and every comfortable Sermon or discourse which he heareth is abused to increase his self-deceit 11. It increaseth the Hypocrites self-deceit when he findeth some partial reformation in himself and that he hath mended many things that were amiss This he takes for a true conversion and thinks that the civilizing and smoothing of his life the change of his opinion and the taking up a form of godliness are true Sanctification and that he is not the man that once he was and therefore is in a safe condition Though alas he hath never yet known by experience the new heart the new ends the new resolutions affections and conversation of a Saint 12. Lastly he deceiveth himself by misunderstanding the nature of hypocrisie Because he perceiveth not that he is a gross dissembler but meaneth as he speaks so far as he goes therefore he thinks he is no Hypocrite Whereas besides the gross Hypocrite that knoweth he doth dissemble and only deceiveth others there are also close Hypocrites that know not they are Hypocrites but deceive themselves And these are they that my Text here speaks of when it saith He deceiveth his own heart It is Hypocrisie to seem better then one is and to profess to be a sincere Christian when he is none though he confidently think that he is what he professeth himself to be III. BUt what is it that can move a Reasonable creature to be willfully guilty of such self-deceit in the day-light of the Gospel when he hath so much help to see his way Answ 1. The are first acceived by the vanities of the world and the pleasures of sin before they deceive themselves by their Religion Their Religious self-deceiving is but subservient to their fleshly servitude and the worlds deceit They are carnal from the birth for that which is born of the flesh only is but flesh Joh. 3. 6. and custom in sinning fixeth and increaseth their sinful disposition Their hearts are engaged to their worldly accommodations and to their vain-glory and the things that please the flesh They are willing slaves to their conâ—upiscence And therefore they cannot admit of that Religion which would deprive them of that which they most dearly love Christ speaks too late to them They tell him they are promised already Their affections are pre-engaged sin hath taken up the chiefest rooms And the heart that loveth sensuality and prosperity best cannot love God best too for it can have but one best The 〈◊〉 of true Sanctification is to 〈…〉 the darling of a carnal 〈◊〉 and to cross it in its dearest loves and to lay that at our feet that before was as our treasure and to tame that body and bring it into subjection which before was in the throne The motions of such a change will not be acceptable till they are made so effectual as to cause that change The command will be unpleasant till the heart be suited to the nature of the command He that seeth what care and labour there is to gather a worldly treasure and what a stir is made in the world about it can never expect that all this should be vilified and despised at a word and that any doctrine how true and heavenly soever can be wellcome to these worldly men that would debase their glory and embitter their delights and make their Idol seem but dung The doctrine of Christ would take the old heart out of their bodies and they will not easily leave their hearts It doth not only command the drunkard to live soberly and the glutton temperately and the lascivious filthy sinner chastly and the proud person humbly and the covetous to live contentedly and liberally but it commandeth the hearty forsaking of all for the sake of Christ Luke 14. 33. and the accounting them but as loss and dung that we may win him Phil. 3. 7 8 9. and mortifying of that flesh which before we daily studyed to please Col. 3. 4 5. and the crucifying of its affections and lusts Gal. 5. 24. and the denyal even of our selves Luk. 9. 23 24. And for a carnal mind to love and yield to such commands were no other then to cease to be a carnal mind All this is largely expressed by the Apostle Rom. 8. 1 c. They that are in Christ Jesus walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit For to be carnally-minded is death but to be Spiritually minded is life and peace Because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if through the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live You see here why it is that the self-deceiver will not entertain the power of godliness nor be Religious seriously according to the true intent of the Gospel and the nature of Christianity even because he is engaged to a contrary object and hath another game in chase which he will not leave and which true Religion requireth him to leave and will not give him leave to follow And therefore he parteth with the Religion which would have parted him from that which he will not part with 2. But withall he is all this while under the threatenings of the Law of God and conscience is ready to bear witness against him and betwixt Law and Conscience the poor wretch is as the corn between two Milstones he would be ground to powder and tortured with terrors before his time if he had not some opiate or intoxicating medicine to ease him by deceiving him and to abate his fears and quiet his conscience as long as a palliate cure will serve turn So that here are two things for which the self-deceiving Hypocrite is fain to fall into his Vain Religion The one is that it may be a cloak to the sin which he will needs keep The other is that it may save him from the terrors and disquietments that for this sin his conscience would else afflict him with A belief that he may be saved for all his sin is the relief that he hath against the terrors of the Law of God He therefore chooseth out such parcels of Religion as may serve him for this use and yet will not separate him from the sin that he delighteth in The power of godliness will not consist with his coveâ—ous proud or fleshly life but the form and outside will And therefore this regeneration and mortification and self-denyal and subjection to the whole will of God and this heavenly mindedness and watching the heart and walking with God and living above the trifles of this world and making it the chief business to prepare for another this kind of Religion which is Religion indeed he cannot because he will not entertain This
the Chappel of a Saint in Pilgrimage in carrying about them a bone or some other supposed relict of a supposed Saint In confessing their sins so often to a Priest and doing penance if he impose it on them And so while they live in whoredom or drunkenness or swearing or lying or all these and many other such it is but confessing and doing penance and to it again on which account whatever some of them say for the necessity of contrition it is usual with them to venture upon the sins of whoredom drunkenness and the rest because they have so easie and cheap a remedy at hand And therefore I wonder not that among Infidels who after Baptism Apostatize to deny the holy Scriptures and the immortality of the soul and the life to come and among common swearers and cursers and whoremongers and drunkards the Papists find their labours most successeful and that no fish will so easily take their bait Nor do I wonder that it is a point of the Popish faith that none but the Children of the Devil that are void of the love of God and are unjustified can possibly turn Papists For they tell us that all are such till they are Papists saving that they are many of them for the salvation of heathens A poor wretch that is captivated to his odious lusts and goes under a galled accusing conscience will be content to take a Popish cure and quiet his soul with a few complements and formalities But to bring one of these men to a through conversion to a true humiliation to a deep hatred of all sin and a love of holiness to close with Christ as his only refuge from the wrath of God and to give up himself without any reservation and all that he hath to the will and service of the Lord to love God as his portion and the infinite transcendent good