the perfectest hypocrite in the world nothing of God and Christ in his prayer it is not the length or the measure you must looke after nor how you have acted them but how you are moved and acted in them Oh my Brethren most glorious Professors in duties will be found another day in strange frames before God We have preached in thy name O Lord say they so Lord we have prayed night and day kept all meetings in the Towne or place where we lived and been at so many fasts and kept all publike daies and kept them closely Yea soule so thou maiest but if you have no more than that depart from me I know you not you are no better you never minded me you never had the frame of the Gospell in your own spirits you never knew what it was to be out of your duties and have the workings of my power in your hearts you never knew what it was to denie your selves in your duties to be made nothing for my name and glory Secondly and lastly I beseech you my Brethren be not content with any thing but what is purely of God what is a reality in the Gospell pure realities Truly my Brethren the fairest faces will one day looke like death when God comes to view them be more afraid in duties than in any other way the most spritefull men in duties that we little thinke of will be wrinckled like old men one day upon a sudden when God comes to deale with them about the things of the Gospell be more afraid of your selves in duties than in any other way for though you are in the waies of God as to outward actings yet you are under the most spirituall temptations that can be you will wonder to see one day how many thousands will be placed at the left hand that have passed through all the formes of duties to the uttermost therefore be not content with any thing but what you find perfectly reall bring it to the touchstone againe and againe let it be written with the Sun-beames in your hearts looke to your principles and ends mind the vigour and straines of your spirits in duties observe at what rate you act still be looking that way Oh to be a sound Christian is a most glorious thing Give me that soule that can say I have many things that I am ashamed of before God night and day but I am sound I am reall though I were to be searched by God I have that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that inward sinceritie that is not only a simplicity of spirit but such a shining judgement upon my own condition that I know how I stand before God and I know whom I have beleeved and how I have beleeved and how I have prayed and heard in the Gospell I know it the divine spirit was in my bosome in such a place in such a corner the Holy Ghost was in my spirit I know that I was carried out in such a duty meerly by the life and strength of God when I had no power when I was as weake as water Oh! this would be a comfort indeed to a poore soule Many are glad to be lulled asleepe if they can but be said to be religious and saints and follow the things of the Gospell they thinke they are happy No soule thou must have a principle in thy soule and an eternall worke upon thee thou must know what God is and what Christ is and what God in Christ is what it is to have thy corruptions struck at the heart and be laid as low as hell in thy owne soule before ever thou enjoy any thing of God in thy owne soule And when thou hast done so thou must try all over againe by a spirit of fire and burning and have not only thy own reason to witnesse but the Holy Ghost and Scriptures to witnesse to what is in thy heart to what thy conscience speakes and all these things will be brought to you one day though you looke slightly over them now Oh that men would be carefull to avoid hypocrisie this wicked leaven that is in so many soules to discerne the leaven that workes in every part so invisibly Beg of God a spirit of sinceritie to keep you from your own hearts beg of the Lord that he never would leave you under any slight ordinarie common workings of spirit but put you to it every day shew you your own frames never be quiet untill you find those reall things and then having a little grace yet if in sinceritie you will find your soules in a happy estate Oh you soules that have this mercie from God blesse him and magnifie him for ever you have the earnest of immortalitie in your owne soules SERMON V. LUKE 12.1 Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees which is Hypocrisie I Have in many exercises endeavoured to open to you the nature of hypocrisie what kinds and sorts of hypocrites there are in the world and the last time you may remember we shewed you the actings of hypocrisie as to duties in generall for hypocrisie is most acted in duties a man may find out his own deceits in many things more easilie than in duties for in duties there are such faire colours no man knows how to discover himselfe or others if he be not carefull in his own heart But there were three things propounded at the latter end which we could not come to not only as to duties in generall But first the hypocrisie of men in prayer and how a hypocrite is discovered there Secondlie as to communion and converse with Saints and godly persons And thirdly as to his carriage in the world those three we would speake to at this time First Hypocrisie as to prayer which is a dutie that hypocrites most glory in of any that is the dutie wherein Saints get so much of God and have so much experience of God in it is a dutie that is used as the common way to get whatsoever a soule would have let your requests be made known to God therefore there is no dutie a hypocrite is more exact in than that for he imitates a Saint that is the nature of a hypocrite that he imitates a Saint in those duties he is most in that he gets most by none knows the incomes that Saints have in the dutie of prayer how much of God is let into them and how much their soules are let out unto God when none know it it is a dutie that is of that request among those that are godlie that if a hypocrite be not good at that he is good at nothing if he be not very curious there he will be of little account for it is common for one to desire to pray one for another and with one another abundance of incomes come by it in a spirituall way and therefore that is the care of a hypocrite to do that well whatever he neglects and you shall find that as to their parts they never excell so
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
