themselves the more easily that they are as good as those opinions and that company doth import and that they are truely such as those they joyn with As men are taken by others for such as those they correspond with so hypocrites take themselves for such As if it would prove that a man is sound because he dwelleth with them that are so Or as if it would prove a man rich or honourable that he converseth with such As God will not save any Nations on earth because they are such Nations nor will he save men because they are of such or such a trade or because they are skilled in this or that art or science no more will he save men for being of this or that party or Sect in matters of Religion One thinks when he hath lived a fleshly life that he shall be saved for hearing or saying the Common-prayer or because he is for Prelacy and Ceremonies another thinks he shall be saved because he can pray without a book or form of words or because he frequenteth the private meetings of those that more diligently redeem their time for spiritual advantages then others do another thinks he shall be saved because he is mocked as a Puritan or as too strict as others are that are serious believers and diligent in the things of God and another thinks that he shall be saved because he is rebaptized or because he joyneth with some separating Congregation which pretendeth to be more strict then others But none shall be saved on any such account as these Cain could not be saved for being the first born in the family of Adam Cham could not be saved for being in the Ark and family of Noah Nor Esau for being in the house of Isaac Nor Absalom for being the son of David Nor Judas for being a Disciple in the family of Christ Even Mary that brought him forth could not have been saved by him if she had not had a better title and had not bore him in her heart Mark 3. 34 35. when they talk to him of his Mother and his brethren Christ looked upon those that sate about him and told them that Whosoever shall do the will of God the same is his Brother his Sister and his Mother It is no outward badge and livery but a heart-title that must prove you the heirs of heaven You may be snatcht out of the purest Church on earth and from the purest ordinances and out of the arms of the most upright Christians and cast into hell if you have no better evidences then such to shew for your salvation If ever you be saved it must not be because you are Papists or Protestants Lutherans or Calvinists Arminians Antinomians Anabaptists Independents Presbyterian or Prelatical formally and meerly as such But because you are true Christians that have the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 9. and are conformed to him in his sufferings death and resurrection and live in sincere obedience to his will But Hypocrites that want the inward life and power of Religion and are conscious of their willfull sins would fain borrow something from the parties which they joyn with or the opinions which they take up or the formal outward worship which they perform or the alms which they give to make up the want and cheat their souls with a self-created confidence that they shall be saved But more specially you may hence observe the reason that Popery hath so many followers and that it is so easie a thing to make an Infidel or whoremonger or drunkard to turn a Papist when yet it is not easie to bring them to faith and chastity and temperance much less to the unfeigned love of God and to a holy heavenly life Though I doubt not but there are many sincere-hearted Christians among the Papists yet Popery it self is of an hypocritical strain and is notably suited to the Hypocrites disposition It is revived Pharisaisme I marvel that they tremble not when they read themselves so lively characterized by Christ with the addition of so many terrible woes as in Matth. 23. and other places frequently they are Woe to you Scribes Pharisees Hypocrites They bind heavy burdens of external observances to lay upon the consciences of their Proselytes They make broad their Phylacteries and in variety of holy vestures they make ostentation of such a Religion as a Peacock may have when he spreads his tail They contend for superiority and titles to be called Rabbi Pope Cardinal Patriarck Primate Metropolitane Archbishop Diocesane Abbot Prior Father c. to the great disturbance of all the Nations of the Christian world They must needs be the Fathers and Masters of our faith They shut up the Kingdom of heaven against the people forbidding all to read the Scriptures in their vulgar tongue without a special license from their Ordinary and commanding them to worship God in a strange tongue which they do not understand By the numbers of their Masses and prayers for the dead they delude the souls and devour the Patrimony of the living In Temples and Altars and Images and Ornaments consisteth no small part of their Religion They make more of tything mint anise and cummin then of judgement mercy and faith the weightier matters of the Law The outside they make clean and appear as beautiful to men as ceremonies and outward pompe can make them They make it a part of their Religion to murder the living Saints and keep holy dayes for the dead They build the Tombs of the Prophets and garnish the Sepulchres of the righteous and say If we had lived in the dayes of our Fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets Thus Matth. 23. is their description They have their Touch not â—aste not handle not after the commandements and doctrines of men their voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels and other rudiments of the world and things that have a shew of wisdom in will-will-worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh Col. 2. 19 20 21 22 23. How easie a thing is it to bring an ungodly man to be of a Religion that consisteth in such things as these in eating fish on certain dayes in stead of flesh in saying over so many Pater Nosters and Ave Maries and naming so oft the name of Jesu in worshipping a piece of consecrated bread with divine worship in bowing and praying before an Image in praying to the souls of such as the Pope tells them are Saints in heaven in crossing themselves and being sprinkled with holy water and using agnus dei's and consecrated grains and amulets in dropping of beads in saying such words as a prayer at such a canonical hour and such words at the next canonical hour in hearing a Masse in Latine and saying a Latine prayer in being anointed with hallowed oyl burning hallowed candles on the Altars by day-light in going so many miles to
we can be saved but by Jesus Christ the only Mediator between sinful man and the offended Majesty and yet what is there in all the world that is more abused to the deceiving of mens souls then the Name Grace of Jesus Christ Men that might be saved by an effectual Faith are cheated and destroyed by false Faith and presumption The merciful nature of God is the ground-work of all the comforts of the godly and yet there is nothing that is more abused to the deceiving of mens souls that will profess that they trust in the mercies of God while they are labouring to be miserable by the refusing and resisting the mercy that would save them The free promises of the Gospel do support true believers but are abused to the deceiving of the presumptuous world And so the Apostle telleth us that many do by their Religion They will have a Religion to deceive themselves but not to save them It is the Hypocrite that is the subject in my text who is described by this double property 1. That he seemeth to be Religious 2. That his obedience answereth not this seeming or profession the instance is given in the bridling of his tongue because that was the point that the Apostle had some special reason to insist on with those to whom he immediately directed his Epistle Though its plain in ver 22 23 c. that it is the whole work of obedience that he implyeth where he instanceth in this particular The sin of the tongue which he specially intendeth to reprove was the bitter reproaching of their brethren upon the account of their differences in matters of Religion and the vilifying of others and uncharitable passionate contendings and censures upon pretence of knowing more then others as appeareth in the third Chapter throughout The Predicate is double one by way of supposition viz. that this hypocrite doth but deceive his own heart The other by way of assertion viz. that his Religion is vain Whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be fetcht as far as from Orpheus the Thracian as Erasmus and many others imagine is of no great moment to our understanding of the text it being evident that it is the worshipping of God that is here meant by Religion and it is men addicted to his worship that are called Religious The seeming here spoken of refers both to himself and others he that seemeth to himself to be Religious or is judged so by other men By bridling the tongue is meant restraining it from evil speech By deceiving himself is meant the mistake of his judgement concerning the sincerity and acceptableness and reward of his Religion and the frustrating of his own expectations hereupon His Religion is said to be in Vain in that it shall not attain the ends of an unfeigned true Religion of which more anon The sence of the Text then is contained in these two Propositions 1. There is a seeming Religiousness which is but self-deceiving and will prove in Vain 2. Where sincere obedience doth not accompany the profession of Religion and in particular when such men bridle not their tongues their Religion is but Vain and self-deceiving These two being contained in the text the former comprized in the latter I shall handle them together and shew you 1. What this seeming Religion is and how it differeth from true Religion 2. Wherein this self-deceiving by a seeming Religion doth consist 3. Whence it is that men are so prone to this self-deceit 4. In what respects this Religion is Vain and why 5. And then we shall consider how to improve these truths by a due application 1. Concerning the first I must shew you 1. What this seeming Religion is made up of 2. And what it wants which maketh it delusory and vain In general This Vain Religion is made up sometimes of all that 1. A laudable nature or temperature of body 2. And good education and excellent means 3. Assisted by the common workings of the Spirit can produce More particularly 1. A Vain Religiousness may have a great deal of superficial opinionative knowledge and so may have the truest Religion for its object the true doctrines of Faith may be believed by a Faith that is not true the hypocrite as to the 〈…〉 Creed may be 〈…〉 ignorance a boundâ—◠〈…〉 be a knowing man and 〈…〉 ignorance of others when errors abound he may be of the right opinion in Religion and speak much against the errors of the times as one that is wiser then the giddy heretical sort of people He may Know the will of God and approve the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the Law and be confident that he himself is a guide of the blind a light of them which are in darkness an instructer of the foolish a teacher of babes which hath the form of knowledge and of the truth in the Law Rom. 2. 18 19 20. He may know as much materially as the upright may and be able to convince gainsayers and be a notable Champion for the defending of the truth against the many adversaries that oppose it and so may be eminently usefull in his generation 2. He that is but Religious in Vain may be frequent in the worshipping of God and may seek him daily and delight to know his wayes and to approach him and ask of him the Ordinances of justice as if he were one of the people that did righteousness and forsook not the Ordinances of their God Isa 58. 1 2. He may be oft in fasting and punctual in keeping holy dayes and ceremonies as verse 3. Isa 1. 12 13 14 15. Luke 18. 11 12 13. and exercise much severity on himself after the commandments and doctrines of men in things that have a shew of wisdom in Will-worship and Humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh Col. 2. 20 21 22 23. Though he be slow paced in the right way he is swift in his mistaken paths Though he liketh not preciseness zeal and forwardness in the spiritual works that God prescribeth yet when it comes to his own or other mens inventions he will be religious and righteous overmuch Eccles 7. 16. and forward to offer the sacrifice of a fool that considereth not that he is but doing evil while he thinks to please God with the sacrifice of his services though he turn away his ear from an obedient hearing the word that should direct him Eccles 5. 1 2. Prov. 28. 9. 3. He that is but Religious in Vain may see the evil of discord and divisions and inveigh much against schismaticks and see the excellency of unity and peace and therefore may joyn himself with the visible Catholick Church and with the Christians and Congregations that are most for unity There have alwayes been Hypocrites in the most orderly peaceable societies of believers and still will be 4. The self-deceiving Hypocrite is oft-times very sensible of
