THE GREAT Impostor LAID OPEN in a SERMON at GRAYES INNE Febr. 2. 1623. By IOS HALL D. D. LONDON Printed by J. Havilano for Nath. Butter 1623. TO THE MOST NOBLE AND WORTHILY Honoured Societie OF GRAYES INNE AT WHOSE BARRE This IMPOSTOR was openly arraigned J. H. HVMBLY DEDICATES THIS PVBLIKE LIFE OF HIS WEAKE AND VNWORTHY LABOVR THE GREAT IMPOSTOR Laid open out of IER 17.9 The heart is deceitfull aboue all things I Know where I am in one of the famous Phrontisteries of Law and Iustice wherfore serues Law and Iustice but for the preuention or punishment of fraud and wickednesse Giue me leaue therefore to bring before you Students Masters Fathers Oracles of Law and Iustice the greatest Cheator and Malefactor in the world our owne Heart It is a great word that I haue said in promising to bring him before you for this is one of the greatest aduantages of his fraud that he cannot be seene That as that old Iugler Apollonius Thyanaeus when he was brought before the Iudge vanished out of sight so this great Impostor in his very presenting before you dispeareth and is gone yea so cunningly that he doth it with our owne consent and we would be loth that he could be seene Therefore as an Epiphonema to this iust complaint of deceitfulnesse is added Who can know it It is easie to know that it is deceitfull and in what it deceiues though the deceits themselues cannot bee knowne till too late As wee may see the ship and the sea and the ship going on the sea yet the way of a ship in the sea as Salomon obserues wee know not God askes and God shall answer What he askes by Ieremie he shall answer by S. Paul Who knowes the heart of man Euen the spirit of man that is in him If then the heart haue but eyes enow to see it selfe by the reflection of thoughts it is enough Ye shall easily see and heare enough out of the analogie and resemblance of hearts to make you both astonished and ashamed The heart of man lies in a narrow roome yet all the world cannot fill it but that which may be said of the heart would more than fill a world Here is a double stile giuen it of deceitfulnesse of wickednesse either of which knowes no end whether of being or of discourse I spend my houre and might doe my life in treating of the first See then I beseech you the Impostor and the Imposture The Impostor himselfe The heart of man The Imposture Deceitfull aboue all things As deceitfull persons are wont euer to goe vnder many names and ambiguous and must be exprest with an aliàs so doth the heart of man Neither man himselfe nor any part of man hath so many names as the heart alone For euery facultie that it hath and euery action it doth it hath a seuerall name Neither is there more multiplicitie than doubt in this name Not so many termes are vsed to signifie the heart as the heart signifies many things When ye heare of the heart ye thinke straight of that fleshie part in the center of the body which liues first and dies last and whose beatings you finde to keepe time all the body ouer That is not it which is so cunning Alas that is a poore harmelesse peece meerely passiue and if it doe any thing as the subministration of Vitall spirits to the maintenance of the whole frame it is but good no it is the spirituall part that lurkes in this flesh which is guilty of such deceit We must learne of witty Idolatry to distinguish betwixt the stocke and the inuisible powers that dwell in it It is not for me to be a sticklor betwixt the Hebrewes and the Greeke Philosophers and Physitians in a question of naturall learning concerning the 〈◊〉 of the soule nor to insist vpon the reasons why the spirit of God rather places all the spirituall powers in the heart than in the braine Doubtlesse in respect of the affections there resident whereby all those speculatiue abilities are drawne to practise It shall suffice vs to take things as we finde them and to hold it for granted that this Monosyllable for so it is in many languages comprises all that intellectiue and affectiue world which concerneth man and in plaine termes to say that when God saies The heart is deceitfull he meanes the vnderstanding will affections are deceitfull The vnderstanding is doubly deceitfull It makes vs beleeue it knowes those things which it doth not and that it knowes not those things which it doth As some foolish Mountebanke that holds it a great glory to seeme to know all things or some presuming Physitian that thinkes it a shame not to professe skill in any state of the body or disease so doth our vaine vnderstanding therein framing it selfe according to the spirits it meets withall if they be proud and curious it perswades them they know euery thing if carelesse that they know enough In the first kinde What hath not the fond heart of man dared to arrogate to it selfe It knowes all the starres by their names Tush that is nothing It knowes what the stars meane by their verie lookes what the birds meane by their chirping as Apollonius did What the heart meanes by the features of the face it knowes the euents of life by the lines of the hand the secrets of Art the secrets of Nature the secrets of State the secrets of others hearts yea the secrets of God in the closet of heauen Yea not only what God hath done but what he will doe This is Sapiens