to take all the honour and riches of the world as loss and dung and use all in due subserviency to everlasting happiness to crucifie the flesh and mortifie all his earthly inclinations and live a life of self-denyal and to walk with God and serve him as a Spirit in spirit and in truth and to keep a watch over thoughts affections words and deeds to live by faith upon a world and happiness that is to us unseen and to live in preparation for their death and wait in hope to live with Christ this is Christianity and true Religion and this is it that they will not so easily be brought to It s easier to make an hundred Papists then one true regenerate Christian Children can make them a baby of clouts And the statuary can make a man of Alabaster or stone But none can give life which is essential to a man indeed but God There needeth the Spirit of the living God by a supernatural operation and a kind of new creation to make a man a real holy Christian But to bring a man to make such a congee or wear such a vesture or say such and such words and make to himself a mimical Religion this may be done without any such supernatural work O therefore take heed of cheating your souls by hypocritical formalities instead of the life and power of Religion Vse 2. ANd now O that the Lord of life would help me so to apply this truth and help you so to apply it to your selves that it might be as a light set up in the Assembly and in all your consciences to undeceive the miserable self-deceivers and to bring poor Hypocrites into some better acquaintance with themselves and to turn their seeming Vain Religion into that which is real and serious and saving And now I am to search and convince the Hypocrite I could almost wish that all the upright tender souls that are causelesly in doubt of their own sincerity were out of the congregation lest they should misapply the Hypocrites portion to themselves and think it is their case that I am describing as it is usual with ignorant patients especially if they be a little melancholy when they hear or read the description of many dangerous diseases to think that all or some of them are theirs because they have some symptomes very like to some of those which they hear or read of Or lest their fearful souls should be too much terrified by hearing of the misery of the Hypocrite as a fearful child that 's innocent will cry when he sees another whipt that 's faulty But if thou wilt stay and hear the Hypocrites examination I charge thee poor humbled drooping soul that thou do not misunderstand me nor think that I am speaking those things to thee that are meant to the falshearted enemies of the Lord and do not imagine that thou art condemned in his condemnation nor put not thy self under the stroaks that are given him but rejoyce that thou art saved from this state of self-deceit and misery And that thou mayst have some shelter for thy conscience against the storm that must fall on others look back on the foregoing description of the Hypocrite and thou mayst find that thou hast the saving graces which I there discovered him to want Let these at present be before thine eyes and tell thee Thou art not the person that I mean 1. Thou art humbled to a loathing of thy self for thy transgressions 2. Thou art willing to give up thy self to Christ without reserve that as thy Saviour he may cure thy miserable soul upon his own terms 3. The favour of God is dearer to thee then the favour of the world or the pleasures and prosperity of sinners and thou longest more to love him better and to feel his love then for any of the honours or advancements that flesh and blood desire 4. It is the life to come that thou takest for thy portion and preferest before the matters of this transitory life 5. Thy Religion employeth thee about thy heart as much as about the out side and appearing part It is heart-sins that thou observest and lamentest and a better heart that thou daily longest and prayest and labourest for 6. Thou livest not in any gross and deadly sin and thou hast no infirmity but what thou longest and labourest to be rid of and goest on in the use of Christs holy means and remedies for a cure 7. Thou dislikest not the highest degree of holiness but lovest it and longest after it and hadst rather be more holy then be more honourable or more rich 8. Thou unfeignedly lovest the image of Christ on the souls of all his servants where thou canst discern it and seest a special excellency in a poor humble heavenly Christian though never so low or despicable in the world above all the pompe and splendor of the earth and thou lovest them with a special love and the holier they are the better dost thou love them 9. Thou lovest the most convincing searching Sermons and wouldest fain have help to know the worst that is in thy
is all that ever they shall have to prevent everlasting misery or to procure everlasting joy stand by a while and hearken to the discourse of sensual gallants and mark how dayes and weeks are spent and then tell me whether the prosperity of such fools be not made the occasion of befooling and destroying them 5. What men in the world do live so sensual a life as rich and prosperous worldlings live The difference between the sanctified and the unsanctified the children of God and of the Devil is that one of them liveth after the Spirit and the other liveth after the flesh as in Rom. 8. to ver 14. you may read at large And how few of these Dives'es do think the damning sin of flesh-pleasing to be any sin in them at all If they do not eat till they are sick or drink till they are drunk their consciences scarce controul them in their voluptuousness They never well understood the meaning of such passages as these Rom. 13. 14. Make no provision for the flesh to fullfill the desires or lusts thereof Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye 1 Cor. 9. 27. I keep under my body and bring it into subjection c. They understand not how far the flesh is their enemy or else as they have verbally renounced it they would use it as an enemy 6. In their prosperity these fools have not the wit to love or bear the means of their preservation or recovery They have the sorest maladies and are most impatient of the remedies They are in the stream of temptations and have greater need of help then others and yet there is none that reject it with more contempt and pride Plain-dealing Preachers which honest humble souls delight in do seem intolerable sawcy fellows to these sons of pride If we tell them but of the sin that God hath most plainly condemned in his Word or of the judgement which he hath there denounced and make the most prudent and modest application of it unto them we seem to wrong them and stir up their pride and enmity against us and provoke them to slanderous recriminations or revenge It troubles them not to commit it or to keep it but to hear of it And they take us to be more faulty for admonishing them of it then themselves for being guilty of it Though we are by office the Messengers of Christ that will tell them of it shortly to their faces and feareth not the proudest son of Belial yet are they too stout to be admonished by such as we but reject our message with hatred and disdain And indeed it is a wonder of mercy that the prevalency of this impatient guilt and malice hath not ere this turned plain and faithful preaching into some toothless formalities or homilies and silenced the Preachers for the security of the offendors and expelled the Physicians lest they displease the sick The Lord still prevent it If we tell them with the greatest caution but of the necessary truths without which a sinful soul is never like to be humbled or saved we are taken to be turbulent and injurious to the ease or honour of these auditors They must hear of the necessity of regeneration and holiness and of the weight and worth of things eternal and yet they cannot bear to hear it They must have heart-searching and heart-breaking truths in a searching awakening manner brought home to them if ever they will be saved by them but