, though it may be the breathings of that poore &s;oule unto God are far beyond his: he lives in him&s;elfe, and any that are below him&s;elfe are under &s;ome reflections of the inward workings of his owne heart. Then he hath a &s;ecret envy again&s;t them that are above him, he lives &s;o that he would alwaies be at one &s;tay and frame, he cannot abide that any &s;hould attaine more than him&s;elfe, if they do, they are proud, or high, or vaine; and if they do not come up to him, he thinks him a poor low profe&s;&s;our, though his &s;oule be groa|ning night and day after Chri&s;t.</P>
<P>Sixthlie, Another &s;traine of hypocri|&s;ie is commonly in this, that <HI>a hypocrite is mighty cen&s;orious and prying abroad into other mens faults, and &s;leight and carele&s;&s;e for the &s;eeing to his own heart for the &s;ame thing, or wor&s;e;</HI> this is Chri&s;ts Charge to the Phari&s;ees, Ca&s;t out the beame, thou hypocrite, out of thine own eye before
<PB N="146" REF="83"> thou find fault with the mote in thy bro|thers; he hath a beame at home in his own eye, and he will not charge his own &s;oule before God: he can &s;ee a little thing in another, charge him with all un&s;utable&s;&s;e: but to his own con&s;cience, though he fee many a de&s;perate corrrup|tion in his own heart, he lets it alone, as if he never were the man guilty of them, Eagle-eyed abroad, Owle-eyed at home; take heed of cen&s;uring, el&s;e you had need be very through at home; it is a dange|rous &s;igne of hypocri&s;ie if you be not cu|rious at home: if a man be thorough with his own &s;pirit he may be thorough abroad, Chri&s;t gives it him&s;elfe as a &s;ign of a perfect hypocrite; when <HI>a &s;oule &s;hall &s;ee a mote in anothers eye, and leave a beame in his own.</HI></P>
<P>Seventhly, Hypocri&s;ie lies in this as to communion with Saints, <HI>that a hypocrite cannot love Saints but of one &s;ize, one that agrees with him in his own humour and opi|nion;</HI> That you will find in the New Te&s;tament, the Phari&s;ees could not en|dure them that were not of their owne
<PB N="147" REF="83"> opinion, they would per&s;ecute them to the death; &s;o &s;ome men cannot endure any one, though never &s;o much grace and grace and godline&s;&s;e, if they be not of the &s;ame opinion, that is a &s;igne it is not for holine&s;&s;e or grace in any &s;oule that you affect them.</P>
<P>In the eighth and la&s;t place, to adde no more as to this, know as to conver&s;e with Saints: <HI>Every hypocrite hath his &s;e|cret back doore, and veine with carnall pro|fe&s;&s;ours,</HI> though he have communion with Saints now and then, and make that his profe&s;&s;ion, yet he hath his private haunts, where he &s;hews him&s;elfe in his colours one way or other, &s;ome &s;ecret waies of iniquitie he hath with others, though he profe&s;&s;es to be in communion with Saints; that will appeare, and doth ap|peare often, for &s;till his veine lies that way, his humour lies that way, though his eye &s;eems to be this way, there is the humour hid that way in the man, and there will be as familiar embraces among the one as the other when it comes, and as heartie kind of rejoycings with the one
<PB N="148" REF="84"> as with the other. A &s;ecret wicked back doore that they take, and they thinke there will be none to tell: Now they will be telling of the greate&s;t experien|ces, and anon in the greate&s;t wickedne&s;|&s;es, at lea&s;t countenancing of them. I would now come to the third thing, wherein it is acted as to civill conver&s;es and I &s;hall &s;how you.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>That a hypocrite can put on any face according to any per&s;ons or times in the world;</HI> among Saints he will be a Saint, and comply with them, among others be as &s;utable, he can take up any forme, &s;o Religion be that that may cover all at la&s;t, for he fits his actings to his ends, which are various according to &s;everall parties, and companies; and &s;everall So|cieties &s;hall have &s;everall actings, he will be zealous if the times will admit it, he will be hot and violent, and if his com|pany will not &s;erve him to that, he will be as dull, as heavy againe, put on a &s;o|ber temper, and weare gray haires, be cu|rious, and criticall, and &s;erious in the Go&s;pell; and this is very common, my
<PB N="149" REF="84"> Brethren, and this is the politike hypo|crite; there are hundreds of the&s;e in the world, they &s;warme up and down <HI>Eng|land</HI> at this day, men that have no more Religion than bea&s;ts, as to power and principles in their owne &s;pirits: turne every way, and every where with the times.</P>
<P>Secondly, The&s;e men &s;hew their hy|pocri&s;ie in this, <HI>they make Religion &s;ub&s;er|vient to every principle of men, and every de&s;igne.</HI></P>
<P>Thirdly, in conver&s;es about civill things, <HI>he will wipe his mouth at &s;mall and little things.</HI> A little oath &s;ometimes, a covert lyes, &s;peaks very demurely, hardly gotten out, (as it were) he can pa&s;&s;e it by as his common infirmitie; if he tell a little lye in a bargaine, &s;pare me in this, &s;aies he, to go to the hou&s;e of <HI>Rimmon,</HI> he will take his allowance though it be not given him.</P>
<P>Fourthly, <HI>He &s;tudies perfectly to plea&s;e men,</HI> and he is troubled more when he di&s;plea&s;es men, than when he finds his heart un&s;utable to God.</P>
<PB N="150" REF="85">
<P>Fifthly, <HI>He cares to keep off &s;candall to his per&s;on more than guilt from his con&s;ci|ence;</HI> no matter if he can keep off &s;can|dall though guilt lies fa&s;t.</P>
<P>Then &s;ixthly and la&s;tly, to &s;ay no more, <HI>&s;uch a hypocrite as this in all his conver&s;es will meddle no more with Religion than may fit his Calling, and his Relations.</HI> As the King of <HI>Navar</HI> &s;aid, he would launch no further into the deeps than he might come in againe with the &s;ame wind, no farther then &s;ight of the &s;hoare; &s;o it is with hypocrites, if &s;uch a way of God be never &s;o pretious and pure, I will not meddle with it, I mu&s;t take care to my Familie, not to my &s;oule; therefore the waies of Chri&s;t never come into counte|nance with &s;uch men till it be countenan|ced by the world, you &s;hall never have them hot and zealous till the State have made way for them: you &s;hall never have them care for Religion, where the power mu&s;t be practi&s;ed, till the State do it.</P>
<P>I have done in one word, that is, I be|&s;eech you take heed and beware of hy|pocri&s;ie,
<PB N="151" REF="85"> it is that which is in every duty, in every act you do, when you act faire&s;t you are in mo&s;t danger of hypocri&s;ie; when you think you are lying in the du&s;t, you are not free from the mo&s;t de&s;perate hypocri&s;ie; when you think you are wee|ping out your heart for &s;in, you are not free from that damnable leaven of hypocri&s;ie; when your contemplations are &s;o high, as you thinke you are ab&s;tracted from all the world, and the enjoyments of it, that you imagine you are up in glorie, yet you will &s;ee that hypocri&s;ie is a &s;ecret &s;pirit that runs through all your actings, it is &s;uch a &s;ecret thing that it will mingle with your be&s;t duties, and make you hy|pocrites in the very acting of them: Oh! that men would but look to it, nothing like purene&s;&s;e, &s;incerity, reality, inward integrity, to be true to God and my own con&s;cience, to take my heart every day and cut it in peeces by a &s;pirituall inqui|&s;ition, and daylie triall, nothing like it, after every duty to aske my &s;oule what is done, after every prayer to anatomize every petition againe, and know how it
<PB N="152" REF="86"> was in the frame and workings, and the an&s;wers and returnes, and the ble&s;&s;ed con|&s;equences of it upon my heart, nothing will do well el&s;e; what a di&s;&s;ection will it be when an old hypocrite will be ope|ned? What that will be none knows yet, what a con&s;umed Lungs, and Liver, and Heart will there be, &s;trangely eaten out, and none knows how it comes; the &s;ub|&s;tance of the body will be well liking, all the fle&s;h fa&s;t and &s;ound, nothing but the vitals eaten, &s;trangely eaten as with a Moath and Canker; It will be &s;o with you, I be&s;eech you feare le&s;t it grow up|on you: Beware of hypocri&s;ie, look to it every day, for it is in every duty; and above all things looke after that cleare, pure, &s;incere temperature, and integrity of &s;pirit in every dutie, whereby you may walke with God.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 N="6" TYPE="sermon">
<PB N="153" REF="86">
<HEAD>SERMON VI.</HEAD>
<EPIGRAPH>
<Q><BIBL><HI>LUKE 12.1.</HI></BIBL>
<P>Beware of the Leaven of the Phari&s;ees, which is Hypocri&s;ie.</P></Q>
</EPIGRAPH>
<P>_I Have &s;hewed you in &s;eve|rall exerci&s;es what the characters of hypocri&s;ie is, what they are in ma|ny &s;tates, how to trace them in duties in generall, in prayer e&s;pe|cially, in communion of Saints, in actings in the world, and civill re&s;pects.</P>
<P>But you may remember, at the fir&s;t opening of the words, I told you that there were &s;ome &s;orts of hypocrites that did not &s;o much di&s;cover them&s;elves, but mu&s;t be di&s;covered by the truths of the Go&s;pell that are propounded, they are not &s;o con&s;ciencious of want of integri|tie, as they are wanting in principles; tho&s;e
<PB N="154" REF="87"> we have mo&s;t endeavoured to di&s;cover.</P>
<P>But in the &s;econd place I told you, &s;ome there are that know them&s;elves to be &s;o, at lea&s;t they have &s;ecret con&s;cienti|ous checks of con&s;cience, yet go on in pro|fe&s;&s;ion: I would a little &s;peake to them at pre&s;ent, and then make application of the whole.</P>
