your own hearts But I say however whatever you do in the world and whatever you be be not Hypocrites Shew your selves to be what you are let the sense of things so lye upon you that you may not deceive I say not that profane hearts should vent their profane thoughts but lye humbly before God in a deep sence of your deceitfull hearts And make not the world beleeve you have such and such enjoyments and sights of Christ yet have none ☞ Take the best of men in the world we that preach to you we are in some kind Hypocrites we thinke we are so and so and speake nothing but from our own experiences in our hearts we may shew a perfect rule and yet be Hypocrites in many things Only there is the spirituall intention and reality to honour God which is the only comfort but we are not fully what we appeare to be yet are endeavouring and pressing on to be so and that shews we are not hypocrites though in some sense every man may be called a hypocrite when he is not what he should be Oh! take heed take heed But I say be what the Gospell saies hold forth what you are indeed unto the world I had thought to have named severall sorts of persons that had more need to looke into their own hearts about hypocrisie First those that are of popular spirits that are to converse with many these had need looke closely to their own spirits for the most of our garbs and expressions are but very seldome true and reall but of the deep sence of our duties to one another Take heed therefore lest we gather up a name of hypocrisie it is very hard to have much converse with the World and not be much in hypocrisie without a man be much given up to reality of spirit you will find your tempers in that regard how they are you had need have more warinesse in your owne spirits Secondly those that are of a naturall cunningnesse a naturall craftiness of spirit they had need to take heed especially when they come under the Gospell in opening their soules and conversing with Saints then that naturall cunningnesse will be mightily improved under the Gospell if not mighty wary it will come up to a spirituall hypocrisie if a man have not an exceeding care and it is dangerous dealing with a person that is apt to cunningnesse There are exceeding many that are thus in these daies Thirdly Those had need to looke to their own spirits whose Religion begins with some particular occasion in the world where Religion begins with the times it is a thousand to one but such will prove hypocrites and dangerous ones too Fourthly Those that are given to an outward strictness and severity to externall things observance of outward actings and circumstances of outward formes without they be very careful in them for here lies hypocrisie in doing all duties in being most exact in the outward form We shall come to open something hereafter that if it please God all shall see if they be hypocrites or no. SERMON II. Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees which is Hypocrisie THis is one of the serious cautions of Jesus Christ to his owne Disciples and to those that had grace yet he bids them and all that ever he met with to beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees which he saies was hypocrisie Now he calls the Doctrine of the Pharisees a Leaven First Because of the spreading nature of it there is nothing so spreading as Leaven put a little of it in and it will go through the whole Lumpe Hypocrisie is the most spreading thing in the soule and goes over all the faculties no faculty is free of it a little Leaven once it is engendred saies the Apostle will leaven the whole Lumpe 1 Cor. 5.6 A little Hypocrisie in a mans spirit it will soone spread if it be countenanced over his affections and faculties and then Secondly he compares hypocrisie to Leaven because of its insensible way of spreading no man knows it a man puts but a little Leaven and it gives a Tincture of it presently so it is in the heart Hypocrisie workes so insensibly so closely in a mans spirit that if you be not exceeding wary and carefull it will undo your whole soule It will give you such a Tincture that you will hardly be able to take off the savour of it without you have a mighty power from heaven therefore you had need beware of the Leaven of Hypocrisie That is only for the Word But you may remember I began last time to open the nature of Hypocrisie and shewed you that it was opposed to two things First Unto the Truth and Reality of things as they lay in their owne nature Secondly Unto that simulation that fainedness unto that sincerity of intention faining what a man doth As it signifies a faining in that First It was opposed unto the truth of things that is Hypocrisie that is not according to the nature of things as they are so he is a hypocrite that is not reallie sound though he may pretend he is so and thinke he is so for I shewed you that is the grosser sort of hypocrisie to be fained so to faine my selfe to be a holy person to faine my selfe to be Saint when I am not that is the grosser sort of Hypocrisie but there is Hypocrisie lies closer when I thinke I am a Saint and am not so I am a hypocrite So it is opposed to a word in the Greeke often-times used and put for sinceritie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is a word that will expresse it exceeding clearly I shall only speake to the first sence at this time To open it more clearely to you First This Hypocrisie is opposed to the truth the reality and clearenesse the sincerity and soundnesse of things in their being and nature As you know that is a false Jewell and Diamond that hath not the proper nature and colour that belongs to it it is counterfeit it is not right though I may thinke I am enriched by it that makes not the thing the truer for that they are but all counterfeit I am not richer if I had many of those glittering Diamonds that is my mistake so it is as to hypocrisie on this first consideration if there be not a cleannesse a perfection in the kind If I be not a Saint reallie in my own Spirit let my perswasions be what they will of my selfe and others perswasions be what they will be of me yet I am a hypocrite in the eyes of God Let my graces be never so glittering and glorious in the sight of my selfe and others yet if they be not such as can be tried according to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sinceritie such that may abide the judgement of the Sun If they cannot ' bide the pure sight of God and his Glorie I shall be found to be still a person that I am not I shall be found