the evil of vertiginous mutability in Religion and therefore he may be much resolved to continue what he is and may cast many a jeer at the weather-cocks of the times and the unconstancy and levity of ignorant or temporizing men and may stand to his party and profession against much opposition as glorying in his constancy and being ashamed to be thought a changling or such a turn-coat as others whom he merrily derideth 5. An Hypocrite that hath no other Religion but delusory and vain may observe the weaknesses of persons that are of lower education and parts and may loath their indiscretion in conference and behaviour and their unhansome expressions in prayer and other duties and shake the head at them as silly contemptible self-conceited fellows and his heart may rise against their disorder tautologies and affectations And its like enough that hereupon he will jeast at conceived prayer or extemporate as they call it and bless himself as safe in his Parrot-like devotions because the same spirit teacheth not fine words and rhetorical language to all that it teacheth to pray with unutterable sighs and groans Rom. 8. 26 27. though the searcher of hearts who is not delighted with complements and set speeches doth well understand the meaning of the spirit 5. The self-deceiving Hypocrite doth frequently pretend to be a man of moderation in matters of Religion as distasting the hair-braind zealots as he counteth them that cannot be content to have their faith and Religion to themselves before God and to live and talk as others do but must be singular and make a stir with their Religion and turn the world upside down The true zeal of the godly is usually distastefull to him and the corrupt zeal of Schismatical persons doth cause him to bless himself in his lukewarmness and to take his most odious indifferency and want of fervent love to God and his holy ways to be his vertue 6. This self-deceiving Hypocrite doth frequently pretend to an exceeding great Reverence in the managing of the outward part of worship and to an extraordinary zeal about the Circumstantials of Religion He accounts them all schismatical and prophane that place not as much of their Religion as he doth in gestures and forms and other accidents of worship acquainting us that the Pharisaical temper in religion is natural and will still continue in the world 7. If the temptation of the Hypocrite lie on the other side he can withdraw himself into some small or separating society and place his Religion in the singularity of his opinions or in the strictness of the way and party that he owneth and in his conceited ability in his conceived or ready expressions in prayer and can cry out as much upon the Formalist as the Formal Hypocrite upon him and glory in his zeal as the other in his moderation It is in the Heart that Hypocrisie hath its throne from whence it can command the outward acts into any shapes that are agreeable to its ends and can use materials of divers natures as the fewell and nutriment of its malignity And what ever party such are joined to and what ever way they have been trained up to whether Formality or schism or more regular sober equal wayes in all of them their Religion is but Vain and they do but deceive themselvs by all 8. The Religion that is but delusory and Vain may be accompanied with much Alms and works of seeming Justice and Charity Mat. 6. 1 2. Luke 18. 11 12. He may have many vertues called moral and be a man of much esteem with others even with the best and wisest for his seeming Wisdom and piety and justice He may be no extortioner unjust adulterer but as to gross sins seem blameless Luke 18. 11 12. Phil. 3. 6. and be much in reproaching the scandalous lives of others and thank God that he is none such Luke 18. 11. 9. He that hath but a vain Religion may in his judgement approve of saving grace and like the more zealous upright self-denying heavenly lives of others and wish that he might but die their death and wish himself as happy as they so it might be had on his own terms And he may have some counterseit of every grace and think that it is true Numb 23. 10. Jam. 2. 14 c. 1 Cor. 13. 1 2 3. Mark 6. 20. 10. None will be more forward to call another Hypocrite then the Hypocrite nor to extoll sincerity and uprightness of heart and life And thus you see what this Vain Religion is made up with 2. IF you marvell what the Hypocrite yet wants that makes his Religion delusory and Vain I shall now tell you I hope to your conviction and satisfaction 1. For all his forementioned Religion he wants the Spirit of Christ to dwell as his sanctifier within him And if any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. But because this is known by the effects I add 2. He wants that spiritual new birth by which he should be made spiritual as his first birth made him carnal John 3. 5 6. Rom. 8. 6 7 8. He is born of the will of the flesh and of man but not of God John 1. 13. Form the first man Adam he is become a living soul but by the second man Christ the Lord from heaven he is not yet quickned in the Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45 46. He is not born again of the incorruptible seed the word of God that liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1. 23. He is not yet saved by the washing of Regeneration save only as to the outward baptism and by renewing of the Holy Ghost which is shed by Christ on all his members that being justified by his grace they should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life Tit. 3. 5 6. They are not new creatures old things being not past away and all things with them become new and therefore it is certain that they are not in Christ 2 Cor. 5. 17. They have not put off the old man with his deceitfull lusts and deeds nor have put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Eph. 3. 22 23 24. Col. 3. 9 10. They have but patcht up the old unsanctified hearts and smooth'd over their carnal conversations with civility and plausible deportment and so much Religion as may cheat themselves as well as blind the eyes of others But they are strangers to the life of God Ephes 4. 18. and never were made partakers of the Divine nature which all the children of God partake of 2 Pet. 1. 4. nor of that Holiness without which none shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. 3. Though he make a slight and customary confession of his sins unworthiness and misery yet is he not kindly humbled at the heart nor made truly vile in his own eyes nor contrite and broken-hearted nor emptyed of himself as seeing himself undone
and therefore he will take as much of them as he can and dare But Religion is but his Physick and therefore he will take it as little and seldom as he dare Had he but seen the face of God by faith and had he but the heart of a true believer that is suited by holyness to the holy works that God commandeth as the heart of a true friend is suited to the will of him whom he loveth he would then be no longer Religious against his will and consequently in Vain but he would think the most pure and heavenly mind and life and the highest degree of love and holiness to be the best and most desirable state for his soul as every true believer doth Had this Hypocrite any true love to God as he deceitfully pretends to have he would love his Image and Word and wayes and then he would love best that kernel and marrow of Religion that life and soul of worship and obedience which now he savoureth not but shiftethâ—off as a needless or tedious or unattainable thing The nature and use of these Hypocrites Religion is to save them from Religion They carry an empty guilded scabberd accusing the sword of a dangerous keenness as a thing more perillous then necessary to their use When they seem most zealous they are but serving God that they may be excused from serving him and they worship him of purpose to shift off his worship They offer him the lips that the heart may be excused and complement him with cap and knee that they may excuse themselves from real holiness They offer him the empty purse for payment and tender him a sacrifice of husks and shells and lifeless carkasses They will abound in the shadow and ceremony that they may be excused from the spiritual life and substance Alas that dead hearted hypocrite that sits there and heareth all this is so great a stranger to the opening of the heart and the deep entertainment of saving truth and to the savoury relish of the searching healing quickening passages of holy doctrine and to the thankfull wellcoming of an offered Christ and to the lookings and longings of the soul after God and to the serious desires and hopes and labours of a gracious soul for life eternal that he is idle asleep and dead as to all this spiritual work and if he had not some customary service to perform and some ceremonies or external task to do and some bodily worship to be employed in he would find little or nothing to do in the Assemblies but might sit here as a bruit or as one of a strange language that comes but to see and to be seen And therefore if there be not somewhat more suitable to him then power and spirituality it seemeth as no worship to the formal hypocrite It is the pretty jingles and knacks of wit and the merry jears at the preciser sort or some scraps of Greek and Latin Authors or shreds of Fathers or Philosophy or at best an accurate well set speech that makes the Sermon good and acceptable to this hypocrites ears It is not spirit and life within him that brought him hither nor is it spirit and life that he savoureth and that he came for And therefore it is that this sort of hypocrites are usually most impatient of a misplaced word or of a worship performed in the primitive simplicity If a man deliver the Lords Supper but as Christ did and receive it but as the Apostles did or serve God but as the Churches in their dayes he will seem unreverent and slovenly and sordid to these self-deceiving Formalists They are set upon excess of ceremonies because they are defective in the vital parts and should have no Religion if they had not this All sober Christians are friends to outward decency and order But it s the empty self-deceiver that is most for the unwarrantable inventions of men and sticketh in the bark of Gods own Ordinances that taketh the garments for the man and useth the worship of God but as a Masque or Poppet play where there 's great doings with little life and to little purpose The chastest woman will wash her face but it s the harlot or wanton or deformed that will paint it The soberest and the comelyest will avoid a nasty or ridiculous habit which may make them seem uncomely when they are not But a curious dress and excessive care doth signifie a crooked or deformed body or a filthy skin or which is worse an empty soul that hath need of such a covering Consciousness of such greater want doth cause them to seek these poor supplies The gawdiness of mens Religion is not the best sign that it is sincere Simplicity is the ordinary attendant of sincerity It hath long been a proverb The more ceremony the less substance and the more complement the more craft And yet if it were only for want of inward true Religion that the hypocrite setteth up his shews it were bad enough but not so bad as with most of them or all it is For it is an enmity to Religion that accompanyeth their Religion As in lapsed man the body that was before the souls obedient attendant is become its Master and the enemy of its perfection and felicity so in the carnal Religion of the Hypocrite the outside which should be the ornament and attendant of the inward spiritual part hath got the Mastery and is used in an enmity against the more noble part which it should serve and much more are his humane inventions and mixtures thus destructively imployed His bellows do but blow out the candle under pretence of kindling the fire He sets the body against the soul and sometime the cloathing against both He useth forms to the destruction of knowledge and quenching of all seriousness and fervour of affection By Preaching he destroyeth Preaching and prayeth till prayer is become no prayer but the image or carkass of prayer at the best And useth his words to the destruction of the due Principle sense and ends Having still his carnal self for his end he preacheth and prayeth and serveth God in a manner that seems most suitable to his end so that it is not Gods means that he useth when he useth them but his own Nor doth he indeed worship God while he seems to worship him nor is indeed Religious but seems Religious It is materially perhaps Gods work that he doth and his means that he useth but Formally they are his own and not Gods at all when we meet with abundance of our people that are most nimble in their accustomed forms that know not what Religion or Christianity is nor who Christ is nor almost any of the substance of the Gospel it assures us that its easie to be Infidels with Christian expressions in their mouths and that its easier to teach a Parret to speak then to be a man As their bodies are but the prisons or dungeons of their souls so their formal words and