<P>There are many, I &s;ay, that knows them&s;elves to be un&s;ound in their owne &s;pirits and yet go on in profe&s;&s;ion, and that you would thinke &s;trange; <HI>and it is more &s;trange to thinke a man &s;hould be a hy|pocrite and not know it: than that a man &s;hould know his hypocri&s;ie and yet go on in it.</HI></P>
<P>I &s;hall in the opening of this &s;hew you,</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, That it may be &s;o, and that it is often &s;o, and mo&s;t hypocrites &s;hew them|&s;elves to be &s;o.</P>
<P>Secondly, I &s;hall di&s;cover how it can be that they can go on in profe&s;&s;ion &s;o ea|&s;ily and freely as they do.</P>
<P>Thirdly, Wherein their hypocri&s;ie &s;till lies.</P>
<PB N="155" REF="87">
<P>Fir&s;t, That it may be &s;o, and that they do go on &s;o, I &s;hall make it cleare in the&s;e particulars; <HI>and I be&s;eech you ob|&s;erve.</HI></P>
<P>Fir&s;t, Take the common principle of a naturall con&s;cience, which is enlightned, (for every hypocrite hath an enlightned con&s;cience) it is not &s;o dull as it is in other men, unle&s;&s;e it be after a long time of hy|pocri&s;ie; but the naturall con&s;cience of a man will tell him thus, that this is not right, you do not this according to this rule, for there is a light left in a mans con&s;cience till God give a man over to blindne&s;&s;e and darkne&s;&s;e, there is is a light will alwaies give a man a check without there be &s;ome eminent thing to &s;ilence con&s;cience at the pre&s;ent, as it was with the Heathens in the &s;econd of the <HI>Romans,</HI> their con&s;ci|ences did naturally accu&s;e, and excu&s;e, them upon the common principle of that light of nature imprinted on them, this is not ju&s;t, this is not &s;utable; though they had not &s;uch written rules before them, yet there were &s;uch dictates &s;utable to the impre&s;&s;ion that God left upon their natu|rall
<PB N="156" REF="88"> con&s;ciences, much more an hypo|crite, an enlightened hypocrite under the Go&s;pell; but a naturall con&s;cience will tell a man really, and check him in a du|ty, and &s;ay, this never came from the mo|ver, this motion of yours did not run freely in your &s;pirits, this prayer was but pumpt, it comes not from the foun|taine, you had &s;ome by-end or other; did you not aime at this or that, &s;ome applau&s;e or comfort to your &s;elves, never minded Chri&s;t? Con&s;cience will &s;peake if you be not judicially hardned: it will &s;peake very loud to a man, at lea&s;t it will give a man &s;uch checks as a man &s;hall con&s;ider, and by the cu&s;tome of it con|clude, that it is thus and thus with him: For looke as it is with the Saints under full light, and full evidence, &s;o it is with a hypocrite under the enlightenings of his con&s;cience: &s;aies <HI>Paul,</HI> I have lived in all good con&s;cience unto this day, that is, walked according to the principles of rea&s;on and Religion, according to the light I had, lived in all good con&s;cience unto this day, never &s;trained my con&s;ci|ence.</P>
<PB N="157" REF="88">
<P>Now it is impo&s;&s;ible for a man under enlightening (if he have not a mighty &s;ecure frame of &s;pirit, or wonderfull dexteritie of colouring his heart) but na|turall con&s;cience will reflect upon him, and &s;ay, this was not intended right though the action was done, this was not &s;o &s;pirituall, nor &s;o firmely acted before God; you know you had your intenti|on be&s;ides the rule. But then</P>
<P>Secondlie, Take &s;uch a con&s;cience un|der the Mini&s;trie of the Go&s;pell, where there are Characters given on both &s;ides, where hearts are dealt withall &s;eriou&s;lie, and with abundance of clearene&s;&s;e, where the de&s;igne is to anatomize the &s;pirit, to give characters of a Saint, and give di|&s;tinctions between common graces, and tho&s;e graces that are purely &s;anctifying, changing and transforming the &s;oule, and tho&s;e that are common, and worke nor the image of God in the &s;oule, if you have any light (as hypocrites have abun|dance of light, otherwi&s;e they could ne|ver play their tricks &s;o as they do) it is impo&s;&s;ible but the heart &s;hould &s;ay, this is
<PB N="158" REF="89"> not right, I find not this right in my own &s;pirit; it is impo&s;&s;ible they &s;hould lye under the&s;e things and have no convicti|ons, no checks &s;ecretly that he is truly &s;uch an one.</P>
<P>Thirdly, He may by reflecting upon him&s;elfe know it by his getting in his du|ties, if he had nothing but that which he gets in duties, when he hears how Saints get communion with God in duties, how their &s;oules are taken up with Chri&s;t, what glorious enjoyments they have of God, in Prayer, and Sacraments, what glorious frames they find upon their &s;pi|rits when they have communion, he knows he can hardly get from one duty to another; the truth is, a hypocrite is the poore&s;t, mi&s;erable&s;t &s;oule in the world: he never hath any thing but what he gets from hand to mouth, when he comes to dye he is a begger, nothing at all to live on, and he knows he never met with Chri&s;t &s;o as to humble him and to lay him low, he knows when he heares other Saints &s;peake of the Go&s;pell, and the &s;weetne&s;&s;e they have had in the &s;ights
<PB N="159" REF="89"> of Chri&s;t, pardoning and applying his love to them: he knows he hath not the&s;e things; when he comes to action he is as dead, and as low as may be; and as I told you, he is poore&s;t and wor&s;t at la&s;t.</P>
<P>Fourthlie, <HI>God delights to di&s;cover a hy|pocrite, he delights in that exceedingly,</HI> and commonlie doth it, and laies it upon a man clo&s;ely and wonderfullie by won|derfull fla&s;hes of &s;pirit, and God delights to do it.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>Becau&s;e it is a &s;ecret that none can find out but him&s;elfe, therefore he delights to anatomize a wicked, cunning, deceitfull heart.</HI></P>
<P>Secondlie, God he delights to do it, <HI>becau&s;e he loves to put a &s;peciall marke upon them of all per&s;ons in the world,</HI> tho&s;e that have deceived others &s;hall deceive them|&s;elves, he put a marke upon the fir&s;t hy|pocrite in the world that ever was, that he changed his countenance, &s;o that if you had no more, take them altogether and you &s;hall find, that a man may very well be a hypocrite, and know him&s;elfe
<PB N="160" REF="90"> to be &s;o, and yet go one; nay, it is very hard for a man to be long a hypo|crite under the Go&s;pell but he mu&s;t lye under the checks of it. But</P>
<P>Secondly, you will &s;ay, how can this be? How can he continue in Congrega|tions, in Churches? how can he continue all this while and not be terrified, and not leave off all profe&s;&s;ion? My Brethren,</P>
<P>In the fir&s;t place, <HI>pray take in the&s;e things, know it is the mo&s;t deluding &s;in in the world, the mo&s;t plea&s;ant &s;in in the world to a man,</HI> as men love by Art to imitate nature, they are mighty plea&s;ed with it to repre&s;ent Nature in Art, how men give up them|&s;elves and their &s;tudies, and are plea&s;ed with it; there is nothing more plea&s;ing to a man as hypocri&s;ie is, that he can turne him&s;elf at any time here and there, &amp; evade all things that are laid upon him by the Go&s;pell. (It is ju&s;t as you &s;ee with tho&s;e that are your theeves or cut-pur&s;es, that have a curious art and dexterity to do it; they will take a mans pur&s;e out of his pocket &s;o exactly, that he cannot know it is done, but they are gone, and when
<PB N="161" REF="90"> they come together at night, they rejoyce and brag who hath done the be&s;t feats,) &s;o hypocrites cannot but know in their naturall con&s;ciences it is again&s;t the rule, but there is abundance of plea&s;ure in it to cheat them&s;elves, and cheat others, till God worke mightilie upon them: for to imitate a Saint in every thing, and do it exactly, plea&s;es a hypocrite, that he can delude others: when he hath been in prayer, co&s;ened and deluded the be&s;t &s;ort of men in the world, as I have heard &s;ome &s;ay, they could delude all the Saints in the world, for that is plea&s;ing to a man that nouri&s;hes his &s;elfe-love, and that does carry him on to act, &s;o as to be well thought of by others, it &s;hews a man an artificiall man that can thus and thus move up and down the world, and none &s;ee him, or take notice of him, all think him a ble&s;&s;ed Saint; I am confident there is no &s;in &s;o plea&s;ing to a &s;oule as hypocri|&s;ie is, for it will have &s;o many varieties of Artificiall motions laid before it to act by, that a man is not tyed to one or tother, but &s;till acted in variety, and the &s;ence of
<PB N="162" REF="91"> divine things is not on his heart at all, as I &s;hall &s;hew you in the &s;econd place.</P>
<P>Secondly, <HI>he may go on in profe&s;&s;ion though he know him&s;elfe to be &s;o;</HI> he may go on, becau&s;e he knows not the nature and vilene&s;&s;e of his &s;in at all, only &s;ees he is not as he &s;hould be, and it is the &s;ame with other &s;ins; he may lye long under a &s;in, &s;o long as Con&s;cience is not pre&s;&s;ed on with an unre&s;i&s;tible conviction, only a generall cold conviction is upon him; he &s;ees that he hath done &s;o and &s;o, and he is &s;o and &s;o, but there is not any thing of the power of conviction upon his &s;oule, for then a &s;oule &s;hould not be able to &s;tand under it, but cry out he cannot en|dure it; but commonly it is with hypo|cri&s;ie (&s;uch a plea&s;ing &s;in) as with other &s;ins; a man &s;ees the guilt by the rule, but not by the light of a divine conviction, &s;trangely working in his &s;oule and &s;pi|rit, and &s;o goes on as tho&s;e did which the Prophet &s;peakes of, <HI>you lye, and &s;teale, and commit adultery, and yet come and ap|peare before me;</HI> they had brazen faces for all that, they never felt the power of