HYPOCRISIE DISCOVERED In its NATURE and WORKINGS Delivered in several Sermons By That faithfull Minister of the Gospell Mr Cuthbert Sidenham Late Teacher to a Church of Christ in Newcastle upon Tyne LONDON Printed by W. H. for Rich. Tomlins at the Sun and Bible in Pye-Corner 1654. For the Honourable Sir Arthur Hesilrig Knight and Baronet Sir YOu that have so long professed the name of the Lord Jesus and have been honoured to suffer for him in no ordinary trials and been drawn out to great employments cannot but have met with various workings of your own heart in these times especially having gone both through good and evill report all which will discover much of that which is within a man to himself this being upon our spirits with the more than ordinary respects you shewed to this precious servant of Christ the Author of these Sermons hath drawn us out to prefix your name to this worke as being willing to beare witnesse to the world though he be in his grave how much he resented your favour and love towards him Sir the matter of this Book you will find very searching but Gold loseth nothing by the criticall examination of the fire but its drosse which no reall Saint but will rejoyce to part with We question not but in the reading of it you will find speciall advantages for your spirituall interest for the teachings of the spirit of that God who hath hitherto helped you who was with you in the field and covered your head in the day of battell who made you a reall terrour to the enemies of his Son Iesus in this Nation and did by the good hand of his providence bring you among us when his enemies were very high and turbulent by your courage and faithfulness to calme and bring them under who also drew out your heart to so signall a proofe of your reall desire to serve Iesus Christ every way in being an Instrument to procure the three yeares Commission for propagating the Gospell in these foure Northerne Counties These things we mention as that which hath laid engagements upon our hearts towards you Oh that you may yet go on and prosper and do more worthily for God and his people that your enemies may be found lyars that after your many trials God may cleare up your integrity that you may be as the light of the morning 2 Sam. 23.4 Sir we have this only to beg of you look wholly to God in all and walke humbly and close with him and learne that of the Apostle he is only approved whom God approveth thus will you engage the Saints more and more and us to be Yours in the service of the Gospell Tho. Weld Sam. Hamond Tho. Trurin Wil. Durant To all that professe the name of the Lord Iesus THe Apostle speaking of the last daies cals them perilous times or as the word is difficult times not so much upon the account of persecution as the formality and hypocrisie of many that shall then professe the Gospell and as in other prophesies the fullest opening of the book is the event of providences made out to Saints by the Spirit of God so in this the sad influences that the hypocrisie and formality of Professours hath had upon the Saints in these last daies make us to understand where the perill and difficulty lies and the reason why the Apostle should make it matter of prophecy and of imminent danger and difficulty to the Saints who shall converse among them how soon was Peter that great Apostle leavened with hypocrisie and Barnabas also carried away with that dissimulation Gal. 2.12 13. though men otherwise full of the Holy Ghost And have not we ground to thinke that the sleeping of the foolish virgins will be no small temptation to the wise to slumber also as Christ hath prophesied in that Parable Mat 25. How hard is it to touch pitch and not be defiled Oh that the danger of this so clearely held out by Christ and his Apostles might leave a more powerfull impression upon the hearts of the Saints to be very circumspect where they are necessitated to have their conversation among the deceitfull spirits of these times we meane men having the forme of godlinesse but not the power of it whoever of you are observers of your own hearts surely you have sometimes found with what insinuating power the miscarriages of some eminent professors have crept into your hearts and led you away into divers foolish lusts Can you look back upon your walkings for these ten yeares past without regret of soule to review the many secret apostasies of your hearts from Christ Doth not so many of your unholy walkings as you may find in the searchings of your soules put you upon more thorow and strict examination whether this root of bitternesse do not spring up and trouble you It would stagger a man to consider what an aptnesse there is in many professors most sinfully to comply with if not fully to act the degenerate miscarriages of this present evill world should holy Baynes or Rogers or Greenham arise from the dead and take a view of some of the now-professors of England who pretend to far clearer discoveries of the Gospell than they lived under would not they blesse the Lord that their portion was not cast to live in those wicked daies should they see the loathsome fashions of many of you with powdered haire painted faces naked breasts and such phantastick garbes that yet would go for choice Saints and Christians would not they mourne in secret over these abominations and cry out oh the hypocrisie and deceitfulnesse of your spirits and tell you your light is darknesse and that you are those which do hold the truth of God in unrighteousnesse Hath not Satan hence taken his ground to oppose the truths of Christ and to speake evill of the good waies of God Doth not the Quakers naturall conscience for that is his light and Christ within him put him upon laying aside the ordinances and divers other principles of the Gospell because he sees so many of you living so much in pride and lusts of the flesh and walking according to the vanity of your minds yet pleading for them under a pretence of Gospell-liberty Doth not the Arminian make that one of his great Arguments for the Apostacy of the Saints because so many of you pretending to be such grow so loose and vaine at last and after you have pretended by the knowledge of Christ to have escaped the pollutions of the world are again intangled therein and overcome 2 Pet. 2.20 may he not be hardened by this generation in his opinion if that no specificall difference betwixt temporary and saving grace because many under the bare authority of restraining grace come up to as high conformity to the Gospell as you do who yet would be taken as the great professors of it Do not you observe how many alledging to be scandalized by your walkings are turned to