they cannot endure it The Surgeon is intolerable that would search their sores and yet there is no other way to heal them Alas the heart of man is so hard that all the skill and industry of the Preacher can scarce sufficiently sharpen and set home the truth that it may enter But nothing that is sharp can be endured by these tender souls Such language as Christ and his Prophets and Apostles used doth seem too rough for silken eares Their honour must not be blotted with the mention of their odious sins and deplorable misery To be a glutton or a drunkard or a wanton or filthy fâ—rnicator or a malicious Cain they can endure But to be told Thou art the man though it be in secret and with love and tenderness they cannot bear The Minister is thought to wrong them that shall secretly and faithfully admonish them and tell them truly what will be the end But Christ will execute all his threatnings and make them feel what now they hear and yet constrain them to confess that he doth not wrong them We wrong them now if we tell a Gentleman of his impiety and sensuality and pride and of his vilifying precious time and casting it away on cards and idleness and unprofitable talk yea though he be so far forsaken of common grace and reason as to hate and deride the serious practice of his own profession and the way that the God of heaven hath prescribed as flatly necessary to salvation yet cannot he endure to hear of his enmity against the Lord nor to be told that he beareth the image of the Devil while he is against the image and Laws of Christ Should we but privately read a text to them that condemneth them they are as angry with us as if we made the Scripture which we read and it were not the Word of God but ours If we tell them that Without holiness none shall see God Heb. 12. 14. and that Except they be regenerated converted and become as little children in humility beginning the world anew they cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven Matth. 18. 3. Joh. 3. 3 5 6. that If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 6. or that Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge Heb. 13. 4. and that The unrighteous the fornicators effeminate covetous extortioners drunkards or revilers shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. Eph. 5. 3 4 5 6. they think we talk too precisely or presumptuously to them You would think by their proud contempt of his threatnings and their boldness and carelesness in sin that these silk-worms did imagine they had conquered heaven and the righteous God were afraid to meddle with them or that he would reverse his Laws and pervert his judgement for fear of dishonouring or offending them Little do they think how many Dives'es are now in hell But methinks they might easily believe that their honourable flesh is rotten and turned to common earth and that death will make bold to tell them also when their turn is come that they have been pampering but a piece of clay and that it was not worth the loss of heaven nor the suffering of hell to spend so much time and care and cost to feed up a carkass for the worms We must now submissively ask their leave to tell them what God hath said against them But God will not ask them leave to make it good upon the highest the
the evil of vertiginous mutability in Religion and therefore he may be much resolved to continue what he is and may cast many a jeer at the weather-cocks of the times and the unconstancy and levity of ignorant or temporizing men and may stand to his party and profession against much opposition as glorying in his constancy and being ashamed to be thought a changling or such a turn-coat as others whom he merrily derideth 5. An Hypocrite that hath no other Religion but delusory and vain may observe the weaknesses of persons that are of lower education and parts and may loath their indiscretion in conference and behaviour and their unhansome expressions in prayer and other duties and shake the head at them as silly contemptible self-conceited fellows and his heart may rise against their disorder tautologies and affectations And its like enough that hereupon he will jeast at conceived prayer or extemporate as they call it and bless himself as safe in his Parrot-like devotions because the same spirit teacheth not fine words and rhetorical language to all that it teacheth to pray with unutterable sighs and groans Rom. 8. 26 27. though the searcher of hearts who is not delighted with complements and set speeches doth well understand the meaning of the spirit 5. The self-deceiving Hypocrite doth frequently pretend to be a man of moderation in matters of Religion as distasting the hair-braind zealots as he counteth them that cannot be content to have their faith and Religion to themselves before God and to live and talk as others do but must be singular and make a stir with their Religion and turn the world upside down The true zeal of the godly is usually distastefull to him and the corrupt zeal of Schismatical persons doth cause him to bless himself in his lukewarmness and to take his most odious indifferency and want of fervent love to God and his holy ways to be his vertue 6. This self-deceiving Hypocrite doth frequently pretend to an exceeding great Reverence in the managing of the outward part of worship and to an extraordinary zeal about the Circumstantials of Religion He accounts them all schismatical and prophane that place not as much of their Religion as he doth in gestures and forms and other accidents of worship acquainting us that the Pharisaical temper in religion is natural and will still continue in the world 7. If the temptation of the Hypocrite lie on the other side he can withdraw himself into some small or separating society and place his Religion in the singularity of his opinions or in the strictness of the way and party that he owneth and in his conceited ability in his conceived or ready expressions in prayer and can cry out as much upon the Formalist as the Formal Hypocrite upon him and glory in his zeal as the other in his moderation It is in the Heart that Hypocrisie hath its throne from whence it can command the outward acts into any shapes that are agreeable to its ends and can use materials of divers natures as the fewell and nutriment of its malignity And what ever party such are joined to and what ever way they have been trained up to whether Formality or schism or more regular sober equal wayes in all of them their Religion is but Vain and they do but deceive themselvs by all 8. The Religion that is but delusory and Vain may be accompanied with much Alms and works of seeming Justice and Charity Mat. 6. 1 2. Luke 18. 11 12. He may have many vertues called moral and be a man of much esteem with others even with the best and wisest for his seeming Wisdom and piety and justice He may be no extortioner unjust adulterer but as to gross sins seem blameless Luke 18. 11 12. Phil. 3. 6. and be much in reproaching the scandalous lives of others and thank God that he is none such Luke 18. 11. 9. He that hath but a vain Religion may in his judgement approve of saving grace and like the more zealous upright self-denying heavenly lives of others and wish that he might but die their death and wish himself as happy as they so it might be had on his own terms And he may have some counterseit of every grace and think that it is true Numb 23. 10. Jam. 2. 14 c. 1 Cor. 13. 1 2 3. Mark 6. 20. 10. None will be more forward to call another Hypocrite then the Hypocrite nor to extoll sincerity and uprightness of heart and life And thus you see what this Vain Religion is made up with 2. IF you marvell what the Hypocrite yet wants that makes his Religion delusory and Vain I shall now tell you I hope to your conviction and satisfaction 1. For all his forementioned Religion he wants the Spirit of Christ to dwell as his sanctifier within him And if any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. But because this is known by the effects I add 2. He wants that spiritual new birth by which he should be made spiritual as his first birth made him carnal John 3. 