are they have the same motion as to will and desire but not the same principles And therefore it is no wonder a man may be deceived in his own spirit and thinkes he knows Christ and beleeves on Christ and hath many motions of him and all it may be are of outward considerations of him never hath a pure light shining from heaven upon his soule so that I say it is a very easie thing to see how a man can be a hypocrite and not know it to consider what voluntary motions there are of the Holy Ghost upon a mans spirit yet not a saving worke for as the Spirit blows upon whom he will is not bound to convert you so he may present the outward species of Christ to you and never change your will nor understanding and yet a man may thinke he knows perfectly what 's the nature of the whole Gospell in his soule For a man hath to be improved in the Gospell a rationall understanding the Gospell can improve as well as any other Rule Secondly There are those passionate love-expressions that will worke mightily upon the affections as they are taken in with so much fulnesse and variety as to thinke of Christs dying that was innocent and out of love if it were but read in a History would worke upon the affections and yet leave nature as nature a man thinks he loves Christ and may weep at the thoughts of Christs death and yet be unsound for all this Fourthly if you consider the variety of Gods workings upon soules in conversion how many waies he workes he may thinke he is perfectly converted and yet an unsound man for all this Alas the ways of God are so mysterious it is comapred to a new birth Joh. 3. who knows how a child is borne in the womb A man must have a divine light in his soule to see through and through his soule Take a Saint himselfe in his cleare light he can hardly tell how to discerne into the variety of Gods workings what hath been the pure working of God where lies the Child the new-borne babe as it were It hath come and past through the many varieties of Nature and Grace and then if I should adde how apt men are to be perswaded of the goodnesse of their conditions and not know the badnesse of them and how easily selfe-love will be trying to set off what hath but a shadow of Religion with many other deceits then you will easily say A man may be unsound and never know it in his own spirit for a long while Secondly A man may be sincere and have honest intentions in all his duties and actions and yet be an hypocrite And that it may be so I shall demonstrate it thus to you First There is in some men such a morall such a naturall sincerity as I may so say in their actings that they are not disposed unto the contradicting of their principles and their actings they are tempered within themselves they are not disposed to contradict their actings so it is said of the sincerity of Alimelech as concerning Abraham's wife he appealed to God in Genesis 20. in the beginning Saies he in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this saies God I know thy integrity Now there is such a sinceritie even in men that have not grace that they would not do such a thing if they knew it to be unjust according to their Principles they would not do it for a world or if they had taken up an opinion they would not go against their opinion there is such a kind of sincerity Now the same may be in the Gospell that is I go on honestly as I think able to preach and pray and I have no kind of ill intention to deceive only I have not a spirituall principle to act me there is my misery I come not so much to be seen of men as from the intention of my heart but I come not to have Christ or to meet with Christ so I am a hypocrite because I come not from the maine principle Therefore first know this as a Rule that you may see this cleare That simplicity of intention cannot justifie any acts of men that are bad all will grant that for as it was with Pilate he washed his hands yet that did not excuse him Secondly My intentions in any action doe not make a thing to be true or good in it selfe at all as if I have a Jewell to sell my intention in the selling it for a good one may deceive the buyer it being counterfeit no act can be good without a good intention but my good intention makes not the thing really good in it self if the thing in it selfe be not perfect and good it is hypocrisie Thirdly know that a meere good intention may proceed from the naturall constitution of a person not from the goodnesse of his heart It may be I am not given so much to cunning and deceit as other men but have a plaine naturall constitution but if it come to a particular it may be I have as much in my intention if I were put to it as others Fourthly know this about intentions and the sincerity of them That sincerity that will demonstrate a man to be a Saint must flow from the pure and even workings of principles towards their ends sincerity must flow from the even acting of faculties within towards their ends I do not act sincerely to God though I pray never so much in duties if I have not a divine spirituall spring of love to God A heart impulsed moved to God from the power of his own spirit If I have not graces acting together in a harmony faith and love and all other graces purely and really working to God For sincerity as I may say is but the spirituall tune of the motions of all graces in a mans soule it is no more But I will close up all there are many things I should have shown you But now for distinction sake having laid down this That a man may be a hypocrite and not know it thinke he hath grace and hath it not I shall therefore come and shew you the severall sorts of hypocrites I will but name them First there is a meer formall hypocrite that insensibly drudges on in his duties praies and heares and comes to Church and no more and hath no inward power nor virtue in his own soule nor is convinced of any thing to the contrary as Papists say over their beads whilst they are sleeping I confesse every Formalist is a hypocrite but there is a low sort of Formalist that meerely drudges and that is all there is something wanting within Secondly there is a zealous hypocrite and he seemes to actuate his Forme a fiery hypocrite as I may so say one that you would thinke had life and soule indeed and follows on Religion to purpose and yet it is but his passion and humour no grace at all
afterwards and thinkest that will make it up but thy prayer shall shew thy hypocrisie more seeing thy lusts live Fourthly and lastly those are the highest hypocrites of this kind They secretly envy the brightnesse and glories of the gifts and graces of other Saints that goe beyond them and that is the perfect Character of a hypocrite where ever it is found if that be not a hypocrite there is none in the world when a soule cannot abide to be outshined it is a signe that a man never loved grace for grace for then he would love it where it is most pure and shines most gloriously and this the Pharisees were vext at they hated Christ perfectly because he went beyond them and was a conviction to them these and severall other Characters I had thought to given you but to satisfie some soules that will be apt to say every one will be a hypocrite if this be so I answer First My designe is to bid you beware of hypocrisie as Christ doth Try your hearts take not things up in ordinary and common waies be not unbeleeving and doubting that is not the thing I would be at it is not to scare you off the Gospell be curious and criticall be serious in the viewing of your own hearts and search to the bottom and trust not your selves with feigned enjoyments ☞ I would not discourage the poorest looker after Christ for all the world only I would have all men to be pure in their spirits and let every man put himselfe to it let a man have gold that hath passed through the furnace let a man that will be rich be rich with those precious things that are of an eternall nature Secondly to answer that you will find grace will lye but in a little roome therefore I put you to it true grace is like a Diamond very little in bulke but of a high price and mighty value therefore I beseech you be through in your own hearts thou poore looker after Christ Grace lies in a little roome more may be in one motion than in all the acts of the world you may have more grace than the greatest and gloriousest Preacher of the Gospell therefore try thy soule and be not discouraged though thou art not such a flourishing and glorious professor as another yet thou maiest be a greater Saint Thirdly I would have none taken up with any outside or glorious formes in the world but be looking within what inward frames you have in all your duties no I would have no soule taken up with any opinion with any religion that is externall at all but that carries out purely to heaven as the very heart is meeting with the Lord Jesus and as he hath a spirit acted in every word he speakes in the Gospell not to dant you from Religion that is not my designe but to keep you only from the leaven of the Pharisees externall dependencies that your soules may not be lost with the greatest misery to all eternity SERMON III. Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees which is Hypocrisie I Have endeavoured to shew you in general what Hypocrisie is and the last time gave you a hint of severall sorts of hypocrites for hypocrisie lies not in one straine Now we will lay this down as a foundation which was named before that looke as many sorts of tempers as there are and humours and constitutions of men and designes that men have in Religion and as many waies as there are so many common workings as God may have upon men so many sorts of hypocrites may you have entring upon Religion on those grounds for looke as it is with grace where it worketh effectually it changes not the faculties nor constitutions A melancholly man is so still though he have grace and so you shall find his actings will shew something of his temper and nature so as to hypocrisie and demonstrations of hypocrisie so many sorts of tempers as there are in the world when men enter on the ways of Godlines upon unsound grounds not being wrought upon throughly by God so many sorts of hypocrites you will have I told you of foure Sects the last time now I shall go on and shew you more Looke as a man is by nature of a duller and heavier constitution and hath got the outward forme of Religion he will be a meere formalist drudging on in duties and no more nothing of the spirituall nature of it taking abundance of paines without sense go on in his waies and his duties without any power at all and that was the meere formall hypocrite I told you of he hath had some little touches upon his spirit that moves him and together with education hath gone on as in a Tract If a man be of a hot temper and constitution fiery in his nature and enter on Religion upon such common grounds and ordinary frames as the most do he will be a zealous man exceeding zealous Some opinion or other some particular forme his heart is most in and he is the zealous hypocrite I spake of he will stick to his opinion and hazard all and never care for the other part of Religion if they can but maintaine that so it is with many in these times never care how the work of God goes on in the world or their own soules so they have their opinion So if a man be of a facile and easie nature to be perswaded and enter upon Religion he will easily conclude that all the promises are his Take every thing for granted in the Gospell and apply it to his own soule as if he had a peculiar interest to all the promises and so grows in a confident secure frame and that is the hypocrite I told you was confident that out of the easinesse of his nature takes all things in the Gospell as his owne though he never saw the need and want of them and never knew the worth of them for I told you that selfe-love is the ground of all hypocrisie in a mans spirit If a man can get any thing for himselfe as selfe-love acts so a man gets into such and such a frame as it was with a mad man that sate at a Port that when all the ships came by said this is mine this is mine so doth all men say without either Religion or the knowledge of the nature of the promises of the Gospell challenging them without a need of them or a knowledge of the glorious designe of God in them Then againe if a man be of a more forward and daring spirit and if he get into a profession of Religion he will prove a presumptuous hypocrite to presume exceedingly upon the Gospell and the things of it he will vent the opinions he hath taken into his consideration and that he sees most sutable to the world If a man be of a more grave and sober temper and hath got such a custome of Religion and duties and taken up the profession of it with a secret
thy selfe Secondly know this in the generall Thou shouldst not charge thy selfe to be a Hypocrite for every sight of Hypocrisie And the more spirituall you grow under the Gospell the more you will see of the deceitfulnesse of your heart every day But I will give you these six Characters that no hypocrite can ever have in their hearts nor attaine to and I hope some poore soules will be comforted and they are the poorest things you would thinke to flesh and bloud in the world those things that a man would never imagine especially those high-grown men in Notion First Can you hate sin as sin that is in its whole nature in every appearance of it in its first motion in the first hints of it in the sins that are most deare that I tooke most pleasure in Hypocrisie in its actings towards sin picks and chooses here and there it may be angry with some sin that disturbes it but it never hates it no hypocrite can have a hatred of sin as sin hate the first of the first as it were though it comes never so glorious never so set as it were hates it as sin upon no other consideration not because it troubles my conscience and brings me to hell and wrath and renders me unsutable to my relations and designes in the world He is a Saint looke to it the very Embryo of sin the sincere soule hates it hates it as sin Secondly No hypocrite can delight to be ashamed by God in his duties in his actings lye under the shamings of God and made purely nothing in its own eyes and others that the Hypocrite cannot do and yet a poore simple sincere soule can do it a poore soule that may be can hardly speak two words with sence and sutablenesse of expression yet he can do it he can delight as well to see God shaming his soule bringing him to nothing humbling of him to the dust as if he were to be in the Armes of the Lord taking pleasure in his humbling acts suppose God deny him any assistance in a duty or in the opening of his heart that if he be in company he is ashamed to looke upon his own heart here the soule takes pleasure to be ashamed no hypocrite can endure that to be ashamed in his actings and relations for selfe-love is the principle of hypocrisie in the heart of a hypocrite He cannot endure to be out-shined that is the wicked frame of him if a Saint go beyond him in grace and communion with God he cannot endure it and therefore cannot endure to be ashamed Oh! how do the Saints love to be laid low before God that they may have the pure glory of him shining upon their soules Then Thirdly know this as a speciall one No hypocrite