the Garb of an Angel of Light one who hath much the colour but little of the substance a great deal of the form but scarce any thing of the power of Godliness one whose best side is always outward who makes it his business to be thought Religious who labours not so much to be really good as to appear unto Men to be so And now to draw up the Curtain and bring him upon the Stage First Let us take a View of him at his Devotions He enters into the place of publick Worship with a solemn set Face He perhaps prostrates himself on the ground zealously lifts up his hands and eyes towards Heaven flashes and disciplines himself after the manner of Baal's Priests cries aloud smites upon his Brest and makes a Profession of confessing his Sins with an humble penitent and obedient heart By the shew he makes any Man would imagine That he was above the trifling Things of this lower World that his Soul was upon the Wing and full of heavenly Meditations and that he was talking with his God as familiarly as ever Moses did even as a Man speaketh to his Friend and yet all this while he is but acting a Part mimicking the Saint and giving a lively Representation of an extraordinary Pious and Religious Man For he is Proud Impenitent and Disobedient God is not in so much as one of all his Thoughts he draws nigh unto him only with his Lips and thinks of every thing more than of Him he then only pretends to Worship and perhaps in his whole Life never made a hearty Prayer nor sent up one sincere Petition to the God and Father of all things But to shift the Scene sometimes you may see the Hypocrite in his Penitential Dress in a hair Shirt in the habit of a Pilgrim or in Sackcloath and Ashes At other times you may observe him hanging down his Head like a Bulrush sowring and disfiguring his Face looking indeed like a Man that did afflict his Soul mortifie his Members and bring them into subjection to the Spirit And yet these external Severities are rarely attended with any inward Devotion of his Heart all the while he keeps his Body Low Thin and Meager he feeds his Old Sins he pampers and every Day recruits his Inclinations to new Transgressions in the midst of all his abstinence his Soul has its secret Revels and Frolicks in Sin he drinks Iniquity like Water and acts all Uncleanness with Greediness And as his Fasting is only acted so are his deeds of Charity When he bestows his Alms it is with all the outward Pomp and Solemnity that may be in the Streets or in Places of the greatest Resort and Concourse He proclaims the time of his Benevolence to morrow I will give He sounds a Trumpet before his good Dees ratling his Mony into the poor Man's Box and reaches out his hand with such a sad Countenance with such an Air of Goodness and Compassion as if he indeed felt their Wants was their Brother and Companion in Tribulation and bore a part in all their Sufferings and Necessities and yet the kindness is only designed to himself and were it not to gratifie his vain glorious Humour to get the Reputation of being pitiful and tender Hearted Were all his Charitable Acts to be secret and the World not to know what either his right or his left Hand did they would be confin'd to a narrow compass even end where they begin at home and he would part with that Trash his Money as if it was indeed what the Rabbins call it in their Language his dearest Blood If we look into the Hypocrit's Behaviour in all other Cases you never find them without their little Shifts and Devices to secure their Credit without some specious pretences to palliate the blackest of their Crimes I might instance in several particulars but shall only name some few relating to that Barbarous Rebellion in this Kingdom and here the Popish Party tell us they took up Arms in Defence of his Majesty's Person and Royal Prerogative whereas in deed those great Pretenders to Loyalty rais'd Armies coyn'd Money granted Letters of Reprisal sent Ambassadors to foreign Princes invaded and rifled all the choicest and most valuable Jewels of the Crown It was say they A Just and Holy War for the Liberty of their Consciences and the freedom of that which they call their Faith and Religion and yet at that very time they enjoy'd such a licentious freedom of all their Superstitions that if one of their own holy Fathers may be credited the Frogs in the second Plague of Egypt were not more numerous than the Priests and Fryers that then swarm'd within the precincts of this one City but it has never been thought any Reflection either on the Piety or Charity of the good Catholicks to shelter their Pride and Ambition their Malice and Revenge under the colour of Religion to counterfeit Christ's Commission to put his Cross into their Banners and to express their Zeal for the Lord and his House in the Blaze and Flames of their Neighbours But then alass The Protestants were the first Aggressors and the Papists not daring to stay at home Assembled together purely for the safety of their Lives and their mutual preservation and therefore admire that they should be call'd Rebels who were only a few discontented Gentlemen apprehensive of a general Massacre and could not but make some little defence for themselves and civilly oppose them who first blew the Trumpet and were ready for the Battle It would be