5 6. Rom. 8. 6 7 8. He is born of the will of the flesh and of man but not of God John 1. 13. Form the first man Adam he is become a living soul but by the second man Christ the Lord from heaven he is not yet quickned in the Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45 46. He is not born again of the incorruptible seed the word of God that liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1. 23. He is not yet saved by the washing of Regeneration save only as to the outward baptism and by renewing of the Holy Ghost which is shed by Christ on all his members that being justified by his grace they should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life Tit. 3. 5 6. They are not new creatures old things being not past away and all things with them become new and therefore it is certain that they are not in Christ 2 Cor. 5. 17. They have not put off the old man with his deceitfull lusts and deeds nor have put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Eph. 3. 22 23 24. Col. 3. 9 10. They have but patcht up the old unsanctified hearts and smooth'd over their carnal conversations with civility and plausible deportment and so much Religion as may cheat themselves as well as blind the eyes of others But they are strangers to the life of God Ephes 4. 18. and never were made partakers of the Divine nature which all the children of God partake of 2 Pet. 1. 4. nor of that Holiness without which none shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. 3. Though he make a slight and customary confession of his sins unworthiness and misery yet is he not kindly humbled at the heart nor made truly vile in his own eyes nor contrite and broken-hearted nor emptyed of himself as seeing himself undone
and therefore he will take as much of them as he can and dare But Religion is but his Physick and therefore he will take it as little and seldom as he dare Had he but seen the face of God by faith and had he but the heart of a true believer that is suited by holyness to the holy works that God commandeth as the heart of a true friend is suited to the will of him whom he loveth he would then be no longer Religious against his will and consequently in Vain but he would think the most pure and heavenly mind and life and the highest degree of love and holiness to be the best and most desirable state for his soul as every true believer doth Had this Hypocrite any true love to God as he deceitfully pretends to have he would love his Image and Word and wayes and then he would love best that kernel and marrow of Religion that life and soul of worship and obedience which now he savoureth not but shiftethâ—off as a needless or tedious or unattainable thing The nature and use of these Hypocrites Religion is to save them from Religion They carry an empty guilded scabberd accusing the sword of a dangerous keenness as a thing more perillous then necessary to their use When they seem most zealous they are but serving God that they may be excused from serving him and they worship him of purpose to shift off his worship They offer him the lips that the heart may be excused and complement him with cap and knee that they may excuse themselves from real holiness They offer him the empty purse for payment and tender him a sacrifice of husks and shells and lifeless carkasses They will abound in the shadow and ceremony that they may be excused from the spiritual life and substance Alas that dead hearted hypocrite that sits there and heareth all this is so great a stranger to the opening of the heart and the deep entertainment of saving truth and to the savoury relish of the searching healing quickening passages of holy doctrine and to the thankfull wellcoming of an offered Christ and to the lookings and longings of the soul after God and to the serious desires and hopes and labours of a gracious soul for life eternal that he is idle asleep and dead as to all this spiritual work and if he had not some customary service to perform and some ceremonies or external task to do and some bodily worship to be employed in he would find little or nothing to do in the Assemblies but might sit here as a bruit or as one of a strange language that comes but to see and to be seen And therefore if there be not somewhat more suitable to him then power and spirituality it seemeth as no worship to the formal hypocrite It is the pretty jingles and knacks of wit and the merry jears at the preciser sort or some scraps of Greek and Latin Authors or shreds of Fathers or Philosophy or at best an accurate well set speech that makes the Sermon good and acceptable to this hypocrites ears It is not spirit and life within him that brought him hither nor is it spirit and life that he savoureth and that he came for And therefore it is that this sort of hypocrites are usually most impatient of a misplaced word or of a worship performed in the primitive simplicity If a man deliver the Lords Supper but as Christ did and receive it but as the Apostles did or serve God but as the Churches in their dayes he will seem unreverent and slovenly and sordid to these self-deceiving Formalists They are set upon excess of ceremonies because they are defective in the vital parts and should have no Religion if they had not this All sober Christians are friends to outward decency and order But it s the empty self-deceiver that is most for the unwarrantable inventions of men and sticketh in the bark of Gods own Ordinances that taketh the garments for the man and useth the worship of God but as a Masque or Poppet play where there 's great doings with little life and to little purpose The chastest woman will wash her face but it s the harlot or wanton or deformed that will paint it The soberest and the comelyest will avoid a nasty or ridiculous habit which may make them seem uncomely when they are not But a curious dress and excessive care doth signifie a crooked or deformed body or a filthy skin or which is worse an empty soul that hath need of such a covering Consciousness of such greater want doth cause them to seek these poor supplies The gawdiness of mens Religion is not the best sign that it is sincere Simplicity is the ordinary attendant of sincerity It hath long been a proverb The more ceremony the less substance and the more complement the more craft And yet if it were only for want of inward true Religion that the hypocrite setteth up his shews it were bad enough but not so bad as with most of them or all it is For it is an enmity to Religion that accompanyeth their Religion As in lapsed man the body that was before the souls obedient attendant is become its Master and the enemy of its perfection and felicity so in the carnal Religion of the Hypocrite the outside which should be the ornament and attendant of the inward spiritual part hath got the Mastery and is used in an enmity against the more noble part which it should serve and much more are his humane inventions and mixtures thus destructively imployed His bellows do but blow out the candle under pretence of kindling the fire He sets the body against the soul and sometime the cloathing against both He useth forms to the destruction of knowledge and quenching of all seriousness and fervour of affection By Preaching he destroyeth Preaching and prayeth till prayer is become no prayer but the image or carkass of prayer at the best And useth his words to the destruction of the due Principle sense and ends Having still his carnal self for his end he preacheth and prayeth and serveth God in a manner that seems most suitable to his end so that it is not Gods means that he useth when he useth them but his own Nor doth he indeed worship God while he seems to worship him nor is indeed Religious but seems Religious It is materially perhaps Gods work that he doth and his means that he useth but Formally they are his own and not Gods at all when we meet with abundance of our people that are most nimble in their accustomed forms that know not what Religion or Christianity is nor who Christ is nor almost any of the substance of the Gospel it assures us that its easie to be Infidels with Christian expressions in their mouths and that its easier to teach a Parret to speak then to be a man As their bodies are but the prisons or dungeons of their souls so their formal words and