<PB N="163" REF="91"> conviction upon their &s;pirits, and if God &s;hould &s;hew any man any one &s;in, he would never act that &s;in, but he would abhor the very &s;ights of it; But there are &s;uch poore common generall convictions meerly from con&s;cience; con&s;cience hath a power within a man, but it never &s;tirs with terrour till God anew, as it were, &s;hews his &s;in, and his mi&s;erable e&s;tate by &s;in, by a light from heaven, and &s;o &s;ets con&s;cience afre&s;h a working; God then gives it a new Commi&s;&s;ion to charge his &s;oule, he goes to duty though he knows him&s;elfe full of hypocri&s;ie, yet he can go to duty as quietly as can be; a man may know him&s;elfe to be a hypocrite and yet go on in it; becau&s;e</P>
<P>Secondly, <HI>He thinkes he &s;hall weare out his hypocri&s;ie by his duties,</HI> though he per|forme them in it, though he contract guilt by them: and mo&s;t of his hypocri|&s;ie is in his duties, and that is exceeding &s;trange, but it is mo&s;t true, for a hypo|crite thinkes by his duties to weare out all his deceits; as he colours his hypocri|&s;ie by it, &s;o he hopes to weare it out by
<PB N="164" REF="92"> it, he hopes it is a worke of time, though he have a bad heart yet he hopes to have a better heart, though he never looks to Chri&s;t for it.</P>
<P>Fourthly, <HI>He hath &s;omething at pre&s;ent that he gets by his profe&s;&s;ion,</HI> &s;omething that is &s;utable to &s;ome end, &s;ome lu&s;t or other of his own, and that keeps him up, not|with&s;tanding tho&s;e generall convictions; I know not how to call them convictions, they are &s;o cold and poore upon a mans heart, but he hopes to get &s;omething, either applau&s;e of men to be a good Chri&s;tian, or &s;omething to be thought of by men, or to get &s;ome peace of con|&s;cience, that the violence and de&s;perate|ne&s;&s;e of wrath fall not upon him. Aye, but</P>
<P>Fifthly, which is mo&s;t of all, that I may &s;hew you this; <HI>God doth judicially give up tho&s;e kind of hypocrites that have begun without him, tooke up profe&s;&s;ion with|out any workings of God upon their &s;oules, he gives them up commonly unto a reprobate mind,</HI> that you have &s;o commonly named in the New Te&s;tament, &s;o injudicious
<PB N="165" REF="92"> as they cannot under&s;tand their own con|dition, but go on &s;till, &s;ee no more in one condition than another; but that I may &s;peake of Gods dealing with hypocrites in this way.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, As I told you, God delights to di&s;cover hypocrites, &s;o <HI>he hath mo&s;t judge|ments upon them of any in the world, and he di&s;covers them commonly,</HI> either</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>By &s;ome &s;ecret giving them up, or withdrawing &s;trength;</HI> giving them up to &s;ome corruption, or withdrawing &s;trength from them ab&s;olutely, that they find nothing of former &s;trength at all: &s;o he doth many times with tho&s;e that have lived upon parts, gifts, and endow|ments, it is ordinary for God to leave them, as you have it in <HI>John</HI> 15. they wi|ther, the life and &s;ap that they were wont to have is withdrawn, and the &s;pi|rit is gone, &s;o it is with many; and cer|tainly that is the Reprobate mind; ta|king away from the under&s;tanding that common light, that the &s;oule &s;hall only looke after the outward part of a duty, but never knew the life of it, never un|der&s;tands
<PB N="166" REF="93"> nor di&s;tingui&s;hes when he is in a bad or a good condition. Oh! looke after the impre&s;&s;ion and &s;ence of the things of God upon your &s;oules.</P>
<P>Secondlie, The way that God takes to di&s;cover hypocrites, he gives them up to &s;ome eminent corruption to breake out as to di&s;cover them; as it was with <HI>Ju|das,</HI> he had many gnawings of con&s;ci|ence doubtle&s;&s;e under Chri&s;ts Mini&s;try alwaies, and under Chri&s;ts eye, but he was never di&s;covered till he gave him up to that covetous heart, that wicked cor|ruption that lay mo&s;t in his heart, then he was di&s;covered pre&s;ently, then thirty peeces of &s;ilver was enough for Je&s;us Chri&s;t. Either God gives them up to deadne&s;&s;e, to be twi&s;e dead, that is, dead in their own hearts, the meaning is, they lo&s;t both their naturall affections, and the affections they had on their hearts by common gifts and workings, they lo&s;t both, and now nothing takes hold of them; or el&s;e he gives them up to &s;ome eminent corruption, that all the world &s;ees there is one never minded the Go|&s;pell,
<PB N="167" REF="93"> now it is broke out; or el&s;e</P>
<P>Secondlie, As to that head, <HI>God gives them up unto a de&s;paire,</HI> which is very com|mon, and that is twofold:</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>Either &s;ecret de&s;paire,</HI> they tug in duties, may by night and day, when they are pre&s;t in con&s;cience, and they get nothing, go to Sermons and they find no blowings of the Spirit, no breathings at all upon their hearts, and &s;o grow into a &s;ecret de&s;paire in&s;en&s;ibly.</P>
<P>Now there is a &s;ecret kind of inter|mi&s;&s;ion in Saints, but this &s;oule goes on and never finds any thing of God or Chri&s;t.</P>
<P>Secondly, <HI>There is a terrifying de&s;paire</HI> which &s;ometimes God gives them up to, whereby they are terrified with the hi|deou&s;ne&s;&s;e of the wrath of God, crying out they are damned, they are damned, and they never commonly get out of it: you never heare of any hypocrite in the Scripture that ever got out when God laid a charge upon him; becau&s;e God would have &s;oules walke &s;o purely and clearely with him in all their duties.</P>
<PB N="168" REF="94">
<P>Now as you &s;ee how he may know him&s;elfe to be &s;o, to be thus, and yet act; &s;o &s;ee the nature of his hypocri&s;ie; and take it in &s;hort.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>though he know him&s;elfe to be a hy|pocrite, and to be un&s;ound, yet he is loath to have it &s;aid &s;o, or have it di&s;covered, he can|not abide that,</HI> he would not have any one thinke &s;o, though he knows it him&s;elfe, but yet would walke &s;o exactly as he could; &s;o it was with <HI>Balaam, Num.</HI> 21.22, 23. all along how gladly would he have gone to cur&s;e the I&s;raelites? but God would not &s;uffer him: though he knew he was a mo&s;t wicked notorious hypocrite, and a witch too, yet how would he pretend to <HI>Balack</HI> he would go to God; he would gladly have done it, but God had a mighty check upon him: it was a Prophe&s;ie to all the world, how all dealings with Saints &s;hould be, though he &s;poke good things, and he could not but &s;peake them, yet he would gladly avoid them for the money, and &s;till he had an over-awing of God upon him: So it is with many hypocrites, though
<PB N="169" REF="94"> they know them&s;elves to be un&s;ound at the heart and bottome, yet they would have all thinke well of them, what they want of integritie that they would make up in the hand&s;omne&s;&s;e of their deport|ment and cariage up and downe the world.</P>
<P>Secondly, <HI>Though he know him&s;elfe to be an hypocrite, yet there is none will be more cen&s;orious of hypocri&s;ie in others,</HI> even to poore Saints; but that is a common rule, he will be &s;evere in the cen&s;uring of others, and he may thinke by that, that others may thinke him far from hypo|cri&s;ie.</P>
<P>Thirdly, Nay, what &s;hall I &s;ay? in the third place know this, <HI>though he know him|&s;elfe thus to be in that condition, yet he ne|ver &s;trives to root out the wickedne&s;&s;e of that frame out of his own heart, but to &s;mother it, and cover it, and palliate it from the eyes of men &s;ome way or other,</HI> not to de|&s;troy it in his own &s;pirit, but &s;mother it, &s;o that it may looke Saint-like &s;till; but a gracious heart, as &s;oone as it di&s;covers hypocri&s;ie, as he &s;ees the &s;traines of hy|pocri&s;ie
<PB N="170" REF="95"> in his heart, he looks to root it out as &s;oone as it is di&s;covered. But to &s;peake no more to that, let us now come to the application of it to all your hearts.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, If this be &s;o: I be&s;eech you once againe to put your hearts upon the &s;eri|ous con&s;ideration, and examination of your own e&s;tates; what are you? Now you looke well, come to heare, you are not in &s;ight &s;o ugly, what are you with|in? Have you not &s;trange &s;traines of hy|pocri&s;ie if you be not hypocrites? I be|&s;eech you looke &s;eriou&s;ly to your own hearts: this is the end of all this di&s;|cour&s;e, to put men &s;eriou&s;lie upon the triall of their own &s;pirits, that they may not be un&s;ound in the Go&s;pell, that they may not have a rotten &s;pirit within, that the liver, and lungs, and heart be not cor|rupted while&s;t they deale with the great things of the Go&s;pell; that is, that the faculties of the &s;oule may be purelie acted to God; there are more hypocrites now in the world, than in any one Age &s;ince the Creation; it was a hard thing
<PB N="171" REF="95"> to pick out one formerlie; but God will &s;hew many of them in the&s;e daies, he is a trying the world, and as he goes along he will try &s;pirits mo&s;t. Oh, you have trials under the Go&s;pell, have you got a clearene&s;&s;e? Can you &s;ay you have a glo|rious inward freene&s;&s;e with God? Oh, what u&s;e have you made of the Go&s;pell? Have you inward glorious incomes of God from the breathing in of divine frames in your actings towards God? Let me ask you but the&s;e common que&s;tions.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>Cannot you find &s;ome time to play with your &s;ins &s;ometimes, &s;o they bite you not, and &s;ting you?</HI> Cannot you take &s;ome re|creating times for your &s;ins and corrup|tions? Pray you con&s;ider of it; a hypo|crite doth &s;o: he dares not make a trade of it, but he will make a recreation of it now and then, he loves that he dares not practice, you can now and then play with your wanton thoughts as long as they do not fly in your face, you can delight your &s;elfe in your &s;ecret wi&s;hes: Oh that I were at it; look to your own &s;oules. Nay, what is this Religion that men