THE VAIN RELIGION OF THE Formal Hypocrite And the mischief of an unbridled Tongue as against Religion Rulers or Dissenters described in several Sermons Preached at the Abby in Westminster before many Members of the Honourable House of Commons 1660. AND The Fools Prosperity The occasion of his destruction A Sermon Preached at Coven-Garden Both published to heal the effects of some Hearers misunderstandings and misreports By Richard Baxter London Printed by R. â— for F. Tyâ—oâ— at the three daggers in Fleet-street and Novel Sâ—mâ—n â—ookseller at Kedenmaster 1660. At â—â—boâ—nd TO THE READER THough God be not the Author of sin he knows why he permitteth tin the world He will be no loser and Satan shall be no gainer by it in the end The malice of the Devil wicked men is ordinarily the destruction of the cause which they most desire to promote and an advantage by accident to the cause and persons which they would root out from the earth Were there no more to prove this than the Instances of Josephs brethren of Pharaoh and the murderers of our Lord it were enough We usually lose more by the flatteries of Satan and the world than by their violence If these hasty course unpolished Sermons shall prove beneficial to the souls of any this also may come in among the lower rank of Instances If the Devil had let me alone they 〈◊〉 have been cast aside and no further molested him or his Kingdom for ought I know than they did upon the Preaching of them But seeing he will needs by malicious misreports and slanders kindle suspicion and raise offence against them and the Author let him take what he gets by it He hath never yet got much from me by violence or by his foulmouthed slanderous instruments No not when the impudence or multitude of their slanders have forced me to be silent lest I trouble the Reader or misspend my time The first of these Discourses being intended to undeceive the Formal Hypocrite and to call men from a Vain to a Saving serious Religion and to acquaint them that cry out against Hypocrisie where the Hypocrite is to be found it seems provoked the Ignorant or the Guilty in so much that the cry went that I Preacht down all Forms of Prayer and all Government and Order in the Church when there is not a Syllable that hath any such sense But it seems what I spoke against the Carkass was interpreted to be spoken against the Body of Religion The words of Mr. Bolton and other Divines which I have cited against the Reproachers of serious piety are added since the Preaching of the rest as being more fit to be presented here to the eye than in the Pulpit to the ear The petulancy of men on both extreams constrained me to add The Bridle for their tongues The second Discourse I understand offended some few of the Gallants that thought they were too roughly handled let them here peruse it and better concoct it if they please I only add this Observation to the Heirs of Heaven that are above this world and live by Faith Few rich men are truly Religious It is as hard for them to be saved as for a Camel to go through a needles eye Yet rich men will every where be the Rulers of the world and so as to outward protection or opposition the Judges in matters of Religion Judge therefore whether Dominion and earthly raign be the portion of the Saints as Jewishly some of late imagine and what usage we must ordinarily expect on earth and what condition the Church of Christ is like to be in to the end As his Kingdom so ours is not of this world A low despised suffering state is it that Behevers must ordinarily expect and prepare for and study to be serviceable in If better may I call it better come take it as a Feast and grudge not when the table is withdrawn and look not it should be our every dayes fare But yet value the more highly those few of the Rich and Great and Rulers that are above this world and devote their power and riches to the Lord and are Holy and Heavenly in the midst of so great temptations and impediments The Lord teach us to use this transitory world as not overusing it that we may never hear Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things Luke 16. 25. How shortly will they find themselves everlastingly undone that made not sure of a more enduring portion Reader that thou mayst savingly remember these common but necessary though much neglected truths is the end of these endeavours and shall be the matter of my hearts desire and prayers while the Lord continneth me His servant for the promoting the increase and edification of his Church Nov. 15. 1660 R. Baxter Postscript REaders meeting in his consideration of the Liturgy with these following words of Reverend D. Gauden I cannot but commend the Candor Justice and Integrity of M. Baxter who lately professed to me that he saw nothing in the Liturgy which might not well bear a good construction if men looked upon it as became Christians with eyes of Charity I was sensible of the great respects of this Learned and Reverend man but lest you misunderstand both him and me I think it best to tell you more fully what were my words Speaking for reformation of the Common prayer Book and an addition of other forms in Scripture phrase with liberty of choice c. I said That for the Doctrine of the Common prayer Book though I had read exceptions against divers passages I remembred not any thing that might not receive a good construction if it were read with the same candour and allowance as we read the writings of other men So that it was only the Truth of the Doctrine that I spoke of against which I hate to be peevishly quarrelsome when God hath blest this Church so wonderfully with a moderate and cautelous yet effectual Reformation in matter of Doctrine The more pitty is it that the very modes of Worship and Discipline should be the matter of such sharp and uncharitable discords which must one day prove the grief of those that are found to have been the causes of it and of the sufferings of the Church on that occasion The Contents THe Introduction Page 1. c. Dict There is a seeming Religiousness which is but self-deceiving and will prove in Vain Ten particulars that constitute the Hypocrites Vain Religion 11. to 20. Ten things that are yet wanting to the Hypocrite that prove his Religion Vain 20. to 34. By what means and method the Hypocrite makes shift to deceive himself by his Religion 34. to 49. What moveth the Hypocrite to this self-deceit and what are the reasons and uses of his Vain Religion 49. In what respects the Hypocrites religion is not Vain 80 In what respects his religion is Vain 92 Use 1. Why a seeming outside Hypocritical religion is so common in
comparison of serious faith and godliness 95 Why Popery hath so many followers 100 Use 2. To awaken the self-deceiving Hypocrite 108 Ten infallible marks of grace which are in all that are sound believers and set together describe his state premised to prevent the misapplication of what followeth and groundless troubles of the sincere iii Terror to the self-deceiver 1. His religion being Vain his hopes and comforts are all Vain 118 2. It will deceive him in his extremity 129 The detection of the Hypocrite by his contradicting all the parts of his Christian profession shewing that all the ungodly among us that profess to be true Christians are Hypocrites 148. to 173 The Hypocrites unbridled tongue 175 Sins of the tongue 177 What the text means 179 Three sorts especially reproved 180 1. The deriders scorners revilers or opposers of serious godliness Their terror in the aggravation of their sin 181. to 198 2. Those that uncharitably reproach each other for lesser differences in religion 198 Of the common malicious use of the nicknames Puritans Precisians Zealots c. 205 Bishop Downames testimony of the use of the word Puritan in his time 210 The testimony of Dr. Rob. Abbot Regius Professer of Divinity in Oxford and Bishop of Salisbury 211 Mr. Robert Boltons testimony at large 212 His further description of the Formal Hypocrite 217 Bishop Halls Character of an Hypocrite 226 3. The sinfulness of passionate reproachful speeches against superiors when we suffer by them for religions sake Proposed to the consideration of suffering tempted Christians how sincere soever 231 How far we may mention such sins of others 247 Two causes of mens frowardness of speech 250 Who is indeed the Hypocrite The impudency of our common Hypocritus that take serious godliness for hypocrisie If we will be Christians indeed we must be content to be 10 though we are not thought to be so and to be accounted Hypocrites when we have done most to approve our hearts and wayes to God 251 Eight directions to the Hypocrite to save him from a Vain religion 261 The prosperity of fools destroyeth them Prov. 1 32 33. Proved by Scripture and the impiety of such 278 How it destroyeth them 306 The ill uses of this truth to be avoided 315 The right uses urged 317 A hint of comfort to the obedient souls that they shall dwell in safety and be quiet from the fear of evil even when evil seemeth to prevail against them 336 THE VAIN RELIGION Of the Formal HYPOCRITE Jam. 1. 26. If any man among you seem to be Religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart this mans Religion is vain BEloved hearers I may suppose that we are all come hither to day for the great end of our lives and to labour in that work for which we are created redeemed preserved instructed and furnished with the helps and means of Grace even to prepare for death that is coming to arrest us and for the presence of our Judge who stands as at the door and to make our Calling and Election sure that the glory of the Saints may be our lot when the world of the ungodly are cast into endless misery and despair And I hope I may suppose that in order to this end you would gladly be acquainted with the causes of damnation that you may avoid them with your greatest dangers that you may escape them and with the hinderances of your salvation that you may overcome them When we read in the Gospel that salvation is to be offered unto all and no man is excepted or shut out but such as shut out and except themselves and yet read that there are but few that find the strait gate and the narrow way and that the flock is little that shall have the Kingdom and that many shall seek to enter that shall not be able Matth. 7. 13 14. Luk. 12. 32. and 13. 24. we must needs conclude that some powerful enemy standeth in the way that can cause the ruine of so many millions of souls But when we go further and find what rich preparations God hath made and what means he hath used and what abundant helps he offereth and affordeth to bring men to this blessed state of life it forceth us to admire that any enemy can be so strong as to frustrate so many and such excellent means But when we yet go further and find that salvation is freely offered and that the purchase is made by a Saviour to our hands and that hearty consent is the condition of our Title and nothing but our wilful refusal can undo us when we find that salvation is brought down to mens wills and also what motives and convincing helps and earnest perswasions are appointed and used to make men willing we are then surprized with yet greater admiration that any deceiver can be so subtile or the heart of man can be so foolish as to be drawn in despight of all these means to cast away the immortal crown that else no enemy could have taken from him And now we discern the quality of our enemy of our snares of our danger and of our duty It is not meer Violence but Deceit that can undo us not force but fraud that we have to resist And were not the mind of a carnal man exceeding brutish while he seemeth wise for carnal things it were a thing incredible that so many men could by all the subtilty of hell be drawn in the day-light of the Gospel deliberately and obstinately to refuse their happiness and to choose the open way of their damnation and leave their friends lamenting their calamity that might have mercy and cannot be perswaded to consent That Satan is the great Deceiver and layeth the snare and manageth the bait we are all convinced that the world and all our fleshly accommodations are the instrumental Deceivers the snare the bait which Satan useth is also a thing that we all confess But that beside the Devil and the World a Reasonable Creature should be his own Deceiver and that in a business of unspeakable everlasting consequence and that Religion it self a seeming Religiousness that indeed is Vain should be made by himself the means of his Deceit this is a mysterie that is opened to you in my Text and requireth our most careful search and consideration When Satan and the World have wounded us by their Deceits Religion is it that helpeth us to a cure He that is Deceived by pleasures and profits and the vain-glory of the world must be undeceived and recovered by Religion or he must perish But that Religion it self should become his deceit and the remedy prove his greatest misery is the most stupendious effect of Satans subtilty and a sinners fraudulency and the saddest aggravation of his deplorable calamity And yet alas this is so common a case that where the Gospel is Preached it seems to be Satans principal game and the high-way to hell There is no other Name by which