ceremonies are used to be the prison and dungeon or rather the grave of true devotion Their Religion is excessively laced but so scant of cloth that it covereth not their nakedness nor keeps them warm It s alwaies winter with the hypocrite in his formal lifeless services and yet sometime his leaf doth never fall He is like the Box-tree that knows no fruit and yet its leaves are alwayes green Whereever his heart is the Formalists prayers are always ready For his prayer-book or memory is still the same He can say them between sleeping and waking in his bed and as he is dressing or washing him and the interposition of a friend or some intervenient word or business is so small a rub that it seldom puts him out of his way Though he cannot make Spiritual his common business he can make his Spiritual business common Though he have not the art the heart to manage his trade or worldly business with a holy and a heavenly mind yet he can manage his holyest businesses with such a mind as he doth his trade If you would know whether he be praying or playing Preaching or prating serving God or himself and the flesh you must not search deep for an internal difference but must discern it by the shew and sound of words He is not one of them that are above ordinances as turning every day into a Sabbath and every thought into a prayer and every morsel into a Sacrament But he can turn every Sabbath into a common day and every prayer into common thoughts and every Sacrament into common food and therefore that which is holy to others is to him unclean Hypocrisie is a natural Popery It filleth the places of worship with Images Instead of prayer there 's the Image of prayer and instead of preaching hearing praising God and other parts of worship there is the Image of worship and instead of Christians Believers Saints and I was going to say of men there are so many Images of these Church-images are usually handsomly adorned and placed in a posture of reverence and devotion and so are they But life they have none but meerly natural They are seeing hearing speaking Images but Images they are They have eyes but see not ears but hear not hearts but understand not And they are enemies to the life and power of Religion in others as well as in themselves The Publicans were not so bitter persecutors of Christ as the Scribes and Pharisees were He can hate and reproach the faithful by the spirit though he cannot or will not pray by the Spirit For he hath the spirit of malignity though not the Spirit of supplication He can rail without book though he cannot pray without book Were it as natural and easie to be a Saint as to scorn a Saint and to worship God in Spirit and in truth as to hate such worship the man might become a Saint yet before he dyes But his Vain Religion changeth not his nature and therefore destroyeth not his serpentine enmity against the holy nature and practice of Believers though perhaps the times may stop his hissing or hinder him from putting forth his sting These Spiritual worshippers and heavenly diligent sort of Christians that make it the main business of their lives to honour God and save their souls are usually the greatest eye-sore of the Formalist Many a disdainful thought he hath of them and many a bitter gird the gives them forgetting that their Redeemer heareth all who is coming with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Jud. 14. 15. The humble Spiritual Heavenly Believers are they that condemn the Hypocrite by their lives were it not for them he could easily believe that he is a Saint himself and shall undoubtedly be saved He looketh on the openly ungodly but as the beauty-spots of the Assemblies that serve to set out the piety of such as he If he saw no better then himself he could easily take himself for one of the best Every doted post and glow-worm would be more resplendent and observable in the absence of all greater lights They hate the sun for making their candle to be but a scarce-discerned fume The life of a holy heavenly person doth as much gall the conscience of the Hypocrite and proclaim his misery and bear a terrible witness against him as a searching powerful Sermon doth And therefore as it is a vexation to him to live under such a searching Minister as is alwayes rubbing on the galled place and causing conscience to torment him before his time so is it a trouble to him to live among these heavenly believers and to be dayly condemned by their lives and galled by their reproving practices By this time you may see the reason and use of the Hypocrites Religion The self-denying part of Religion he cannot abide The life and power of it is above him and seems against him The fears of hell and gripes of conscience he cannot abide some hopes of heaven he must have a while to keep him from despair And therefore he must have some Religion to deceive his heart and maintain his hopes And therefore he fitteth his Religion to these uses and takes up with so much as will not much trouble him or undo him in the world or absolutely forbid his sinful pleasures And though sometime he be afraid lest the power and life of godliness will prove necessary to his salvation yet he revives his fainting hopes by running for comfort to his lifeless form The rest he hath no mind to and therefore will hope to be saved without it till his deceit have brought him to the place of desperation where there is no hope As the Merchant in a storm is loth to cast his goods into the sea and therefore hopes he may save himself and them till he and they are drowned together or as a Patient that abhors his Physick or loves some forbidden thing too well is hoping still that he may scape though he use the thing he loves and forbear the medicine which he loathes till he be past remedy and he consents too late so is it often with the self-deceiving Hypocrite he loves not this strict and holy and heavenly and self denying life and therefore he will hope that God will save him without it as long as he is Religious in a way that he accounts more wise and safe and moderate and comely and suited to the nature and infirmity of man These are his hopes and to deceive his heart by maintaining these it is that he is Religious till either Grace convert or Justice apprehend him and his hopes and he are swallowed up by convincing flames and utter desperation IV. VVE are next to shew you in what respect it is that this Religion is called Vain
thou look to thy duties and supposed honesty whose sincerity now thou art so confident of 〈◊〉 this is the vain Religion that this deceive thee but cannot sinâ— thee Thou art like a man Reâ— falling house that hath nothing to lay hold on but that â—â—ch is falling and is it that will 〈◊〉 him unto death Or like a 〈◊〉 â—owning man that hath nothing â—ut a handful of water to lay hold upon which is it that will choak him but is vain to save him It is thy superficial hypocritical complemental services that will fall with thee and fall upon thee that will thus both deceive thee and choak thee in the time of thy distress To be told now that thy Religion is vain is a thing that thy dead unbelieving heart can too easily bear But to find then when thou lookest for the benefit of it that its Vain is that which is not born so easily but will overwhelm the stoutest heart with terrours If thou were a man of no Religion and so hadst none to deceive and quiet thee 〈…〉 couldst scarcely keep off thy 〈…〉 now If thou hadst not 〈◊〉 hollow-hearted prayers thy 〈◊〉 zeal or forms and shews 〈◊〉 tasks of duty thy profession 〈◊〉 its secret exceptions and reserv◠〈◊〉 thy smoothed out-side with the good conceit thou hast of thy self and the good esteem that other men have of thee if thou hadst not these to flatter thy conscience and cloak thee from the storms