in another condition This is that I would speake unto It is not my intention only that will make me a hypocrite it makes me a grosser to feigne and dissemble But it is as well the one as the other the want of the reall principle the want of a sound worke upon my heart Take in the first place this consideration First I appeare to my selfe and others to be what God will not own me to be at the last day so there is Hypocrisie in Fundamentals I say I have grace and God saies I have none I say I beleeve and God will never owne my faith when it comes to triall I am as far to seeke and I am as much a Hypocrite for I have a false faith a false motion after God and Christ as much as if I did intend to palliate to counterfeit my faith on purpose A man may have the complexion but not the constitution of a Saint If I appeare not really what I am before God I am a hypocrite Therefore this I say is the great thing that few in the world do know that most of Professors are Hypocrites they are not throughly converted though they have as they thinke the glorious workings of God upon them yet if they be not true and reall and will go through the fire of a divine eye and the search of that Omnisciencie of the Lord they will never hold I am an Hypocrite though not so in intention I am not so as to the formality of Hypocrisie but I am so really as to God therefore consider of it consider it for the most people think if they have but a good honest intention in what they do they think they are perfectlie free of all danger of hypocrisie they are safe and sound in Religion if they pray and do not dissemble in their prayers that is that their hearts and their tongues do not jar but do agree they are then free from hypocrisie but that is a miserable mistake For alas it is all one whether or no you feigne your selves to be what you are not or are not what you thinke yourselves to be it is all one as to the thing it selfe you will find it so one day in your own spirits when you shall find all that ever you have done to be but glorious appearances What will it do you good when you can say only I had a good intention I thought I prayed well and had the straines of the Gospell in my own spirit what will this do you good if you be not found so But this is that I say that if I have not the truth in me of what I do professe though I do sincerelie and honestly professe what I thinke it is all one as to the nature of the thing as if I do feigne what I am not For I shall be as well undone by the one as by the other and I am not the person I thinke my selfe to be nor others thinkes to be if God thinkes not me to be what I and others thinkes me to be and to what end should we soulke up and down and not be what we are in our own hearts but delude our selves and not deale faithfullâ— with our own spirits ☞ As now take a Preacher of the Gospell suppose I preach the Gospell if I preach any thing that is untruth or a lye though I do it with never so honest a heart I shall be damned for it If I preach against Jesus Christ any thing that will destroy the fundamentals of the Gospell I shall be destroyed for all that though I be never so honest in my intention For our intentions are but naturall and common If I think I have grace and a work of God upon my soule and yet have it not it is all one as with those that know they have no worke of God and yet professe Secondly there is hypocrisie seene in it likewise because I take up things in a generall manner and never try them nor my own heart by them that shews my hypocrisie though I thinke I am reall in my intentions I should try them over and over againe But to make out this a little more cleare to you Let us consider in the generall the power that imagination hath upon the spirits of men Take â—â—y one that is thought to converse with the devill and trade with him upon promise of Gold and Silver and the like The power of imagination will worke upon such a man that he will beleeve on the Devill that he hath all the riches in the world the gold of the Indies this the very power of imagination will do he thinkes he can want nothing and yet so strong is this power of imagination upon him all his daies Do but take a man in a melancholly straine he will thinke really he is what he thinkes any other man to be If any man be taken in a feaver he will beleeve he is so he will sweat at it If any one be thought to go mad he will be the same It is the same in Religion the fancy and imagination of a man will work as strongly in Religion and the Gospell-perswasion as a melancholy constitution I will perswade my selfe to be in heaven and see Angels and glorious Saints and be in the bosome of Christ though I never heard his voice to my own soule and all this upon the power of imagination it is so strong upon our spirits if there were no more but that it were enough Secondly in generall know this that you may see it by the contrary of sincerity you know that is said to be sincere in the proper sence of it that is not mixt that is without any mixture at all as that is pure wine that is not sophisticated by any brewing that is sincere that is not mixt that is pure from the grape shines in its own lustre we call that hypocriticall that is mixt or hath any thing to set it off but its own nature these things that come purely from it selfe so it is in the soule of a man that is hypocriticall in his owne spirit that is not sincere that hath a shew of grace and yet hath it not that is hypocrisie he hath common and carnall principles or if you will common grace and carnall principles mixt together it is ordinary in the Gospell man hath his naturall principles and some additions of assistance and power from God and they are jumbled together they are not sincere at all but hypocriticall nothing shines in its own nature so it is with most men in the world there are other ingredients that are mixt with all their actings there is something mixt with it in the Principles in the very first motions And certainly this is that which is sutable to this Text where he saies Take heed of the leaven of the Pharisees which is Hypocrisie You must not thinke the Pharisees did preach Hypocrisie but only their doctrine tended to nothing else but setting up an
