take it upon them to transcend the degrees of public Devotion and religious exercise which the Law and practice of the Church does direct and determine and shall accordingly teach others already prepared and wisely resolved to be led by them they may advance as high as they please and where they will stop who can divine There are no fixed limits beyond these lines no bounds to such pious extravagancies And that they will go as high as they can is not to be doubted For the grand design of such men being to maintain themselvs in the public faith and esteem for the greatest zealots and Devoto's to Religion it is their interest to hold up their profession to the strongest bent they are able to blind and burden their Proselytes as much as may be and to screw up their minds as high as they are capable Because these are they that communicate their formal sanctity they are the Trumpeters of their fame and cry up their extraordinary holiness and devotion to the world Accordingly this sort of men have ever bin cautious of explaining themselvs but have chosen for the most part to deliver their minds in dark sayings in obscure and mystical negative and indefinite Expressions as if they studyed more how to allure and confound rather than inform the understandings of men whereby they might keep their Proselytes always in the clouds and upon the highest flight of contemplation And that this is the directest rode to distraction needs little more to demonstrate For when the mind of man is held up to the straitest bent invited onwards with a conceit of Heaven before him and pushed with the fears of Hell behind him he knows not whither nor how far but is continually puzled with a fearful suspense concerning the Issues of his own Eternity this must needs very much perplex and weaken if not quite distract the man and break his spirit and plunge him into despair And because the Pharisees of old did thus keep their Proselytes continually under the Hatches of a blind Devotion and melancholy therefore there abounded among them so may sullen and peevish and lunatick persons so many proud and furious and fanatical spirits 2. This is that other effect whereby does appear the danger that is in Pharisaism as to entangling mens souls in the snare of the Devil viz. because it does directly tend to render them of a furious and fanatical spirit And accordingly the Assembly of Divines with M. Diodate do interpret the fore-mentioned Scripture which saith that the Pharisees made a Proselyte twofold more the Child of hell than themselvs viz. that they made him more fiery and bitter against the Preachers and the preaching of the Gospel than themselvs were And this is a very likely effect of Pharisaism For when men are possessed with a passionate admiration and ungovernable affection for any profession of Religion whatsoever as they think they can never do enough nor better than to promote it so they are also commonly persuaded it is most conducible to this great purpose to vilify and mischief whatsoever stands in competition with it Every one would do something in behalf of his Religion to defend and propagate his faith and those that can do nothing by force of argument will therefore exert their zeal in noise and clamour endeavouring to make up in spite and mischief to their Adversaries what they want in wisedom Such is the influence which a false Religion or a misunderstanding of the true Religion hath upon the spirits of weak men that are passionately devoted to it But especially Pharisaism drives this way Such a Religion as appropriates all divine favours to its own professors and reprobates all others with the utmost wrath and Vengeance and thereby swells and inflames the hearts of its zealous Proselytes with pride and conceit of themselvs with hatred and contempt of others that whets up the angry powers of their minds and sets a continual edge upon them Such a Religion also as tends to perplex and distract the understandings of its Proselytes with the mysterious and boundless opinions and practices which it does hold forth and impose seems to take the nearest course to fanaticism because it does so much as in it lyeth to disquiet their judgments and imbitter their spirits It labours to drive out the good spirit and to infuse an evil Spirit So that if men were not naturally before of a peevish and melancholy constitution the imbibing such a Religion were a likely Alterative for the purpose and to render them unsociable with any but such as are of the same humour and persuasion Being thus disposed it cannot be expected but that they should treat such as any way oppose them in the most fiery and invective manner and rather than want make occasion to fall out with them if it be for nothing else but to give vent to their swelling passions and bewildred understandings And the more furious yet will they be if their Religion does any way countenance the undertaking And this Pharisaism does in an especial manner For it holds forth such a necessity of its extraordinary Devotion that none can be saved without their best observance of it and then by consequence teaches it to be the duty of all its professours to endeavour by all means the proselyting other men to their Religion rather than let them perish Yet takes no care to determine a certain method for the work but leaves the execution of so pious a pretence to the construction of the zealous undertaker according to his uncertain genius and favorable occasions So that whatsoever mischief they do in their religious fits there is a salvo for all in the sacred design of converting a sinner and saving his soul in the day of the Lord. And where there is such a conjunction of peevish angry and zealous spirits with the pretence of Religious necessity it hath the most malevolent aspect of all there being none more mischievous more furious and unaccountable in their carriage and proceedings than such creatures inform'd and actuated by a pretended spirit of Religion and if they be in a powerful sphere there is no standing before them Accordingly S. Paul doth characterize himself while he was a Pharisee and lived after the strictest Sect of the Jewish Religion a Pharisee that he persecuted the way of Christ even to the death that out of a zeal for God he became a blasphemer a persecutour and injurious Whereby he plainly sheweth the spirit of Pharisaism to be a furious and fanatical spirit that the Proselytes the weaker sort of the Pharisees being hurried on with blind zeal were more fierce and eager against the sincerity and preaching of the Gospel than the teaching and ruling part of them were tho they set them on No these were taken up in consulting and projecting matters of scandal against our Saviour and his proceedings But the rude and most odious and barbarous part they committed mostly to the rash multitude to