of threatened wrath thou wouldst perhaps walk about like another Cain and be afraid of every man thou seest and tremble at the shaking of a leaf and still look behind thee as afraid of a pursuit But alas it will be ten thousand times more terrible to find thy confidence prove deceit and thy Religion vain when God is judging thee when hell is before thee and thou art come to the last of all thine expectations Nay then to find not only that thy superficial Religion was vanity and lighter then vanity nothing and less then nothing but that it was thy sin and that which will now torment thee and the remembrance of it be to thee as the remembrance of drunkenness to the drunkard and of fornication to the unclean and of covetousness to the worldling the rust of whose money will eat his flesh and burn like fire O what a doleful plight is this when the sentence is ready to pass upon thee and hell is gaping to devour thee and thou lookest for help to thy vain Religion and cryest out O now or never help help me or I am a fire-brand of unquenchable wrath help me or I must be tormented in those flames help me now or it will be too late and I shall never never more have help Then to have thy self-deceit discovered and thy seeming Religion condemn thee and torment thee instead of helping thee what anguish and confusion will this cast thy hopeless soul into such as no heart can here conceive Thy guilty soul will be like a hare among a company of dogs which so ever of thy duties thou flyest for help to that will make first to tear thee and devour thee Like a naked man in the midst of an army of his deadly enemies which so ever he flyeth to for pitty and relief is like to be one of the first to wound him Poor self-deceiver what wilt thou then do or whither wilt thou betake thy soul for help The reason why thou canst now make shift with a lifeless shadow of Religion is because thou hast thy sports or pleasures thy friends and â—latterers thy worldly business to divert thy thoughts and take thee up and rock the cradle of thy security and thy piety is not yet brought unto the fire nor thy heart and duties searched by the all discovering light But when the light comes in and when all thy fleshly contents are gone and when thou comest to have use for thy Religion and seest that if it prove unsound thou art lost for ever O then it is not shadows and shews and complements that will quiet thâ—e That will not serve turn then that serves turn now Thou wilt find then that it was easier deceiving thy self then God Gal. 6. 3 4 5 7. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself But let every man prove his own work For every man shall bear his own burden Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap everlasting life But perhaps thou wilt say It is not any duties but Christ that I must trust to he will be my help and he is sufficient and will not deceive the soul that trusteth him Answ Undoubtedly he is sufficient and will not deceive thee But doth he deceive thee if he give thee not the salvation which he never promised thee He never promised salvation to an Hypocrite without conversion It is the upright soul devoted to him that takes him for the absolute Master of his life and for his only portion and felicity to whom Christ hath promised salvation And his promise shall be made good and the sincere shall find that Christ deceives them noâ— But where did he ever promise salvation to a superficial Pharisee to such a seeming Christian as thou shew such a promise from him if thou canst and then trust it and spare not But thou dost not trust him but thy own deceit if he have given thee no such promise to trust on Nay rather should he not deceive all the world if he should save such superficial hypocrites when he hath professed in his word that he will not save them and if he should not condemn such heartless Formalists when he hath so often told us that he will condemn them Surely he that breaks his word is liker to be a deceiver then he that keepeth it Be it known to thee therefore and O that thou wouldst know it while there is a remedy at hand that if thou trust that Christ should save an unsanctified fals-hearted person whose soul was never renewed and revived by the Holy Ghost and absolutely given up to God and that setteth not up God and his service above all the interest of the flesh and the commodities and contentments of the world thou dost not then trust Christ but thy own deceits and lyes and it is not Christ that is the deceiver but thou art a deceiver of thy self that makest thy self a false promise and trustest to it and when thou hast done sayst thou wilt trust to Christ yea trustest thy self against Christ and trustest that he will break his word and not that he will make it good See whether he resolve not to condemn all such Matth. 10. 37 38. Luke 14. 27 33. Matth. 7. 26 27. Jam. 2. 14. Heb. 12. 14. Rom. 8. 9. with the
say God forbid that any should deny it But when it comes to the particulars and you find that he commandeth you that which flesh and blood is against and would cost you the loss of worldly prosperity then you will be excused and yet that you may cheat your souls you will not professedly disobey but you will perswade your selves that it is no duty and that God would not have you do that which you will not do Like a Countrymans servant that promiseth to do all that his Master bids him but when he cometh to particulars threshing is too hard a work and mowing and reaping are beyond his strength and plowing is too toylsome and in the conclusion it is only an idle life with some easie charres that he will be brought to This is the Hypocrites obedience He will obey God in all things as far as he is able in the general But when it comes to particulars To deny himself and forsake his worldly prosperity for Christ and to contemn the world and live by faith and converse in heaven and walk with God and worship him in Spirit and truth to love an enemy to forgive all wrongs to humble our selves to the meanest persons and to the lowest works to confess our faults with shame and sorrow and ask forgiveness of those they have injured these and other such works as these they will not believe to be parts of obedience or at least will not be brought to do them Poor souls I have stood here a great while to hold you the glass in which 〈◊〉 you were willing you might see your selves 〈…〉 you will yet wink and hate the light if you perish in your self-deceiving who can help it Briefly and plainly be it known to thee again whoever thou art that hearest this that if thou have not these five characters following thy Religion is all but vain and self-deceiving 1. If Gods authority as he speaketh by his Spirit Word and Ministers be not highest with thy soul and cannot do more with thee then Kings and Parliaments and then the world and flesh Mat. 23. 8 9 10. 2. If the 〈…〉 â—â—â—ing glory be not practically more esteemed by thee and chosen and sought then any thing or all things in the world Mat 6. 21. Col. 3. 4. Joh. 6. 27. 2 Tim. 4. 8 9. Matth. 22. 5. Luke 18. 22 23. Phil. 3. 20. 3. If thou see not such a loveliness in holiness as being the image of God as that thou unfeignedly desirest the highest degree of it Matth. 5. 20. Psal 119. 1 2 3 c. Phil. 3. 12 13 14. 4. If any sin be so sweet and dear to you or seem so necessary that you consent not and desire not to let it go Mat. 19. 22. Phil. 3. 8. Psal 66. 18. 5. If any known duty seem so costly dangerous troublesome and unpleasant that ordinarily you will not do it Mat. 16. 24 25 26. Psal 119. 6. In a word God must be loved and obeyed as God Christ must be entertained as Christ Heaven must be valued and sought as Heaven and Holiness loved and practised as Holiness Though not to the height of their proper Worth which none on earth is able to reach yet so as that nothing be preferred before them BUt yet there is one more discovery which if I pass by you will think I bawk a chief part of my text An unbridled tongue in a Professour of Religion is enough to prove his Religion vain By an unbridled tongue is not meant all the sins of our speech If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body But in many things we offend all Iam. 3. 