stultitia a wise folly as Irenaeus said of his Valentinians All Figure-casters Palmesters Physiognomers Fortune-tellers Alchymists fantasticke proiectors and all the rabble of professors of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much curious as idle Arts haue their word giuen them by the Apostle Deceiuing and deceiued neither can these men make any worse fooles than their hearts haue made themselues and well may that Alexandrian taxe bee set vpon them in both names whether of actiue or passiue folly And as it commonly fals out that superfluous things rob the heart of necessary in the meane while those things which the heart may and should know it lightly mis-knowes As our senses are deceiued by distance or interpositions to thinke the stars beamie and sparkling the Moone horned the Planets equally remote the Sunne sometimes red pale other some so doth also our vnderstanding erre in mis-opinion of diuine things It thinkes it knowes God when it is but an Idoll of fancy as Sauls messengers when they came into the roome thought they had the true Dauid when it was but a Wispe it knowes the will of God when it is nothing but grosse mis-construction so as the common knowledge of men though they thinke it a Torch is but an Ignis Fatuus to leade them to a ditch How many thousand Assyrians thinke they are in the way to the Prophet when they are
and repine and struggle like franticks against the hand of our Maker Thus to summe vp all the heart of man is wholly set vpon cozenage the vnderstanding ouer-knowing mis-knowing dissembling The will pretending and inclining contrarily The affections mocking vs in the obiect measure manner and in all of them the heart of man is deceitfull Ye haue seene the face of this Cheater looke now at his hand and now ye see who this Deceiuer is see also the sleights of his deceit and therein the fashion the subiect the sequell of it from whence we will descend to our Demeanure towards so dangerous an Impostor The fashion of his deceit is the same with our ordinary Iuglers either cunning conueyance or false semblance Cunning conueyance whether into vs in vs from vs. The heart admits sinne as Paradise did the Serpent There it is but by what chinkes or cranies it entered we know not so as we may say of sinne as the Master of the feast in the Gospell said to his slouenly guest Quomodo intrasti How camest thou in hither Corruption doth not eat into the heart as our first Parents did into the apple so as the print of their teeth might bee seene but as the worme eats into the core insensibly Neither is there lesse closenesse when it is entered I would it were as vntrue a word as it is an harsh one that many a professedly-Christian heart lodges a deuill in the blinde roomes of it and either knowes it not or will not be acknowne of it euery one that harbours a willing sinne in his brest doth so The malicious man hath a furious deuill the wanton an vncleane deuill a Beelphegor or a Tammuz the proud man a Lucifer the couetous a Mammon Certainly these foule spirits are not more truly in hell than in a wicked heart there they are but so closely that I know not if the heart it selfe know it it being verified of this citadell of the heart which was said of that vast Niniue that the enemie had taken some parts of it long ere the other knew it What should I speake of the most common and yet most dangerous guest that lodges in this Inne of the heart Infidelity Call at the doore and aske if such a one host not there They within make strange of it deny it forsweare it Call the officers make priuy search you shall hardly finde him Like some Iesuite in a Popish dames chamber he is so closely contriued into false floores and double walls that his presence is not more easily knowne than hardly conuinced confessed How easie is it to say that if infidelity did not lurke in the hearts of men they durst not doe as they doe they could not but doe what they doe not Durst they sin if they were perswaded of an hell durst they buy a minute of pleasure with euerlasting torments Could they so sleight heauen if they beleeued it Could they be so loth to possesse it Could they thinke much of a little painfull goodnesse to purchase an eternity of happinesse No no men fathers and brethren if the heart were not Infidell whiles the face is Christian this could not bee Neither doth the heart of man more cunningly conuey sinne into and in it selfe than from it The sin that ye saw euen now openly in the hands is so swiftly past vnder the board that it is now vanished Looke for it in his forehead there it is not looke for it vnder his tongue there is none looke for it in his conscience ye finde nothing and all this by the legier-de-maine of the heart Thus Achan hath hid his wedge and now he dares stand out to a lot Thus Salomons Harlot hath wip't her mouth and it was not she Thus Saul will lie-out his sacriledge vntill the very beasts out-bleat and out-bellow him Thus the swearer sweares and when he hath done sweares that hee swore not Thus the vncleane fornicator bribes off his sinne and his shame and now makes challenges to the world of his honesty It cannot be spoken how peeuishly witty the heart of man is this way neither doubt I but this wilinesse is some of the poyson