by his own iniquities crying out Unclean and loathing himself for all his abominations weary of his sin and heavy-laden as all must be that are fit for Christ Read Isa 57. 15. 66. 2. Psal 51. 17. 34. 18. Lev. 13. 44 45. Ezek. 36. 31. 20. 43. 6. 9. Matth. 11. 28. Rom. 7. 24. 4. This mans Religion must needs be Vain for he wanteth the life of faith it self and heartily believeth not in Christ He hath but an opinion of the truth of Christianity through the advantage of his education and company and thereupon doth call himself a Christian and heartlesly talk of the mysterie of Redemption as a common thing But he doth not with an humbled broken heart betake himself to Christ as his only refuge from the wrath of God and everlasting misery as he would lay hold on the hand of his friend if he were drowning The sense of the odiousness of sin and of the damnation threatned by the righteous God hath not yet taught him to value Christ as he must be valued by such as will be saved by him These hypocrites do but talk of Christ and turn his name as they do their prayers into the matter of a dry and customary form They flie not to him as the only Physician of their souls in the feeling of their festring wounds they cry not to him as the Disciples in the tempest Save Master we perish They value him not practically though notionally they do as the pearl for which they must sell all Matth. 13. 44 45 46. Christ doth not dwell in his heart by faith nor doth he long with all the Saints to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3. 17 18 19. He counteth not all things loss for Christ and the excellency of his knowledge nor doth he count them as dung that he may win Christ and be found in him not having his own righteousness but that which is through the faith of Christ Phil. 3. 8 9 10. nor can he truly say that he desireth to know nothing but a crucified Christ 1 Cor. 2. 2. and that the life that he now liveth in the flesh he liveth by the faith of the Son of God that loved him and gave himself for him Gal. 2. 20. He is not taken up with that admiration of the love of God in Christ as beseems a soul that is saved by him from the flames of hell and that is reconciled to God and made an heir of life everlasting He hath not understandingly deliberately seriously and unreservedly given up himself and all that he hath to Christ and thankfully accepted Christ and life as given on the Gospel terms to him This living effectual faith is wanting to the Hypocrite whose Religion is Vain 5. This Vain Religion doth never practically shew the soul the amiableness and attractive goodness of God so far as to win the heart to a practical estimation of him and adhering to him above all nor so far as to advance him above all the creatures in the practical judgement will and conversation nor doth it cause the soul to take him for its portion and prefer his savour before all the world and devote it self and all unto his interest and will and give him the superlative and soveraign honour both in heart and life Psal 63. 3. and 30. 5. and 4. 6 7. and 16. 5. and 17. 14. Mat. 10. 37. 6. This Vain Religion is alwayes without that serious belief of the life to come which causeth the soul to take it for its happiness and treasure and there to set its desires and its hopes and to make it his principal care and business to attain it and to make all the pleasures and profits and honours of the world to stoop to it as preferring it before them all Matth. 6. 20 21. and ver 33. Luk. 18. 22 23. and 14 33. Col. 3. 1 2 3 4 5. Phil. 3. 18 19 20. The Hypocrite taketh heaven but for a reserve and as a lesser evil then hell and seeks it but in the second place while his fleshly pleasures and interest have the preheminence and God hath no more but the leavings of the world and he serveth him but with so much as his flesh can spare 7. This Vain Religion consisteth principally in external observances If he be a Formalist that hath it his Religion lyeth in his beads and prayer books in going so oft to Church and keeping holy dayes and fasting dayes and saying over such and such words and using such and such gestures and ceremonies and submitting to Church orders and crying down Sectaries and preciseness and jearing at the simplicity of plain hearted Christians that never learnt the art of dissimulation Their Religion is but a pack of Complements a flattering of God as if they would mock him with cap an knee who will not be mocked Gal. 6. 7. while they draw near him with their lips their hearts are far from him Mat. 15. 7 8 9. They wash the outside and pay tithe of all and give some almes and forbear disgraceful sins which would make them be esteemed ungodly among men Mat. 15. 2 3. Mar. 7. 4 8. Matth. 23. 25 26 c. Mat. 6. 1 4 6. c Isa 1. 11 12 13 14. Isa 58. 1 2. But these self-deceivers are strangers to the inward spiritual work of holiness Their hearts are not busie in the worship of God by fervent desire and exercise of other graces while their tongues are put into an artificial pace and they are acting the part of men that seem to be Religious If they be cast into the Sectarian mold they place their Religion in the strictness of their Principles and Parties and in contending for them and in their affected fervour and ability to speak and pray ex tempore But the humble holy inward workings of the soul toward God and its breathings after him and the watch that it sets over the heart this hypocrite is much a stranger to If he be brought up among the Orthodox in well ordered Churches he placeth his Religion in the holding of the truth and taking the right side and submitting to right order and using Gods ordinances but the most of an upright mans employment is at home within him to order his soul and exercise grace and keep down sin and keep out the world and keep under the flesh and carnal self and do the inward part of duty And he is as truly solicitous about this as about the outward works and contenteth not himself to have said his prayers unless indeed his heart have prayed nor to have heard unless he have profited or heard with obediential attention And he makes conscience of secret duties as well as of those that are done in the sight of men But this the hypocrite comes not up to to trade in the internal spiritual part 8. The Religion that is Vain is without
an universal hatred of known sin and an actual conquering of it so far as to live out of gross sin which some call mortal and to be weary of infirmities and to be truly desirous to be rid of all and to be willing to use Gods means against it Thus it is with the sincerely Religious but not with these hypocrites that deceive themselves Joh. 3. 19 20. Rom. 7. 24. Luk. 13. 3 5. Rom. 8. 1. to the 14. Gal. 6. 7 8. The hypocrite hath not only some particular sin which all his Religion makes him not willing to see to be a sin or to forsake but his very state is sinful in the main by the predominancy of a selfish carnal interest and principle And he is not willing of close plain dealing much less of the diligent use of means himself to overcome that sin because he loveth it 9. This Vain Religion is not accompanied with an unseigned Love to a life of holiness which every true believer hath delighting to meditate in the Law of God with a practical intention to obey it and delighting in the inward exercise of grace and outward ordinances as advantages hereunto desiring still more of the grace which he hath tasted and grieving that he knoweth and trusteth and loveth and feareth and obeyeth God so little and longing to reach higher to know and love and fear him more Psal 1. 2. and â—19 1 2 3 4 5 9 10 c. Heb. 12. 14. 2 Pet. 3. 11. Matth. 7. 13 14. But the self-deceiver either hath a secret dislike of this serious diligence for salvation and loving God with all the soul and might because he is conscious that he reacheth it not himself or at least he will not be brought to entertain any more then will stand with his carnal ends 10. A Vain Religion doth not so far reveal the excellency of Christs image in his servants as to cause an entire Love to them as such and to delight in them above the most splendid and accomplisht persons that are strangers to the life of grace and so far to love them as when Christ requireth it to part with our substance and hazard our selves for their relief Thus do the truly Religious Psal 16. 2. and 15. 4. 1 Joh. 3. 14. Matth. 10. 40. 11. 42. and 25. 34 35 40 42 45 46. But the hypocrice either secrâ—tly hateth a heavenly holy life and consequently the people that are such because they seem to condemn him by overgoing him and differing from him or at least he only superficially approveth of them but will forsake both Christ and them in tryal rather then forsake his earthen God I have now shewed you what the self-deceiver wants in which you may see sufficient reason why his Religion is but Vain II. WE are next to shew you How these Hypocrites do deceive themselves and wherein their self-deceit consisteth It may seem strange that a man of reason should do such a thing as this when we consider that truth is naturally the object of the understanding and that all men necessarily love themselves and therefore love what they know to be simply good for them How then can any man that hath the use of reason be willing to be deceived yea and be his own deceiver and that in matters of unspeakable consequence But it is not as falshood nor as deceit that they desire it but as it appeareth necessary to the carnal ease and pleasure which they desire The way by which they deceive their own hearts consisteth in these following degrees 1. The hypocrite resisteth the Spirit of grace and rejecteth the mercies offered in the Gospel and so by his refusal is deprived of a part in Christ and of the life of grace and the hopes of glory which were tendered to him 2. But withal he is willing of so much of this mercy as consisteth with his sinful disposition and carnal interest He is willing enough to be happy in general and to be saved from hell fire and to be pardoned and to have such a heaven as he hath framed a pleasing imagination of 3. And therefore he maketh him up a Religion of so much of Christianity as will stand with his Pleasures profits and reputation in the world that so he may not be left in despair of being saved when he must leave the world that he must loved The cheap and the easie parts of Christianity and those that are most in credit in the world and that flesh and blood have least against these he will cull out from among the rest and make him a Religion of passing by the dearer and more difficult and spiritual parts 4. Having gone thus far he perswadeth his own heart that this kind of Religion which he hath patcht up and framed to himself 〈…〉 Religion the Faith the Hope the Charity the Repentance the Obedience to which Salvation is promised And that he is a true Christian notwithstanding his defects and that his spots are but such as are consistent with grace and that his sins are but pardoned infirmities and that he hath part in Christ and the promises of life and shall be saved though he be not of the preciser strain When he committeth any sin he confidently imagineth that his confession and his wishing it were undone again when he hath had all the pâ—easure that sin can give him is true repentance and that as a penitent he shall be forgiven And thus while he thinketh himself something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself Gal. 6. 3. He hath a counterfeit of every grace of God A counterfeit Faith and Hope and Love and Repentance and Zeal and Humility and Patience and Perseverance and these he will needs take to be the very life and image of Christ and the graces themselves that accompany salvation 5. Having got this Carkass of Religion without the soul he makes use of all those things to confirm him in his deceit which are appointed to confirm true Christians in their Faith and Hope When he reads or thinks of the infinite Goodness Love and Mercy of God he thinks God could not be so good and merciful if he should refuse to save all such as he When he readeth of the undertaking and sacrifice of Christ and how he is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world he confidently hence concludeth that a Saviour so gracious that hath done and suffered so much for sinners cannot condemn all such as he When he readeth of the extent and freeness of Grace in the promises of the Gospel he concludeth that these promises belong to him and that Grace could not be so free and so extensive if it did shut out all such as he When he observeth the Mercies of God upon his body in his friends and health and credit and prosperity he concludeth that surely God loveth him as a child in that he dealeth so Fatherly with him If he suffer adversity he thinks that it is the Fatherly chastisement of