with a corrupt heart with an heart exercised in Covetous designs what will not such a heart undertake to gain the world But especially those arts and methods whereby men may make themselvs most effectually and with least suspicion whereby they may use the world as they will themselvs almost and still seem as if they used it not they are like to be most acceptable to and prevalent with the subtle genius of Ambition and Covetousness because they are safest The violent open and scandalous ways of gaining the world make a great deal of noise and awaken all men into Consideration and wariness and provoke them to stand upon their guard against us Nay even the honestest way of gain if eminently prosperous creates much envy and Opposition But the more private and reserved the more sly and silent the trade is the more apt is it to lay asleep the Caution and Animosity and Adversity of the world and does the business with greater security and success But especially the counterfeiting of Religion will do the feat above all other Arts. Religion is that which all mankind do revere and bear an aweful distance to and deeeply confide in and they cannot tell but the pretenders of it are sincere they cannot look into their hearts Therefore under this disguise there is the least danger of espyal They may pursue the world as eagerly as may be and still be thought to seek Heaven altogether Who dares to pry into such formal Saints Upon which account S. Peter forewarns the Christians of false teachers that should come among them and privily bring in damnable Heresyes and many should follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth should be evil spoken of and through covetousness should they with feigned words make merchandize of them This is the danger of Pharisaism to make men turn Hypocrites and at some times more than others according as the wind and tyde of the world shall favour it Religion at least the Formal part of it being capable of so much abuse as to be made a stalking-horse to approach and surprize and make sure of the game of the world unto themselvs If Pharisaism doth not so prevail as it is unlikely it ever should at the first onset so possess the hearts of those that are â—â—â—â—ured in the habits of grace and in the fear of God yet it may prevail upon their weakness it may captivate their affections and steal away their hearts into an admiration of and a submission to the doctrines and impostures of it This easiness and Levity S. Paul chargeth upon two excellent men S. Peter and S. Barnabas Gal. 2.12 13. Peter withdrew and separated himself being awed by them that were of the Circumcision and the other Jews dissembled with him likewise insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with a their Hypocrisie And where Pharisaism does so prevail the danger that is in it is an entangling the souls of its Proselytes in the snare of the Devil as our Saviour testifyes against the Pharisees Ye compass sea and land to make a Proselyte and when he is made ye make him twofold more the child of Hell than yourselvs And that there is this danger in Pharisaism appears by two notable effects whereunto it seems to bend all its force namely to distract the Proselytes minds and to render them of a furious and fanatical sprit First Pharisaism is apt to distract the minds of the poor Proselytes over whose affections it hath once set up its Empire A multitude of niceties must needs perplex the finite heads of mortal men to observ in any business whatsoever But especially in matters of the highest concernment wherein every the least deviation or omission shall be lookt upon as sin and that sin under the hazard of salvation Adde hereunto the mysteriousness of such formalities when nothing can be done in Religion but it must have a spiritual meaning in it somewhat beyond the common understanding and intention of it which no man is able to fathom or give any account of and methinks it should be very perplexing even to men of strong minds and sound spirits Besides Pharisaism is also boundless in measure Tho a man had a vast number of little nice and mysterious things upon his head yet if the use and observation of them had certain stages and fixed periods there were some comfort the man might know were to find himself But when matters of duty the practical matters of Religion besides the great number and nicety of the things are not only made very mysterious and intricate in their nature but also indefinite and unlimited in measure that a man can have no certainty of his condition nor know where or how he is nor whither he must nor the end of his labour why this must needs be very amazing and the ready rode to distraction and desperation Now such was the Religion of the Pharisees They had their formalities without number and very mysterious they were every thing had a further sublime meaning and unbounded also in the practice And tho the great ones knew well enough how to excuse themselvs yet still they imposed them on their weak Proselytes on pain of Hell-fire They would ever and anon be calling upon them and stirring them up to the strict Observation of their things They could