can blesse God and love him from his heart when God smites him in his dearest enjoyments or nearest lusts wherein he hath delighted take away his comforts take away those things he hath enjoyed formerly and he cannot love Christ nor blesse him in his heart strike him in any thing that the eye and heart of him hath been upon he secretly hates Christ Now a Saint can cling to Christ love him secretly in his own soule though he seeme to be as an enemie to him he cannot but love him for all this no hypocrite can do this take away what pleases his nature and he cannot love him Try your hearts by these things Fourthly know this No hypocrite can love the person of the Lord Jesus Christ nor a Saint as a Saint I put these both together he cannot love the person of the Lord Jesus for he never had the glimpses of his glory on his heart he only loves to be pardoned and have some comfort from him but he never finds his heart to worke in love to the Lord Jesus and have an union with him as the fundamentall ground of all his comforts for love you know it longs for union Nor he cannot love a Saint as a Saint purely but a Saint so tempered so conditioned he cannot love a poore saint nor a weak Saint he cannot purely close with him and have his bowels working towards him purely as a Saint Fifthly No hypocrite can go on in any spirituall worke or service for Christ with any contentment with any pleasure without sensible comforts or outward respects pray observe for if he want inward sensible comforts yet the wind of men will fill his sailes but a poore Saint can take pleasure in the meere mention of Christ in the poorest worke of Christ wherein he is least seene wherein he hath hardly a name only with shame and reflection this will try a man if I had time to open it throughly Sixthly and lastly No hypocrite in the world can long to be like Christ as to be respected by Christ either as to inward comforts or trade in the world Or thus No hypocrite can love the holinesse of Christ as the good things he gets of Christ he cannot abide to be out of his owne forme and in the forme of the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ but a Saint if he have never so much comfort and sweetnesse and his soule alwaies drawing honey with marrow and fatnesse yet if he have not the likenesse of Christ and be like Christ he is not pleased no hypocrite can love the holinesse of the Lord Jesus Christ with a pure love that may destroy his corruption that may unbottome him bring him perfectly out of selfe and transforme him into that glorious Image Try your selves by all these things I had thought to have shewn you wherein the straines of hypocrisie lie to all sorts of duties and the spirituall workings of it in the hearts of men but I must leave that to some other time SERMON IV. Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees which is Hypocrisie I Have shewed you in severall exercises what the nature of hypocrisie is and have distinguished to you the severall sorts of hypocrites under the Gospell shewed you how cunningly and closely men may act and yet still have this leaven in them passing through all their parts there is some little thing or other that is insensible to some men known to others wherby they are mistaken and undone under all their profession I shall not be able to repeat any thing but in the latter end of the last Sermon I told you of Six things that no hypocrite could do or attaine unto and I will adde but this one to all the rest Seventhly No hypocrite in the world can desire Christ that God might be glorified in the utter shaming of himselfe as to all priviledges and to all enjoyments and abatement of comforts to himselfe pray observe it this is that which strikes at selfe-love perfectly which is as I told you the originall of all hypocrisie in a mans spirit and I speake this as a tryall that is very close and narrow to the spirits of men and likewise to distinguish in this point between
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
way and every where with the times Secondly These men shew their hypocrisie in this they make Religion subservient to every principle of men and every designe Thirdly in converses about civill things he will wipe his mouth at small and little things A little oath sometimes a covert lyes speaks very demurely hardly gotten out as it were he can passe it by as his common infirmitie if he tell a little lye in a bargaine spare me in this saies he to go to the house of Rimmon he will take his allowance though it be not given him Fourthly He studies perfectly to please men and he is troubled more when he displeases men than when he finds his heart unsutable to God Fifthly He cares to keep off scandall to his person more than guilt from his conscience no matter if he can keep off scandall though guilt lies fast Then sixthly and lastly to say no more such a hypocrite as this in all his converses will meddle no more with Religion than may fit his Calling and his Relations As the King of Navar said he would launch no further into the deeps than he might come in againe with the same wind no farther then sight of the shoare so it is with hypocrites if such a way of God be never so pretious and pure I will not meddle with it I must take care to my Familie not to my soule therefore the waies of Christ never come into countenance with such men till it be countenanced by the world you shall never have them hot and zealous till the State have made way for them you shall never have them care for Religion where the power must be practised till the State do it I have done in one word that is I beseech you take heed and beware of hypocrisie it is that which is in every duty in every act you do when you act fairest you are in most danger of hypocrisie when you think you are lying in the dust you are not free from the most desperate hypocrisie when you think you are weeping out your heart for sin you are not free from that damnable leaven of hypocrisie when your contemplations are so high as you thinke you are abstracted from all the world and the enjoyments of it that you imagine you are up in glorie yet you will see that hypocrisie is a secret spirit that runs through all your actings it is such a secret thing that it will mingle with your best duties and make you hypocrites in the very acting of them Oh! that men would but look to it nothing like purenesse sincerity reality inward integrity to be true to God and my own conscience to take my heart every day and cut it in peeces by a spirituall inquisition and daylie triall nothing like it after every duty to aske my soule what is done after every prayer to anatomize every petition againe and know how it was in the frame and workings and the answers and returnes and the blessed consequences of it upon my heart nothing will do well else what a dissection will it be when an old hypocrite will be opened What that will be none knows yet what a consumed Lungs and Liver and Heart will there be strangely eaten out and none knows how it comes the substance of the body will be well liking all the flesh fast and sound nothing but the vitals eaten strangely eaten as with a Moath and Canker It will be so with you I beseech you feare lest it grow upon you