and every comfortable Sermon or discourse which he heareth is abused to increase his self-deceit 11. It increaseth the Hypocrites self-deceit when he findeth some partial reformation in himself and that he hath mended many things that were amiss This he takes for a true conversion and thinks that the civilizing and smoothing of his life the change of his opinion and the taking up a form of godliness are true Sanctification and that he is not the man that once he was and therefore is in a safe condition Though alas he hath never yet known by experience the new heart the new ends the new resolutions affections and conversation of a Saint 12. Lastly he deceiveth himself by misunderstanding the nature of hypocrisie Because he perceiveth not that he is a gross dissembler but meaneth as he speaks so far as he goes therefore he thinks he is no Hypocrite Whereas besides the gross Hypocrite that knoweth he doth dissemble and only deceiveth others there are also close Hypocrites that know not they are Hypocrites but deceive themselves And these are they that my Text here speaks of when it saith He deceiveth his own heart It is Hypocrisie to seem better then one is and to profess to be a sincere Christian when he is none though he confidently think that he is what he professeth himself to be III. BUt what is it that can move a Reasonable creature to be willfully guilty of such self-deceit in the day-light of the Gospel when he hath so much help to see his way Answ 1. The are first acceived by the vanities of the world and the pleasures of sin before they deceive themselves by their Religion Their Religious self-deceiving is but subservient to their fleshly servitude and the worlds deceit They are carnal from the birth for that which is born of the flesh only is but flesh Joh. 3. 6. and custom in sinning fixeth and increaseth their sinful disposition Their hearts are engaged to their worldly accommodations and to their vain-glory and the things that please the flesh They are willing slaves to their conâ—upiscence And therefore they cannot admit of that Religion which would deprive them of that which they most dearly love Christ speaks too late to them They tell him they are promised already Their affections are pre-engaged sin hath taken up the chiefest rooms And the heart that loveth sensuality and prosperity best cannot love God best too for it can have but one best The 〈◊〉 of true Sanctification is to 〈…〉 the darling of a carnal 〈◊〉 and to cross it in its dearest loves and to lay that at our feet that before was as our treasure and to tame that body and bring it into subjection which before was in the throne The motions of such a change will not be acceptable till they are made so effectual as to cause that change The command will be unpleasant till the heart be suited to the nature of the command He that seeth what care and labour there is to gather a worldly treasure and what a stir is made in the world about it can never expect that all this should be vilified and despised at a word and that any doctrine how true and heavenly soever can be wellcome to these worldly men that would debase their glory and embitter their delights and make their Idol seem but dung The doctrine of Christ would take the old heart out of their bodies and they will not easily leave their hearts It doth not only command the drunkard to live soberly and the glutton temperately and the lascivious filthy sinner chastly and the proud person humbly and the covetous to live contentedly and liberally but it commandeth the hearty forsaking of all for the sake of Christ Luke 14. 33. and the accounting them but as loss and dung that we may win him Phil. 3. 7 8 9. and mortifying of that flesh which before we daily studyed to please Col. 3. 4 5. and the crucifying of its affections and lusts Gal. 5. 24. and the denyal even of our selves Luk. 9. 23 24. And for a carnal mind to love and yield to such commands were no other then to cease to be a carnal mind All this is largely expressed by the Apostle Rom. 8. 1 c. They that are in Christ Jesus walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit For to be carnally-minded is death but to be Spiritually minded is life and peace Because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if through the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live You see here why it is that the self-deceiver will not entertain the power of godliness nor be Religious seriously according to the true intent of the Gospel and the nature of Christianity even because he is engaged to a contrary object and hath another game in chase which he will not leave and which true Religion requireth him to leave and will not give him leave to follow And therefore he parteth with the Religion which would have parted him from that which he will not part with 2. But withall he is all this while under the threatenings of the Law of God and conscience is ready to bear witness against him and betwixt Law and Conscience the poor wretch is as the corn between two Milstones he would be ground to powder and tortured with terrors before his time if he had not some opiate or intoxicating medicine to ease him by deceiving him and to abate his fears and quiet his conscience as long as a palliate cure will serve turn So that here are two things for which the self-deceiving Hypocrite is fain to fall into his Vain Religion The one is that it may be a cloak to the sin which he will needs keep The other is that it may save him from the terrors and disquietments that for this sin his conscience would else afflict him with A belief that he may be saved for all his sin is the relief that he hath against the terrors of the Law of God He therefore chooseth out such parcels of Religion as may serve him for this use and yet will not separate him from the sin that he delighteth in The power of godliness will not consist with his coveâ—ous proud or fleshly life but the form and outside will And therefore this regeneration and mortification and self-denyal and subjection to the whole will of God and this heavenly mindedness and watching the heart and walking with God and living above the trifles of this world and making it the chief business to prepare for another this kind of Religion which is Religion indeed he cannot because he will not entertain This
is the strait gate and narrow way that few men find Here he must be excused God is no God for him upon these terms And he cannot and will not be his God on any other terms Christ is no Christ for him unless he will excuse him from this trouble and bear with him in his carnal course that is unless he will be indeed no Christ to him Heaven is no heaven for him unless he may pass to it through prosperity and sin and unless he may have it without the trouble of a holy life that is unless God will be unjust or false and heaven cease to be heaven and God cease to be God But yet these men are convinced that God is their rightful Governour and that indeed they should love him and serve him with all their heart and might and that without true Religion and godliness there is no salvation To be irreligious and prophane they know is a state that can afford no comfort or shelter from the wrath of God and therefore some Religion they must have They are not able to endure the thoughts of lying under the curse of God To conclude themselves to be utterly graceless and the children of the Devil and in a state of condemnation is so terrible that they are not able to endure it Then every Sermon they hear would torment them and every Chapter they read would torment them and their pleasures would all be imbittered to them and nothing that they enjoy in all the world would quiet and content them No nor shall do long And therefore they must needs take up some Religion to quiet them for a little while and to make them hope that for all their sins they are not so bad nor in so dangerous a case as Preachers tell them some Religion they must needs have for fear of being damned A sound and serious Religion they will not have because they love the world and sin which it would deprive them of And therefore they patch up a Vain Religion composed of so much truth and duty as will stand with their prosperity and beloved pleasures which will not save them but sufficeth to deceive them Two parts make up this self deceiving frame as consistent with their sins The one is the formal outward easie cheap part of duty to God and man in their practise leaving out the spiritual inward difficult dear self-denying part The other is the strictest parts of Religion in bare opinion and notion while they shut it out of their hearts and lives For both these may stand with a sensual worldly selfish life He may read or say his prayers and be a worldling still He may come to Church and with the greatest ceremony and seeming reverence receive the Sacrament and bow before the Lord his Maker and yet be sensual or a worldling still And he may be of the strictest party or opinion and notionally condemn all sin and justifie the most holy life and yet be sensual and worldly still And therefore this much he may be perswaded to take up to save himself from the lashes of his conscience And so the use of the Hypocrites Religion is to be a skreen betwixt him and the flames of wrath that would scorch him too soon if he were of no Religion and to be to him as a tent or pentise to keep off the storms that would fall upon him while he is trading for the world and working for the flesh His Religion is but the sheath of his guilty conscience to keep it from wounding him and cutting his fingers while they are busie in the brutish service of his lusts It is but as a glove to save his skin when he hath to do with the nettles and thorns of the threatenings of God and the thoughts of vengeance that else would rack his guilty soul It is but as his upper garment to save him from a storm and then to be laid by as an unnecessary burden when he is at home The Hypocrites Religion is but as his shooe he can tread it in the dirt so it will but save his foot from galling As a man that hath an unquiet scolding wife is fain to speak her fair by flatteries lest he should have no rest at home or as a thief is fain to cast a crust to the dog that barketh at him to stop his mouth so is an ungodly sensual person fain to flatter his conscience with some kind of Religiousness and to stop its mouth with some kind of devotion and seeming righteousness that may deceive him into a belief that he is the child of God Religion is the Soveraign in a gracious soul and the Master in an upright conscience and ruleth above all worldly interests But with the unregenerate it is but an underling and servant that must do no more then the flesh and the world will give consent to and is regarded no further then for meer necessity and when it hath done the work which the Hypocrite appointed it it is dismissed and turned out of doors God is acknowledged and loved by the Hypocrite but not as God Christ is believed in and accepted but not as Christ but as an underling to the world and a journy-man to do some job of work for a distressed wrangling conscience or as an unwelcome Physician to give them a Vomit when they have taken some extraordinary surfeit of sensual delights When they have faln into great affliction or into any foul disgraceful sin then perhaps they take up their prayer books or call upon Christ and seem devout and very penitent But their piety is blown over with the storm The effect ceaseth with the cause It was not the Love of God or of his holy wayes and service that set them upon their devotions but some tempest of adversity or shipwrack of their estates or friends or consciences and when the winds are laid and the waves are still their devotion ceaseth with their danger 3. Add hereunto to shew you the reason of the Hypocrites self-deceit that he is one that never practically saw the amiableness of holiness in it self and never had a heart that was touched with the love of it by the Spirit of holiness and therefore he taketh it but for meer necessity and therefore he taketh up no more then he thinks is of necessity to save him from damnation when he can live in the pleasures of the world no longer God never had his heart He had rather be about his sports or worldly business if he durst and thought he could be so excused He loveth a pair of Cards or Dice or a Harlot or his ambitious designs and honours better then he loveth the holy Scriptures and the heavenly discourse or contemplation of the life to come And therefore he will have no more Religion then needs he must because he taketh it not for love but need The matters of the world and the flesh are his dyet and his extraordinary successes and prosperity are his feast