inward desire of applause to be somewhat in the world he will be most curiously exact in all his frames such a man will cut to a hair and he will observe the least thing in others that may be as a blot in them and him I called a stately and curious hypocrite he will not be blamed in the world that is all his designe he will keep all plots and spots off him if out of mistake he be wrung he will mend it next time his name lies at the stake for it and all his comforts lies only in a faire handsome neat carriage in his duties to the Sons of men that he may be able to be blamelesse in his reputation in the world and some men have been so curious in their actings and observances that they have shamed many precious people that was Pauls temper and care alwaies that he might be without blame to the world as to the Law he was blamelesse Phil. 3. and it is as great a thing as a man can speake and doubtlesse the Pharisees had a handsomnesse and neatnesse in all their observances that they were very much admired by the People A strictnesse that they looked at a Point at a Latchet though the great and eternall things lay with no weight on their spirits such kind of hypocrites will go on smoothly in the world that a man shall admire them and check his own heart say I am a hypocrite certainely I never came up to those frames This man dazels the eyes of men and all his designe is to carry on a handsome garbe and go for somebody in the world Oh! this is that that many in these times had need looke to their own hearts in Tithe mint and cummin and neglect the most weighty things of the Gospell they have handsome apparell without but never look within to the eternall workings of their poore soules and that state that must be before God for ever And againe If a man be of a crafty cunning temper of a naturall subtilty and he begin to professe the Gospell he will play the part of a hypocrite to purpose he will shift at every turne and change every time he will not be found at any time unsutable he will tell you he must change with providence he will be sure to mannage all that naturall subtilty in Religion to his owne designe perfectly and truly there are no persons so perfectly hypocrites as these that out of craftinesse begin to be hypocrites upon subtle principles are privy to their own deceits they are out of intention hypocrites and they know they can shift and comply with any occasion there are thousands of these hypocrites in these times in England that conclude with the times that make use of the time and occasion and have no more grace in them than Heathens So take it as to any other temper whatever you will if a man be not throughly converted and enter upon Religion looke as his temper is naturally so will his hypocrisie be and that I may go on a little clearer take it now as to the temper of feare on a man and the workings of God upon him If a man be apt to feare and God lay any thing upon a mans conscience for God sometimes keeps such all their life-time in feare you shall find that there will abundance of hypocrisie appeare in those actings and such a man shall be a terrified hypocrite he shall live under terrours and make abundance of worke through his feares for feare may put a man exceedingly on to duties and be but a hypocrite all this while Now of these there be two sorts that live under terrours and I will especially speake to these for many thinke if they be under trouble of conscience and terrour they are past the worst and in the best frame that can be Therefore First there are some that are but more generally touched with the sense of some sin that God meets them with and laies upon them and at every turne checks them for and lets in glimpses of his wrath now and then upon his conscience and they get into a strange kind of temper of complaining and whining and whimpering in their owne spirits and go on in their duties for they dare not but go to duties but yet it doth not worke so much upon them as to cry out with hideous noyses of damnation yet are kept under feare and bondage of spirit and cannot get out of it and all their design is to whine at it and complaine of it to others abroad that as we say in griefe to open a mans mind is a mighty ease so you shall find them open their hearts and say they are under these and these sins talking of their corruptions telling how they are under such trials under such feares of their passions and tell you of hypocrisie and thus they go from doore to doore and from Professor to Professor and all to no purpose for they never knew nor never found the weight and power of the Gospell lying upon their spirits never see the depth of a deceitfull heart for all this But only say alas I have such and such corruptions I am afraid of my estate and condition and so take a pleasure in their complaining Now there are three waies wherein they shew their hypocrisie First By this way of complaining they thinke to get off from suspition of hypocrisie Such Soules such creatures are alwaies complaining of their conditions and so they thinke to be free of hypocrisie by this kind of whining though they never knew what the hatred of sin was never knew what it was to be pierced through with the darts of the Gospel for sin Secondly they thinke by this to get the pity and compassion of other Saints to pitty and bemoane them and we ought say they to speak a good word to comfort them Though Saints nor Angels cannot speake a good word to soules yet they looke for it Thirdly they shew their hypocrisie by this They looke upon themselves by it as poore in spirit alwaies in sense of sin and under a sense of their lost condition and would have others thinke so too there is a poore spirit nothing but poverty of spirit never come to him but he hath low esteeme of himselfe Fourthly But the great straine of hypocrisie lies in this they perfectly rest in this straine of complaining and never look after Christ they get ease by opening their minds and if they can but get a good answer to quiet them for the present they go away content I have abominated this frame of any frame in Professors A strange ugly whining frame of spirit constantly upon a soule which should not be upon a Professour but in the absolutest cases of necessity and extraordinary occasion for he shews he hath not been at Christ and opened his condition to him but he must have this and that outward help first and if he cannot help himselfe then go to him It is