Beware of hypocrisie look to it every day for it is in every duty and above all things looke after that cleare pure sincere temperature and integrity of spirit in every dutie whereby you may walke with God SERMON VI. LUKE 12.1 Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees which is Hypocrisie I Have shewed you in severall exercises what the characters of hypocrisie is what they are in many states how to trace them in duties in generall in prayer especially in communion of Saints in actings in the world and civill respects But you may remember at the first opening of the words I told you that there were some sorts of hypocrites that did not so much discover themselves but must be discovered by the truths of the Gospell that are propounded they are not so consciencious of want of integritie as they are wanting in principles those we have most endeavoured to discover But in the second place I told you some there are that know themselves to be so at least they have secret conscientious checks of conscience yet go on in profession I would a little speake to them at present and then make application of the whole There are many I say that knows themselves to be unsound in their owne spirits and yet go on in profession and that you would thinke strange and it is more strange to thinke a man should be a hypocrite and not know it than that a man should know his hypocrisie and yet go on in it I shall in the opening of this shew you First That it may be so and that it is often so and most hypocrites shew themselves to be so Secondly I shall discover how it can be that they can go on in profession so easily and freely as they do Thirdly Wherein their hypocrisie still lies First That it may be so and that they do go on so I shall make it cleare in these particulars and I beseech you observe First Take the common principle of a naturall conscience which is enlightned for every hypocrite hath an enlightned conscience it is not so dull as it is in other men unlesse it be after a long time of hypocrisie but the naturall conscience of a man will tell him thus that this is not right you do not this according to this rule for there is a light left in a mans conscience till God give a man over to blindnesse and darknesse there is is a light will alwaies give a man a check without there be some eminent thing to silence conscience at the present as it was with the Heathens in the second of the Romans their consciences did naturally accuse and excuse them upon the common principle of that light of nature imprinted on them this is not just this is not sutable though they had not such written rules before them yet there were such dictates sutable to the impression that God left upon their naturall consciences much more an hypocrite an enlightened hypocrite under the Gospell but a naturall conscience will tell a man really and check him in a duty and say this never came from the mover this motion of yours did not run freely in your spirits this prayer was but pumpt it comes not from the fountaine you had some by-end or other did you not aime at this or that some applause or comfort to your selves never minded Christ Conscience will speake if you be not judicially hardned it will speake very loud to a man at least it will give
a man such checks as a man shall consider and by the custome of it conclude that it is thus and thus with him For looke as it is with the Saints under full light and full evidence so it is with a hypocrite under the enlightenings of his conscience saies Paul I have lived in all good conscience unto this day that is walked according to the principles of reason and Religion according to the light I had lived in all good conscience unto this day never strained my conscience Now it is impossible for a man under enlightening if he have not a mighty secure frame of spirit or wonderfull dexteritie of colouring his heart but naturall conscience will reflect upon him and say this was not intended right though the action was done this was not so spirituall nor so firmely acted before God you know you had your intention besides the rule But then Secondlie Take such a conscience under the Ministrie of the Gospell where there are Characters given on both sides where hearts are dealt withall seriouslie and with abundance of clearenesse where the designe is to anatomize the spirit to give characters of a Saint and give distinctions between common graces and those graces that are purely sanctifying changing and transforming the soule and those that are common and worke nor the image of God in the soule if you have any light as hypocrites have abundance of light otherwise they could never play their tricks so as they do it is impossible but the heart should say this is not right I find not this right in my own spirit it is impossible they should lye under these things and have no convictions no checks secretly that he is truly such an one Thirdly He may by reflecting upon himselfe know it by his getting in his duties if he had nothing but that which he gets in duties when he hears how Saints get communion with God in duties how their soules are taken up with Christ what glorious enjoyments they have of God in Prayer and Sacraments what glorious frames they find upon their spirits when they have communion he knows he can hardly get from one duty to another the truth is a hypocrite is the poorest miserablest soule in the world he never hath any thing but what he gets from hand to mouth when he comes to dye he is a begger nothing at all to live on and he knows he never met with Christ so as to humble him and to lay him low he knows when he heares other Saints speake of the Gospell and the sweetnesse they have had in the sights of Christ pardoning and applying his love to them he knows he hath not these things when he comes to action he is as dead and as low as may be and as I told you he is poorest and worst at last Fourthlie God delights to discover a hypocrite he delights in that exceedingly and commonlie doth it and laies it upon a man closely and wonderfullie by wonderfull flashes of spirit and God delights to do it First Because it is a secret that none can find out but himselfe therefore he delights to anatomize a wicked cunning deceitfull heart Secondlie God he delights to do it because he loves to put a speciall marke upon them of all persons in the world those that have deceived others shall deceive themselves he put a marke upon the first hypocrite in the world that ever was that he changed his countenance so that if you had no more take them altogether and you shall find that a man may very well be a hypocrite and know himselfe to be so and yet go one nay it is very hard for a man to be long a hypocrite under the Gospell but he must lye under the checks of it But Secondly you will say how can this be How can he continue in Congregations in Churches how can he continue all this while and not be terrified and not leave off all profession My Brethren In the first place pray take in these things know it is the most deluding sin in the world the most pleasant sin in the world to a man as men love by Art to imitate nature they are mighty pleased with it to represent Nature in Art how men give up themselves and their studies