And first Negatively it is not Vain to his own carnal ends but to the true ends of Religion 1. He intendeth by it the quieting of his own accusing conscience and the keeping up his hopes of salvation and keeping off the terrors of the Lord and so consequentially the deceiving of his own heart and to these ends it s not in Vain Here he sitteth as quietly as if all were well between God and him and heareth the threatenings as securely as if they concerned not him at all and applyeth the promises as boldly as if he were one of the heirs of promise you would little think that this man must shortly be cast into utter darkness from the presence of the Lord and have his portion with Hypocrites Matth. 24. 51. His everlasting horrours appear not now to himself upon his heart nor to others in his face what sign can you see of the curse of the Law or the wrath of God in that mans countenance what sign of his spiritual captivity and slavery and of the load of sin that lyeth upon his soul unless it be that he feels it not what sign of a man in so great danger of eternal torment unless it be that he little feareth it Doth he sit there like a man that is within a step of hell and shall shortly be there with the Devil and his Angels as sure as he is here unless he be saved by that grace and holiness which he now resists No he is as confident to be saved as the precisest of you all he is as little troubled with the fears of hell or the wrath of God as those that are discharged from it by Justification and perhaps much less For all this he is beholden to his Vain Religion that in the point of self-deceiving is not Vain As solid evidences promote the comâ—orts of true believers so this superficial kind of Religion promoteth the present peace of the presumptuous 2. This Religion is not Vain as to the frustrating of all the means of grace and hindering the conversion and Salvation of the Hypocrite This is his armour of defence against the sword of the Spirit that would pierce his heart and let out his close corruption and separate him from his beloved sin What tell you him of Repentance and Conversion He thinks he needeth no Conversion or is converted long ago what is he not a Christian a Protestant a Religious man Tell swearers and cursers and drunkards and extortioners and cruel Land-lords and fornicators of Conversion tell these that they are slaves of Satan and under the wrath and curse of God that are indeed so past all controversie but tell not him of it that makes no doubt but he is a member of Christ a Child of God and an heir of heaven He loveth to hear a Minister rouze up the prophane and grossely sensual offendors and seems in pitty to wish for their conversion and perhaps will exhort them to turn and mend their lives himself But he little thinks that he is faster in the prison of Satan then they and that he is himself in the same condemnation Do you go about to tell him of the necessity of the fear of God and of loving him above all and of trusting him and serving him as our only Lord Why all this he will confess and perhaps is as forward to say as you and verily thinks that he is one that doth it you may assoon make him believe that he is not an English man as that he is not a Christian and that he loveth not himself as that he loveth not God even while he liveth not to think of him to speak of him to call upon him to obey him while he loveth not his word his waies or servants or while he loveth the world and the pleasures of sin more heartily and seeketh them more eagerly and cleaveth to them more tenaciously yet if you would perswade him that he hath not a heart as true to God as any of you all you will lose your labour Do you tell him of hypocrisie he will tell you that its the thing he hateth who speaks against it more then he And because the world shall see he is no Hypocrite he will call them all Hypocrites that are faithful to God and to their souls and will not sit down in his truely-hypocritical Vain Religion but will be more holy and diligent then he What can you say to such a man in order to his conversion which his self-deceiving Religion will not frustrate Do you tell him of hell fire and of the wrath of God against the ungodly All this he can hear as calmly as another man for he thinks that he is none of the ungodly he hath scapt the danger let them be afraid of it whom it doth concern If you tell him of his sins he can tell you that all men are sinners we are here imperfect and you shall never perswade him that his raigning deadly sins are any other then such humane frailties and infirmities as may stand with grace Do you put him upon the inward practice of Religion and the fuller devoting of his soul to God and the life of faith and a heavenly mind Hee 'l tell you that in his measure he doth all this already though none of us are so good as we should be And his heart being unseen to you he thinks you must believe him Do you blame him for his slightness and Formality in Religion and put him upon a more serious diligent course and to live as one that seeketh heaven with all his heart and soul and might why he thinks you do but perswade him to some self-conceited over-zealous party and draw him from his moderation to be righteous overmuch and to make too much ado with his Religion Unless he be an Hypocrite that falleth into the Schismatical strain and then he will make a greater busle with his opinions and his outside services then you can desire So that one with his meer book-prayers forms and ceremonies and the other with his meer extemporate words and affected outside seeming fervour and both of them by a meer Opinionative lifeless carnal kind of Religion subjected to their fleshly ends and interests do so effectually cheat their souls that they are armed against all that you can say or do and you know not how to get within them or fasten any saving truth upon their hearts 3. This Vain Religion is not Vain as to the preserving of his reputation in the world It saveth him from being numbered with the filthy rabble and from being pointed at as notoriously vicious or branded with the disgraceful characters of the scandalous Men say not of him There goeth a drunkard a swearer a curser a fornicator or a prophane ungodly wretch He may be esteemed civil ingenuous discreet and perhaps Religious and be much honoured by wise religious men Though most commonly his formal or opinionative heartless kind of Religion is discerned or much suspected
the Chappel of a Saint in Pilgrimage in carrying about them a bone or some other supposed relict of a supposed Saint In confessing their sins so often to a Priest and doing penance if he impose it on them And so while they live in whoredom or drunkenness or swearing or lying or all these and many other such it is but confessing and doing penance and to it again on which account whatever some of them say for the necessity of contrition it is usual with them to venture upon the sins of whoredom drunkenness and the rest because they have so easie and cheap a remedy at hand And therefore I wonder not that among Infidels who after Baptism Apostatize to deny the holy Scriptures and the immortality of the soul and the life to come and among common swearers and cursers and whoremongers and drunkards the Papists find their labours most successeful and that no fish will so easily take their bait Nor do I wonder that it is a point of the Popish faith that none but the Children of the Devil that are void of the love of God and are unjustified can possibly turn Papists For they tell us that all are such till they are Papists saving that they are many of them for the salvation of heathens A poor wretch that is captivated to his odious lusts and goes under a galled accusing conscience will be content to take a Popish cure and quiet his soul with a few complements and formalities But to bring one of these men to a through conversion to a true humiliation to a deep hatred of all sin and a love of holiness to close with Christ as his only refuge from the wrath of God and to give up himself without any reservation and all that he hath to the will and service of the Lord to love God as his portion and the infinite transcendent good to take all the honour and riches of the world as loss and dung and use all in due subserviency to everlasting happiness to crucifie the flesh and mortifie all his earthly inclinations and live a life of self-denyal and to walk with God and serve him as a Spirit in spirit and in truth and to keep a watch over thoughts affections words and deeds to live by faith upon a world and happiness that is to us unseen and to live in preparation for their death and wait in hope to live with Christ this is Christianity and true Religion and this is it that they will not so easily be brought to It s easier to make an hundred Papists then one true regenerate Christian Children can make them a baby of clouts And the statuary can make a man of Alabaster or stone But none can give life which is essential to a man indeed but God There needeth the Spirit of the living God by a supernatural operation and a kind of new creation to make a man a real holy Christian But to bring a man to make such a congee or wear such a vesture or say such and such words and make to himself a mimical Religion this may be done without any such supernatural work O therefore take heed of cheating your souls by hypocritical formalities instead of the life and power of Religion Vse 2. ANd now O that the Lord of life would help me so to apply this truth and help you so to apply it to your selves that it might be as a light set up in the Assembly and in all your consciences to undeceive the miserable self-deceivers and to bring poor Hypocrites into some better acquaintance with themselves and to turn their seeming Vain Religion into that which is real and serious and saving And now I am to search and convince the Hypocrite I could almost wish that all the upright tender souls that are causelesly in doubt of their own sincerity were out of the congregation lest they should misapply the Hypocrites portion to themselves and think it is their case that I am describing as it is usual with ignorant patients especially if they be a little melancholy when they hear or read the description of many dangerous diseases to think that all or some of them are theirs because they have some symptomes very like to some of those which they hear or read of Or lest their fearful souls should be too much terrified by hearing of the misery of the Hypocrite as a fearful child that 's innocent will cry when he sees another whipt that 's faulty But if thou wilt stay and hear the Hypocrites examination I charge thee poor humbled drooping soul that thou do not misunderstand me nor think that I am speaking those things to thee that are meant to the falshearted enemies of the Lord and do not imagine that thou art condemned in his condemnation nor put not thy self under the stroaks that are given him but rejoyce that thou art saved from this state of self-deceit and misery And that thou mayst have some shelter for thy conscience against the storm that must fall on others look back on the foregoing description of the Hypocrite and thou mayst find that thou hast the saving graces which I there discovered him to want Let these at present be before thine eyes and tell thee Thou art not the person that I mean 1. Thou art humbled to a loathing of thy self for thy transgressions 2. Thou art willing to give up thy self to Christ without reserve that as thy Saviour he may cure thy miserable soul upon his own terms 3. The favour of God is dearer to thee then the favour of the world or the pleasures and prosperity of sinners and thou longest more to love him better and to feel his love then for any of the honours or advancements that flesh and blood desire 4. It is the life to come that thou takest for thy portion and preferest before the matters of this transitory life 5. Thy Religion employeth thee about thy heart as much as about the out side and appearing part It is heart-sins that thou observest and lamentest and a better heart that thou daily longest and prayest and labourest for 6. Thou livest not in any gross and deadly sin and thou hast no infirmity but what thou longest and labourest to be rid of and goest on in the use of Christs holy means and remedies for a cure 7. Thou dislikest not the highest degree of holiness but lovest it and longest after it and hadst rather be more holy then be more honourable or more rich 8. Thou unfeignedly lovest the image of Christ on the souls of all his servants where thou canst discern it and seest a special excellency in a poor humble heavenly Christian though never so low or despicable in the world above all the pompe and splendor of the earth and thou lovest them with a special love and the holier they are the better dost thou love them 9. Thou lovest the most convincing searching Sermons and wouldest fain have help to know the worst that is in thy