his aimes and high in his ends all his duties are lost they are to no purpose at all Secondly know this that you may know a hypocrite in his duties that he is most forward and zealous in externall duties more than in internall For the opening of that know there are two sorts of duties First These that are purely the acts of the soule within a man as selfe-examination and meditation and inward humblings and mournings of the soule before God they are perfectly the workings of the soule within from the consideration of the things laid before them as the object is as the grounds and reasons of mourning and rejoycing are so those inward actings are these you shall find that a hypocrite seldome takes delight in or is considerate about Secondly there is a second sort of duties which I call externall and they are of two sorts and hypocrisie is seen in both they are externall both but the one is more publike the other more secret as to preach or pray among others that is more publike Now you shall find a hypocrite is more forward more strict in those duties than in secret duties more in the externall than in the internall You shall find that hypocrisie it lies in this first There will be a perfect carelessenesse as to these duties that are inward seldome examining and ripping up the heart seldome going to God in the humbling frame of a mans heart studying the nature of humiliation that mourning and humbling of a mans soule in dutie and for duties and as to meditation to meditate what is Christ and what I have done against Christ what is the frame of my own heart very seldome any of those things at all And if it comes to a pinch the man is quiet or at least he finds a conveniency to turne it off If upon examination of his heart he finds not things so well as he would he will turne off them by some trick whereas a gracious heart is never well never better than when he is ripping up all his bowels than when he is in soule-worke when he can looke within there is his great and mighty worke he looks after you shall very seldome find that the Closet-hypocrites if they do these things and make some triall of them yet when they come to the pinch they will have something to divert them from the strength of their objections Secondlie And so now as to externall duties do but compare secret to publike they are mightily taken with those duties that are most publike will be mighty curious in them but if you come to secret duties they slubber them over any thing will serve that if they can but say they have been upon their knees or done a dutie in their Closet or in their Families although no care of the nature of those things That is the second thing and my Brethren you should feare and try your own hearts by it if you have but any consideration looke seriously into your own spirits what is that that takes you up most whether those things that are the immediate things of the soule those duties that do so purelie belong to the nature of your condition those things that are so within that they can only be tried by your own spirits and the spirit of God in them or whether you are more choice in externals Thirdly know this as to duties in generall Hypocrites have their exceptions and limitations they have their choice they will pick and chuse have what is most sutable to flesh and bloud and what is most sutable to their condition what is most plausible those duties they will close in withall But it is my Brethren contrary to a Saint indeed he knows there are the great things of God that his heart is taken up with But as David saies then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy Commandements a hypocrite will neglect his duty if he finds it too redious or if it be a hinderance to him in the world he loves not duty in it selfe but he hath his choice and those that are sutable and convenient those he follows on and this you will find to be a close tryall for the best sorts of them you have some so zealous in some duties that you would thinke their soules were in them but come to other duties they have no sence of them for if I did love duty in it selfe I would not baulke any thing be glad of every opportunity there is Christ and heaven in this as well as in the other but few hypocrites ever looke after this they will pick out duties sutable to the times and sutable to their own humours and fit to the places they live in but if they come to a dutie that will put a man to it and wherein a man must be laid in the dust there will be a shrinking of the soule of a hypocrite pray consider of it and apply those things home to your own hearts he that doth not love every dutie that he knows to be a duty and would gladly do it with all his soule and doth not study to know his duty he is an hypocrite Oh to see some men and some great Professors how faire they will be in some actings and duties but come to others they cannot abide them they cannot away with them there are such winsings such turnings and deviations in their spirits Fourthly know that hypocrites in their duties make a great deale adoe about little things and neglect the greater and maine things and this is one of the great things Christ chargeth the Scribes and Pharisees withall they make a great deale of adoe about little things that are in themselves fit to be done but neglect the greater and the more weighty and considerable things so saies Christ Mat. 23.16 Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites that say if a man sweare by the Temple it is nothing but if he sweare by the Gold of the Temple he is a debtor and Luk. 11.14 You tythe mint and cummin c. Now if you find you are curious in your owne spirits about outward little things suppose garments and are not so curious about spirituall things which should be acted in a mans soule and spirit it is a most dangerous signe of hypocrisie those things saith he ought to be done you ought to be exceeding carefull even of tything mint and cummin you ought to be carefull how you carry your selves in every thing in the world but you ought not to have left the other undone to put weight upon this and the strictnesse of the Gospell upon this and yet do far worse never looking at the wickednesse of your own hearts within and the envyings of your own soule and passions but you can for a pin or a point be carefull this is hypocrisie neglecting the great things of the Gospell these ought to be done but the other ought not to be undone An hypocrite deales in small ware as I may