endless to enumerate all the Pretences they made use of for the advancing of their Cause the frequent professions of their kindness and affection to their English Neighbours the deceitful Kisses and treacherous Embraces they gave them the Crocodiles Tears they shed over them till they had got their Goods and Arms into their Power the Obliging Distinction they made for some days between the British Inhabitants till they had Complemented and Wheedled the Scotch too into the Snare the breach of all their Articles the Perfidious Violation of the most Sacred Oaths and Promises and the many other little Arts and Pious Frauds their Holy Church at that time especially Legitimated to Decoy the credulous Protestants into their Nets till they were miserably betray'd and basely Butcher'd by those they Trusted upon the insignificant Pledges of their Word and Honour Thus if you follow the Hypocrite thro' all the other parts of his Life the best thing you can say of him is that he is a good Actor he treads the Stage handsomly he pronounces his Words with a Grace and speaks his Part admirably well he has the Garb the Gesture and Countenance of a very honest Man of an Israelite indeed in whom is no Guile he looks like the Tombs and Monuments of the Dead which are set off with a great deal of Cost and Charge appear Beautiful and make a goodly Shew but within are full of dead Mens
Thursday 24th of October 1695. By the Lords Spiritual Temporal in Parliament Assembled ORDERED On motion that the Earl of Mount-Alexander and the Lord Viscount Charlemount do give the Thanks of this House to the Lord Bishop of Killaloo for his Sermon Preached before this House at Christ's-Church Yesterday being the Anniversary of the Three and Twentieth of October And that his Lordship be desired to cause his Sermon to be Printed Gerard Bor. Cler. Parliamentorum A SERMON PREACHED In CHRIST's-CHURCH DUBLIN On the 23d of October 1695. Being the Anniversary Thanksgiving for putting an End to the IRISH REBELLION which broke out on that Day 1641. BEFORE THE HOUSE of LORDS By HENRY Lord Bishop of KILLALOO DUBLIN Printed by and for J. Ray and are to be Sold by the Booksellers in Dublin 1695 A SERMON Preached on the 23d of October 1695. Job 8.13 The Hypocrite's Hope shall Perish IT was the saying of a Great and Wise Man that most of the Creatures are worthy of our best Thoughts and deserve our serious Observation That something is to be Learn'd from every one of them as well from the smallest Insect under our Feet as from the glittering Canopy over our Heads as well from the least Atome in the Sun Beams as from the Glorious Lustre of the Moon and Stars Naturalists tells us That the Engle taught us Architecture and drew the first Model of an handsom and convenient House That the Spider shew'd the Weaver the use of the Shuttle and the Loom the good Housewife to manage the Spindle and the Wheel That Swallows were the first Profess'd Oculists That the River-Horse taught us how to breath a Vein and that we are oblig'd to several other Animals for many excellent Discoveries both in Chirurgery and Physick We find too many of the Creatures instructing us in things that more nearly do concern us Reading Lectures to us and Discoursing with us like so many Professors in Divinity The Prophets direct us to the Stork the Turtle and the Crane to the Ox and to the Ass to learn us Gratitude and our time of returning unto the Lord. Solomon sends us to the Ant to Preach to us Frugality and Thrift and a Greater and Wifer than Solomon to the Serpent and the Dove for Innocence and Wisdom Nay all the Trees the Plants and Flowers of the Field from the Cedars of Lebanon to the Hyssop that springeth out of the Wall are spoken of by the Holy Pen-Men who condescending to our Capacities borrow many handsom Allusions from things that we are intimately acquainted with from the Vine and the Fig-Tree the Thistle and the Thorn and indeed from almost all the Herbs and Greens of the Earth Thus Bildad introduces the Words Read unto you Can the Rush grow without Mire Can the Flag grow without Water whilst it is yet in its Greeness and not cut down it withereth before any other Herb so are the Paths of all that forget God and the Hypocrite's Hope shall Perish In the Words we shall consider First The Person the Hypocrite Secondly What his Hopes are and how he comes to Hope Lastly The End and Consequence of his Hopes they shall Perish This indeed may be thought no very proper Subject for the occasion the Tragical Story of the day the horrid Cruelties Barbarous Murders and unspeakable Sufferings the poor Protestants groan'd under might very well have been expected to have been fairly represented to our View When Saul's Sword against the Amalekites seem'd to be drawn among us and to act with that large Commission to slay both Man and Woman Infant and Suckling Ox and Sheep Camel and Ass only with this difference that our implacable Enemies spared not so much as the best of the Sheep and Oxen When the merciless Persecutors of our Fore-fathers had not always so much goodness as to Kill so much Humanity as utterly to destroy But prolong'd their miserable Lives took care that they might linger under their Torments and feel themselves dye and at last out of the abundance of their Compassion