<PB N="172" REF="96"> &s;peake of? do you find &s;uch kind of things in your hearts? he that can play with &s;in for recreation can joine him&s;elf unto &s;in for delight, and to be one nature with him: a Saint hates appearances, he cannot endure the thoughts of it.</P>
<P>Secondlie, <HI>Are there not &s;ome &s;ins you call little &s;ins, and &s;ome duties you call little duties, and &s;ome duties that you never lay upon your con&s;cience?</HI> Look to your hearts in that, you are never humbled for the commi&s;&s;ion of &s;ins, or the omi&s;&s;ion of duties, it is a dangerous &s;ymptome of hy|pocri&s;ie. A hypocrite will be &s;ure to make di&s;tinctions in the Go&s;pell; there be &s;ome &s;ecret workings up of corruptions and &s;ins, as vanitie of thoughts, di&s;tracti|on in duties, and &s;ecret ri&s;ings of corrup|tions, and de&s;ires in a mans heart which he never chargeth his con&s;cience withall, and &s;ome duties he never laies upon con|&s;cience, &s;o long as he can pa&s;&s;e thorough the maine body he never cares for the &s;peciall circum&s;tances of the Go&s;pell. A gracious and upright heart &s;aies: Shall I call that little that is again&s;t the glorie
<PB N="173" REF="96"> of an infinite God? It is the object makes the &s;in great, not the act: this dutie hath as much authority upon my heart though never &s;o meane, though but to wa&s;h a Saints feet, as to offer the greate&s;t &s;acri|fices before the eyes of all the world.</P>
<P>Thirdly, Let me aske you this, <HI>Are you not afraid of trialls, and to be through|ly di&s;covered to your own hearts?</HI> Do you not endeavour &s;ometimes, if po&s;&s;ible, to evade the &s;trength of a conviction, and the &s;trength of a word from God that is laid upon your heart, afraid to looke into your own hearts and &s;ee your &s;pirits, to be di&s;covered to your &s;elves? do not you many times hu&s;h con&s;cience, and &s;ay, be quiet con&s;cience, &s;tay a while to your own con&s;ciences, I will be better, I will &s;trive again&s;t it, I will not be thus and thus carried away? do you not find the&s;e things? A dangerous &s;ymptome; a hy|pocrite endeavours to evade the authori|tie of the Go&s;pell, he is afraid to abide the power and the glorie of it; if he can|not find out prudentiall con&s;iderations enough, he will get &s;pirituall pretences,
<PB N="174" REF="97"> he will be &s;ure if he can evade convicti|on he will do it, that is a very dangerous &s;igne. And againe,</P>
<P>Fourthlie, Examine your own hearts, <HI>Is there not &s;ome of the fat of the Cattle, of the &s;heep,</HI> (to allude to that of <HI>Saul,</HI> for he was an hypocrite) <HI>in the going on in your duties, re&s;erved?</HI> Is there not &s;ome <HI>Agag</HI> for honors &s;ake you would keep up, 1 <HI>Sam.</HI> 15 read over that place at your lei&s;ure: God bids <HI>Saul</HI> &s;lay the <HI>Amalekites,</HI> de&s;troy them all in the third ver&s;e, yet he re&s;er|ved an <HI>Agag,</HI> and the be&s;t of the &s;poile, here was the di&s;coverie of his wicked heart, he would have &s;acrificed &s;ome of the fat things, he had a mind to triumph by <HI>Agag:</HI> he thought it was too much to de&s;troy all tho&s;e things, though God gave a peremptorie command to de&s;troy all, I will &s;acrifice them to God to make an attonement, only re&s;erved &s;ome of the be&s;t to carrie to my people in triumph, that they may &s;ee the out-goings of God; that lo&s;t him his Kingdom, and di&s;covered his hypocri&s;ie fir&s;t of any act, he had a &s;ecret lu&s;t to honour him&s;elfe by it; have
<PB N="175" REF="97"> you none of the fat of your corruptions? Have you never a lu&s;t laid up? Is there never a corruption that your &s;oules have countenanced, or do countenance?</P>
<P>It is a dangerous &s;igne of hypocri&s;ie, if a man have any thing that the word of God &s;aith is not the mind of God, that he re&s;erves in his heart without utter ha|tred. Well, look to it I be&s;eech you, and e&s;peciallie look to that of the triall of your &s;pirits, whether you can be willing to be tried, for you &s;hall find a hypocrite will appeale to God and his con&s;cience, but he cannot endure to be tried by Saints, he will appeale to God if it be not &s;o, yet he cannot endure to be put to it, to have his heart ript open. Nay, it is very com|mon to &s;ay, God knows my heart, but if you come to try his heart, and &s;ay, how can this grace &s;tand with this corruption, he cannot endure that, he will hate the thoughts of it. And if you do try him him about his e&s;tate, you mu&s;t not de|bate it with him, but you mu&s;t take it for granted, el&s;e he will try your graces as well as you try his, and que&s;tion your
<PB N="176" REF="98"> &s;tate as much as you his: And then if he be put to it at la&s;t, as to triall of his own &s;pirit, he will &s;ave all with a whining confe&s;&s;ion, and that is all you will get of him; therefore look to your &s;elves as to the&s;e things.</P>
<P>In the &s;econd place, I &s;hould now have come to have pre&s;t on the exhortation of the Lord Je&s;us; beware of hypocri&s;ie, you that are Chri&s;tians, you that are reall Saints &s;hould beware of it, and &s;o to all &s;orts of profe&s;&s;ours, take heed and beware of it, and &s;hewed you the&s;e things. To have opened the nature of it, and the hideou&s;ne&s;&s;e of it.</P>
<P>And fir&s;t from the danger of it to your &s;oules, it is the mo&s;t dangerous &s;in you can have in your &s;oules, and that, Fir&s;t, becau&s;e <HI>it is the last re&s;erve, it is undi&s;|cernable,</HI> a man mu&s;t &s;earch as with a Candle that finds it out: as the Jews were to &s;earch for the Leaven with a Candle, and then cur&s;e all the re&s;t, it is a clo&s;e &s;in: indeed there are &s;ome actings of it that are very gro&s;&s;e; but as for &s;pirituall &s;ecret hypocri&s;ie in duties,
<PB N="177" REF="98"> compare them with actings they are ex|ceeding clo&s;e and undi&s;cernable in the &s;oules of men; a &s;oule mu&s;t dig very deep, and be very ob&s;ervant, and have a watch over his &s;oule every moment if e|ver he would trie his heart; it is &s;o clo&s;e and &s;o cunning, that a man will hardlie beleeve it is there, there is &s;uch a hidden motion upon a man, that he cannot tell how it comes.</P>
<P>Secondlie beware of it: <HI>It is infectious,</HI> it is a dangerous infectious &s;preading na|ture, it will be over all the faculties on a &s;udden: it will repre&s;ent you all kind of gla&s;&s;es that can be po&s;&s;ible; it can in the morning give you one gla&s;&s;e to looke in, at noone another gla&s;&s;e, and in the eve|ning one different from both; take one part of the Law you &s;hall &s;ee your &s;elves in it very faire, it &s;preads over all: it will, it may be, begin with your under&s;tand|ings, and give you &s;trange &s;ights and ap|prehen&s;ions of God, then come in upon your affections upon a &s;udden, and work them to this end, and to their end: it will ki&s;&s;e and kill at once; looke to it, for it
<PB N="178" REF="99"> is the mo&s;t dangerous &s;in of any in the world in a mans heart.</P>
<P>For if the &s;oundne&s;&s;e be gone from a mans heart, what will he do then? A man cannot act like a man when the &s;ub|&s;tance of the &s;oule is gone, he cannot act, neither Scripture, rea&s;on, nor his judge|ment, but a particular clo&s;e humour.</P>
<P>Thirdlie, beware of it: <HI>It is the most incon&s;tant in its motions, the mo&s;t various in its repre&s;entations, &s;o many habits, and &s;o ma|ny formes</HI> it will appeare in to you, and alter upon every occa&s;ion, that it is im|po&s;&s;ible, unle&s;&s;e a man be given up to try his own heart, to find it out: A heart, and a heart: you &s;hall have a faire heart now, and a wicked heart anon: come and talke with a Per&s;on now, and you &s;hall find them in a good frame, &s;o as if they were commanded by the power of of it, come an houre after, and you &s;hall find them in a wicked damnable &s;traine of &s;pirit, &s;peaking like mad men, this is mo&s;t common: e&s;peciallie come to talke with a man privately, what abundance of ingenuitie there is: come to another
<PB N="179" REF="99"> action, and at another time, and he is not the &s;ame man, hypocri&s;ie will appeare, and this is the mi&s;ery mens &s;oules are juggled to hell, put in &s;o many formes, they know not when they are right, know not what is the reall complexion they &s;hould have in the Go&s;pell, it is &s;o various and &s;o cunning: it juggles a mans &s;oule to hell.</P>
<P>Fourthly, <HI>It is the mo&s;t odious thing to God of any, it takes his name in vaine mo&s;t of any,</HI> it is again&s;t his &s;implicitie, om|ni&s;ciencie, his puritie, God hates nothing more than this &s;tate, therefore he &s;ets him&s;elfe again&s;t hypocrites of all &s;orts of people in the world.</P>
<P>I &s;hould have come to have &s;hewed you how to avoid it, what are the &s;peci|all remedies of hypocri&s;ie, the &s;peciall things to keep a man from the evill of it, the way to pre&s;erve a man from this dan|gerous &s;in: but I would not leave &s;ome poore &s;oules without &s;ome kind of com|fort; all this while many will &s;ay, Alas, I am the man: I am the woman: cer|tainlie I have been a hypocrite all my
<PB N="180" REF="100"> daies: I would only &s;peake a little com|fort to &s;uch poore &s;oules.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, know this: <HI>Jealou&s;ie of thine own heart, and &s;evere inqui&s;ition into it, is a good hopefull Character that thou art far off that condition.</HI></P>