say he takes care only for a little outward concernments and garbe of Religion that is all Fifthly This is a discoverie of a hypocrite as to duties in generall wherein his hypocrisie is seene that he never minds to get the spirit of a duty or to a dutie that is the holy blessed frame of it but only cares how to act handsomly and takingly in his duties abroad in the world for in truth there is most of his actings abroad in the world he cares not to get the frame and the spirit of his dutie he only cares for a handsome deportment in it Now the frame of a duty in the generall is thus to get our hearts in a posture fit for the nature of the duty we are about for First The frame of a dutie and the spirit of it is to get your heart in a preparation to meet with God that is one thing which a hypocrite never lookes after how shall I meet with God What frame should I be in when I come to meet with God What should I meet with God about Secondly The frame of a duty is to get the heart spiritually behaved before God in a duty truly few looke after it I wish that the best Saints did looke after it more but a hypocrite never looks after it at all almost a spiritual behaviour that lies in that inward proportion of a mans soule before God according as he is to act to God or expect from God if I go to God in a mourning frame to beg something from him then can my soule behave it selfe in that poore and low condition as one that expects purelie that which I want from heaven I ought then to be mightie humble and in a frame to get that of God if I come to rejoyce and joy in God then must I be in that frame that all the faculties of my soule may rejoyce in him and be in a heavenlie spirituall tune this should be the frame of my soule that spirituall behaviour which I cannot tell how to expresse so well as in that inward decorum in that inward proportion of a mans soule unto God according to the nature of his dutie And then Thirdly which a hypocrite never looks after it is to have workings in them sutable to expectation and to what I would express to God and expect from God which a hypocrite never hath those glorious desires and breathings in the vigour of my soule carried out according to the weight and nature of things so that I say all those things shew you what is the frame of a hypocrite in a duty If he can but carrie it on handsomely with quietness and conveniencie and come off fairelie to his own conscience and to Saints he little minds what his soule hath been doing what his heart hath been acting all the while And then Sixthly Pray you observe this That a hypocrite in the midst of all his zeale and glory of his duties he is secretly weary of them you shall find it cleare in your own spirits if ever you have been convinced of the workings of this sin in your soules especially if they be duties that do not bring him in present profit some internall or externall things he wants This is that which God complaines of in Malachy They were weary of the Sabbath when will the Sabbath be over that we may go to our buying and selling For the truth is a hypocrite is but a perfect slave and drudge to duties he is hurried on either by necessity within or some lust or feare which moves him outwardlie but he is wearie it is a burthen to him he hath no freedome at all for no man can have a freedome that hath not a principle it is against his nature he is forced to it he hath weights hang upon him that moves him to it but it is not so with a gracious man thy Commandements are not grievous he can be content to do all duties ever for saies David How do I delight in thy Law it is my meditation day and night but a hypocrite can be willing to be free if it were not on some other ground he thinkes them to be shackles of gold at the best no more he cannot be without them because of those things he laies before him as his ground and aime and end but he would be glad to be handsomelie freed of them Now with a Saint it is not so his knees may faile and his hands hang down but his heart never he would do all Gods will and he is sorry he can do no more than he doth he is sorry the body should faile when the spirit lives a Saint seldome failes in his heart and will for the most part the will is present I would do more but I have a cloggy body and I have a nature which is contrarie to it but I have a reall will Now it is not so with a hypocrite he is secretly weary of his duties in the midst of all his enjoyments Seventhly pray take this along with you That you have all his Religion in a few duties take him out of duties and he is a common man this will be a triall to your hearts if you put them to it seriouslie take him out of prayer and preaching if he be one called to that worke there is all his Religion come to any dealing of corruption there is his best part past he is no more religious than he is in these duties whereas Religion is a life out of duties as well as in duties a man is every where going out after God Religion will move him and breath in him but a hypocrite take him out of any dutie he is about and you have no more Religion he will be as vaine and foolish afterwards as you can imagine but if ever you would know a Saint take him out of his duties as well as in his duties see how the feare of the Lord is upon him in every way in every walking how the dread of the Almightie aws him but a hypocrite it is a wonder to see how flourishing he will be in duties but come and take him out of these he knows in his conscience there is nothing left no power only he was carried out to the dutie by something that lay upon him externallie therefore lay this to heart Eighthly all duties that hypocrites do are but the colourings of some corruptions that they keep privately in their owne hearts that they may keep them more undiscernable from the world looke to it all their duties do but cover lusts do but nourish corruptions they do pray and heare but it is to keep in ambition or pride or lust or whatsoever it be that is all they do or to keep up a constant kind of correspondency with their relations and this advantage a hypocrite makes of his duties that after he hath done with duties he takes an advantage to act his corruptions How many men they go to prayer if it be a