and are pleased with it there is nothing more pleasing to a man as hypocrisie is that he can turne himself at any time here and there evade all things that are laid upon him by the Gospell It is just as you see with those that are your theeves or cut-purses that have a curious art and dexterity to do it they will take a mans purse out of his pocket so exactly that he cannot know it is done but they are gone and when they come together at night they rejoyce and brag who hath done the best feats so hypocrites cannot but know in their naturall consciences it is against the rule but there is abundance of pleasure in it to cheat themselves and cheat others till God worke mightilie upon them for to imitate a Saint in every thing and do it exactly pleases a hypocrite that he can delude others when he hath been in prayer cosened and deluded the best sort of men in the world as I have heard some say they could delude all the Saints in the world for that is pleasing to a man that nourishes his selfe-love and that does carry him on to act so as to be well thought of by others it shews a man an artificiall man that can thus and thus move up and down the world and none see him or take notice of him all think him a blessed Saint I am confident there is no sin so pleasing to a soule as hypocrisie is for it will have so many varieties of Artificiall motions laid before it to act by that a man is not tyed to one or tother but still acted in variety and the sence of divine things is not on his heart at all as I shall shew you in the second place Secondly he may go on in profession though he know himselfe to be so he may go on because he knows not the nature and vilenesse of his sin at all only sees he is not as he should be and it is the same with other sins he may lye long under a sin so long as Conscience is not pressed on with an unresistible conviction only a generall cold conviction is upon him he sees that he hath done so and so and he is so and so but there is not any thing of the power of conviction upon his soule for then a soule should not be able to stand under it but cry out he cannot endure it but commonly it is with hypocrisie such a pleasing sin as with other sins a man sees the guilt by the rule but not by the light of a divine conviction strangely working in his soule and spirit and so goes on as those did which the Prophet speakes of you lye and steale and commit
in the third place know this though he know himselfe thus to be in that condition yet he never strives to root out the wickednesse of that frame out of his own heart but to smother it and cover it and palliate it from the eyes of men some way or other not to destroy it in his own spirit but smother it so that it may looke Saint-like still but a gracious heart as soone as it discovers hypocrisie as he sees the straines of hypocrisie in his heart he looks to root it out as soone as it is discovered But to speake no more to that let us now come to the application of it to all your hearts First If this be so I beseech you once againe to put your hearts upon the serious consideration and examination of your own estates what are you Now you looke well come to heare you are not in sight so ugly what are you within Have you not strange straines of hypocrisie if you be not hypocrites I beseech you looke seriously to your own hearts this is the end of all this discourse to put men seriouslie upon the triall of their own spirits that they may not be unsound in the Gospell that they may not have a rotten spirit within that the liver and lungs and heart be not corrupted whilest they deale with the great things of the Gospell that is that the faculties of the soule may be purelie acted to God there are more hypocrites now in the world than in any one Age since the Creation it was a hard thing to pick out one formerlie but God will shew many of them in these daies he is a trying the world and as he goes along he will try spirits most Oh you have trials under the Gospell have you got a clearenesse Can you say you have a glorious inward freenesse with God Oh what use have you made of the Gospell Have you inward glorious incomes of God from the breathing in of divine frames in your actings towards God Let me ask you but these common questions First Cannot you find some time to play with your sins sometimes so they bite you not and sting you Cannot you take some recreating times for your sins and corruptions Pray you consider of it a hypocrite doth so he dares not make a trade of it but he will make a recreation of it now and then he loves that he dares not practice you can now and then play with your wanton thoughts as long as they do not fly in your face you can delight your selfe in your secret wishes Oh that I were at it look to your own soules Nay what is this Religion that men speake of do you find such kind of things in your hearts he that can play with sin for recreation can joine himself unto sin for delight and to be one nature with him a Saint hates appearances he cannot endure the thoughts of it Secondlie Are there not some sins you call little sins and some duties you call little duties and some duties that you never lay upon your conscience Look to your hearts in that you are never humbled for the commission of sins or the omission of duties it is a dangerous symptome of hypocrisie A hypocrite will be sure to make distinctions in the Gospell there be some secret workings up of corruptions and sins as vanitie of thoughts distraction in duties and secret risings of corruptions and desires in a mans heart which he never chargeth his conscience withall and some duties he never laies upon conscience so long as he can passe thorough the maine body he never cares for the speciall circumstances of the Gospell A gracious and upright heart saies Shall I call that little that is against the glorie of an infinite God It is the object makes the sin great not the act this dutie hath as much authority upon my heart though never so meane though but to wash a Saints feet as to offer the greatest sacrifices before the eyes of all the world Thirdly Let me aske you this Are you not afraid of trialls and to be throughly discovered to your own hearts Do you not endeavour sometimes if possible to evade the strength of a conviction and the strength of a word from God that is laid upon your heart afraid to looke into your own hearts and see your spirits to be discovered to your selves do not you many times hush conscience and say be quiet conscience stay a while to your own consciences I will be better I will strive against it I will not be thus and thus carried away do you not find these things A dangerous symptome a hypocrite endeavours to evade the authoritie of the Gospell he is afraid to abide the power and the glorie of it if he cannot find out prudentiall considerations enough he will get spirituall pretences he will be sure if he can evade conviction he will do it that is a very dangerous signe And againe Fourthlie Examine your own hearts Is there not some of the fat of the Cattle of the sheep to allude to that of Saul for he was an hypocrite in the going on in your duties reserved Is there not some Agag for honors sake you would keep up 1 Sam. 15 read over that place