<P>There is a twofold jealou&s;ie that there|fore you may not be deceived.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <HI>A jealou&s;ie on probable grounds, &s;e|cret and clo&s;e &s;ymptomes, and hints from actings,</HI> which may teach many a &s;oule that hypocri&s;ie may have place in his heart; for I find this and that when I come to looke on the whole &s;traine of my life, I have not my heart &s;o carried out in &s;pirituall things: I never minded this and that in my actings: this is a jea|lou&s;ie that may con&s;i&s;t with the know|ledge of hypocri&s;ie.</P>
<P>Secondlie, there is <HI>a jealou&s;ie that ari|&s;eth from feare and care le&s;t I &s;hould be &s;uch an one, from the hatred of the thing:</HI> thou &s;ee&s;t the vilene&s;&s;e of it, and thou &s;ee&s;t thou can&s;t never be quiet till thou ha&s;t the clearene&s;&s;e of integritie made out to thee: that is good, that is &s;weet: none
<PB N="181" REF="100"> more apt to cen&s;ure a Saint than him|&s;elfe; you know when Je&s;us Chri&s;t made the que&s;tion about his betraying, the hypocrite &s;pake la&s;t, never &s;pake till he was put to it; every one &s;aid at the Supper, Lord is it I? Is it I? Every one had rather dye than heare that word &s;poken; but when it comes to <HI>Judas,</HI> he was forced to it at la&s;t, and yet he would not confe&s;&s;e it; but when the conviction lay upon him, and he mu&s;t needs be un|der it, then he went out, and that was all you heard of him till he hanged him|&s;elfe.</P>
<P>Secondlie, To comfort poore &s;oules, <HI>they have no rea&s;on to conclude them&s;elves hypocrites, when they are glad if God by any meanes di&s;cover and de&s;troy their hypocri&s;ie whatever way it be:</HI> for there lies the weight when God &s;hall be ble&s;&s;ed for di&s;|covering a mans heart to him: take this for a rule; If a &s;oule can rejoyce and ble&s;&s;e God for his convictions of &s;in, as for his comforts after conviction it is a &s;igne of a mo&s;t ble&s;&s;ed glorious &s;pirit; though the &s;ight of hypocri&s;ie be the ug|lie&s;t
<PB N="182" REF="101"> &s;ight in the world, yet when he &s;ees it he ble&s;&s;eth God for it.</P>
<P>Thirdlie, <HI>Never thinke thou art an hypo|crite, if thy heart is &s;et again&s;t the nature of &s;in, and pur&s;ue&s;t the enjoyment, of the nature of God,</HI> while&s;t thy heart is &s;et again&s;t the nature of &s;in, and followe&s;t on the na|ture of God, that is, to be really po&s;&s;e&s;|&s;ed with a &s;ub&s;tantiall enjoyment of God, when the very nature of &s;in is a|gain&s;t thy heart, and when the nature of godline&s;&s;e is in thine eye as to enjoyment, to be fully po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed with that.</P>
<P>Fourthlie, know this too: <HI>Never &s;ay thou art a hypocrite when no outward act can content thee, though never &s;o glorious, with|out thou ha&s;t an inward frame according to that act,</HI> according to the inward &s;piritu|alitie of the Go&s;pell, if thou looke&s;t to have thy &s;oule in a frame to thy duty, thou neede&s;t not feare hypocri&s;ie.</P>
<P>Fifthly, <HI>While thy &s;oule is as much trou|bled for omi&s;&s;ion of thy duty as for commi&s;&s;ion of thy &s;in, thou neede&s;t not feare that thou art a hypocrite,</HI> while thy &s;oule is as much troubled for omi&s;&s;ion of a duty, or
<PB N="183" REF="101"> an act of faith, or clo&s;ing with Chri&s;t, or of any outward duty wherein thou ha&s;t enjoyed Chri&s;t, as for commi&s;&s;ion of &s;in, thou neede&s;t not feare thou art a hypo|crite.</P>
<P>Sixthly and la&s;tly, <HI>thou neede&s;t not feare thou art a hypocrite whil&s;t thou hate&s;t thine own &s;trength in thy duties as much as an outward act of &s;in, or the mo&s;t di&s;temper of thy &s;pirit,</HI> or a corruption done in the wickedne&s;&s;e of thy heart; I &s;peake on|ly this a little to divert the thoughts of poore &s;oules that &s;ay, I am certainly un|der this frame of &s;pirit.</P>
<P>But looke to your own hearts every one, if you find all the&s;e, or any of them in any life upon your &s;oules, you are free from that &s;tate; but if you find not &s;uch an univer&s;all oppo&s;ite nature to &s;in, but a frame to &s;in again&s;t God, if you find not &s;uch con&s;tant pure frames in your owne &s;pirits as to principles, intentions, and ends, you will never be able to free your &s;elves from &s;uch a &s;tate and condition.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 N="7" TYPE="sermon">
<PB N="184" REF="102">
<HEAD>SERMON VII.</HEAD>
<EPIGRAPH>
<Q><BIBL><HI>LUKE 12.1.</HI></BIBL>
<P>Beware of the Leaven of the Phari&s;ees, which is Hypocri&s;ie.</P></Q>
</EPIGRAPH>
<P>_I Have endeavoured in ma|ny exerci&s;es to open to you the nature of hypo|cri&s;ie, and have told you the &s;orts of hypocrites that are up and down the world, and in Churches: Now in the latter daies they grow more glorious than ever, there|fore Chri&s;ts exhortation had need be more pre&s;&s;ing; formerlie hypocri&s;ie was cour&s;ely cloathed, could hardlie &s;tep out among the Saints, they were &s;o prying, and &s;o cunninglie carefull to ob&s;erve the dangers of the Devill in times of danger and per&s;ecution: Now when the Sun &s;hines, faire daies againe, Religion &s;eems
<PB N="185" REF="102"> to flouri&s;h in the out&s;ide of it, and there is a benefit, by the name of it, men will be very glorious in hypocri&s;ie: and if ever there were need to pre&s;&s;e Chri&s;ts exhortation, it is now upon all &s;orts of men and profe&s;&s;ours: among his owne di&s;ciples there was one among twelve, he bids them beware, <HI>take heed:</HI> It is a good caution for them all, Saints are &s;ubject to the &s;traines of it many times, without they have an abundant care in their own &s;pirits.</P>
<P>Therefore that I &s;hall do, is &s;till to pre&s;&s;e this exhortation upon your hearts, that it may take &s;ome weight and im|pre&s;&s;ion: for beleeve it, however you looke upon your &s;elves, or whatever thoughts others have of you, we had need to tell you to beware of hypocri&s;ie, the better you are thought of, the more danger. And you may remember the la&s;t time, fir&s;t I told you, you had need to looke to your own &s;pirits concerning this &s;in, becau&s;e of the danger of it in its nature and workings.</P>
<P>Secondlie, becau&s;e of the ugline&s;&s;e, and
<PB N="186" REF="103"> vilene&s;&s;e of it, of all other &s;ins in the &s;oule how it is that which is perfectlie again&s;t the nature of God, his holine&s;&s;e and &s;implicitie, his faithfulne&s;&s;e and realitie to the Sons of men, how it is that that makes a man like the devill mo&s;t of any &s;in: he will beleeve, and is convinced of the things that the Go&s;pell &s;peakes of that they are true: but here lies the greatne&s;&s;e of his wickedne&s;&s;e, the cunningne&s;&s;e of his deceit, that he &s;ets up an art of deceiving in the world, to de|ceive the Sons of men that they &s;hould not beleeve the word of God; there is none like the devill, &s;o perfectlie like the devill as hypocrites, <HI>I have cho&s;en you twelve, and one of you is a devill,</HI> none is called a devill in Scripture but he: and there lies the &s;utablene&s;&s;e that he is a lyar, and hypocri&s;ie is a perfect lye in the &s;oule.</P>
<P>Then I &s;hewed you the ugline&s;&s;e of it likewi&s;e, that it doth indi&s;po&s;e the &s;oule to every thing that is good, when one is in the be&s;t frame, as it were, that &s;poiles all, it is of a poy&s;onous nature.</P>
<PB N="187" REF="103">
<P>I &s;hall go on to &s;hew you what is that you mu&s;t continuallie look after if you meane to beware of it, and prevent it, as the care and remedie of this &s;ad condi|tion.</P>
<P>Therefore fir&s;t, as to the generall, and as the maine thing, if ever you meane to beware of hypocri&s;ie <HI>you mu&s;t principle your hearts, and farni&s;h them with all the graces of the &s;pirit,</HI> you will never be &s;in|cere el&s;e, you will never be &s;incere till you have all graces, and the workings of them proportionable in your &s;oules and &s;pirits, <HI>Ephe&s;.</HI> 3. he begs of them to go on, and <HI>this I pray that your love may abound more and more in all knowledge, and in all experience, that you may be able to approve the things that are excellent, that you may be &s;incere, Phil.</HI> 1.9. A man mu&s;t have all judgement, a di&s;cerning eye, for &s;inceri|tie, doth not lye only in the intentions of men, but in the reall workings of all the frames of the &s;oule, of all the graces as they are in the heart, when a man can approve the things that are excellent, that is, he can judge them, and try them, and
<PB N="188" REF="104"> act them as they are di&s;covered to be truths, that is &s;inceritie: for &s;inceritie is not &s;o much a di&s;tinct grace as a re&s;ult of the harmonious workings of all graces in the &s;oule, there mu&s;t be a rectified mind to make a man &s;incere, for it is not a good intention that will make an action good, or make you &s;incere in any action, but as it flows from inward reall frames and principles that are &s;utable; <HI>Peter</HI> was an affectionate man, and he &s;aid to Chri&s;t when he told him of his &s;ufferings, &s;pare thy &s;elfe, do not go and &s;uffer, he did it out of a good intention, but he was re|buked for it, he had a cleare intention, would not have the lea&s;t hurt come to Chri&s;t, but it was again&s;t the de&s;igne that Je&s;us Chri&s;t came about, therefore he &s;aid, <HI>get thee behind me Sathan:</HI> It was not that &s;incerity, therefore the Apo&s;tle &s;aith, that you may be &s;incere: Oh that &s;incerity of &s;oule! it lies in tho&s;e two things; that you may be &s;incere, you mu&s;t be able to judge and approve things that are excellent.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, <GAP DESC="foreign">, it &s;ignifies <HI>&s;uch a &s;traine