at as the only dissemblers of the world You must not only be honest but patiently expect to be accounted dishonest you must not only bewise and sober but patiently expect to be accounted fools and mad men You must not only be liberal charitable and contemners of the world but patiently expect to be called covetous even though you give away all that you have You must not only be chaste and temperate but also patiently expect to be defamed as incontinent and licentious and as Christ was called a wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners A Minister must not only lay out himself wholly for the saving of mens souls and spend himself and all that he hath on his Masters work but also patiently expect to be accounted unfaithful coveâ—ous and negligent and murmured at by almost all whose unreasonable desires he doth not answer and be censured by almost all whose wills and humours he doth not fulfill and that is most that have a self that ruleth at home and therefore they think should be the Idol of others as it is their own and that are but unacquainted with the reasons of those things that do displease them It s little comfort to us to do good if we cannot bear the estimation of doing evil and cannot lose all the observation acknowledgement and applause of man as if we had never done the good at all It is far from Christian perfection to be honest and godly and sincere if we must needs be accounted to be as we are and cannot patiently be esteemed dishonest ungodly and hypocritical and be judged worst when we are best what have the servants of Christ lost their lives for in flames and by other sorts of torments but for the best of their service and greatest of their piety and fidelity When dogs bark at passengers commonly it signifieth but two things viz. that they are persons that they know not or that they hate but it is no sign that the persons are bad or poor or sick For be they never so bad and miserable if they know them and love them the dogs will not bark at them See that thou be not an Hypocrite and then it must be accounted a small matter by thee to be called an Hypocrite yea if persons that fear God themselves shall so esteem thee it is no other affliction but what thou must be armed for and patiently undergo Even from the godly through mistake we oft suffer most for our greatest duties and are censured most for that which God and conscience most approve us for and lose our reputations for that which God would be greatly offended with us if we did otherwise As ever then you would not prove your selves Hypocrites see that you look not for the Hypocrites reward as Christ calls it Matth. 6. 2. which is to be approved of men be they good or bad men their overvalued applause may be but the Hypocrites reward To be content and patient in doing well and being judged to do ill and in being good and being judged to be bad is the property of him that is sincere indeed therefore to be unthankfully requited and reviled and spit upon and buffeted and shamefully used and put to death even by those whose lives and souls he had with greatest care and condescension pittied this was the pattern of love and self-denyal that was set us by our Lord. And though we cannot reach his measure and distempered Christians find much strugling before they can bring themselves to patience under such ingratitude and unworthy usage from the world especially from their mistaken froward brethren yet in some prevailing measure it must be done For he that cannot serve God without the Hypocrites reward is but an Hypocrite If he will not be a Christian obedient charitable diligent faithful for heaven and the pleasing of God alone he is not a Christian indeed And alas what a pittiful reward is it to be thought well of and applauded by the tongues of mortal men How few were ever the more holy by applause but thousands have been hurt if not undone by it Thou givest all thou hast to the poor thou spendest thy self wholly and all that thou hast for the service of God and the good of others Its well it must be so But after all thou art censured slandered vilified and unthankfully and unmannerly used And what of that what harm dost thou fear by it what advantage thy pride and selfishness might have taken even by due applause and thankfulness its easie to perceive But now the temptation is taken out of thy way thou art secluded from all creature-comforts and so art directed and almost forced to look up to the love of God alone Now thou hast no other reward before thee it s easier to look singly on the Saints reward When God hath no competitour to whom else then canst thou turn thy thoughts when all others abuse thee it is easiest to have recourse to him When earth will scarce afford thee any quiet habitation thou 'lt surely look to heaven for rest Thus much I thought meet to interpose here for the confirmation of the sincere on occasion of the worlds unjust accusations and so to perswade them to be satisfied in the portion of the sincere I now return again to the self-deceiver ANd here I shall conclude all with these two requests to you which as one that foreseeth the approaching misery of self-deceivers I earnestly intreat you for the sake of your immortal souls that you will not deny me The first is that you will be now but as willing to try your selves as I have been to help you and as diligent and faithful when you are alone in calling your own hearts to a close examination as I have been to hold the light here to you O refuse not delay not to withdraw your selves sometimes from the world and set your selves as before the eye of God and there bethink your selves whether you have been what you have vowed and profest to be and whether that God hath been dearest to your hearts and obeyed in your lives and desired as your happiness who hath been confessed and honoured with your lips Consider there that God judgeth not as man nor will he think ever the better of you for thinking well of your selves and that there must go more to prove your approbation with God then commonly goes to keep up your reputation in the world The Religion that serveth to honour you before men and to deceive your selves will never serve to please the Lord and save your souls And the day is at hand when nothing but God can give you comfort and when self-deceivers will become everlastingly self-tormentors O therefore go willingly and presently to the Word to your lives and hearts and consciences and try your selves and try again and that with moderate suspicion that in so great a business you may not be deceived and be self-deceivers 2. My second request is that if you do
discover or but justly suspect your selves of hypocrisie and self-deceit you would stick there no longer but presently change your vain Religion your seemings and formalities for the power of godliness and sincerity of heart But I suppose that some of you will say There lies the difficulty O that we could do it But how should it be done I answer If thou be really willing to be above Hypocrisie and a vain Religion the cure is half wrought at least And I will not tire thee now with many but help and try thee by these few directions In general Be but what thou hast promised and vowed to be in thy Baptism and what thou still dost profess to be as a Christian and it will serve the turn what that is I have told you before More particularly Direct 1. Deliberately renew thy Covenant with God and with a grieved heart bewailing that thou hast been a Covenant-breaker give up thy self presently to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as thy Creatour Redeemer and Sanctifier thy Owner thy Ruler and thy Father 2. Renounce sincerely the Devil the World and the Flesh and be at a point with all below and quit all conceits and hopes of felicity or rest on earth And absolutely devote and resign thy self and all thou hast to the will and service of thy Lord without any secret exceptions or reserves This is the property and plague of Hypocrites that secretly they have exceptions and reserves in giving up themselves to God They will follow him except it would disgrace them or undo them in the world he shall have all provided the flesh may not be too much pinched that is in plain English they take him not for God but for a second to themselves and the world and will give him but what the flesh can spare 3. Fix the eye of a lively faith upon God and upon the everlasting joyes and there take up thy whole reward and look for no other Quit all expectations of a reward from men Let it seem a small thing to thee what any mortal man shall think or speak of thee unless as Gods honour or interest is concerned in thine I have told you before that he is an Hypocrite that will not be godly without the Hypocrites reward and that can sail no further then he is moved by the wind of mans applause or of some other worldly end 4. Stick not in any externals of Religion nor in notions and barren uneffectual opinions So far art thou Religious as thy soul is engaged unto God and thy life imployed for him And so far thou dost truly worship him as thy heart is drawn up to him in love and as thou dost fear him admire him trust him and take thy pleasure in him Think not that it is a saving Religiousness to be of such or such an opinion or such a party or such a Church or to say over so many words of prayer or to keep a task of outward duties or to be of a ready voluble tongue in Preaching Prayer or Discourse Religion lyeth in the Heart and Life 5. Indulge not thy self in one known sin Retain no gross or willfull sin Plead for no Infirmity but make it the business of thy life to extirpate the relicts of the body of death Be willing of the most searching Word and of the plainest reproof and of all the help thou canst get against so dangerous an enemy 6. Stint not thy self in any low degrees of holiness but love and long and strive after the highest If thou bear a secret core of distast against those that outgo thee it is a mortal sign Thou must be perfect in desire or thou art not sincere 7. Walk alwaies as in the presence of the holy dreadful heart-searching God Remember that he seeth thy ends thine affections and all thy thoughts Be the same therefore in secret as thou art in publike sincerely search the Word of God and know what it is that he would have and that resolve on if all the world should be against it Unresolvedness is hypocrisie and temporizing or following the greater side for the security of the flesh is no better Never think thou canst be too holy or too obedient But make it thy study to do God all the service that thou canst whatever suffering or cost it put thee to Be not ashamed openly to own the cause of Christ In the presence of the greatest remember that thy master is so much greater that they are worms and vanity to him Take heed of culling out the easie and cheap part of Religion and laying by the difficult and dear Thy Religion must be as the heart in thy breast which is alwaies working and by which thou livest which cannot stop long but thou wilt die But the Hypocrites Religion is like the Hâ—t upon his head for ornament and shelter from the weather and not for life in the night when none seeth him he can lye without it and in the day he can put it off for the sake of a friend and perhaps stand bare in the presence of a greater person that expecteth it So can the Hypocrite too oft dispense with his Religion 8. Be hearty and serious in all thou dost Hear and read and pray as for thy life Sincerity consisteth much in seriousness Remember thou art almost at another world while I am speaking and thou art hearing we are both hasting to our endless state O how should men live on earth that must live here for so short a time and must live for ever in heaven or hell These things are true and past all question and therefore for your fouls sake lose not heaven by trifling Pray not in jeast and serve not God in jeast and resist not sin in jeast least you be damned in good sadness When you are at work for eternity its time to do it with all your might O what unconceivable mercies are now offered you O what an excellent price is in your hands and nothing is so likely to deprive you of the benefit as dreaming and dallying when you should be up and doing as if this were not your business but your play and salvation and damnation were matters of sport O do but set your selves to the pleasing of God and the saving of your souls with all your might and ply it with diligence as your chiefest work and then you are out of the danger of the Hypocrite But if still you will give the world the preheminence and your flesh must be pleased and your prosperity secured and God must have but complements or the leavings your misery is at hand and vengeance shall undeceive those hearts that would not be undeceived by the Word And you shall remember to the increase of your anguish that you were told this day that your seeming trifling Religion would prove vain But I beseech you as you are men as you love your souls dismiss us with some better hopes and now resolve to be downright