dispatch'd them with a Stab at their Hearts and that dreadful Imprecation Thy Soul to the Devil When the Blood of the Innocent was shed like Water on every Side Lamentations and Wailings were Echo'd from every Corner and our weeping Rachils sate bemoaning themselves and had none to comfort 'em When the Cry in most Places was something louder than that of Egypt for there was scarce an English Family in which there was not more than one Dead when the dead Bodies of Gods Servants that lay weltring in their own Gore were denied the common kindness of the Grave and were given to be Meat unto the Fowls of the Air and the flesh of his Saints unto the Beasts of the Field and the most brutish fury of that bloody Crew was esteem'd Meritorious and thought to deserve not only the Encomiums of a Conclave but the Apostolical Benediction It may I say be expected that I should enlarge upon these particulars but hope that the Task may be equally ungrateful to us all That as we delight not in the Effusion of any Mans Blood so we Sympathize too far with the Sufferings of our Ancestors to disturb the weary that are at rest to lay open their Bleeding VVounds to revive those persuasive Calls to Revenge those Cries and fearful Screeches which run Parallel to nothing but that in the Revelation How long Lord Holy and True wilt thou not Judge and Avenge our Blood VVe shall therefore proceed according to the Method laid down and as we insist upon the several parts of the Text take some notice of the Hypocrisie and Dissimulation of our false Brethren show you what their Hopes were and that they also fell short of all their Expectations First Then we shall consider the Person the Hypocrite the word Hypocrite in its Natural and Genuine Sense signifies an Actor or a Player one who upon the Publick Stage personates another imposes upon the Spectators and pasles for the Man he only represents And indeed as the Heathen long since observed the whole VVorld is a Large Theatre where the generality of Men do no more than decently represent the Persons they would be thought to be and the very best of them may put the same Question to themselves that the Emperor Augustus did to his Friends when he lay a dying have not I acted the play of Life very well For they are disguised into a thousand several shapes are all mere shew face and appearance and he that knows not how to act his part to play the Hypocrite and Dissembler knows neither how to Rule nor to Obey he will make but an awkard Monarch a rough unaccomplish'd Courtier and in most Professions will want many of those Qualifications which usually polish and recommend a Man to the good opinion of the mistaken World But then the word Hypocrite signifies a Religious Cheat a Wolf in sheeps cloathing a Devil in the habit of a Saint in
Bones of Rottenness and Corruption for he has not so much as one of those good Qualities he pretends to take him but into the tiring Room strip him and lay aside his Robes pull off his Mask and Vizard that Paint and Fucus which he lays on with so much Art and Cunning he will then be seen as he is a deform'd shrivel'd Piece a miserable Spectacle indeed and yet for all that he hopes he shall come off very well and claps and applauds himself And therefore in the next place we shall consider what grounds he has for his hopes and from whence they do proceed First Then the Hypocrites Hopes may proceed from this he has found by long experience That his bare Pretences to Virtue have served his turn very well in this World promoted his Interest and been as advantagious to him as if it had been real He has acquired it may be a great Estate Honours and Preferments by the appearance of being a good Man got his Fathers Blessing by the smoothness of his Carriage sound Favour in the Eyes of his Prince by Dissimulation and Flattery and with Absolom stollen the Hearts of all the People by his fair Speeches his courteous and obliging Behaviour his Honesty such as it is as far as he knows has never been Mistrusted and he hope still to carry on the Cheat to deceive Heaven as well as he has done Man and concludes That the same Arts which have Enabled him to go beyond his Brother may do him the like Service in Over-Reaching and Abusing of his God He has been Blest with the Fat of the Earth and the Dew of Heaven the Sun has Shin'd as Warmly and the Showers of Rain Refresh'd him as much as the best of his Neighbours he prospers in the World and has Riches in Possession and he cannot but look upon such Blessings as an earnest of some future Favour By the large share he has of the things of this Life he judges what proportion he may expect in the next and from every lucky hit still draw this inference That he who has been so Fortunate and had so much Goods laid up for many years here must have some Happiness hereafter at least a Childs Portion in Reversion But suppose the worst seeing the Tares grow together with the Wheat he hopes that at the general Harvest he may be thrown into the Barn among the other Sheaves that the Counterfet may not be discern'd in so great a heap of Precious Stones that the goodness of the Foyl may give it such a Lustre that it may sparkle even in the Eyes of God himself and pass without suspition when he comes to make up the fairest of his Jewels Secondly The Hypocrite may hope upon this account His constant endeavours have been to set himself handsomly off to acquire all the outward visible signs of Piety and Holiness without any regard to the inward purity of his Heart and he has been so long used to dissemble with others that he has even forgot to deal honestly and sincerely with himself The foolish Actor who was to personate a King when he saw himself surrounded with Guards and Attendance with all the pomp and solemnity of a Court tho he had not one Royal Quality or Princely Virtue nothing of that largeness of Soul none of those generous and noble Thoughts which are absolutely necessary to so considerable a Dignity to so high a Calling He began to fancy that he was born for some great Designs that he was cut out for a Crown and really was the mighty Person he represented So our Religious Player tho he has none of the qualifications of a Saint nor any Truth in his inward Parts Tho he is utterly a stranger to all the great Duties of Religion and never heartily bewailed or truly repented of any of the Errors of his life yet he has worn the Robes of Rightteousness so long that from the colour of his Habit he judges of the cleanness of his Heart from the whiteness of his Garments that he has kept himself unspotted from the World and at last is given up to the strongest of Delusions to believe himself and concludes with the proud Pharisee That he is not as other Men are That God cannot forget to be gracious to him but will accept his person and receive him into his mercy and favour Thirdly The Hypocrite may hope imagining that there is some recompense due to the good Figure He has made in the World and that there is something of merit even in his dissimulation Religion in his opinion gets some credit by the respect Men only seem to pay it It is one proof of his virtuous Inclinations that he hides and conceals his Vices and surely think He the outward Expressions of Piety the borrow'd disguise of Devotion has a better Title to forgiveness than down right Atheism and Profaness a counterfeit zeal for the service of God such a one as Naaman's in the house of Rimmon must be much less offensive than to kick at his Sacrifices pollute his Sanctuary and Convert that Holy Place into an House of Merchandize a den of Thieves For thus he may be willing to justifie and argue for Himself He constantly frequents the Church no Man comes with more reverence and humility or crys louder Lord Lord than He doth He fasts twice in the week and makes little or no provision for the flesh He is nicely Exact in observing all the minutest circumstances of the Law had rather starve than gather a few Sticks rather perish with Hunger than pluck a few Ears of Corn on the Sabbath Day He gives Tythes of all that He possesses It is a weighty matter in his Opinion to scruple the payment of so just a Debt a robbing of God Himself and He would not be guilty of Sacriledge no not in that sense for all the World He gives alms and has lent considerable Sums unto the Lord and believes He has put his Money into good hands He never turns so much as his Face from any poor Man and he trusts that the Face of the Lord shall never be turned away from him For his part He cannot but think he has contributed some thing to the honour of God and the Interest of Religion and could wish there were many more such Hypocrites as he is That all our Leopards would rather conceal their Spots and our Ethiopians change their Skins than that they should publish their Transgressions make their Crimes their Reputation declares their Sins as Sodom and Glory in their shame Thus the Hypocrite tho he has not liv'd up to the strictest Rules of our most holy Religion nor made his Heart bend to the severer Precepts of the Gospel yet for as much as his good deeds have been transacted in the sight o fall the People and in the face of the Sun and his bad ones in his secret chambers or in those darker recesses of his Soul That his life may have
been exemplary and the Copy taking seeing no Man knows the defects of the Original That he has brought as he vainly dreams no blemish to his Profession nor done any publick dishonour to his God Tho He cannot pretend to that great Reward due to the sincere honest and good Heart to them that have born the heat and burden of the Day yet he sees no reason why he may not hope for his Penny in the Evening why He may not gather up some of the crumbs that fall from his Masters Table why God may not dispence with a Commutation and accept the formality of holiness for real and substantial Vertue and Religion These may be some of the Reasons which the Hypocrite gives for the hoes that are in him These the Reeds on which He loans the feeble props which shore up his tottering Expectations for after all the poor Apologies he can make for himself He is in a lost and undone condition he must be miserable he and all his hopes must Sink and Perish together and that for these following Reasons All he aim'd at in the whole course of his Life was to be popular to insinuate himself into the good esteem and to get the praise and commendation of Men That was the recompence he principally had an Eye to and having had that in so large a measure he ought not to expect or hope for any other Had the Cardinal as he too late consider'd serv'd his God as faithfully as he did his Prince He would never have cast him off in his old Age nor have forsaken him when he was Gray-headed Had the Hypocrite courted the favour of Heaven with as much earnestness as he did the applause of the World had he been as ambitious of the Glory of God as of the fair Character of his fellow Servants he might have enlarg'd his desires and promis'd himself even all those good things which God hath prepared for them that sincerely love and truly fear Him But seeing that all his good Works were done upon no other account but to be seen of Men that that was the Grand design and drift of all his actions and that he made that his chief end God has made it so too he verily has had his reward and must never look for more he has had his Reward It is indeed one of the most terrible Sentences in all the Scriptures and as the Learned interpret imports thus much He has receiv'd all that was due unto him he has given God a Discharge subscrib'd an Acquittance in full satisfaction and can never in reason or justice demand and thing surther from him But then again The Hypocrites hopes must Perish for he provokes affronts God as much as the most leud and profligate sinner living He professes a great reverence for him it is part he tells you of his Creed That God is present every where that he searches the Heart and darts his Eyes into every corner of his Soul and yet he uses him worse then he would do the meanest Man and securely acts the greatest Villanies under his Eye which he would tremble to commit under the inspection of the poorest Child So that let the Hypocrite pretend never so much to believe There is something of Atheism in his Heart for without that he might dissemble with Men and Angels but never duâ—â—â— entertain one thought of prevaricating with his God of putting such tricks upon him as Michol did upon Saul of deluding him with an Image with a Puppet neatly dress'd in-instead of a David with a demure formal Saint in the place of a Man after his own Heart and after his own Will Certainly this must be a Sin of the very first magnitude God is in Honour concern'd to vindicate Himself to cut off the hopes of such a wicked wretch to make so daring a Sinner a dreadful monument of his Fury and Indignation But supposing our Hypocrite not Atheistically inclin'd That he is no stranger to the Principles of Religion that he believeth in his Heart that God regardeth not the outward behaviour of any Man when his inward parts are full of wickedness and then let him tell me what he thinks of his own condition what ground he has to hope for the Mercy and Favour of God with whom he has dealt so basely and unworthily Will not his own Heart tell him that his state is as desperate as that of the loosest Libertine will it not sink within him at the approaches of Death The very mention of Hell make him Startle fancy himself already there immagine that he smells the Brimstone and sees the Flames flashing in his Face and then what will become of all his hopes will not his first Reflections on the place of Torments fill him with black and melancholy Thoughts and make his passage out of this Life very uneasie and very uncomfortable Lastly vain are the hopes of the Hypocrite and all his fair pretentions to the happiness of another Life must fail and come to nothing because the Punishments of a peculiar Tophet are ordained of old and prepar'd for him in the World to come A Hypocrite among the Turks would willing compound for the easie pains of a Purgatory for they believe that there are seven Caverns or Vaults in Hell and assign the lowest and hottest for all such double Dealers and Dissemblers The Jews tell us that at the general Resurrection every body shall be forgiven but Men of Gibeon those vile Hypocrites who with their old clouted Shoes and ragged Apparel impos'd upon their Governour Joshua But if we suspect their Authority Christ himself assures us He who cannot lye has told told us that Hypocrites have a place of their own a Portion that do's properly belong to them where there is nothing but weeping and gnashing of Teeth He thunders out wo after wo against them no less than eight times in the 23d Chapter of St. Matt. And if Pharo's Dream was doubled unto him to shew that the thing was Established and that God would surely bring it to pass may we not very well conclude that the Repetition of those Woes against Hypocrites bespeaks the severity of their future Punishments and that the everlasting Furnace shall be above seven times hotter for them than for any other Transgressors And indeed it is but just with God to use them severely who have not dealt truly with Him That they should receive some special Mark of his just Resentments and Displeasure that they should for ever lye down in their shame and cover themselves with their own Confusion that they and even all their better hopes should unavoidably Perish And now as for the more particular hopes and expectations of our arbarous and inhumane Enemies indeed they promis'd themselves to do a very great and glorious Work to kill and take possession of all To suppress our Religion and Establish their Idolatrous Worship to wrest the Sword out of his Majesties Hands to make themselves absolute Masters