that the subtile serpent infected vs with in that fatall morsell They were three cunning shifts which the Scripture recordeth of three women as that sex hath beene euer noted for more sudden pregnancie of wit Rachel Rahab and the good wife of Bahurim The first hiding the Teraphim with a modest seat the second the spics with flaxe-stalkes and the third Dauids scouts with corne spred ouer the Well but these are nothing to the deuices that nature hath wont to vse for the cloaking of sinne God made man vpright saith Salomon but he sought many inuentions Is Adam challenged for sinne Behold all on the sudden it is passed from his hand to Gods The woman that thou gauest me Is Saul challenged for a couetous and disobedient remissenesse the sinne is straight passed from the field to the Altar I saued the fattest for a sacrifice to the Lord thy God So the one begins his sinne in God and the other ends it in him Is Dauid bewitched with lust to abuse the Wife the Husband must bee sent home drunke to hide it or if not that to his long home in a pretended fauour of his valour Is a griping Vsurer disposed to put his money together to breed a monster hee hath a thousand quirks to cozen both law and conscience Is a Simoniacall Patron disposed to make a good match of his peoples soules it shall be no bargaine but a gift hee hath a liuing to giue but an horse to sell And sure I thinke in this wise age of the world Vsurers and Simonists striue who shall finde the wittiest way to hell What should I speake of the secret frauds in contracts booties in matches subornation of instruments hiring of oathes feeing of officers equiuocations of answers and ten thousand other tricks that the heart of man hath deuised for the conueiances of sinne in all which it too well approues it selfe incomparably deceitfull The false semblance of the heart is yet worse for the former is most-what for the smothering of euill this is for the iustifying of euill or the disgrace of good In these two doth this act of falshood chiefly consist in making euill good or good euill For the first The naturall man knowes well how filthy all his brood is and therefore will not let them come forth but disguised with the colours and dresses of good so as now euery one of natures birds is a Swan Pride is handsomnesse desperate fury valour lauishnesse is noble munificence drunkennesse ciuility flattery complement murderous reuenge iustice the Curtizan is bona foemina the Sorcerer a wise man the oppressor a good husband Absolom will goe pay his vowes Herod will worship the Babe For the second such is the enuy of nature that where shee sees a better face than her owne she is ready to scratch it or cast
dirt in it and therefore knowing that all vertue hath a natiue beauty in it she labours to deforme it by the foulest imputations Would the Israelites be deuout they are idle Doth Dauid daunce for ioy before the Arke he is a foole in a Morris Doth Saint Paul discourse of his heauenly Vision too much learning hath made him mad Doe the Disciples miraculously speake all the tongues of Babel They are full of new wine Doe they preach Christs Kingdome they are seditious The resurrection they are bablers Is a man conscionable he is an Hypocrite Is he conformable he is vnconscionable Is he plaine dealing he is rudely vnciuill Is he wisely insinuatiue he is a flatterer In short such is the wicked craft of the heart that it would let vs see nothing in it owne forme but faine would shew vs euill faire that we might be inamored of it and vertue vgly that we might abhorre it and as it doth for the way so doth it for the end hiding from vs the glory of heauen that is laid vp for ouer-commers and shewing vs nothing but the pleasant closure of wickednesse making vs beleeue that hell is a palace and heauen a dungeon that so we might be in loue with death and thus both in cunning conueyance and false semblance The heart of man is deceitfull aboue all things Ye haue seene the fashion of this deceit cast now your eies vpon the subiect And whom doth it then deceiue It doth deceiue others it can deceiue it selfe it would deceiue Sathan yea God himselfe Others first How many doe we take for honest and sound Christians who yet are but errant hypocrites These Apes of Sathan haue learned to transforme themselues into Angels of light The heart bids the eies looke vpward to heauen when they are full of adultery It bids the hands to raise vp themselues towards their Maker when they are full of bloud It bids the tongue wagge holily when there is nothing in the bosome but Atheous profanenesse It bids the knee to bow like a Camel when the heart is stiffe as an Elephant yea if need bee it can bid a teare fall from the eie or an almes or iust action fall from the hand and all to gull the world with a good opinion In all which false chapmen and horse-coursers doe not more ordinarily deceiue their buyers in shops and faires than wee doe one another in our conuersation Yea so crafty is the heart that it can deceiue it selfe By ouer-weening his own powers as the proud man by vnder-valuing his graces as the modest by mis-taking his estate as the ignorant How many hearts doe thus grossely beguile themselues The first thinkes hee is rich and fine when hee is beggerly