often object to them that they were not so frequent or not so fervent or not so long in their prayers as they might be that their Phylacteries were not so broad but they might carry more Commandments written about them if they would that their fastings were not so often nor so humbling with such like negative and indefinite censures and intimations And if they should any of them commit a fault or omit some punctilio or not beso demure and zealous as they prescribed they could mightily exclaim upon the sin of it and tell them they could never enough expiate their negligence and backwardness in Gods Covenant and they would never have done with it Such delinquencies they would keep upon record to throw them in the teeth with upon all occasions that so they might amuse and damp their spirits and shackle their minds and hold them in durance to the most intense observance of their superstitions And this is alway the course of Religious Hypocrisie in Extraordinary It is no more than what men must expect from it where it does domineer as the genuine operation of it For that they may do it that they may be thus imperious and tyrannical over the Consciences of their weak Proselytes both as to the quantum of their Impositions to enjoyn as much and also to their quality to make them as mysterious and unintelligible as they please is plain from the very nature and constitution of such a Religion because it hath no certain rules or measures but is purely an arbitrary Religion according to the Art and humour of those that manage it For when men shall
Religious pretences both to ourselvs and others our safe rule is to keep even with the known Laws and practice of the Church in public In our Closets and in private we are a Law unto ourselvs our own reason is our Law We may be as devout and pour out ourselvs by ourselvs as much as and in what manner we think good But when we are to be seen of men we should by no means affect a singularity in things of this nature For whatever some men may esteem it it is a disparagement to Religion It seemeth not only inconsistent with the fundamental graces of the holy Spirit such as humility meekness modesty and the like but it does directly oppose the express will of our Saviour the blessed Author of our Religion who with the greatest care imaginable forbids us to resemble the Pharisees in these concerns or to give the least countenance to the dangerous cheat of their Hypocrisie To this purpose we shall do well to remember how earnest our Saviour was to banish all ostentation from Religion all vanity and levity from the Altar How gravely and sharply he rebuked Pharisaism what pains he hath taken to discover the whiles and the cheats of it and how much he made it his business if it were possible to put it quite out of countenance and all the world out of conceit with it but especially to prevent his own Scholars of being infected or ensnar'd by it Now it was a most obliging design of our Saviour in labouring thus to secure Religion from imposture to rescue truth from the vulgar errours and the vain Traditions of men and to fix such legible and lasting characters upon these things as if we will but follow his directions we may chuse whether ever we will cozen or be cozened by Pharisaism Indeed he has taken every mans part in it and it is a kindness done the whole world to consult their security from Religious imposture It must needs therefore also in Conscience highly concern us that are Ministers of his Word to follow these steps to pursue these candid endeavours of our most wise and holy Master being of so great consequence to the souls of men We may easily see what it is he accounts most pernicious to the true Religion namely the dark and mysterious representation of things that are pretended necessary to salvation This is the way of all sorts of Juglers in the world and the very life of all imposture We know also how apt people are to admire what they do not understand and how fondly to be inflamed toward those things that are represented only at half lights and how that by these means the Deceivers raise in them almost whatsoever erroneous opinions they please If ever therefore we will cure the distempers which these Mountebanks have wrought in the minds of weak men and dissipate and purge out the ill humors and rectify the misunderstandings which they have contracted in the world or prevent the imposture of these spiritual juglers for the future it should seem that the way of our great Physician the universal Saviour is the way viz. by rendring the matters of Religion as plain and accountable as we can to the understandings of those with whom we have to do It matters not if plainness of address in spiritual things be not so glorious and taking in the eyes of weak and vain men since it is so highly esteemed in the fight of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ That which was a prime part of our Saviours Prophetic undertaking must needs be ours also whose most business is teaching and exhortation to assert and vindicate truth according to the naked simplicity of the Gospel to disperse those clouds and mists which Pharisaism hath raised about it to illustrate it and do our utmost to disabuse the harmless world to explain the dark things of Religion that are necessary for men to know and render them as obvious to the meanest capacities as may be to make the way of salvation an high-way that wayfaring men though fools should nor erre therein To represent all such things in Religion as gravely plain as is possible is the way which our blessed Lord and Master hath chalked out unto us for countermining and defeating Pharisaism And let us all remember it was not for nothing that our Saviour hath so strictly charged us as first of all or above all things to beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees which is Hypocrisie Keep we beseecht thee O Lord thy Church with thy perpetual mercy and because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS