bidden him smite him to the ground And observe them also when they are uppermost again whether they be not as zealous to lay the cross on other mens shoulders as they were to cast it from off their own As far as I can observe it is the temper of this false zeal wheresoever it is to endure no oppression quietly to endeavour alway to be above to trample upon others to be proud and disobedient to contemn all authoriy which is not on their side and to speak evil of dignities if they do not speak well of them CAP. XXV 1. The design of God is to make men thoroughly good 2. Though men now think otherwise yet the Ancient Christians prove the Divinity of their Religion from the excellent lives of them that professed it 3. They proved Christs Divinity likewise from the goodness of his followers 4. They upbraid false Christians that they could not confute heathens by their lives 5. The definition of a Christian according to Phavorinus who speaks the Ancients sense 6. Religion reforms men in every thing 7. A Summary of our Religion out of Erasmus 8. Christ represented it unto us in his life and taught us to deny not only sinfull but meer naturall desires 9. This is so clear in the Scriptures that every one may see it that had not rather talk and dispute then live well 10. With what minds we must study the Scripture 1. BUT let it be remembred by all those that intend to go to heaven that Gods design is to banish all wickedness out of the world and by inhabiting of our nature to expell all sin and baseness out of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homil. 7. in Iad Corinth and to bring in his own image It is an excellent saying of Chrysostome That God hath so disposed matters in the Gospel as if he intended that there should not be a relique of wickedness left among us The whole dispensation looks as if he designed to root it out from the face of the earth And this only can bring the world into obedience to Christ this only can set up his Kingdom and make all his enemies fall at his feet Let us advance this in our hearts and lives and it will set Christ upon his throne and make him victorious among men And therefore that excellent man gives this as a reason why Idolatry did still remain in some places because Christians were no better and did not destroy all the works of the Devil And what is it I beseech you that still upholds all humane inventions in such honour but because there is so little true Goodness appears in the lives of most that oppose them Men look upon the Gospel as if it served for nothing but to form their opinions but had no design of making them like to God They are enemies to their own salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mutining and seditiously rising against their own eternal welfare They oppose him that comes to bring them the glad tidings of Salvation or whosoever shall press them in Christs name to be very good They dispute many times against too high a degree of holiness They spend more time in excusing their faults then striving to amend them They are wilfully bent not to be over-happy while they are here in the world and will not believe that God intends to advance them so high in a heavenly life And so it is no wonder that things are so bad among others when even they that profess the name of Christ many of them are no more in love with the Doctrine that is according to Godliness 2. And indeed why should they be in love with a thing that incroaches so much upon their liberty if they can go to heaven by some neat device that leaves them room to do as they list why should men be at the trouble to die to the world if it be the design of Christ to make them great men in it As Cato counted it one of his oversights of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Simplicius relates it that he took a journey by water when he might have gone by land so men may well count it foolishness to go through the tears of repentance to wash off all their dirt and filth when they hope they may go to heaven through the earth though they be all besmeared with the mire of the world But it is not great boasts of the purity of Religion of the holiness of Ordinances and such like things that will alwaies carry the name from purity of heart and holiness of life There was a time when it was the greatest glory of Christians that they were holy themselves as well as that they had an holy Religion and so I hope it will one day be again Then the Gospel flourishes when men can argue for the Divinity of it from the great reformation that it works in those that profess it whom it makes truly Divine And so in the dayes of Origen they were able to do Lib. 1. contr cels for he challenges Celsus the heathen to tell him how it should happen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a special hand of God that such a multitude of sick persons should be recovered of most desperate diseases whereof they had long laboured by preaching of the Gospel only When we see so many rid of their intemperance injustice neglect of God and such like things we must needs see that that word is from God which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 able to free them from such evils too stubborn for all the Philosophy in the world to deal withall 3. Lib. 3. In the next Book but one the same Origen adventures to bring the excellent lives of Christians for an argument of the Divinity of Christ whom they worshipped And he saith that the very worst of them even they who were most slothfull in their religion did make greater progress in vertue then the very best of the heathen Which was a plain argument he thought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there was no ordinary divinity in that person who did such great things in his followers And when in the next book Celsus by way of scorn calls the Christians and Jews bats and frogs and worms and such like insects who flock together and contend with each other which are the greatest sinners he tels him what noble lives the Christians did lead And asks him whether he was not ashamed to call him a crawling worm who ascends up to heaven to live with God and sends up pure prayers unto him that doth all things as if God saw him and speaks all thing as if he heard him and cannot be perswaded from Godliness by any dangers any labour any fair words and language Will not all this saith he be sufficient to save a man from being compared to a worm whatsoever he might be called before so great a godliness What must they who repell the sharpest stings to wanton pleasures that are pure and chast
Jewish Hypocrisie A CAVEAT TO The present Generation Wherein is shewn both the false and the true way to a Nations or persons compleat happiness from the sickness and recovery of the Jewish State Unto which is added a Discourse upon Micah 6.8 belonging to the same matter By Symon Patrick B. D. Minister of the word of God at Batersea in Surrey Luke 12.1 Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisie Arrian Epict. L. 1 Cap. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember it You can never preserve godliness unless godliness and gain be the same in your account LONDON Printed by R. W. for Francis Tyton and are to be sold at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet near the inner Temple Gate 1660. To the Honourable Sr. Walter St. John Baronet and the Lady Johanna St. John his Wife All happiness THIS small labour to which as well your love to me and to the truths herein contained as my great engagements and no less affections to you have long since entituled you doth humbly put it self into your hands and craves the acceptance of that which is so many wayes your own If I were capable of making any other returns to you for your favours Yet since they would be all so inconsiderable I could not pardon my self so great an injustice as the not presenting you with this would seem to be but seeing I despair of doing any thing else I could not justly expect to find a pardon from you if I had denyed you this poor acknowledgement It is true indeed that you expect neither this nor any other requital of your kindnesses but all my services are the more due to you because you expect none at all I have detained you so long in some former addresses that I shall be the shorter in this and only acquaint you that this Treatise was intended for a remedy of those evils under under which we in these Kingdoms long groaned but now by reason that our deliverance from our oppressions was so speedy and its delivery from the press so slow it must serve as a preservative from the like mischiefs in time to come I know it shall not want your prayers to assist it in the effecting of its design which is the advancement of unfeigned and impartial godliness in the hearts of those that read it This only can make his Majesty glorious and his Kingdoms happy both which I know none can wish more heartily then your selves This should imploy all our thoughts and engage all our endeavours and be the sum of all our prayers And to the promoting of this I hope that I shall alwayes bend all my studies and therein approve my self to you above all others Your most affectionate friend and servant Symon Patrick To the seroius Reader IT is not much above three years since a Sermon of mine was published by a good friend now with God containing many of those things which you will meet with in the first part of this Treatise which I put into your hands It was judged usefull by a very discerning person that the Sermon should receive some enlargements and be made more comprehensive by whose advice and counsel I have been ruled to bring it into the form you now see attended with such additions as might more fully describe the several kinds of false godliness that are among us I am no Prophet but yet I can foresee that I must not expect any other Readers then you For they who love rather to talk of the Bible then to understand it and can content themselves with some ends and shreds of it to make their speech relish of Scripture phrase will lay these things aside as dry and dull discourses But I have the confidence to invite those whose understandings are advanced to any manly thoughts and have a mind to be acquainted with the Counsels of God to a perusal of them and hope that they will be not only acceptable but delightfull to their meditation And if they meet with any thing that is not for their present gust I desire them that they would notwithstanding read on to the conclusion and by that time I may have converted their pallate to another taste I cannot but wish that this Treatise may have as many Readers as many books of little significancy and use are observed to have With which wish I am not inspired by vain ambition and desire of popular applause but by a great sense which I feel my self possessed withall of the weight and importance of those truths which are here discoursed But it is no more then a wish for I know the hearts of men are full of these things that I here speak against and the world hath so many things for them to do that it will not give them time to be serious If any shallow and superficial discourse be presented to them which shall only bid them believe and then shall comfort them with the priviledges of the Saints it will go down easily and needs but little chewing But that which searches deep especially so low as the heart and tends to the mortifying of all carnal affections and passions that are there is too laborious and too unpleasing also for them to meddle withall I shall not tell you how much I believed that which is now come to pass in this Kingdom when I conceived a great while ago these meditations because my private thoughts are not so considerable as that they should be communicated to the world Nor will I add any thing more by way of preface but only these three short Advertisements First that the reason of some sad complaints that you will meet withall in the discourse is because it was all written except the last chapter before the Kings Majesty was happily restored to his hereditary dominions And Secondly that I have written most against that sort of hypocrisie which was in fashion and least against that which was worn out of date which none will judge to be partiality in me but Christian Charity which bestows most of its labours where there is most need And Thirdly that the Sermon annexed was thought fit meerly for kindreds sake to bear these Papers company But they are not more of kin to each other then both of them are to your souls and therefore let me say to every one as Solomon doth Bind them upon thy fingers write them upon the table of thine heart Say unto Wisdom Thou art my Sister and call Vnderstanding thy kinswoman Prov. 7.3 4. So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man Prov. 3.4 Yours in the Lord Jesus Symon Patrick Battersea May 12. 1660. ERRATA in the Treatise PAge 24. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 54. l. 1. r. security p. 76. l. penult r. repent in p 101. l. 14. dele some p. 117. l. 27. r. he did smell p. 118. l. 22. r. neck p. 130. l. 2. r. you must p. 135. l. 10. r. strange
he is innocent i. e. They were no more sensible of these sins then many Heathen people who knew but little of God and so might more easily forget what was only taught them by themselves But in our translation indeed it is a threatning and thus it may be expounded as De Dieu hath noted most agreeably to the Hebrew text He that steals is cut off on this side viz. of the flying roul according to it i. e. according to the curse and he that swears is cut off on the other side according to it The roul or book that he speaks of ver 2. which contained a curse in it threatned upon all Iudea which was as the roul longer then broad was to fly abroad and spread it self upon all the guilty persons Now one side of the Book saith he contains a curse against all thieves which shall certainly light upon them and the other side of it against all false swearers which shall also come upon them according as is threatned And therefore he goes on further to denounce Gods judgements upon such persons v. 4. and speaking of the woman that sate in the midst of the Epaph ver 7. by whom was shadowed the people of the land whose iniquities should be born withal but to a certain measure he saith ver 8. this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wickedness i. e. iniquity it self the mother of all deceit thefts and perjuries And for this he threatens again unto them another expulsion and dispersion into another Babylon as you may see in the following part of the chapter And afterward God having most plainly told them how the case stood with their Fathers and how angry he had been with them chap. 8.2 he saith that now he was returned to Zion and would dwell in the midst of Jerusalem and it should be a City of truth c. ver 3. And he tells them what great things he would do for them and that as they had been a curse so now they should be a blessing ver 4 5 c. v. 13. But then He adds that these are the things they must do Speak ye every one the truth to his neighbour execute the judgement of peace and truth in your gates and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour and love no false oath For all these are things that I hate saith the Lord ver 16 17. 3. And if we look back to Haggai who prophesied but two years before these words in the eighth of Zachary were spoken one being in the second the other in the fourth year of Darius he will tell us no better news of this people For he saith chap. 2. ver 11 12 13 14. That every thing that the people did take in hand was as unclean and polluted as that which was touched by one defiled with a dead body and that though they were an holy people to him yet that did not make the things that they medled withall holy Now if we compare this passage with those that were before gathered out of Zachary we shall easily discern I think what the matter was that made God so offended with their doings At first they let the Temple of the Lord lye waste and builded their own houses after their return from captivity before they built it though God had given them a command to go about it But of this neglect they were awakened by these two Prophets and by many judgements and sore afflictions mentioned Hag. 2.15 16 17. and Zach. 8.9 10. And then they thought all was well because they obeyed Gods voice in this thing and because he promised from that day forward to bless them Hag. 2.19 So the Temple were but carried on to perfection they thought no great care was due to other things and so continued in a world of wickedness making their zeal for Temple-work eat up all their love to justice and mercy 4. If we should trace their footsteps further we should soon find that when the Temple was compleated and finished they were but little better For Malachy who concludes their story in the Old Testament and is called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seal of the Prophets because he was the last and shuts up all complaining of the iniquity both of Priest and people sets down these sins as famous among the rest chap. 3.5 False swearing oppression of the hireling in his wages of the widdow and fatherless and turning aside the stranger from his right all which they did without any fear of what would follow And particularly of the Priests he tells us that they were partial in the Law chap. 2.9 i. e. they did not judge according to the merit of the cause but according to their love of the person And of the Princes we are told by Nehemiah how heavily they oppressed the people by exacting usury of them chap. 5. By which together with the dearth they became so poor that it was the cause I believe of their detaining the tythes from the Levites chap. 13.10 and that they were tempted to rob God him self as the Princes robbed them Mal. 3.8 To which add the great violence that they all offered to their wives either putting of them quite away as some understand the place or else taking others to them which was worse for their poor wives these the daughters of a strange God Mal. 2.11 This you know they had begun to do presently after their return out of captivity and upon the serious admonition of Ezra repented of it but it should seem that they fell into the same sin again in after times and that so universally and so much to the injury of their wives that they caused the Altar of the Lord to be covered with tears with weeping and with crying out insomuch that he regarded not their offerings any more c. Mal. 2.13 i. e. their wives made such grievous complaints to the Lord of the violence that was offered them so it is called ver 16. that it caused him to despise all their gifts that they brought him he looking more at the others tears then at all their sacrifices And yet they have the front to come and ask God wherefore he would not receive them ver 14. To which he answers that he must deal righteously though they would not and he could not but take notice how treacherously they had dealt with their wives who as they had been their companions merited greater kindness from them and as they were taken by Covenant and contract they were in justice obliged to have dealt better with them And he proves that it must needs be a great offence because it was so contrary to Gods institution in marriage for did not he make one and yet he had the residue of the spirit c. ver 15. i. e. according as we translate it Did not he make one wife only for Adam whereas he having more the same spirit that he breathed into her could have made
many c. Or if we render it with others Did not be who is one make it i. e. the covenant of marriage and he hath abundance of spirit still to breath into our seed And wherefore did that one make that order that a man should cleave to his wife but that he might have a godly seed and therefore take heed what you do in putting away your wives and taking others for hereby you offend him that breaths the spirit of life into us Or if we take it as others interpret it their wickedness is still argued to be the greater because they boasted that they were the children of Abraham Now Did that one i. e. the first of your family do so of whose spirit we are the residue and what did that one he sought a godly seed he put not away Sarah though she was barren which to you would seem a just cause nor matched with an Idolater that he might have issue Or if we receive that rendring of the words which the learned De Dieu prefers above all the rest it argues them of great inhumanity and that they had not common good nature in them which makes the sin still greater No one would do thus that had but any reliques of the spirit of God in him and therefore much less they that seek a godly seed as you pretend to do You see that he might well call this covering violence with his garment ver 16. because it was such a wrong to those that by the Laws of God and nature deserved better at their hands To spread ones garment or ones skirts over a woman is a phrase in holy writ for to marry her Ruth 3.9 Ezek. 16.8 By taking therefore of a strange woman into their society which was engaged before to another they did as it were marry to violence and contract a relation with injustice Or as the forenamed author thinks it should be translated Violence covered their garments i. e. when as they ought still to have cast their garments of love and protection over their wives violence and wrong did cover those garments their marriage was an act of injustice and their skirts which they spread over strangers were all over stained with cruelty hard-heartedness and oppression 5. And Zachary tells us by way of prophesie what should be in after times toward the end of this Nation and what manner of Rulers should be over the people He compares their Shepherds i. e. Governours as I have shewn before unto young Lyons who do not use to protect but to devour the sheep Zach. 11.3 And he calls the people the flock of slaughter ver 4. whom he is bid to instruct either because they were to be destroyed by the armies of their enemies or because they were a prey unto their Governours According as it follows ver 5. Their possessors slay them and they hold themselves not guilty Yea to such a confidence were they arrived in these sins that they Bless God for the riches which they had got in this sort They had some devotion you see left though no honesty nor goodness God is intituled to all wicked possessions and acquisitions that he may make them good and defend them against all the clamors of men and the suits of their own conscience And it seems the people were very bad also for ver 6. he threatens them that he would have no more pitty on them then their Rulers had but let them destroy one another by seditions and at last deliver them all into the hands of the King that oppressed them who should be so far from taking any pastoral care of them that he should only slay and devour them as you may read v. â—6 6. And some understand by that King the Roman Caesar to whom they made themselves a prey by such sins as those I have been treating of That long Captivity which indures to this day had its way prepared by their avarice and cruelty as those acquaint us upon whom the spirit of prophecy was again poured forth For our Lord coming and reproving the chief of that generation when he lived for devouring widdows houses for extortion rapine and blood for covetousness and oppression for being without natural affection and the like sins while they made long prayers and pretended a great deal of sanctity and religion He declaring also that faith judgement mercy and the love of God were more to be regarded then their strict observation of dayes and the multitude of sacrifices They out of a great zeal for their religion which they thought he did not speak honourably enough concerning most shamefully put him to death I believe they took themselves to be very religious persons and were zealous in what they did only their zeal was not equally dispensed nor conveyed alike through the whole body of duties that God commanded Their heat was like the flushing in mens faces or the burning in their hands which we do not take to be an argument of a good temper but rather a sign that there are obstructions as the ordinary language calls them in the body so that there is not a free motion of the vital blood in all the parts I mean they spent so much zeal in a few things that they left no warmth of affection for other most necessary duties In those things their heat was staid and stopt which made them of an extraordinary high colour and to have the repute in the world of very great Saints and most vertuous persons Yea they themselves gazed so much upon this flame that they took no notice how cold they were in matters of common honesty but they committed all iniquity in a comfortable belief that they were good men and most beloved of God Their great zeal for the Sabbath and such like matters made them take themselves for pious and devout persons but the partiality and particularity of it whereby it remained there confined made them really to be such as our Saviour calls Hypocrites which appellation they took in such disdain that they conspired his death who would not let such as they pass for godly men 7. And are Christians to this day more reformed who have inherited their promises I wish I could say that we are as free from covetousness rapine and unmercifulness as the Pharises were from Sabbath-breaking and Idolatry R. D. Kimchi upon Hos 2.19 20. hath confessed a great deal of that truth which I have endeavoured to illustrate but I can only wish that the latter part of his gloss were found as true as the former part hath proved He saith those words cannot have a compleat sense till the time of the Messiah and that God uses the word betroth three times because of the 3. captivities after which God doth as it were marry them to himself but in the dayes of the Messiah after a more excellent manner then in former times For when they came out of Aegypt he did not betroth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for
multiply silver or gold Deut. 17.17 i. e. private riches they should not strive to gather into their Coffers for this he knew would make them oppress his people and likewise that they should not lift up their heart above their Brethren v. 20. i. e. be proud and despisers of their subjects for this would make them unmercifull and void of pitty toward them And 5 a Prince is called in the holy language by a name viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which teaches him to be like that Ptolomy who for his good deeds was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Benefactor one that doth good to all but harms none of his Subjects And 6 they cause the People to err if they be bad as it is Isa 9.16 so that every one becomes an hypocrite and an evil doer and every mouth speaketh folly according as you read in the following verse Let us all then from the greatest to the least examine our selves and be well informed whether we be guilty or clear in this matter and let us make the same conscience of doing justly that we do of hearing Sermons and of loving mercy that we do of fasting and praying and then God will dwell in the midst of us And let no mans heart be so wicked as to think that he shall lose by doing thus for God saith In the house of the righteous is much treasure Prov. 15.6 and righteousness exalteth a Nation Prov. 14.34 And The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish but he casteth away the substance of the wicked Blessings are upon the head of the just but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked As the whirlwind passeth so is the wicked no more but the righteous is an everlasting foundation Prov. 10.3 6 25. CAP. XVI 1. A Caution the reason why these sins were more destructive then others 2. Further cleared 3. The reason why men are more apt to be inclined to zeal for religious duties then for justice and mercy 4. A further reason of the same thing 5. This zeal may make men take injustice it self to be a just thing 6. It concerns us therefore to look well to our selves in these matters 7. And Judah should be a warning to England 1. BUT that this discourse may not be liable to any mistakes I shall a little farther open the sense of what hath been said whereby likewise it will become more usefull to the Reader if he please to attend it I do not affirm either of these two things first that these are the only sins that undo a Nation or secondly that these were more heinous in themselves then the Idolatry whereof the Jewish Nation were also guilty No let me not be so understood as if I thought that denying of God blaspheming of his name worshipping of Idols and such like sins as are more immediately against the Deity were not wasting sins more horrid then the other But the truths that I assert are these First that the sins of injustice fraud and cruelty are and have been enough to destroy a Nation without the other and Secondly that they commonly prove the most dangerous and ruinating to a people of any else because they are overlooked when they reform though being duties toward our Brother whom we continually see one would think they should be in our eyes above all other When men reform impieties against God they think themselves to have done him such high service and are so much in those upper speculations that they take no notice of these things under their feet and make no reckoning how they deal with men so they be but zealous and fierce for that which is due to God Or they be content to be religious given to devotion so they may but retain their unlawfull gains pleasures and ambitious ends yea their very religion and forwardness for reformation in such matters may give them a better advantage more colourably to practise these iniquities and their unmortified affections will easily put them in mind to make use of such opporunities 2. Hence I say it is that these sins do more commonly ruine those Nations that know God then corruption in his worship doth not because that is not destructive but because men will a great deal sooner reform in that then in these other for a fair correspondence with God in all the outward duties of his worship is a great deal more easie then this denyal of mens selves in their covetous malitious ambitious and other fleshly desires And beside it is more apt to get a man a great name among others if it be in any good measure of fervency and heat and likewise to beget in himself a comfortable opinion that he is mightily beloved of God seeing he doth those things that are most highly reputed of So much hypocrisie therefore and deceit being in mens hearts and they being so willing thus to put a cheat upon themselves I hope it will not by any be deemed unseasonable that I have treated of this matter rather then of the other And if any will be so censorious as to say that I have not pressed the matters of religious worship so much as I ought they had best take heed that they do not bring our Saviour himself under their lash For when the Ruler asked him Luk. 19.18 what he should do to inherit eternal life He doth not say one word concerning the duties of the first Table but only of the Second in which it should seem they were more negligent then in the rest And when the man answered that he had done all those things that he spoke of Our Saviour doth not Catechise him how he had kept the Sabbath and abhorred Idols and such matters but he desires him only to be careful of this one thing further which was that he would wholly take his heart off from covetousness and the love of the world 3. If any ask how it comes to pass that men should be so very zealous and forward in pious duties when they are so cold in the other I have already given him an answer to this purpose First the religious services in their greatest outward purity do not find the nature of man so averse unto and abhorrent from them but that they may be very forward to do them And Secondly They make also a great sound and dinn in the world and have such a glorious appearance that by the doing of them he may be reputed and also take himself for a Saint And Thirdly Then he may be so pleased with this fine perswasion and so inwardly tickled with the sweetness of such thoughts that he is engaged to mind with all his power the promoting of such matters as have gained him the credit of an holy person without denying his worldly lusts which may rather have a freer liberty under such a brave and splendid Master as stands not upon Punctilio's of honesty and equity between one man and another But Fourthly if we turn our
to the turning of affairs here below but of no concernment at all to the other world 3. And of these that put on a face of Religion out of design there are three sorts which I will unmask before you The first is he that designs his profit and utility when he sees that Religion is a fair means whereby he may rise to Greatness a ladder whereby he may climb to high preferments When he discerns the times are of that temper that Religion will make a good mask to hide his covetous ambitious and perfidious intendments from the eyes of well meaning and charitable men when he perceives that it will make him to be more trusted and that a greater confidence shall thereby be reposed in him there is no man shall have a more Saint-like garb a more reformed tongue and devout behaviour Many petty chapmen in the world that trade but for little things have learnt this Art to gain credit and repute with others that so they may suffer themselves to be cheated by them with more faith and confidence We may be sure then that the Great ones of the world who design higher matters and aim at more lofty ends are well versed in these religious tricks of deceiving Herod pretended religious devotion and worship which he would fain give to Christ when he intended that this Lamb of God should be the sacrifice Numa among the Ancient Romans pretended Revelations and familiarity with a Goddess but it was to make himself a God among the people and his Laws held for sacred And so the Grand imposter Mahomet as is in every ones mouth held his neck away as if he lookt for a whisper from heaven when his head hung towards the world and he meant only to get his doctrine to be more devoutly devoured by the people The Masters of policy know that their talk of God their praying to him and their solemn attendance on all religious offices together with a sanctimonious carriage seeming squeamishness of Conscience will make them more reverenced by the multitude less suspected to have any but good and simple designs They know that these things will make the world gape upon them and swallow all their proposals without any chewing or else they willmake them cast all the odium of their wicked actions upon other men and hold them excused as men whose integrity would not suffer them to do so badly or at the worst pass them by for religious weaknesses and infirmities unto which all are incident It is not to be told what the name of a Saint will do to hallow those actions which in other men would seem as black as the Devil to cast a varnish and a most handsome gloss upon the most hellish and foulest enterprizes And therefore the Politician had been much defective if he had left this Rule out from among the rest That a man who would be great in the world must be externally religious And the greater grace and comeliness he is able to act Religion withall the more eyes he shall have upon him and the more will fall down and worship him 4. A Second sort there is that design their own ease pleasure and bruitish delights whom I may call the Fleshly Politians Men that are cunning in this art of Religion that thereby they may enjoy the foul delights of the flesh with more security and with the favourable opinion of the multitude By a great shew of something that is extraordinary in devotion they hope to draw the eyes of the world from their beastly life and make them gaze at the strange appearances that they say is of God in them They hope by making a blaze on high to make men take no notice of what is done here below just as they see while the vulgar stare at some comets that appear in the heavens they neglect what is under their feet more apparent upon the earth And therefore they resolve to talk of wonderfull manifestations discoveries and appearances of God to them they rise presently into the clouds in their expressions and discourse of divine things in a mystical strain they speak of revelations and high illuminations from heaven and use perhaps some very fiery devotions which dazzle the vulgars eyes and amaze their underderstanding so that they cannot see their wicked and abominable practices But if men will needs be prying into their secrets and when they see them will not in charity excuse men of such high attainments then they begin to rant more confidently and boldly to affirm that all things are lawfull to men of such a growth and in such special favour with God and lead so certainly by his Spirit Or if they do not go thus high yet they take up the Religion that is in fashion on purpose that they may avoid all sufferings and persecution and that they may never receive any molestation in their beloved flesh They are resolved to do any thing that they may never feel any pain and if Religion be the way to preserve them from it they will make it their pleasure sure to counterfeit it as exactly as they can Such are the Leviathans of this Age who love to tumble up and down in the flood of worldly delights and would rather imitate all Religions then be of any The great pillar of their Religion is self-preservation though our Saviour hath expresly said That he who will save his life shall lose it and he who will lose it shall find it 5. A third sort may have it in their design to spread some dangerous notions and traiterous opinions against God for the hiding of which it is but necessary that they seem very strictly pious All men are very shy of a professed Atheist or of one that denyes the Bible to be Gods word and therefore they that would disseminate any thing to the prejudice of that belief we have of a Deity and of the holy Scriptures must look as if they were of all men the furthest off from such prophaneness And though they laugh in corners at the ridiculous simplicity as they deem it of those that fear before God and tremble at his word yet before others they can put on a sowre face and seem to do more then stand in awe of him But these Players and Actors in Religion it is not my design to set forth in all their colours both because they are not so numerous as the other and because they cannot stand long upon the stage before they go off every one know what they are 6. The Pharasaical Hypocrisie is a more fine and subtile poison whereby a man Cosens himself and puts a cheat upon his own soul and therefore about the discovery of it I shall bestow all my pains as most latent and standing in greatest need of a cure This is it also which the Scripture speaks of in whose phrase hypocrisie flattering of God and lying to him with ones lips do not signifie the professing of one thing
and meaning another but a present profession of love to God and Religion without a cordial renouncing of every thing that is contrary to him and it or a great heat and forwardness to some things that God commands which are easie and more suitable to a mans gust and humor with a coldness to other things that are more difficult and contrary to his nature and interest There is an extraordinary measure of Zeal for some matters required to its constitution else they in whom it is would not be so confident as they are that they are good Christians but then this zeal is not equally destributed through the whole man and doth not animate and quicken him to all his duty and that is it which makes it to be Hypocrisie and not true Religion As for example if a man have this partial zeal in hearing of Gods word and diligent attending upon Sermons this may make him take himself for a Saint whereas his frozenness to meditation and secret converse with God and diligent examination of all his actions renders him a meer hypocrite So if he be partially zealous for the purging of himself from superstitious conceits and Popish tenents but yet remain a Mammonist a Lucifer a murtherer of his Brethren by hatred and uncharitable censuring of others that differ from him this is the same disease though he take himself for a man excellently pious And on the contrary if a man be just in his dealing and carefull not to cheat but yet be all bedaubed with the world and laden with thick clay stick fast in covetousness or neglect many religious duties to Godward he is but an hypocritical Religionist though he keep his Church and pay the Mininister his dues as well as others 7. And if you should ask me why this good conceit that men have of their Piety may not be easily beaten down when it is so visible that they live in great sins and have not denyed abundance of their earthly affections I answer that their first resolutions to undertake some duties of Religion are commonly very warm if not hot and fiery which inspires them presently with a perswasion that they are dearly beloved of God because they feel such a difference in themselves from what they were before in their total coldness Now though they continue to live in many sins yet this perswasion doth not abate 1. Because this zeal doth continue and hold on afterwards through the concurrence of their particular Temper with it which inclines them to that sort of actions or doth not make them averse from them And 2 Then they may think it to be a Temptation of the Devil to doubt of their good estate after they have had such great assurance as they imagine from God And 3 They find a desire to do those things that they do not which they take to be a great sign of grace Especially seeing 4 That they are troubled for the not doing of them and they have now and then some sad thoughts about it Yea 5 Their Conscience perhaps is much against it when they do it and they commit such sins not without great reluctance and difficulty Which indeed renders their condition the worse because they can sin even against conscience but they take it to be a sign of their tenderness not of their sins strength And 6 Perhaps they have learnt to call such sins their Infirmities and hearing that all have their failings these they think are theirs And 7 By their Confessions and Prayers and outward humiliations they hope to gain pardon for all or 8 Perhaps they think there is no need but by a device beyond all these they imagine Jesus Christ hath done all for them long ago And so the less they do the more they shall be beholden to him and the more honour they do him by putting more upon his account then others dare do who will be doing more themselves 8. Thus I say do they ratifie that Decree which they have passed for themselves in heaven They having so certainly fore-ordained that they shall inherit eternal joyes none of those foul blemishes that are in their actions can blot out their names which they have written in the Book of life But though they think that nothing can hinder their admission to that blessed place which they have designed for themselves yet God I am sure hath chosen no such persons to salvation If the holy Apostle be not less infallible then they you had better believe him 2 Thes 2.13 when he saith that God hath chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth and when he prayes that the whole Spirit 1 Thes 5.23 Soul and Body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus These men may mount up while they are in some holy exercise as high as the third heavens and think verily that they are in Gods embraces But they will find shortly that all their hopes will fall to the ground as that Turk did from the top of the Mosque who perswaded the people that he could fly And therefore let us be sure to lay the foundations of a solid and entire Religion in our souls and take heed we do not deceive our selves with some flashy devotions and a lame halting obedience To mortifie all our carnal affections to put off the body of sin is the work of a Christian and because of the multitude of our enemies and the infirmities of our flesh we shall find it a matter hard and difficult How insuperable then will this work be if our Religion it self do conspire with the Flesh and if that which should serve for the destroying of sin do by a great many false Principles exceedingly promote it That it may not do so but that our Religion may be in us a Divine nature I shall now proceed to shew you what the counterfeits of it are and how small a matter if we be not serious will tickle us with a belief that we are good Christians without a total change of our hearts and lives CAP. XVIII 1. The story of the Jews in the New Testament to be minded as well as in the Old and we find them great Professors 2. But their Religion was only talk 3. And with such windy Religion still men deceive themselves Good words may move a mans affections and so cozen him 4. Others delight only in high-flown and obscure language 5. An high proficiency they take themselves to have made if they dare leap into a Pulpit 6. The sins of such men A short description of True Religion in reference to this matter 1. NOW for the more full discovery of the several kinds of this Hypocrisie I think it will be best to examine the New Testament story as I have done the Old and see what the temper of the Jews was in our Saviours and the Apostles time who will give us as perfect a character of this false spirit as their fore-fathers
out of them Alas this is one of the diseases of our Age also wherein many men have affected unintelligible language and believed they were Eagles that were courted to look upon the Sun because they could soar aloft into a cloud of words When they had taken abundance of Prophetical expressions and carelesly jumbled them into a confusion they seemed to themselves like men inspired and that spoke oracles when they did but slaver out their own transcendent non-sense 5. And if these men can but arrive to the confidence of prating saucily to their betters this is reputed a singular gift and they take themselves to be indued with an extraordinary measure of zeal for God and his cause But if they can perk up into the Pulpit and take the boldness to be Preachers and Instructers to others this is an infallible mark and now they cannot doubt but they are full of the Spirit of God This is the thing that tickles them more then all the rest and their forefathers the Scribes and Pharisees never loved more to sit in Moses his chair Mat. 23.2 then their fingers itch to be laying the Law before the Ignorant people 6. But let such men who delight to hear themselves talk consider if they have not lost that Faculty whereby we are men that there may be twenty times more Religion in humble learning then in this bold teaching of others and that there is a thousand times more in hearty doing of what men learn To that let them bend their studies and observe how greedy they are of riches how they scramble for high places how worthy they think themselves of what others enjoy how they love to rule and command over them how impatient they are of contradiction how ambitious to be thought some body in the world how censorious of their neighbours how fiery hot against dissenters how fierce and violent for their Opinion more then for Godliness And then if they believe the Scriptures let them judge whether the leaven of Hypocrisie have not sowred them And let us all remember That true Religion is a transforming sense of God that which changes and alters the temper of mens souls that which seasons and leavens the whole man with Goodness It is not a new Tongue but a new nature It consists not in reformed language but in a reformed life Not in talking concerning God but in an imitation of him and being conformed to him And then a well-seasoned Heart will make all the words savoury and without affectation though with good affection CAP. XIX 1. Of the love the Jews bare to Moses 2. When as they hated that which Moses chiefly aimed at and had only a fancy to him as a gallant person 3. The same love now men think they have to Jesus Christ 4. But no better then the love men have to persons of desert and that do them kindnesses 5. Such men therefore like the Pharisees They love Christ now he is dead and never saw him better then if they had lived with him 1. BUT some may say to me Can you think that such people as you have described have no love to Jesus Christ of whom they speak so much I will give an Answer to this by describing another piece of Jewish Hypocrisie and that was their extraordinary love to Moses Moses What a great and sacred name was that and never out of their mouths It was a wonder the Aegyptian charmers did not put it into their forms of incantation as they did the name of Abraham and others Epiphan Haer. Melchisid seeing they boasted no less of it The Arabians who held him for a God could not give him a greater veneration then his Countreymen did They professed themselves Moses his Disciples and say that they are sure God spake by him but esteem our Saviour a sorry fellow in compare with this great Master John 9.28 29. In Moses they trusted John 5.45 and blasphemy against him they would prosecute with the same revenge that they did blasphemy against God Nay Moses was first in their mouths when they accused St. Steven and they said that he had spoken blasphemous words against Moses and against God Act. 6.11 There is no Question to be made but that they would have spit in that mans face who should have told them that they did not love Moses They would have defied his words and given him the lye a thousand times and you might have as soon perswaded them that there was never such a man as that they did not bear an affection to him And for this very cause it was that they killed our Saviour because they thought he contradicted this grand Teacher of their Religion and imagined they did God high service in so doing 2. And yet if you make a little farther search into the business you shall find that they loved Moses no otherwise then as vulgar people love Queen Elizabeth as a brave man and one who did great things for that Nation and in whose dayes there was a good world If Moses had lived in our Saviours time and told them of their sins as he did they would have loved Moses no more then thieves and traitors loved the Queen who would not let them steal or betray their country If Moses should have risen from the dead and told them that he allowed divorces only because of the hardness of their hearts they would have given him a bill of divorce though so much wedded to him If he had said the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs of their promises they would have looked upon him as an heathen and a publicane And he should not have escaped to have been ranked among the sinners if he had dropped a word against their legal righteousness Nay if he had said to them but one of the Ten commandments Thou shalt not covet those Pharisees would have been ready to cast stones at him for not receiving their glosses whereby that command was evacuated They had an high esteem of him and affection to him as he had been a great Benefactor to their Nation but the best of his Laws his Spirit and qualities they perfectly hated And therefore our Saviour tells them that though they did beautifie the Sepulchres of such righteous persons as their Fathers had slain and thought they should not have done such a thing for all the world yet they had the same murderous affections against those holy men and would have dipt their hands as soon in their blood had they lived in those times For they hated such men then as their Fathers hated heretofore and so all the blood that had been shed in former ages did light upon them because they inherited their Ancestors sins as well as their lands 3. Even so it is now with many in the Christian world The name of Jesus is so dear unto them that they have it in their mouths as much as the Jews had the name of Moses It is so full of honey and sweetness and they
are so fond of it that it is on their tongues end before the name of God himself This name makes up one quarter of their prayers and fills up all the gaps and breaches that are in their discourses And if there be any expressions of love and court-ship wherewith to caress him he shall not want them They commend him for the primest beauty extol his pedegree admire the riches of grace and if one could tell how to believe them they would willingly dye for the love of their beloved Jesus No Sermon pleases them that extolls not him all discourses are unprofitable in which his name is not often repeated and the very sound of it doth them more good then many wise sentences 4. But you must not think for all this that they are such vowed servants of his as they seem For they love him only as a Beggar doth his good Master or as a souldier doth Alexander Caesar or some such famous Captains of whose great worth and valour he hath heard As the Spartans honoured Lycurgus and the Romans Romulus and all Countreys and Cities love those that have been their founders or procurers of great immunities and benefits unto them so do these persons love the Lord Jesus They look upon him as a noble Heroe a brave man that hath done great wonders and deserved highly of man kind and Especially they are affected toward him as one that is gone to make room for them in a goodly Paradise will there entertain them with all dainty delights Which is no more but what may proceed from education and breeding from Pulpit-discourses and good books from a fancy of those joyes that he hath promised which are enough to make a sensual man love him as well as a Turk doth Mahomet Especially considering that some dispositions are amorous and others are apt to admire gallant acts and great exploits and others are wonderfully taken with the kindnesses that are done them and the honours that are put upon them If they should have lived in our Saviours days and he should have told them Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father they would have said as the Pharisees in another case Are we blind also do not we know who shall go to heaven If he had said You are of your Father the Devil for his works you do they would have answered as the Jews did sometimes Thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil If he had told them that he had no blessings but for the humble the meek the mercifull the peace-makers and those that took up their cross patiently of which number they were not they would have joyned with the high Priests to bring him to his execution 5. What though they condemn the Pharisees for killing of our Saviour It is no more then those men said of their forefathers that murdered the Prophets And they are as full of hatred malice and black zeal against Christs most faithfull Servants as the Scribes and Pharisees were against Christ himself They verily think that they have a love to Christ above all the world but did not the Jews dream of as great an affection to Moses Either they do not love the world therefore and their own lusts and desires better then Christs words or they are no better then those Jews were who loved no more but the name of their Master Moses They have a great zeal for the Worship of the Lord Jesus but who knows not that the persons whom they judge as hypocrites were very fierce for the Ceremonial Law and loved to be at the Temple We must see therefore a great care diligence and curiosity used in all obedience or else we cannot afford them any better language notwithstanding all their flattering addresses to our Saviour And you must consider what a vast difference there is between the opinion men are apt to have of those who are dead and of those that are like them but alive All men love naturally 〈◊〉 speak well of the dead especially if they did no harm but good And those that they never saw but hear of their excellent deeds they have in greater admiration then those that are before their eyes And those very persons that they could not affect if they were with them they commend at a distance as they hear them commended by others For they commonly hear of nothing but what pleases them when they are afar off but they would see many actions and hear many sayings if they conversed with them that they could not brook And just so it is in this case our Saviour is dead and he likewise died as they hear for them and therefore they cannot but have many good words for him He is one that they never saw and so they admire him for the good they are told of him while they despise his live images and those that are like him They read of his actions and his words at a distance but they are not spoken from his mouth to their particular persons and therefore they are not so offended at him as they would have been if they had received his reproofs in such sort as they did who then lived CAP. XX. 1. Of false pretences to Inspiration 2. Whence these swellings in the head do arise and how you may know them 3. Concerning the Kingdom of Christ so much talkt of 4. How loth they are to submit to Christs government who think they wait for his Kingdom 5. Opposition to Antichrist a false token of mens being on Christs side 6. For they may have the very spirit of Antichrist in them 1. BUT there are a company of more glorions professors then these who pretend such love to Jesus Christ and take themselves to be so beloved of him that they are lifted up into an imagination of receiving Revelations from him Their Religion is to look after news from heaven to raise themselves into raptures and dreams of Prophetical inspiration They talk of extraordinary light Glorious discoveries manifestations illumination of the Holy Ghost are the words that adorn their discourses And so St. Peter tells the Jewish Christians for to them he wrote being the Apostle of the circumcision that there should false Teachers arise among them 2 Pet. 2.1 as false Prophets had done antiently among their forefathers By these I nothing doubt he means some that boasted of Inspirations and further Revelations from God which the Jews might be most forward of all others to pretend unto because they took themselves to be beloved of God beyond all the people of the earth And St. Jude calls them expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 8. which we render filthy dreamers but it signifies such as were carried with dreams There were you know several wayes of Gods revealing himself of old to his Prophets whereof Dreams and Visions were most usual Now these persons had a strong fancy that they received some impressions from
must desire the Reader to bear with such expressions because I know not how to discribe this form of cozenage better who are alwayes complaining of their corruptions their deadness in duties that they cannot profit by Sermons nor find themselves inlarged in prayer and such like things I speak not now of the sober complaints which a good soul may make upon some occasion but of a constant way and life of same people who for many years are in the some dolefull and querulous tone exercising a continual peddling trade of going from house to house to tell their stories And as you may observe that it is an ease to some melancholy people to be relating their griefs and aches and to shed tears when their neighbours come in for every little thing that troubles them So I believe that these persons take some pleasure in their whining and it is apt to stir in them some passion which they look upon as a sign of grace and a mark at least of that humility which the Scripture so much calls for Especially if they bemoan their hypocrisie and falseness of heart they are ready to think that they have a great deal of sincerity Whereas it is too true that they are as rotten as they say because they do not grow better nor make any progress from this whimpering childish condition to a State of man-like piety It is not sufficient to make us good to tell God and man that we are bad And to sigh over our selves makes our case worse if it do not make us better CAP. XXII 1. Pharisee signifies separated 2. A great deal of deceit lies in separating of mens selves from others 3. Zeal to promote an opinion is oft taken for Religion 4. This is a thing very delightfull to the Flesh 5. Opposition to the bad party was a thing that puft up the Pharisee 6. And deludes still many carnal Protestants 7. Fasting and many little austerities they took for Piety 8. Such little strictnesses still pass among us under a great name 9. Of commending good men and discommending all those vanities 10. We must judge of men by what they do contray to themselves 1. FROM this piece of false Religion which I have noted in the Pharisee I shall come to some other which our Saviour observes in the same chapter Mat. 23. where he speaks of this And the first that we meet withall is their separating of themselves from all others which is the very import of the word Pharisee as the most learned conclude which signifies one separated And this they did not only by taking upon them more ceremonious observances then others and by abhorring common company but also by their garments their outward garb and deportment They wore long robes they made broad their phylacteries and inlarged the fringes of their garments which were characterical notes to distinguish them from others But there was a strange pride and love to be esteemed by others and impatience of being despised and undervalued that discovered it self in all their actions For they affected the chief place at feasts and would not indure a prophane man to take the wall of them and loved to be adored as great Rabbies and received all the honour that was put upon them as their due deserts 2. It is to be feared that many at this day take themselves upon no better account to be good but because they are not among the bad And that others think themselves the most excellent Christians because they are separated and divided from those that do not take themselves so to be When men are once imbodied in distinct societies and are though not cloystered yet gathered from the rest of the world they take this small strictness to be the separation which the Apostle speaks of from the unclean and the coming out from among the wicked Whereas the heart of many such for I speak not of all is still among the crowd of the ungodly their affections are as dirty their passions as dark and black as theirs that lie still in the open streets and are not thus inclosed from others For whence else is it that they take themselves to deserve all places of preferment and to be imployed in the greatest affairs and resent it very ill if their Piety be not most made of by those that are in place of power and authority Do they not scramble for the world as well as their neighbours are they not proud and supercilious Do they not look down from their pearch with a disdain of their Brethren If not then are they happily separated by these good qualities from the world but if they do it is not their association with the good nor the living in a Fraternity that will impale them from the herd of brutish men If these fruits of the flesh be found in any company of men high contempt and scorn of others a spirit of contradiction rebellion and sedition unnatural affection injustice and cruelty hatred and envy unmercifulness and hardheartedness to the poor rigour and sternness to those that dissent from them and are of another mind they must be content to be told that their Religion is but vain and will vanish away Its root shall be rottenness and its blossome shall go up as the dust 3. A Second thing that we meet with all as notorious among those Pharisees was a zeal to promote and spread their own opinion which no question many take to be an argument of great love to God who is more they think concerned in it then themselves And this discovered it self in two things 1. In their wonderfull diligence that they used to make but one proselyte v. 15. They would go a whole country over yea and take ship also to fish but for one disciple to their belief Theirs I say for they did not make them religious but only brought them over to their party they did not labour so much their conversion as to maintain and support their own faction And if he was not a hater of others before they made him twofold more the child of the Devil then themselves full of all hatred spite and cruelty against those that were not of their gang And that indeed was the Second thing wherein their false zeal appeared a strange fierceness against all of a different sense so that they would not endure there should be any other perswasion but anathematized all those that were not of their way v. 13. If any man spoke well of our Saviour and confessed him to be the Christ they cast him out of the Synagogue and if he were a noted man they sought to destroy him and cast him out of the world as they thought to do Lazarus And especially take notice of what was said a little before that the Proselytes who were converted by them and received the Jewish spirit were the most bitter fellows of all as they commonly among us who are Schollers to a deluder are far more violent for a
yielding to temptations to covetousness deceit and unlawfull gain or on the contrary very fearfull to fail in a ceremony but worshipping the flesh and living loosely An Hypocrite is much imployed in little things and busied about the shadow and bark of religion be it what it will If religion be pompously gloriously cloathed then he will strive to be most ceremonious costly and chargeable in his devotion so that we may say of him as the Philopher said of a finical but empty Lawyer homo in causis agendis bene vestitus a neat man in his Religion one that pleads with God in gorgeous apparrel But on the contrary if men take to a side that loves to be sordid and slovenly and as careless as they can in all outward decencies none shall more fiercely decry all ceremonies nor more prophane all that was before accounted holy And so in all other matters the most inconsiderable among them exercise their zeal and the weightiest exercise only their fancies and tongues 5. A Sixth thing to be noted in them is that they would be just in one thing that they might be unjust in another v. 23. They would pay their tithes to the Priests that this might cover all their acts of rapine and covetousness among the people And they did not only pay them but were very scrupulous to pay them exactly as if they would not wrong one of a Cummin seed or a Speer of mint or as we say of the hair of one head when as they neglected judgement if any causes came before them they shewed no mercy to the poor and kept no faith in their Covenants and promises It concerns a man to be very punctual with some persons and in his ordinary intercourse to keep to rules of justice else he would be hissed out of the world and he would have no opportunity to deceive a simple or unwary soul Much less would he be able when he stretches his conscience to do a base action to take himself still for a godly man if he did not at other times deal fairly And therefore he is fain also to imitate the Pharisee in a Seventh quality and that is to do some great act of Charity to excuse himself from a constant exercise of it It is like that these hypocrites which our Saviour speaks of paid the tythe which was due every third year for the use of them that were in need Deut. 14.28 as well as the yearly dues to the Ministers of God in the Temple And this great and expensive charity they thought perhaps so highly of that they never reproved themselves for their miserable and wretched covetousness at all other times As many men now whose fingers are very stiff may chance to draw their purse-strings at some solemn time or when they are much moved with a good Sermon of Alms-doing who at other seasons have hearts as hard as flints to the crying necessities of their Brethren Much of the Religion of men and their charity also knows its times and daies if they be observed God lends them they think the rest of their lives to dispose of as they please themselves 6. And lastly they would not stick to do more then they were commanded that they might neglect Gods express Commands For many think that the tythe of every herb which they paid Luke 11.42 was not due by the Law but they could be content to over-do in this case that they might do nothing in others to give these free-will offerings that they might have their own wills in greater matters so false is the heart of men that they think an excess in what pleases them will satisfie for all their defects in that which is most pleasing unto God As to keep whole daies of prayer is far more grateful to some then to keep a continual watch over themselves in all their dealings and converses with others and in all their own inward thoughts and desires They will leave no stone unturned to find out an Art or device to save themselves from the trouble of Mortification and self-denial They will wriggle every way rather then be strait and upright as God made them Any labour or pains they will take to shift off the great Commandments of loving God with all their hearts and souls and strength and loving their neighbours as themselves 7. The more need there is that men should be earnestly urged to search into their hearts and examine them well about these things lest there lie hid any of this leaven under many seeming actions of Godliness Take heed lest you wink at some evil affection which you bear a particular respect unto and let it scape untouched when you profess to cleanse your selves Beware lest you cast only a favourable look upon some duties of Religion and look asquint upon the rest or take no notice of them Labour to remove all obstructions that Zeal may have a free passage through the whole frame of your souls and that you may be equally spirited to every duty of Religion And I shall commend these two things as of singular use and advantage to keep our hearts from self deceit First Let men suspect themselves when they are moved with an extraordinary heat and feel a great zeal agitating of them in some one thing which they undertake upon the account of Religion Let them presently begin to ask themselves how they stand affected to all the rest and to feell how their pulse beats in all things especially in the most spiritual actions Or else it is a thousand to one that this zeal will betray them into hypocrisie and they will place all their religion in it And therefore search well if there be not some externall inducement which thou dost not observe some corrupt end at the bottom some willingness to spare a foul and nasty desire which makes thee so zealous in that particular thing which may be as a covering for thy coldness in other matters Be not cheated by thy self into a belief that thou art religious when thou bearest not a love to all Gods Commandments but labour impartially and conscienciously to carry thy self to every duty alike and then thou maist be well perswaded of thy sincerity in Religion 8. And Secondly Let every man observe what it is that he is most in danger to neglect when his Spirit is forwardly carried towards one thing There is alwaies some one duty more then others that a partial zeal is apt to devour Be sure therefore to take heed and beware of covetousness while you cry out against profaneness Be as carefull to maintain love in your heart to your Brethren as you are to observe them reprove them or to make them of your mind Be as humble lowly and poor in spirit as you are ready to distribute to relieve the poor or despise the world Labour to be in as great charity with your enemies to love them pray for them and bless them as you are willing and perhaps forward