<PB N="189" REF="104"> as is without any mixture, hath no compo&s;i|tion of any forraigne thing in it,</HI> when every thing is pure in its native colour, you mu&s;t prove all things, be able to try all things, and have a judgement of them: that you may be &s;o unmixt in your act|ings, that you may have nothing at all of the corruption of the world in it; for we commonlie in our duties mixe our owne ends, and our own intere&s;ts, and en|gagements in the things of God, and whatever the intentions be, yet if there be any &s;uch mixtures, you are not &s;incere; though you may thinke you do well, and are very exact in the Go&s;pell, yet you cannot be &s;incere while&s;t there is &s;uch a mixture in your principles and ends, 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 8. A man is not &s;incere when there are any mixtures, when a man is carried on by inward motions of &s;in: Now, I confe&s;&s;e, there will be many mixtures, but there are mixtures in intentions, and mixtures in principles, and ends: and the&s;e are dangerous, for a man cannot be &s;incere if the&s;e be predominant over him. As if I go to God, if it be not to glorifie
<PB N="190" REF="105"> God, and to have communion with him, having the highe&s;t end, and do not act from a &s;pirituall principle of holy love to him, and his glorie, if I have any mix|ture in my intentions, though other things may come in accidentallie, yet if they be incorporated in the principle, then I am not &s;incere.</P>
<P>For to make up that &s;inceritie, a man mu&s;t have that &s;pirit of &s;inceritie that is pure to act from God to God, from the Spirit unto Chri&s;t. Now here is a pure way of acting, when the &s;oule &s;ees what its own &s;trength is, ca&s;ts it out, lies at Chri&s;ts feet, is carried out by the a&s;&s;i|&s;tance of Gods &s;pirit, will not have any thing but the &s;trength of Chri&s;t, when the intentions goe along together with the acting of the&s;e things, when there is a pure intention, that I fix but my eye whol|ly on one object, for there be many con&s;i|derations that come in accidentally, but the eye is fixt upon one object; I mu&s;t have Chri&s;t, and my &s;oule is working after him, and there I center my heart, that is &s;inceritie indeed, &s;o we &s;hould re|ceive
<PB N="191" REF="105"> the &s;incere milke of the word, that is, that milke that is unmixt with the corruption of men, the &s;incere milke, 1 <HI>Pet.</HI> 2. therefore looke to your owne hearts, if ever you meane to avoid hypo|cri&s;ie, you mu&s;t be &s;ure that you keep from mixtures, mixtures of un&s;ound principles, and ends, &s;elfe-love, &s;elfe-ends, take heed of the aire of the world, left that come in and fill your &s;ailes in your duties; take heed of any thing that may mixe with your principles, &amp; your ends; for in acting towards God, you cannot act purelie, but you mu&s;t act from &s;ingle and entire principles in your hearts, and cleare apprehen&s;ions of the object, and the end: And however you may conceive you act evenlie, and your heart is not feigning to be &s;o in a duty; yet if you be not carried out in &s;uch a heavenly harmony of prin|ciples and inclinations, and your ends to|gether, you will never be found to be &s;in|cere in the Go&s;pell.</P>
<P>Secondlie, the word &s;ignifies <HI>that clear|ne&s;&s;e, that per&s;picuity that &s;hould be in a mans &s;oule in all his actings:</HI> &s;o &s;aith the
<PB N="192" REF="106"> Apo&s;tle, that you may be &s;incere, the word &s;ignifies &s;uch a clearene&s;&s;e, as when a man is under the judgement of the Sun, as under the Sun &s;hining on a mans &s;pirit, you will hardly avoid hypocri&s;ie till your con&s;ciences be under a light, and a brightne&s;&s;e of the glory of divine wor|kings upon your hearts: for when your con&s;cience lies under darkne&s;&s;e and guilt as to the te&s;timony it &s;hould give, you will &s;till have &s;hiftings off of hypocri&s;ie from your &s;pirits, to take off the weight and mi&s;ery off from you; but the Apo|&s;tle would have you to be &s;o cleare in your judgement of the Go&s;pell, as if you were to be judged by the Sun it &s;elfe, it &s;hould be found that there is nothing but &s;inceritie: a faire te&s;timonie in everie dutie, that inward whitene&s;&s;e of a mans &s;pirit in a duties, that it is not mixed with any bribings from without, nor &s;ecret eva&s;ions from within. And that &s;hining from the con&s;cience is &s;o bright, that as the Apo&s;tle &s;aith, this is the te&s;timonie that we have, the te&s;timonie of our con|&s;ciences: A man &s;hould be &s;o cleare in
<PB N="193" REF="106"> his own &s;pirit if he meant to avoid hypo|cri&s;ie that if he were to be brought out to be judged before men and Angels, he might have &s;uch an inward brightne&s;&s;e in his own &s;pirit, that he might be com|forted and refre&s;hed in the &s;ight of it.</P>
<P>For you find this commonly, take hy|pocrites in the time of convictions, they have no te&s;timonie of God at all: Now take a &s;incere heart, though he be under conviction, yet there is &s;uch a light that he judgeth there is &s;inceritie in his own heart, convince but a hypocrite of one thing he can give no account of the other: all comes in upon him, and chal|lengeth him, for he hath no brightne&s;&s;e within that will te&s;tifie to his &s;oule at a dead lift; when con&s;cience accu&s;eth, he hath nothing to excu&s;e in his con&s;cience from the clearene&s;&s;e of the acting of true principles in him: I be&s;eech you, if ever you meane to avoid hypocri&s;ie, be &s;incere, and if you will get &s;inceritie, you mu&s;t get all the&s;e graces clearelie &s;hining and working in your owne &s;pirits, for you will be put hard to it to get &s;inceritie
<PB N="194" REF="107"> while your principles are darke and not even; if you find not your principles and ends meet together, and your eye is &s;ingly &s;et upon the Lord Je&s;us, and your hearts &s;et for the glory of God, you will not have that inward plainne&s;&s;e in your own hearts. Though the nature of &s;ince|ritie lies much as to the&s;e two things.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, the clearne&s;&s;e of a mans princi|ples and unmixtne&s;&s;e in them.</P>
<P>Secondlie, a plainne&s;&s;e and ingenuitie in the actings of them; from the&s;e two flows that which we call that &s;inceritie of &s;pirit: To be free from &s;embling, and faigning of things, when I am not mixt, when I am without impuritie in my mo|tions as to what I act: though there be hypocri&s;ie in &s;ome other things, yet there is not in tho&s;e maine things. So that the fir&s;t thing I would commend unto you, if you would avoid hypocri&s;ie, is to furni&s;h your &s;elves with all &s;pirituall graces of &s;inceritie, that you may be ju&s;tified be|fore the Sun, that as they &s;ay of the Ea|gle, they try their young ones by the Sun, if they can endure the &s;ight of the
<PB N="195" REF="107"> Sun they are then true: &s;o you, if the&s;e things will endure the Sun, and the light of God, then you may &s;ay you act &s;in|cerelie.</P>
<P>Secondlie, if you would avoid hypo|cri&s;ie, <HI>lye alwaies under the dread of an omni&s;cient eye,</HI> this is that that men are di&s;covered hypocrites by: they know not what the &s;ights of God are, that all|&s;eeing God, if I thought God did looke into my heart, and did &s;ee me, it is im|po&s;&s;ible I &s;hould then go on in a way of &s;in and deceit to deceive my own &s;oule, for to deceive the omni&s;cient God: Hy|pocrites thinke in the generall that God &s;ees all things, but they lye not under the dread and aw of an omni&s;cient God, no grace keeps a &s;oule &s;o much from hypo|cri&s;ie as the feare of God, the awe and dread of God &s;eeing into a mans heart; for though thy heart be clo&s;e to others, it is tran&s;parent to God, he &s;ees all the cun|ning of thy &s;pirit, and veines of thy &s;oule, how thou do&s;t delude thy owne heart, therefore if thou would&s;t be &s;ound, looke after that, the feare and dread of God:
<PB N="196" REF="108"> Remember, what is it for me to be well thought of by others when God &s;ees it not &s;o, the omni&s;cient eye knows I have a &s;ecret cunning heart for to deceive? He &s;ees me, though I &s;peake faire to this and that per&s;on yet God knows I am wrong, he knows I am lying when I &s;peake a word, though others know it not: Oh, if the eye of God were but thought of by men, if we thought we had a divine pre|&s;ence with us, <HI>Whither &s;hall I go? if I go to heaven thou art there,</HI> P&s;al. 139. if a &s;oule were under this con&s;ideration, whither &s;hall I go from thy pre&s;ence? I may car|rie this &s;in clo&s;elie and &s;ecretlie, yet the eye of God is upon me, the Lord &s;ees me: I had better all the world &s;hould &s;ee me than God, for he di&s;covers me from the bottome: &s;o much for that.</P>
<P>Thirdlie, If ever you meane to avoid hypocri&s;ie in your own &s;pirits, <HI>be alwaies con&s;idering the vanitie of this &s;in of all other &s;ins:</HI> A &s;in which there is no profit in at all: A hypocrite takes as much paines for all his cunning deceits as a Saint for all his &s;inceritie; for a man to act as a
<PB N="197" REF="108"> King upon a Royall Stage, and the next moment he is in Rags, not a bit of bread, &s;o here, a hypocrite, take him out of his duties, hath nothing to live upon but what they &s;hirke up and down the Go&s;|pell for, and that is &s;o mi&s;erable and &s;o poore a life, that they would give over the waies of Religion, if it were not for &s;hame; and when a man con&s;iders old age is comming on, there is a day of darkne&s;&s;e, a midnight houre that mu&s;t be upon my &s;oule, God will one day take off all this di&s;gui&s;e, I am well thought of by others now, but what &s;hall I be then, there is a night up on me, but there is a day upon others, and that which is the day of the Lord to others will be a midnight to me, and that will be the time of the di&s;coverie of me to be mi&s;erable. Better a man had never gone on in &s;uch a hood, and have it plucked off, and to &s;ee &s;uch an ugly face: Oh, what hideous cries will one day be! Oh, that I had ne|ver made u&s;e of the name of Chri&s;t! Oh, that I had been through with my owne &s;pirit, that I had never deceived my own