2. Every unwarrantable jeast or angry word or hasty rash expression is not enough to prove a mans Religion to be in vain Though Christ say that we shall answer for every idle word he doth not say we shall be condemned for every idle word But when the tongue is unbridled and is not kept under a holy Law but suffered to be the ordinary instrument of wilfull known sin or of gross sin which men might know and will not this proves the person void of holiness and consequently his Religion vain It s true every Hypocrite hath not an unbridled tongue some of them have the bridle of moral precepts and some of Religious education and some of the presence and awe of persons whom they esteem common knowledge with natural mansuetude and moderation doth bridle the tongues of many an Hypocrite But as every wicked man is not a drunkard or fornicator and yet every drunkard or fornicator that liveth in it is a wicked man so every Hypocrite hath not an unbridled tongue his vice may lie some other way but every man that hath an unbridled tongue is an Hypocrite if withall he profess himself a Christian The sins of the tongue are of three sorts 1. Such as are against piety 2. Such as are against Justice 3. Such as are against Charity 1. Against Piety that is directly against God are Blasphemy Perjury rash swearing swearing by creatures light and unreverent using of Gods Name and attributes and Word and works pleading for false doctrine or false worship disputing aâ—ainst truth and duty scorning at godlinesâ—â— or reasoning against it These and such impieties of the tongue 〈◊〉 the evidences of prophaneness in the speakers heart though some of them much more then others and if the tongue be not then bridled all is in vain 2. Sinfull speeches against Justice and charity are these reproaching Parents or Governours or neighbours railing and reviling cursing provoking others to do mischief or commit any sin disputing against and disswading men from truth and duty and hindering them by your speeches from a holy life and the means of their salvation calling good evil and evil good lying slandering false witness-bearing back-biting extenuating mens vertues and aggravating their faults beyond the certain apparent truth receiving and reciting and carrying on evil reports which you know not to be true endeavouring to cool mens love to others by making them seem bad when we cannot prove it mentioning mens faults and failings without a call and just occasion unchast immodest ribald speeches cheating and deceitful words to wrong others in their estates with other such like But undoubtedly that sin of the tongue which the Apostle here had particular respect to was the reproaching of fellow-Christians especially upon the occasion of some differences of judgement and practice in the smaller matters of Religion The Judaizing Christians gave liberty to their tongues to reproach those that refused the use of those ceremonies which they used themselves and placed much of their Religion in The quarrel was the same that was decided by the Apostles Act. 15. and by Paul Rom. 14. and 15. and throughout the Epistle to the Galathians And this is the Religion that James calls vain here which was much placed in ceremonies with a pretense of
highest knowledge and a censorious vilifying of all that would not do as they There are especially three sorts that use to reproach each other about the matters of Religion 1. Those that are hardened to that height of impiety as to make a mock at seriousness and diligence in the practise of Christianity it self hating and reproaching them that dare not sell their souls at as base a price as they 2. Those that have so far extinguished charity by faction and self-conceit as to confine their love and honour to their party and to speak evil of those that are not of their own opinions 3. Those that give liberty to their tongues unseasonably unmeasurably or unwarrantably to speak hardly of those that they suffer by upon Religious accounts though perhaps they are their superiours whom they are bound to honour 1. The first sort are arrived at such a measure of maliciousness and misery that they are as mad men the objects of compassion to all men save themselves Their sin and misery is so notorious that I need not say any thing to discover it to others that have any thing of reason and true Religion And for themselves being so far forsaken of God as to hate and reproach the means of their salvation no wonder if 〈◊〉 they are given over to thaâ— blindness as not to understand 〈◊〉 words that should 〈◊〉 them and neither to 〈◊〉 their 〈…〉 the light that would 〈…〉 and to such Impenâ—â—â—â—â— as not to feel or fear the wrath and threatnings of the Almighty but boldly to rage on till Hell hath brought them to their wits Prov. 14. 16. A wise man feareth and departeth from evil but the fool rageth and is confident Yet this much briefly I shall say to these if any of them be this day my auditors that I may not leave them as utterly past hope 1. Thou art one of the most self-condemned stigmatized slaves of Satan in the world Thou bearest openly so undoubted a brand of wickedness that there is no room for any rational Hope in thy self or any of thy friends that ever thou shouldst be saved if thou die in such a state Some Hope is left that yet thou mayst be converted but none that thou shouldst be saved without conversion It is possible with God that can do all things that yet thy wilful blindness may be cured and thy tongue may unsay all that thou hast said and thou mayst cry out of thy folly and cry shame against thy self for that which now thou gloriest in It is possible for God of such a stone to make a child of Abraham and to melt that hardened heart of thine and lay it bleeding at the feet of Christ and make thee wish with tears or groans that such thoughts had never entred into thy heart nor such words of malice proceeded from thy mouth And happy art thou if God will have so much mercy on thee that hast derided mercy as to vouchsafe thee such a change And pray for it and pray hard and pray again if thou love thy soul For this is thy Hope and thou hast no other For that ever such a wretch as thou shouldst be saved in the state that now thou art in is as impossible as for God to lie and as impossible as for the Devils to be saved I wonder but that such a forsaken soul is a sensless block and as a lifeless carkaise that thou dost not quake with the fears of Hell which way ever thou goest and that thou art not still thinking whither thou art going and how the Devils are ready to take thy soul as soon as Death hath opened the door and let it out into Eternity As carelesly or scornfully as thou sittest here I wonder that thou dost not tremble to consider where it is that thou must shortly be and where thou must abide for ever It is one of the most notable discoveries of the powerfull craft of Satan that he is able to keep such a Garrison as thy heart in so much peace and to quiet a poor wretch that is uncertain to be one hour out of Hell That thy sleep is not broken with terrible dreams and that thou dost not eat thy meat in terrours and that ever a smile should be seen in thy face That thy business or company or sports or pleasures should once put out of thy mind thy endless misery While I am speaking and thou art hearing Hell-fire is burning and the Devils are waiting and thy blinded soul is posting on and for ought thou knowest may be there this night Poor sinner for my part I know thee not and therefore cannot justly be suspected to bear thee any ill will or to speak these words with a desire of thy hurt I know this is language that the guilty do not love to hear But I must tell thee that reproachest or deridest a serious holy life that except the Blasphemers of the Holy Ghost there is few in the world in more certain misery then thou Other sinners though miserable may have some more cloak to hide their misery Though the drunkard shall not enter into Heaven he may flatter himself with the remembrance that Noah was once overtaken with that sin Though the Fornicator or Adulterer shall not enter into the Kingdom of God Eph. 5. 