substantiall enjoyment of God when the very nature of sin is against thy heart and when the nature of godlinesse is in thine eye as to enjoyment to be fully possessed with that Fourthlie know this too Never say thou art a hypocrite when no outward act can content thee though never so glorious without thou hast an inward frame according to that act according to the inward spiritualitie of the Gospell if thou lookest to have thy soule in a frame to thy duty thou needest not feare hypocrisie Fifthly While thy soule is as much troubled for omission of thy duty as for commission of thy sin thou needest not feare that thou art a hypocrite while thy soule is as much troubled for omission of a duty or an act of faith or closing with Christ or of any outward duty wherein thou hast enjoyed Christ as for commission of sin thou needest not feare thou art a hypocrite Sixthly and lastly thou needest not feare thou art a hypocrite whilst thou hatest thine own strength in thy duties as much as an outward act of sin or the most distemper of thy spirit or a corruption done in the wickednesse of thy heart I speake only this a little to divert the thoughts of poore soules that say I am certainly under this frame of spirit But looke to your own hearts every one if you find all these or any of them in any life upon your soules you are free from that state but if you find not such an universall opposite nature to sin but a frame to sin against God if you find not such constant pure frames in your owne spirits as to principles intentions and ends you will never be able to free your selves from such a state and condition SERMON VII LUKE 12.1 Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees which is Hypocrisie I Have endeavoured in many exercises to open to you the nature of hypocrisie and have told you the sorts of hypocrites that are up and down the world and in Churches Now in the latter daies they grow more glorious than ever therefore Christs exhortation had need be more pressing formerlie hypocrisie was coursely cloathed could hardlie step out among the Saints they were so prying and so cunninglie carefull to observe the dangers of the Devill in times of danger and persecution Now when the Sun shines faire daies againe Religion seems to flourish in the outside of it and there is a benefit by the name of it men will be very glorious in hypocrisie and if ever there were need to presse Christs exhortation it is now upon all sorts of men and professours among his owne disciples there was one among twelve he bids them beware take heed It is a good caution for them all Saints are subject to the straines of it many times without they have an abundant care in their own spirits Therefore that I shall do is still to presse this exhortation upon your hearts that it may take some weight and impression for beleeve it however you looke upon your selves or whatever thoughts others have of you we had need to tell you to beware of hypocrisie the better you are thought of the more danger And you may remember the last time first I told you you had need to looke to your own spirits concerning this sin because of the danger of it in its nature and workings Secondlie because of the uglinesse and vilenesse of it of all other sins in the soule how it is that which is perfectlie against the nature of God his holinesse and simplicitie his faithfulnesse and realitie to the Sons of men how it is that that makes a man like the devill most of any sin he will beleeve and is convinced of the things that the Gospell speakes of that they are true but here lies the greatnesse of his wickednesse the cunningnesse of his deceit that he sets up an art of deceiving in the world to deceive the Sons of men that they should not beleeve the word of God there is none like the devill so perfectlie like the devill as hypocrites I have chosen you twelve and one of you is a devill none is called a devill in Scripture but he and there lies the sutablenesse that he is a lyar and hypocrisie is a perfect lye in the soule Then I shewed you the uglinesse of it likewise that it doth indispose the soule to every thing that is good when one is in the best frame as it were that spoiles all it is of a poysonous nature I shall go on to shew you what is that you must continuallie look after if you meane to beware of it and prevent it as the care and remedie of this sad condition Therefore first as to the generall and as the maine thing if ever you meane to beware of hypocrisie you must principle your hearts and farnish them with all the graces of the spirit you will never be sincere else you will never be sincere till you have all graces and the workings of them proportionable in your soules and spirits Ephes 3. he begs of them to go on and this I pray that your love may abound more and more in all knowledge and in all experience that you may be able to approve the things that are excellent that you may be sincere Phil. 1.9 A man must have all judgement a discerning eye for sinceritie doth not lye only in the intentions of men but in the reall workings of all the frames of the soule of all the graces as they are in the heart when a man can approve the things that are excellent that is he can judge them and try them and act them as they are discovered to be truths that is sinceritie for sinceritie is not so much a distinct grace as a result of the harmonious workings of all graces in the soule there must be a rectified mind to make a man sincere for it is not a good intention that will make an action good or make you sincere in any action but as it flows from inward reall frames and principles that are sutable Peter was an affectionate man and he said to Christ when he told him of his sufferings spare thy selfe do not go and suffer he did it out of a good intention but he was rebuked for it he had a cleare intention would not have the least hurt come to Christ but it was against the designe that Jesus Christ came about therefore he said get thee behind me Sathan It was not that sincerity therefore the Apostle saith that you may be sincere Oh that sincerity of soule it lies in those two things that you may be sincere you must be able to judge and approve things that are excellent First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies such a straine as is without any mixture hath no composition of any forraigne thing in it when every thing is pure in its native colour you must prove all things be able to try all things and have a judgement of them that you