<PB N="198" REF="109"> &s;oule, that I had known what my condi|tion had been before I played with the Go&s;pell, and dallied with the things of Chri&s;t; I be&s;eech you con&s;ider, to be cloathed in darkne&s;&s;e after you have &s;eemed to be cloathed with the brighte&s;t notions of the Go&s;pell, it is a vaine thing, a man gets nothing at all, lives upon the aire, what men &s;ay of him, the good thoughts, and good words of men, there is all, for he hath nothing from Chri&s;t as to the enjoyments of the Go&s;pell in his own &s;pirit, and is not that &s;ad? Againe,</P>
<P>Fourthlie, Looke to beware of hypo|cri&s;ie, <HI>for it is a dangerous thing if it go on to a height,</HI> hypocrites are &s;eldome con|verted under the Go&s;pell, the rea&s;on is, they weare out all tho&s;e principles they knew, they cur&s;e them&s;elves under the Go&s;pell, they have heard over and over againe the &s;ame things, and they make little of them in their own &s;pirits; God &s;eldome converts them, only that con|viction that is commonlie upon the&s;e that are hypocrites, is to &s;how them their hy|pocri&s;ie to be their mi&s;erie, whereas to
<PB N="199" REF="109"> others the time of their conviction is the time of their conver&s;ion: When God comes to profane men and &s;trikes them home, it is commonlie to convert them, but as to a hypocrite, it is Gods time to &s;hew him his hell and mi&s;ery, and how he hath out-run his gla&s;&s;e, and pa&s;t the day of the Go&s;pell: <HI>Oh that thou had&s;t known in this thy day the things of thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes:</HI> God loves to make &s;uch per&s;ons examples to the world, if they get a breath at the la&s;t day it is well. Therefore looke to it you that begin to be formall, and to play with your convictions, and take them off now and then, dallying with the Lord, looke to it, it is a thou&s;and to one if ever you be converted, that that converts others condemnes you: And tremble at this, that you &s;hould live under Ordinances and di&s;coveries every day, and yet be no better; if you e&s;cape long without through-improved convictions upon your hearts, it is a dangerous &s;ymptome, it is a thou&s;and to one God hath made but an e&s;&s;ay upon thy heart. Where did
<PB N="200" REF="110"> you find that ever God convinced a hy|pocrite up and down the Go&s;pell, that was a profe&s;t one, if you look through the whole Bible, but he left his marke up|on them all the daies of their lives? It is a dreadfull thing; yet grace is not bound up, it is not limited at all, it may be God may &s;hew more riches of grace upon &s;ome &s;oules, but it is not u&s;uall: there|fore if ever you would be &s;cared from hypocri&s;ie take heed of that; when a man comes to dye, and &s;hould come at la&s;t to refre&s;h him&s;elfe with the thought that he hath &s;erved God faithfullie, and &s;incerelie, and finds no comforts of all his duties and enjoyments, then to be convinced that he hath been one that hath deceived him&s;elfe is very terrible, when he &s;hould have God eternallie, then to have that time of times of his everla&s;ting ruine; God will take &s;ome time or other to di&s;cover your hearts, and it may be he will di&s;cover them and you &s;hall not be better, only let the world know, and your owne hearts know what you have been, and leave a &s;ecret-deadne&s;&s;e for
<PB N="201" REF="110"> ever upon your hearts, or fry in the wrath of it all your daies, as you go up and downe the world, con&s;ume you to nothing with the &s;en&s;e of wrath; Oh prize a &s;incere heart, and prize opportu|nities, and take heed of puttings off, and delaying time, and being carele&s;&s;e of what you are about, for that is the trick of a hypocrite to put off, and thinke it will be better, and hug him&s;elfe with &s;ome con&s;iderations, that time will be otherwi&s;e, take heed: the day of the Lord will be a day of blackne&s;&s;e. And that you may be further &s;et again&s;t the nature of this &s;in: (for that is my de&s;ign) I be&s;eech you con&s;ider the hideous doom upon hypocrites, the la&s;t doome upon hypocrites: when Chri&s;t would &s;peake the uttermo&s;t of mi&s;ery, he &s;aith, he will give them their portion with hypocrites, they &s;hall burne in the hotte&s;t fire, they and the devils together &s;hall be compa|nions in the uttermo&s;t wrath, the &s;ubjects of the infinite wrath of God, they &s;hall be mo&s;t enlarged for wrath, for they are ve&s;&s;els fitted for wrath, you know, as the
<PB N="202" REF="111"> Apo&s;tle &s;peakes, &s;o prepared, &s;o enlarged for wrath: &s;o is the &s;oule of a hypocrite that hath lived all his daies in darkne&s;&s;e, and blackne&s;&s;e, only re&s;trained him&s;elfe as to outward acts: but he is fit for wrath, he hath laid in &s;uch trea&s;ures there, that he is every day trea&s;uring up wrath again&s;t the day of wrath, that he will be forced to take in the thoughts of wrath, becau&s;e he hath &s;inned again&s;t the greate&s;t light, and opportunities, and advantages of the Go&s;pell: Oh, there|fore that you would fright your &s;elves out of hypocri&s;ie, (if you can do nothing el&s;e) and formalitie, and mixt frames of your &s;pirits; &s;care your hearts with the day of judgement, with the &s;adne&s;&s;e of the doome, with the mi&s;erie of the con|dition.</P>
<P>Secondlie, If ever you meane to be free from hypocri&s;ie, <HI>you mu&s;t through with your &s;pirits night and day, &s;ound them to the bottome,</HI> let your line be long, let it downe to the bottome of the well, give con&s;cience leave to &s;peake in the autho|ritie of God every day upon your hearts:
<PB N="203" REF="111"> beg of God to try you, to &s;earch you, as <HI>David</HI> &s;aid: Go every day to God to &s;earch you, and be glad, and beg of all the Saints to remember thee, for there is deceits of hypocri&s;ie in every one of our hearts; never come off viewing of your &s;pirits till you have di&s;covered &s;ome|thing or other: if ever you would be freed from hypocri&s;ie you mu&s;t do this; alwaies keep a narrow watch upon the &s;ecret parts, be not afraid to looke into your own hearts, but aske every motion what it comes from, whither it moves, try every thing in your own &s;pirits; let not any motion go free unexamined in your &s;oules, but have a &s;evere cen&s;ure of it; no dutie but have a jury on it; looke into the maine frame of your &s;pirits: try your principles and intentions fir&s;t, try your motions, ob&s;erve your ends, and how you attaine them con&s;tantlie; if ever men would be &s;incere and free of hypocri&s;ie, they mu&s;t be thus &s;pirituallie &s;evere to their owne &s;oules: it is whol|&s;ome &s;everitie, it is ble&s;&s;ed; it is the &s;leight common dealing with our &s;pirits,
<PB N="204" REF="112"> (that we are formall and cold) that makes &s;o many deceits in mens hearts which lodges &s;o &s;ecretlie within; we do not go to purpo&s;e with the &s;earch of our own &s;pirits, challenging our hearts in every dutie; we ought, I confe&s;&s;e, to be carefull how we que&s;tion the motions of grace in our hearts: But a watchfull Saint, if he will cleare him&s;elfe of hypo|cri&s;ie, mu&s;t be eying, and prying into every thing that he doth: ob&s;erve his &s;etting out in his duties, the carriage and frames of his &s;oule, ob&s;erve the tune afterwards that he is in, for hypocri&s;ie will get upon a &s;udden into a mans heart, and a man will thinke him&s;elfe to be an hypocrite pre&s;ently if he be not thus &s;trict and wary; &s;o that if you will lay all the&s;e to your hearts &s;eriou&s;ly, it may be a pretious meanes to keep you from the danger of this leaven, though it is im|po&s;&s;ible for to cure it, but only as you grow in grace, and get &s;ound and &s;incere principles in your hearts. So much for the &s;econd.</P>
<P><HI>U&s;e</HI> 2. However let it be a word of
<PB N="205" REF="112"> comfort unto &s;ome poore &s;oules, that have all this while been harkening after hypocri&s;ie, charging of their own hearts, for I would not let any &s;oule go away but with &s;ome refre&s;hment. Some will &s;ay, I &s;ee &s;o much hypocri&s;ie in my own heart, that I cannot but thinke my &s;elfe one that never had any grace, or &s;ound|ne&s;&s;e in my own &s;pirit: I know not what to do, or what to &s;ay to mine own heart; con&s;ider, I &s;ay, the&s;e things.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, know, <HI>it is good for thee to have thy hypocri&s;ie di&s;covered,</HI> it is a mercy to thee, and a favour of God that he will &s;hew thee thy inward parts, that he will di&s;cover the &s;ecrets of thy heart, while&s;t he lets others go in that e&s;tate, and never knows what is within all the daies of their lives, only mind outward acts: this is &s;o far from being a di&s;couragement, that you &s;hould ble&s;&s;e God for it, that he hath been plea&s;ed to &s;hew thee thine own heart, the &s;traines of hypocri&s;ie in a duty; God might have left thee to go on, and thought thy &s;elfe what thou art not.</P>
<PB N="206" REF="113">
<P>Secondlie, Remember, <HI>the more thou di&s;covere&s;t the &s;ecret workings of hypocri&s;ie, the more it is a &s;igne thou growe&s;t in grace;</HI> for this is the great end of grace, as by the incomings of it to kill &s;in, &s;o for to di&s;|cover &s;in, and the &s;ecrets of it: the more &s;pirituall any heart grows, the more he grows in the inward &s;ights of his own heart, the more he comes to be acquain|ted with tho&s;e &s;pirituall kinds of wicked|ne&s;&s;e in his own &s;pirit: And be not there|fore troubled at that poore &s;oule, for it is rather a &s;igne of thy grace than hypocri|&s;ie, than of any other impul&s;e, becau&s;e God doth &s;till by degrees &s;hew thee thy own heart, &s;o long as thy heart is again&s;t it.</P>