5. he may cheat himself awhile with the remembrance of Davids guilt Though the false-hearted temporizing self-saving Hypocrite shall not be saved he may deceive himself by the instance of Peters denying his Master and his dissimulation Gal. 2. But what cloak hast thou to hide thy misery Did ever any true Disciple of Christ either hate or reproach his servants and his wayes What godly man hath made a mock at godliness unless it were when he was ungodly If any should think that an act of drunkenness or fornication might consist with grace no man that understands himself can think that a scorner at an Holy life hath himself the Holiness which he scorneth I would not for a world be in the case of that wretch that speaks well of Holiness in others while he lives in fornication luxury or worldliness himself though he think that he cuts scores by daily crying to God for mercy But I would much less for a thousand worlds be in the case of him that neither is godly nor can speak well of it that is not only void of the Spirit of Christ but speaks against it that is not only void of the Holy Image of God but hateth it and reproacheth it in others O rather let me have no tongue to speak no soul to think then ever I should speak or think thus maliciously of the Image and wayes and servants of the Lord I had rather be a dog or a toad then one of those men that use to mock at serious diligent serving of the Lord or that maliciously reproach his servants and bend their wits and tongues against them so legibly is the mark of the Devil upon them that I
Christians Which as I have begged of you I shall now beg of God THE Fools Prosperity A SERMON Preached at Coven-Garden published upon occasion of some offence and misreports By R. B. Printed in the year 1660. Prov. 1. 32 33. For the turning away of the simple shall slâ—y them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them But who so hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil THE bounteous offers and vehement exhortations of Christ here in this Chapter were accompanied with a foresight and prediction of their rejection by many yeâ— doth not that prevent â—he offers and exhortations but occasion the predâ—ction of the câ—â—â—mity of the refusers God will not go out of his way because the ungodly will not walk with him He will do the part of a righteous Governour though he foresee that men will not do the part of obedient subjects But his primary end shall be attained upon the Righteous in the successes of his grace as his secondary end shall be upon the Disobedient in the honour of his vindictive Justice This is the sense of the words which I have now read to you Which 1. Describe the ungodly 1. By their present way of sin 2. And by their future state of misery Their sin is described by 1. The occasion 2. The act 3. The habit Prosperity and ease is the occasion turning away from God and rejecting his counsel is the act And folly or simplicity is part of the habit Simplicity is here taken for sinful foolishness and not as it is often for commendable sincerity Whether you read it The turning away or the ease of the simple it is all one as to the scope and use that I shall now make of it both being included as to the sense in the other words Folly is mentioned both as the cause of their abuse of prosperity and as the effect of prosperity so abused Because they are fools they turn Gods mercies to their own destruction And because they prosper they are confirmed in their folly 2. The words describe the godly 1. By their obedience they hearken unto Christ 2. By their priviledge or reward they shall dwell safely and be quiet from fear of evil We shall begin with the first and shew you 1. That it is so that the prosperity of fools destroyeth them 2. How folly and prosperity concur to their destruction or how prosperity befooleth and destroyeth them 3. How we should all improve this truth to our best advantage I. Scripture and experience concur in proving the truth of the conclusion 1. Though God tell us in his Word of a difficulty that all must conquer that will be saved yet it is a greater extraordinary difficulty that he tells us of as to the rich and prosperous in the world such a difficulty as is pathetically exprest by this interrogation Luke 18. 24. How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God such a difficulty as is expressed by this proverbial comparison ver 25. For it is easier for a Camel to go through a needles eye then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God such a difficulty as â—â—st he hearers into admiration and made them ask v. 26. Who then can be saved such a difficulty as is to man an impossibility v. 27. and leaves only this hope that Things are possible to God that are impossible to man 2. And though its said of men indefinitely that it is but few that shall be saved yet is it noted of the rich and prosperous that its few of them among those few or few in comparison of other sorts of men that shall be saved Joh. 7. 48. Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharises believed on him 1 Cor. 1. 26. For ye see your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and base things of the worâ—â— and things which are dâ—spisâ—d hath God chosen yea and things that are not to bring to nought things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence And therefore Scripture speaketh in such general language as if salvation had been almost appropriated to the poor and the rich had been excluded because of the rarity of their salvation Luke 6. 24 25. But wo unto you that are rich for ye have received your consolation wo unto you that are full for ye shall hunger wo unto you that laugh now for you shall mourn and weep Jam. 2. 5 6. Hearken my beloved brethren hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him but ye have despised the poor Do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgement-seats Do they not blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called And therefore when Christ would describe a wicked miserable man he doth it in these words Luke 16. 19. There was a certain rich man which was cloathed in purple and fine linnen and fared sumptuously every day And Luk. 12. 16 19. The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully c. And when he would describe a godly happy man he doth it under the name of a Lazarus Luke 16. 20. Judge now by the success as it is discovered in the Scriptures what good prosperity doth to fools I might turn you to Davids observations in Psal 37. and 73. and mind you why it is that Christ himself went before us in a state of chosen poverty 2 Cor. 8. 9. and why his Disciples followed him in this tract and why he called them so much to deny and forsake the riches of the world and tried them so oft by selling all and following him in hopes of a heavenly reward Buâ— the point is evident in whâ—â—'s said in my text and these annexed testimonies 2. But yet to make you more apprehensive of it I shall adjoyn the testimony of Experience And tell me whether prosperity be not the destruction of 〈◊〉 when you have noted the â—ruits of it in these few observations 1. Where do you find less serious â—ure 〈…〉 salvation then among the prosperous great ones of the world what abundance of them are deâ—d-hearâ—ed sensless disregarders of everlasting things what abundance oâ— them are of no Religion but the custome of their Country and the will of their superiours which are their Bible their Law and Gospel and their Creed what abundance of them are addicted to that worship which Christ pronounceth vain which is measured by the traditions of men and consisteth meerly in ceremonious 〈◊〉 How few of them are acâ—â—â—â—ted with the spiritual worship 〈◊〉 that God who being a Spirit can accept no worship but what is spiritual Alas poor souls they drown