at your leisure God bids Saul slay the Amalekites destroy them all in the third verse yet he reserved an Agag and the best of the spoile here was the discoverie of his wicked heart he would have sacrificed some of the fat things he had a mind to triumph by Agag he thought it was too much to destroy all those things though God gave a peremptorie command to destroy all I will sacrifice them to God to make an attonement only reserved some of the best to carrie to my people in triumph that they may see the out-goings of God that lost him his Kingdom and discovered his hypocrisie first of any act he had a secret lust to honour himselfe by it have you none of the fat of your corruptions Have you never a lust laid up Is there never a corruption that your soules have countenanced or do countenance It is a dangerous signe of hypocrisie if a man have any thing that the word of God saith is not the mind of God that he reserves in his heart without utter hatred Well look to it I beseech you and especiallie look to that of the triall of your spirits whether you can be willing to be tried for you shall find a hypocrite will appeale to God and his conscience but he cannot endure to be tried by Saints he will appeale to God if it be not so yet he cannot endure to be put to it to have his heart ript open Nay it is very common to say God knows my heart but if you come to try his heart and say how can this grace stand with this corruption he cannot endure that he will hate the thoughts of it And if you do try him him about his estate you must
not debate it with him but you must take it for granted else he will try your graces as well as you try his and question your state as much as you his And then if he be put to it at last as to triall of his own spirit he will save all with a whining confession and that is all you will get of him therefore look to your selves as to these things In the second place I should now have come to have prest on the exhortation of the Lord Jesus beware of hypocrisie you that are Christians you that are reall Saints should beware of it and so to all sorts of professours take heed and beware of it and shewed you these things To have opened the nature of it and the hideousnesse of it And first from the danger of it to your soules it is the most dangerous sin you can have in your soules and that First because it is the last reserve it is undiscernable a man must search as with a Candle that finds it out as the Jews were to search for the Leaven with a Candle and then curse all the rest it is a close sin indeed there are some actings of it that are very grosse but as for spirituall secret hypocrisie in duties compare them with actings they are exceeding close and undiscernable in the soules of men a soule must dig very deep and be very observant and have a watch over his soule every moment if ever he would trie his heart it is so close and so cunning that a man will hardlie beleeve it is there there is such a hidden motion upon a man that he cannot tell how it comes Secondlie beware of it It is infectious it is a dangerous infectious spreading nature it will be over all the faculties on a sudden it will represent you all kind of glasses that can be possible it can in the morning give you one glasse to looke in at noone another glasse and in the evening one different from both take one part of the Law you shall see your selves in it very faire it spreads over all it will it may be begin with your understandings and give you strange sights and apprehensions of God then come in upon your affections upon a sudden and work them to this end and to their end it will kisse and kill at once looke to it for it is the most dangerous sin of any in the world in a mans heart For if the soundnesse be gone from a mans heart what will he do then A man cannot act like a man when the substance of the soule is gone he cannot act neither Scripture reason nor his judgement but a particular close humour Thirdlie beware of it It is the most inconstant in its motions the most various in its representations so many habits and so many formes it will appeare in to you and alter upon every occasion that it is impossible unlesse a man be given up to try his own heart to find it out A heart and a heart you shall have a faire heart now and a wicked heart anon come and talke with a Person now and you shall find them in a good frame so as if they were commanded by the power of of it come an houre after and you shall find them in a wicked damnable straine of spirit speaking like mad men this is most common especiallie come to talke with a man privately what abundance of ingenuitie there is come to another action and at another time and he is not the same man hypocrisie will appeare and this is the misery mens soules are juggled to hell put in so many formes they know not when they are right know not what is the reall complexion they should have in the Gospell it is so various and so cunning it juggles a mans soule to hell Fourthly It is the most odious thing to God of any it takes his name in vaine most of any it is against his simplicitie omnisciencie his puritie God hates nothing more than this state therefore he sets himselfe against hypocrites of all sorts of people in the world I should have come to have shewed you how to avoid it what are the speciall remedies of hypocrisie the speciall things to keep a man from the evill of it the way to preserve a man from this dangerous sin but I would not leave some poore soules without some kind of comfort all this while many will say Alas I am the man I am the woman certainlie I have been a hypocrite all my daies I would only speake a little comfort to such poore soules First know this Jealousie of thine own heart and severe inquisition into it is a good hopefull Character that thou art far off that condition There is a twofold jealousie that therefore you may not be deceived First A jealousie on probable grounds secret and close symptomes and hints from actings which may teach many a soule that hypocrisie may have place in his heart for I find this and that when I come to looke on the whole straine of my life I have not my heart so carried out in spirituall things I never minded this and that in my actings this is a jealousie that may consist with the knowledge of hypocrisie Secondlie there is a jealousie that ariseth from feare and care lest I should be such an one from the hatred of the thing thou seest the vilenesse of it and thou seest thou canst never be quiet till thou hast the clearenesse of integritie made out to thee that is good that is sweet none more apt to censure a Saint than himselfe you know when Jesus Christ made the question about his betraying the hypocrite spake last never spake till he was put to it every one said at the Supper Lord is it I Is it I Every one had rather dye than heare that word spoken but when it comes to Judas he was forced to it at last and yet he would not confesse it but when the conviction lay upon him and he must needs be under it then he went out and that was all you heard of him till he hanged himselfe Secondlie To comfort poore soules they have no reason to conclude themselves hypocrites when they are glad if God by any meanes discover and destroy their hypocrisie whatever way it be for there lies the weight when God shall be blessed for discovering a mans heart to him take this for a rule If a soule can rejoyce and blesse God for his convictions of sin as for his comforts after conviction it is a signe of a most blessed glorious spirit though the sight of hypocrisie be the ugliest sight in the world yet when he sees it he blesseth God for it Thirdlie Never thinke thou art an hypocrite if thy heart is set against the nature of sin and pursuest the enjoyment of the nature of God whilest thy heart is set against the nature of sin and followest on the nature of God that is to be really possessed with 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