in the uttermost wrath the subjects of the infinite wrath of God they shall be most enlarged for wrath for they are vessels fitted for wrath you know as the Apostle speakes so prepared so enlarged for wrath so is the soule of a hypocrite that hath lived all his daies in darknesse and blacknesse only restrained himselfe as to outward acts but he is fit for wrath he hath laid in such treasures there that he is every day treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath that he will be forced to take in the thoughts of wrath because he hath sinned against the greatest light and opportunities and advantages of the Gospell Oh therefore that you would fright your selves out of hypocrisie if you can do nothing else and formalitie and mixt frames of your spirits scare your hearts with the day of judgement with the sadnesse of the doome with the miserie of the condition Secondlie If ever you meane to be free from hypocrisie you must through with your spirits night and day sound them to the bottome let your line be long let it downe to the bottome of the well give conscience leave to speake in the authoritie of God every day upon your hearts beg of God to try you to search you as David said Go every day to God to search you and be glad and beg of all the Saints to remember thee for there is deceits of hypocrisie in every one of our hearts never come off viewing of your spirits till you have discovered something or other if ever you would be freed from hypocrisie you must do this alwaies keep a narrow watch upon the secret parts be not afraid to looke into your own hearts but aske every motion what it comes from whither it moves try every thing in your own spirits let not any motion go free unexamined in your soules but have a severe censure of it no dutie but have a jury on it looke into the maine frame of your spirits try your principles and intentions first try your motions observe your ends and how you attaine them constantlie if ever men would be sincere and free of hypocrisie they must be thus spirituallie severe to their owne soules it is wholsome severitie it is blessed it is the sleight common dealing with our spirits that we are formall and cold that makes so many deceits in mens hearts which lodges so secretlie within we do not go to purpose with the search of our own spirits challenging our hearts in every dutie we ought I confesse to be carefull how we question the motions of grace in our hearts But a watchfull Saint if he will cleare himselfe of hypocrisie must be eying and prying into every thing that he doth observe his setting out in his duties the carriage and frames of his soule observe the tune afterwards that he is in for hypocrisie will get upon a sudden into a mans heart and a man will thinke himselfe to be an hypocrite presently if he be not thus strict and wary so that if you will lay all these to your hearts seriously it may be a pretious meanes to keep you from the danger of this leaven though it is impossible for to cure it but only as you grow in grace and get sound and sincere principles in your hearts So much for the second Use 2. However let it be a word of comfort unto some poore soules that have all this while been harkening after hypocrisie charging of their own hearts for I would not let any soule go away but with some refreshment Some will say I see so much hypocrisie in my own heart that I cannot but thinke my selfe one that never had any grace or soundnesse in my own spirit I know not what to do or what to say to mine own heart consider I say these things First know it is good for thee to have thy hypocrisie discovered it is a mercy to thee and a favour of God that he will shew thee thy inward parts that he will discover the secrets of thy heart whilest he lets others go in that estate and never knows what is within all the daies of their lives only mind outward acts this is so far from being a discouragement that you should blesse God for it that he hath been pleased to shew thee thine own heart the straines of hypocrisie in a duty God might have left thee to go on and thought thy selfe what thou art not Secondlie Remember the more thou discoverest the secret workings of hypocrisie the more it is a signe thou growest in grace for this is the great end of grace as by the incomings of it to kill sin so for to discover sin and the secrets of it the more spirituall any heart grows the more he grows in the inward sights of his own heart the more he comes to be acquainted with those spirituall kinds of wickednesse in his own spirit And be not therefore troubled at that poore soule for it is rather a signe of thy grace than hypocrisie than of any other impulse because God doth still by degrees shew thee thy own heart so long as thy heart is against it Thirdlie be not discouraged by the sights of hypocrisie as long as thou findest a sincere heart from the discovery of it that is so long as thou lyest in wait from the sincerity of thy heart to discover it and likewise bewailes it from the sincerity of thy soule know that it is a true signe of a sincere heart he lies in wait to discover his hypocrisie he laies himselfe in secret observances continually to spy out the cunningnesse and deceits of his own heart For you shall find those signes of a sincere heart First This will discover a sincere heart that I may comfort a poore soule though he may have hypocrisie in him yet he will be most impartiall to himselfe from once he finds it out it may be he will be charitable to others yet he will be severe to himselfe if he find out any hypocrisie he will be sure to fall on it with all detestation he will charge his own soule as if it were the damned soule he will rather lay too much weight upon his conscience lay it too severe on his own spirit than any way excuse himselfe but hypocrites will deale gently with themselves if they have not an excuse at hand they will not lay it home too much to heart but a reall Saint will say Oh wretched man Oh thou unworthy heart that should live so long and have so many advantages to kill this lust and art thou alive yet Thou shalt never escape more I will follow thee night and day with prayers and teares it will not say it is my infirmitie it is my failing but is will call himselfe a wretched man a heart and a heart therefore looke to your own soules as to that and comfort your soules any poore heart of you that though you find hypocrisie yet you deale severelie with it A second Character