Christians Which as I have begged of you I shall now beg of God THE Fools Prosperity A SERMON Preached at Coven-Garden published upon occasion of some offence and misreports By R. B. Printed in the year 1660. Prov. 1. 32 33. For the turning away of the simple shall slâ—y them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them But who so hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil THE bounteous offers and vehement exhortations of Christ here in this Chapter were accompanied with a foresight and prediction of their rejection by many yeâ— doth not that prevent â—he offers and exhortations but occasion the predâ—ction of the câ—â—â—mity of the refusers God will not go out of his way because the ungodly will not walk with him He will do the part of a righteous Governour though he foresee that men will not do the part of obedient subjects But his primary end shall be attained upon the Righteous in the successes of his grace as his secondary end shall be upon the Disobedient in the honour of his vindictive Justice This is the sense of the words which I have now read to you Which 1. Describe the ungodly 1. By their present way of sin 2. And by their future state of misery Their sin is described by 1. The occasion 2. The act 3. The habit Prosperity and ease is the occasion turning away from God and rejecting his counsel is the act And folly or simplicity is part of the habit Simplicity is here taken for sinful foolishness and not as it is often for commendable sincerity Whether you read it The turning away or the ease of the simple it is all one as to the scope and use that I shall now make of it both being included as to the sense in the other words Folly is mentioned both as the cause of their abuse of prosperity and as the effect of prosperity so abused Because they are fools they turn Gods mercies to their own destruction And because they prosper they are confirmed in their folly 2. The words describe the godly 1. By their obedience they hearken unto Christ 2. By their priviledge or reward they shall dwell safely and be quiet from fear of evil We shall begin with the first and shew you 1. That it is so that the prosperity of fools destroyeth them 2. How folly and prosperity concur to their destruction or how prosperity befooleth and destroyeth them 3. How we should all improve this truth to our best advantage I. Scripture and experience concur in proving the truth of the conclusion 1. Though God tell us in his Word of a difficulty that all must conquer that will be saved yet it is a greater extraordinary difficulty that he tells us of as to the rich and prosperous in the world such a difficulty as is pathetically exprest by this interrogation Luke 18. 24. How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God such a difficulty as is expressed by this proverbial comparison ver 25. For it is easier for a Camel to go through a needles eye then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God such a difficulty as â—â—st he hearers into admiration and made them ask v. 26. Who then can be saved such a difficulty as is to man an impossibility v. 27. and leaves only this hope that Things are possible to God that are impossible to man 2. And though its said of men indefinitely that it is but few that shall be saved yet is it noted of the rich and prosperous that its few of them among those few or few in comparison of other sorts of men that shall be saved Joh. 7. 48. Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharises believed on him 1 Cor. 1. 26. For ye see your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and base things of the worâ—â— and things which are dâ—spisâ—d hath God chosen yea and things that are not to bring to nought things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence And therefore Scripture speaketh in such general language as if salvation had been almost appropriated to the poor and the rich had been excluded because of the rarity of their salvation Luke 6. 24 25. But wo unto you that are rich for ye have received your consolation wo unto you that are full for ye shall hunger wo unto you that laugh now for you shall mourn and weep Jam. 2. 5 6. Hearken my beloved brethren hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him but ye have despised the poor Do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgement-seats Do they not blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called And therefore when Christ would describe a wicked miserable man he doth it in these words Luke 16. 19. There was a certain rich man which was cloathed in purple and fine linnen and fared sumptuously every day And Luk. 12. 16 19. The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully c. And when he would describe a godly happy man he doth it under the name of a Lazarus Luke 16. 20. Judge now by the success as it is discovered in the Scriptures what good prosperity doth to fools I might turn you to Davids observations in Psal 37. and 73. and mind you why it is that Christ himself went before us in a state of chosen poverty 2 Cor. 8. 9. and why his Disciples followed him in this tract and why he called them so much to deny and forsake the riches of the world and tried them so oft by selling all and following him in hopes of a heavenly reward Buâ— the point is evident in whâ—â—'s said in my text and these annexed testimonies 2. But yet to make you more apprehensive of it I shall adjoyn the testimony of Experience And tell me whether prosperity be not the destruction of 〈◊〉 when you have noted the â—ruits of it in these few observations 1. Where do you find less serious â—ure 〈…〉 salvation then among the prosperous great ones of the world what abundance of them are deâ—d-hearâ—ed sensless disregarders of everlasting things what abundance oâ— them are of no Religion but the custome of their Country and the will of their superiours which are their Bible their Law and Gospel and their Creed what abundance of them are addicted to that worship which Christ pronounceth vain which is measured by the traditions of men and consisteth meerly in ceremonious 〈◊〉 How few of them are acâ—â—â—â—ted with the spiritual worship 〈◊〉 that God who being a Spirit can accept no worship but what is spiritual Alas poor souls they drown
their reason in sensuality and are fed as for the slaughter and think not seriously whether they are going till prosperity hath ceased to deceive them and Satan is content to let them see â—hat they have lost and he hath wâ—n the game They are of the Religion described by the Apostle 1 Tim. 6. 5. that taketh gain for godliness But if godliness must go for gain they will have none To oppress their tenants and devour widdows houses and cloak it with a long pharisaical lip-service or wipe their mouths with some customary complemental prayers and offer God to be a sharer in the prey this is the commonest Religion of the rich But they cannot endure to be so pure as to devote themselves to God in that pure and undefiled Religion which visiteth the fatherless and widdows in their affliction and keepeth men unspotted from the world Jam. 1. 27. What houses or company can you go into where Religion is more bitterly derided more proudly vilified more slanderously reproached or more ingeniously abused and opposed then among the rich and full-fed worldlings And if there be here and there a person fearing God among them he passeth for a rarity or wonder And a little Religion goes a great way and is applauded and admired as eminent sanctity in persons of the higher rank If a poor man or woman dwell as it were in heaven and walk with God and think and speak and live by rule it s scarce regarded poverty or want of a voluble tongue or the mixtures of unavoidable frailties or some imprudent passages that come from the want of a more polishing culture and education doth make their piety but matter of jeasting and reproach to the Dives'es of the world But if a Lord or Knight or Lady have but half their piety humility and obedience to God how excellent are they in their Orbs Nay if they do but countenance Religion and befriend the servants of the Lord and observe a course of cold performances with the mixture of such sins for which a poor man should be almost excommunicate what excellent religious persons are they esteemed 2. What families are worse ordered and have less of serious piety then the rich If our splendid gallants should be desired to call their families constantly to prayer to instruct them all in the matters of salvation to teach them the Word of God with that diligence as is commanded Deut. 6. and 11. and to help them all in their preparations for death and judgement to catechise them and take an account of their proficiency to curb profaneness and excess and to say with Joshua 24. 15. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord how strange and precise a course would it seem to them should they purge their families of ungodly servants and imitate David Psal 101. that would not let the wicked dwell in his sight should they spend the Lords dayes in as serious endeavours for the spiritual benefit of their families and themselves as poor men do that fear the Lord what wonders of piety would they seem 3. In their entertainments visitations and converse how rare is serious holy confereâ—ce among them How seldome do you hear them remembering their guests and companions of the presence of the holy God of the necessity of renewing confirming and assisting grace of the riches of Christ revealed in the Gospel of the endless life of joy or misery which is at hand How seldome do you hear them seriously assisting each other in the examining of their hearts and making their calling and election sure and preparing for the day of death and judgement A word or two in private with some zealous Minister or friend is almost all the pious conference that shall be heard from some of the better sort of them Should they dâ—scourse as seriously of the life to come and the preparation necessary thereto as they do about the matters of this life they would marâ— the mirth and damp the pleasure of the company and be taken for self-conceited hypocrites or men of an unnecessary strictness and austerity inconsistent with the jocund lepidity and sensual kind of delight wherewith they expect to be entertained The honest heart-warming heavenly discourse that is usual among poor serious Christians would seem at the tables of most of our great ones but an unseasonable interruption of their more natural and acceptable kind of converse 4. What men do more carelesly cast away their precious time then these Dives'es do They think they have a license to be idle and unprofitable because they are rich that is to abuse or hide their talents because they have more then other men Forgetting that to whom much is given of them shall much be required Because they have no poverty or family-necessities to constrain them to a laborious life they think they may lawfully take their ease and live as droans on other mens labours as if they owed nothing to God or the Common wealth but all to their own flesh Their morning hours which are most seasonable for meditation and holy addresses unto God and the works of their calling are perhaps consumed in excess of sleep The next are wasted in long attiring and curious adorning of their flesh from thence they pass to vain discourse to needless-recreations to eating and drinking and so to their vain talk and recreations again and thence to the replenishing of their bellies and so to sleep And thus the words of the fool that Christ describeth in Luke 12. 19. are turned by them into deeds and it is the language of their sensual lives Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry Sleeping and sporting and jeasting and idle talking and eating and drinking and dressing and undressing with worldly cares and passions intermixt are the very business and employment of their lives Thus contemptuously do they waste their precious hours while God stands by and time makes haste and death draws near and their miserable souls are unprepared and heaven or hell are hard at hand and this is all the time of preparation that ever shall be allowed them O do but look on these distracted piteous souls that have but a short uncertain life to provide for a life that hath no end and see how they forget or senslesly remember the matters of infinite concernment see how they trifle away that time that never will return how they sport and prate away those hours which shortly they would recall were it possible with the lowdest cryes or recover with the dearest price When they know not but in a laughter-or a merry jeast their breath may be stopped by an arrest from heaven or justice may surprize their miserable unready souls with the cards in their hands or the cup at their mouths when they have not the least assurance of being out of hell an hour and yet can sell this time for nothing and basely cast it away on toyes which