and naked so did the Angell of Laodicea The second is poore in his owne spirit when he is rich of Gods spirit The third thinkes that he is a great fauorite of heauen when he is rather branded for an out-cast that he is truly noble when he is a slaue to that which is baser than the worst of Gods creatures sinne Let the proud and ignorant worldling therefore know that though others may mocke him with applauses yet that all the world cannot make him so much a foole as his owne heart Yea so cunning is the heart that it thinkes to goe beyond the deuill himselfe I can thinks it swallow his bait and yet auoid his hooke I can sinne and liue I can repent of sinning and defeat my punishment by repenting I can runne vpon the score and take vp the sweet and rich commodities of sinfull pleasure and when I haue done I can put my selfe vnder the protection of a Sauiour and escape the arrest Oh the world of soules that perish by this fraud fondly beguiling themselues whiles they would beguile the Tempter Yet higher Lastly as Satan went about to deceiue the Son of God so this foolish consort and client of his goes about to deceiue God himselfe The first paire of hearts that euer was were thus credulous to thinke they should now meet with a meanes of knowledge and Deifying which God either knew not of or grudged them and therefore they would be stealing it out of the side of the apple without God yea against him Tush none eye shall see vs Is there knowledge in the most high saith the sottish Atheist Lord haue not we heard thee preach in out streets haue not we cast out Deuils in thy name sayes the smoothing hypocrite as if he could fetch God ouer for an admission into heauen Thou hast not lied to man but to God saith S. Peter to Ananias And pettish Ionas after hee had beene cooled in the belly of the Whale and the Sea yet will be bearing God downe in an argument to the iustifying of his idle choler I doe well to be angry to the death But as the greatest Politicians are oft ouertaken with the grossest follies God owes proud wits a shame the heart of man could not possibly deuise how so much to be foole it selfe as by this wicked presumption Oh yee fooles when will ye vnderstand He that formed the eye shall he not see Hee that teacheth man knowledge shall not he vnderstand The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanitie A rod for the backe of fooles yea a rod of iron for such presumptuous fooles to crush them in peeces like a Potters vessell Ye haue seene the fashion and the subiect of this deceit the sequell or effect followes euery way lamentable For hence it comes to passe that many a one hath had his heart in keeping fortie fiftie threescore yeeres and more and yet is not acquainted with it and all because this craft hath kept it at the Priscillianists locke Tu omnes te nemo It affects to be a searcher of all men no man is allowed to come aboard of it And if a man whether out of curiositie or conscience bee desirous to inquire into it as it is a shame for a man to be a stranger at home Know ye not your owne hearts saith the Apostle it casts it selfe Proteus-like into so many formes that it is very hard to apprehend it One while the man hath no heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Salomon Then hee hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an heart and an heart saith Dauid and one of his hearts contradicts another and then how knowes he whether to beleeue And what certainty what safety can it be for a man to liue vnacquainted with himselfe O◠this vnacquaintance secondly arises a dangerous mes-prison of a mans selfe in the nature and quantity of his sinne in the quality of his repentance in his peace and intirenesse with God in his right to heauen and in a word in his whole spirituall estate Of this mes-prison thirdly arises a fearefull disappointment of all his hopes and a plunging into vnauoidable torments Wherein it is miserable to see how cunningly the traiterous hearts of many men beare them in
hand all their liues long soothing them in all their courses promising them successe in all their waies securing them from feare of euills assuring them of the fauour of God and possession of heauen as some fond Bigot would bragge of his Bull or Medall or Agnus Dei or as those Priests that Gerson taxes who made the people beleeue that the Masse was good for the eye-sight for the mawe for bodily health and preseruation till they come to their death-beds But then when they come to call forth the comforts they must trust to they finde them like to some vnfaithfull Captaine that hath all the while in Garrison filled his purse with dead paies and made vp the number of his companies with borrowed men and in time of ease shewd faire but when hee is called forth by a sudden alarum bewraies his shame and weaknesse and failes his Generall when he hath most need of him right thus doe the perfidious hearts of many after all the glorious bragges of their security on the bed of their last reckoning finde nothing but a cold despaire and a wofull horror of conscience and therefore too iustly may their hearts say to them as the heart of Apollodorus the Tyran seemed to say vnto him who dreamed one night that hee was fleaed by the Scythians and boyled in a