may be so unmixt in your actings that you may have nothing at all of the corruption of the world in it for we commonlie in our duties mixe our owne ends and our own interests and engagements in the things of God and whatever the intentions be yet if there be any such mixtures you are not sincere though you may thinke you do well and are very exact in the Gospell yet you cannot be sincere whilest there is such a mixture in your principles and ends 1 Cor. 8. A man is not sincere when there are any mixtures when a man is carried on by inward motions of sin Now I confesse there will be many mixtures but there are mixtures in intentions and mixtures in principles and ends and these are dangerous for a man cannot be sincere if these be predominant over him As if I go to God if it be not to glorifie God and to have communion with him having the highest end and do not act from a spirituall principle of holy love to him and his glorie if I have any mixture in my intentions though other things may come in accidentallie yet if they be incorporated in the principle then I am not sincere For to make up that sinceritie a man must have that spirit of sinceritie that is pure to act from God to God from the Spirit unto Christ Now here is a pure way of acting when the soule sees what it s own strength is casts it out lies at Christs feet is carried out by the assistance of Gods spirit will not have any thing but the strength of Christ when the intentions goe along together with the acting of these things when there is a pure intention that I fix but my eye wholly on one object for there be many considerations that come in accidentally but the eye is fixt upon one object I must have Christ and my soule is working after him and there I center my heart that is sinceritie indeed so we should receive the sincere milke of the word that is that milke that is unmixt with the corruption of men the sincere milke 1 Pet. 2. therefore looke to your owne hearts if ever you meane to avoid hypocrisie you must be sure that you keep from mixtures mixtures of unsound principles and ends selfe-love selfe-ends take heed of the aire of the world left that come in and fill your sailes in your duties take heed of any thing that may mixe with your principles your ends for in acting towards God you cannot act purelie but you must act from single and entire principles in your hearts and cleare apprehensions of the object and the end And however you may conceive you act evenlie and your heart is not feigning to be so in a duty yet if you be not carried out in such a heavenly harmony of principles and inclinations and your ends together you will never be found to be sincere in the Gospell Secondlie the word signifies that clearnesse that perspicuity that should be in a mans soule in all his actings so saith the Apostle that you may be sincere the word signifies such a clearenesse as when a man is under the judgement of the Sun as under the Sun shining on a mans spirit you will hardly avoid hypocrisie till your consciences be under a light and a brightnesse of the glory of divine workings upon your hearts for when your conscience lies under darknesse and guilt as to the testimony it should give you will still have shiftings off of hypocrisie from your spirits to take off the weight and misery off from you but the Apostle would have you to be so cleare in your judgement of the Gospell as if you were to be judged by the Sun it selfe it should be found that there is nothing but sinceritie a faire testimonie in everie dutie that inward whitenesse of a mans spirit in a duties that it is not mixed with any bribings from without nor secret evasions from within And that shining from the conscience is so bright that as the Apostle saith this is the testimonie that we have the testimonie of our consciences A man should be so cleare in his own spirit if he meant to avoid hypocrisie that if he were to be brought out to be judged before men and Angels he might have such an inward brightnesse in his own spirit that he might be comforted and refreshed in the sight of it For you find this commonly take hypocrites in the time of convictions they have no testimonie of God at all Now take a sincere heart though he be under conviction yet there is such a light that he judgeth there is sinceritie in his own heart convince but a hypocrite of one thing he can give no account of the other all comes in upon him and challengeth him for he hath no brightnesse within that will testifie to his soule at a dead lift when conscience accuseth he hath nothing to excuse in his conscience from the clearenesse of the acting of true principles in him I beseech you if ever you meane to avoid hypocrisie be sincere and if you will get sinceritie you must get all these graces clearelie shining and working in your owne spirits for you will be put hard to it to get sinceritie while your principles are darke and not even if you find not your principles and ends meet together and your eye is singly set upon the Lord Jesus and your hearts set for the glory of God you will not have that inward plainnesse in your own hearts Though the nature of sinceritie lies much as to these two things First the clearnesse of a mans principles and unmixtnesse in them Secondlie a plainnesse and ingenuitie in the actings of them from these two flows that which we call that sinceritie of spirit To be free from sembling and faigning of things when I am not mixt when I am without impuritie in my motions as to what I act though there be hypocrisie in some other things yet there is not in those maine things So that the first thing I would commend unto you if you would avoid hypocrisie is to furnish your selves with all spirituall graces of sinceritie that you may be justified before the Sun that as they say of the Eagle they try their young ones by the Sun if they can endure the sight of the Sun they are then true so you if these things will endure the Sun and the light of God then you may say you act sincerelie Secondlie if you would avoid hypocrisie lye alwaies under the dread of an omniscient eye this is that that men are discovered hypocrites by they know not what the sights of God are that all-seeing God if I thought God did looke into my heart and did see me it is impossible I should then go on in a way of sin and deceit to deceive my own soule for to deceive the omniscient God Hypocrites thinke in the generall that God sees all things but they lye not under the
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