<P>Thirdlie, be not di&s;couraged by the &s;ights of hypocri&s;ie <HI>as long as thou finde&s;t a &s;incere heart from the di&s;covery of it: that is, &s;o long as thou lye&s;t in wait from the &s;in|cerity of thy heart to di&s;cover it, and like|wi&s;e bewailes it from the &s;incerity of thy &s;oule;</HI> know that it is a true &s;igne of a &s;incere heart, he lies in wait to di&s;cover his hy|pocri&s;ie, he laies him&s;elfe in &s;ecret ob|&s;ervances
<PB N="207" REF="113"> continually to &s;py out the cun|ningne&s;&s;e and deceits of his own heart. For you &s;hall find tho&s;e &s;ignes of a &s;incere heart.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, This will di&s;cover a &s;incere heart, that I may comfort a poore &s;oule, <HI>though he may have hypocri&s;ie in him, yet he will be most impartiall to him&s;elfe from once he finds it out,</HI> it may be he will be charitable to others, yet he will be &s;evere to him&s;elfe; if he find out any hypocri&s;ie, he will be &s;ure to fall on it with all dete&s;tation, he will charge his own &s;oule, as if it were the damned &s;oule, he will rather lay too much weight upon his con&s;cience, lay it too &s;evere on his own &s;pirit, than any way excu&s;e him&s;elfe; but hypocrites will deale gently with them&s;elves, if they have not an excu&s;e at hand, they will not lay it home too much to heart: but a reall Saint will &s;ay, Oh, wretched man: Oh thou unworthy heart, that &s;hould live &s;o long, and have &s;o many advantages to kill this lu&s;t, and art thou alive yet? Thou &s;halt never e&s;cape more, I will follow thee night and day with prayers and
<PB N="208" REF="114"> teares, it will not &s;ay it is my infirmitie; it is my failing, but is will call him&s;elfe a wretched man, a heart, and a heart, therefore looke to your own &s;oules as to that, and comfort your &s;oules any poore heart of you, that though you find hy|pocri&s;ie, yet you deale &s;everelie with it.</P>
<P>A &s;econd Character of a &s;incere heart is, <HI>though he have hypocri&s;ie in him, he is mo&s;t jealous of hypocri&s;ie:</HI> when he finds his heart mo&s;t calme, and faire, &s;eemes lea&s;t checkt in con&s;cience, hath mo&s;t re&s;pect from others, oh then he is mo&s;t jealous le&s;t there be &s;ome deceit, he is alwaies looking at bottome, alwaies afraid through a &s;pirit of care and holy jealou|&s;ie within him, alwaies afraid le&s;t he be deceived, and when his heart &s;eemes to be &s;o calme, &s;o faire, any body would thinke his &s;oule to be in a ble&s;&s;ed frame, and a man him&s;elfe can &s;ee nothing upon him&s;elfe at pre&s;ent as to pre&s;ent actings, yet then he is afraid of tho&s;e things that gives mo&s;t advantage to the actings of hy|pocri&s;ie.</P>
<PB N="209" REF="114">
<P>The third Character is, though he have hypocri&s;ie in him, <HI>he loves to be throughly dealt withall, he counts the di&s;|covery of his heart to be a pretious meanes of the &s;aving of his poore &s;oule:</HI> Oh how glad is he to &s;ee his own heart, and his hypo|cri&s;ie, &s;o he may but find it out to kill it, and go to God again&s;t it, making it the burden and mourning of his &s;oule, he loves to find it out, he cannot abide any plea&s;ing words to him, unle&s;&s;e Chri&s;t &s;peakes them, he cannot endure, that though he have abundance of hypocri&s;ie, it will not for all that give any counte|nance to it, but earne&s;tly rejoyces to be throughly dealt with.</P>
<P>Fourthly and la&s;tly, <HI>though there may he hypocri&s;ie, yet a &s;incere heart will &s;tand upon a true account, he cannot endure to have any one to commend his heart,</HI> he would not be accounted more than he is, he loves to be a&s;hamed, he cannot abide others to advance him in their commen|dations of his heart, that he &s;ees &s;o much hypocri&s;ie in: &s;o that I &s;ay, let this be a comfort to you if you have no more.</P>
<PB N="210" REF="115">
<P>But as to the &s;incerity of your heart, that you would deale with your &s;elfe, and would have a &s;pirituall in&s;pection with feare and jealou&s;ie alwaies, that you may &s;tand upon a true account &s;till, that you cannot endure any body &s;hould commend your heart. There is no Saint but he knows his heart to be the wor&s;t part, he &s;ees &s;o much wickedne&s;&s;e there, that he wonders how others can thinke well of him, he cannot abide that any one &s;hould conceive he hath &s;uch a heart that he mournes under night and day.</P>
<P>So that I &s;ay, lay all the&s;e things toge|ther, and though thou do&s;t find &s;ome hypocri&s;ie in thy heart, yet be not di&s;|couraged, go on &s;till to follow the rule of Chri&s;t, that when you find it you do not lye under it; for that will bring guilt, and will &s;pread far, but comfort your &s;elves &s;till that there is a &s;eed, that you do real|ly find that you are pur&s;uing continually growth, that is the con&s;tant &s;tudy of you, that you may be perfectly &s;incere, that all your frames may act &s;o evenly with God, that there be no jarring at all, that
<PB N="211" REF="115"> your con&s;ciences may be kept continually under the power of the Go&s;pell.</P>
<P>But to conclude all: I be&s;eech you looke to it, you that are Profe&s;&s;ours, you have heard the nature of hypocri&s;ie, you have heard what deceits there are in the hearts of men, you have heard the &s;trictne&s;&s;e of Chri&s;t to his own Di&s;ciples, how pre&s;&s;ing he was upon them, now look to your own &s;oules, try your &s;elves by all the&s;e things, examine your hearts over and over againe, do not content your &s;elves with this, that you have names in the world, that you have abun|dance of inward kinds of experience, for now hypocrites will be growing up in the flouri&s;hings of the Go&s;pell, they will have an imitation of faith, and of patience, and of joy, as the Go&s;pell &s;hines forth brightly, they will have an imitation of adoption, it is a wonder|full thing to thinke how a Profe&s;&s;our will bring him&s;elfe into the fa&s;hion of a mo&s;t glorious Saint, transforming him|&s;elfe into an Angell of light, as it were, &s;triving to imitate every thing, and yet
<PB N="212" REF="116" MS="y"> enjoy nothing, is loath to have his name expunged out of glory, out of the hearts of Saints. But alas the Lord will come and &s;hew him&s;elfe exceeding dreadfull to Profe&s;&s;ours in the latter daies; there is a terrour will be upon you one day, that you have only walked up and down and no more, you have found no &s;weetne&s;&s;e, you have only cozened your &s;elves and others: Oh that is mi&s;ery enough for every poore &s;oule, and therefore re|member what hath been &s;aid, lay it home upon your con&s;ciences, examine your hearts, commune with your own &s;pirits in the night-&s;ea&s;on, and remember there will be a day to di&s;cover the hearts of men, and you &s;hall &s;tand naked, uncloa|thed, and God will &s;et a marke on you to all eternity,</P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
<BACK>
<DIV1 TYPE="publisher's advertisement">
<PB REF="116" MS="y">
<HEAD>Reader, the&s;e Books following are Prin|ted, and are to be &s;old by <HI>Richard Tomlins,</HI> at the Sun and Bible neare <HI>Pye-Corner.</HI></HEAD>
<LIST>
<ITEM>THe general Practice of Phy&s;ick, Fol.</ITEM>
<ITEM>The Fortune Booke in Fol. Engli&s;h.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Plea&s;ant Notes upon <HI>Don Quixot,</HI> Fol.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Mr <HI>Collings</HI> his Cordials, fir&s;t, &s;econd, and third parts, quarto.</ITEM>
<ITEM>His <HI>Vindiciae Ministerii,</HI> quarto.</ITEM>
<ITEM>His An&s;wer to Mr <HI>Sheppard,</HI> quarto.</ITEM>
<ITEM>His An&s;wer to <HI>Fi&s;her</HI> and <HI>Hammond,</HI> quar.</ITEM>
<ITEM>His An&s;wer to <HI>Boatman, Priane,</HI> and <HI>Humfries,</HI> quarto.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Dr <HI>Hold&s;worth's</HI> twenty one Serm. quarto</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Euclids</HI> Elements in quarto Eng.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Hi&s;tory of &s;even Champions, quarto.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Packet of Letters, quarto.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Cupids</HI> Me&s;&s;engers, quarto.</ITEM>
<ITEM>The Birth of Mankind or Womens Book, quarto.</ITEM>
<PB REF="117">
<ITEM>The Perfect Phari&s;ee under Monki&s;h holine&s;&s;e, quarto.</ITEM>
<ITEM>The fal&s;e Jew, quarto.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Mr <HI>Collings</HI> Five Le&s;&s;ons for a Chri&s;tian to learne, octavo.</ITEM>
<ITEM>His Faith and experience, octavo.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Mr <HI>Wincolls</HI> Poems, octavo.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Excellency of Chri&s;t, octavo.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Era&s;mus Colloquies,</HI> octavo.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Wings</HI> and <HI>Libourns Urania Practica,</HI> octav.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Velitationes Polemicae,</HI> octavo.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Perkins</HI> Catechi&s;me, octavo.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Janua Linguarum,</HI> octavo.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Brin&s;ley's Cordelius,</HI> octavo.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Mr <HI>Sidenham's</HI> My&s;tery of Godline&s;s, oct.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Wat&s;on's</HI> untaught Bridegroome, Twelves.</ITEM>
</LIST>
<PB REF="117">
</DIV1>
</BACK>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