Caldron and that his heart spake to him out of the kettle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is I that haue drawne thee to all this Certainly neuer man was or shall bee frying in hell but cries out of his owne heart and accuses that deceitfull peece as guilty of all his torment For let Satan be neuer so malicious and the world neuer so parasiticall yet if his owne heart had beene true to him none of these could haue hurt him Let the rest of our enemies doe their worst only from the euill of our owne hearts good Lord deliuer vs. It were now time for our thoughts to dwell a little vpon the meditation and deploration of our owne danger and misery who are euery way so inuironed with subtlety If wee looke at Satan his old title is that old Serpent who must needs therefore now by so long time and experience bee both more old and more Serpent If we looke at sinne it is as crafty as he Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sinne If at our owne hearts we heare that which we may feele that the heart is deceitfull aboue all things Oh wretched men that we are how are we beset with Impostors on all hands If it were more seasonable for vs to bewaile our estate than to seeke the redresse of it But since it is not so much worth our labour to know how deepe the pit is into which wee are fallen as how to come out of it heare rather I beseech you for a conclusion how wee may auoid the danger of the deceit of our false heart euen iust so as we would preuent the nimble feates of some cheating Iugler Search him watch him Trust him not Looke well into his hands pockets boxes sleeues yea vnder his very tongue it selfe There is no fraud so secret but may be descried were our hearts as crafty as the deuill himselfe they may be found out We are not ignorant saith Saint Paul of Satans deuices much more then may we know our owne Were the hearts of men as Salomon speakes of Kings like vnto deepe waters they haue a bottome and may be fathomed Were they as darke as hell it selfe and neuer so full of windings and blind waies and obscure turnings doe but take the lanthorne of Gods law in your hand and you shall easily finde all the false and foule corners of them As Dauid saith of the Sun nothing is hid from the light thereof Proue your selues saith the Apostle It is hard if falshood be so constant to it selfe that by many questions it bee not tripped Where this duty is slackened it is no wonder if the heart bee ouer-run with spirituall fraud Often priuy searches scarre away vagrant and disorderly persons where no inquiry is made is a fit harbour for them If yee would not haue your hearts therefore become the lawlesse Ordinaries of vncleane spirits search them oft Leaue not a straw vnshaken to finde out these Labanish Teraphim that are stolne and hid within vs And when wee haue searched our best if we feare there are yet some vnknowne euills lurking within vs as the man after Gods owne heart prayes against secret sinnes let vs call him in that cannot be deceiued and say to God with the Psalmist Search thou me ô Lord and trie me Oh let vs yeeld our selues ouer to bee ransackt by that all-seeing eye and effectuall hand of the Almighty All our daubing and cogging and packing and shuffling lies open before him and he only can make the heart ashamed of it selfe And when our hearts are once stript naked carefully searcht let our eyes be euer fixedly bent vpon their conueyances and inclinations If we search and watch not wee may be safe for the present long wee cannot for our eye is no sooner off than the heart is busie in some practise of falshood It is well if it forbeare whiles wee looke on for The thoughts of mans heart are only euill continually and many a heart is like some bold and cunning theefe that lookes a man in the face and cuts his purse But surely if there be any guardian of the soule it is the eye The wise mans eye saith Solomon is in his head doubtlesse on purpose to looke into his heart My sonne aboue all keepings keepe thy heart saith he If we doe not dogge our hearts then in all our wayes but suffer our selues to lose the sight of them they run wilde and we shall not recouer them till after many slippery tricks on their parts and much repentance on ours Alas how little is this regarded in the world wherein the most take no keepe of their soules but suffer themselues to run after the wayes of their owne hearts without obseruation without controlement What should I say of these men but that they would faine be deceiued and perish For after this loose licentiousnesse without the great mercy of God they neuer set eye more vpon their hearts till they see them either fearfully intoyled in the present iudgements of God or fast chained in the pit of hell in the torments of finall condemnation Thirdly If our searches and watches should faile vs wee are sure our distrust cannot It is not possible our heart should deceiue vs if we trust it not Wee carry a remedy within vs of others fraud and why not of our owne The Italians not vnwisely pray God in their knowne prouerbe to deliuer them from whom they trust for wee are obnoxious to those we relie vpon but nothing can leese that which it had not Distrust therefore can neuer be disappointed If our hearts then shall