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A94758 The hypocrite discovered and cured. The definition the kindes the subject the symptoms of hypocrisie. The prognosticks the causes the cure of hypocrisie. A discourse furnished vvith much variety of experimentall and historicall observations, and most seasonable for these times of happy designe for reformation. In two bookes. / By Samuell Torshell. With an epistle to the Assembly of Divines, about the discerning of spirits. Ordered, Novemb. 24, 1643. that this booke be printed, for Iohn Bellamie. Iohn White. Imprimatur, Edm. Calamie. Torshell, Samuel, 1604-1650. 1644 (1644) Wing T1938; Thomason E80_11 165,295 186

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observe them only while the others doe enter and devoure the flocke It may be possible to raise the cry against one Heresie that another may have opportunity to enter to sent out and hunt away superstition that while men are busie against that which is odious irreligion and profanenesse may have opportunity to get ground So cunning Souldiers are the Devill and his agents to make a false Alarme at the gate where they meane not to enter that the other may be left naked How fitly doth this agree with that which St Peter speakes There shall be false teachers among you 2 Pet. 2.1 who privily shall bring in damnable heresies And when they are got in what harme what mischiefe will they worke how will their very breath infect we reade of a Wolfe taken in a snare which when a man went about to kill with an hunting speare the Wolfe breathed in his face Joh. Alsted Theol. Natur. par 2. c. 28. p. 527. and poysoned him so that he presently began to swell and was hardly preserved alive What is this but the contagion which the soule of the hearer receives by the doctrin the breath of the seducers mouth Yea their word will eat as doth a canker 2 Tim. 2.17 They will eat out the very heart of Religion and spread from one to another so that an whole Church may be infected and poysoned by the opinions of one hypocrite among them and as he saith Vsque malum latè solet immedicabile cancer Serpere illaesas vitiatis addere partes Cypr. Ser. de lapsi● Hence St Cyprian alluding to this Text compares heresie unto the pestilence and poyson and both he and Gregory Nazïanzen Naz. Orat. de fide Naz. Orat. de pace Niceph. Hist l. 8 c. 18. Niceph l 7 c. 9. Livi. Hist Rom. l. 10. Decad. 4. Plat l. 7. de legibus as it is here to a Canker Nazianzen also cals the bookes of Hereticks the egges of Aspes Therefore the Nicaene Councell decreed the books of Arrius to be burnt as of old the books of Severus the Hereticke were forbidden to be read under a great penalty Wherein they went no farther then the wisdome of the very Heathen led them the way and was thought worthy to be a law by Plato The mischiefe that may be wrought in the Church by one Hypocrite may sufficiently appeare by one instance out of the Ecclesiasticall history Sozom. l. 3. c. 1. Socrat. l. 2. c. 2. Constantia the widow of Licinius sister to the Emperour Constantine the great entertained in her house a certaine Presbyter who professed the Orthodox Religion for feare of Constantine but was in secret an Arrian Eusebius of Nicomedia and other Bishops of the Arrian Sect made use of this man to promote their cause by his slie dissimulation At length Constantia dying when on her death bed her brother the Emperour came to visit her she obtained of him to entertaine that Presbyter into his Court. He soone grew into great credit and favour with Constantine so that when he dyed he entrusted him with his last-will whereby he had an opportunity to make himselfe gracious with Constantius the Emperours sonne and successour and was not slow to improve the authority he had with him He first corrupts one Eusebius an Eunuch the new Emperours chiefe Chambelaine and by his meanes other Courtiers and then the Empresse and at length the Emperour himselfe and by degrees brought him to be a Defender of Arrianisme and a great persecuter of the truth which his father had professed and which himselfe had been brought up in Euseb de vita Const l. 4. c. 54. Nay it seemes by the Panegyrist who wrought Constantines life that he also though he fell not from the truth yet received some blot a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his old age being too much wrought upon by some lewd Knaves b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Historian cals them who counterfelted Religion who perswaded him that the controversie with Arrius was but a strife of words and might be reconciled and admitted without disturbance of the Churches peace by which subtilty they brought him too much to connive at the growing faction which then had some footing in his Court. It may be proved also out of Story that even the Apostasie of the whole visible Church came in by the management of those who either professed or doted upon monasticall hypocrisie See Apostasie of last times part 2. p. 112 114. Pag. 116 117 120 122 146 c. Vid Dan. Cha. Panstrat T. 3 l. 16. c. 7. They were hypocrites fainers and lyars that obtruded upon the Church those practises which the Apostle mentioneth 1 Tim. 4.1 2. as Mr Meade englisheth the Originall with the best congruity of construction Some shall revolt from the faith attending to erronious spirits and doctrines of Daemons through the hypocrisie of lyars forbidding to marry and commanding to abstaine from meates Mr Meade will satisfie the Reader concerning the hypocrisie of lyars 1. In lying wonders lyes of miracles their forgery illusion mis-application 2. Lying Legends fabulous legends of Saints and Martyrs 3. Their belying of the Ancients counterfeiting writings under their names by all which meanes the Church came to be abused and much corrupted CHAP. III. Other Prognosticks of Hypocrisie The fift Hypocrites loose their comfort The sixth Hypocrites loose their courage 5. HYpocrisie is a prognostick of the losse of comfort Hypocrites loose co●fort Job 8.13 14. Iob 20.5 The hypocrites hope shall perish his hope shall be cut off his trust shall be a Spiders webbe Yea the tryumphing of the wicked is short and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment There can be no feast within Gislebert in vita S. Bernh when a man is conscious to himselfe of dallying with God Integrity is that which furnisheth out the sweet banquet and heavenly repast of joy In a great festivall when the expectation was not lesse then the concourse both very great St Bernard having preached an eloquent Sermon as that heavenly tongue was able to speake beyond expectation while the people admire and applaud the Abbot walks sadly with a mind not ordinarily dejected The next day he preaches a lively Sermon of profitable truth plaine and without ornament His good Auditors went away contented but curious ones found not what to applaud but he walkes chearfully with a mind more then ordinarily pleasant The people wonder that he should be sad when applauded and when not merry but he returned this answer to some of his friends Heri Bernardum hodiè Jesum Christum Yesterday I preached Bernard but to day Jesus Christ He shall have most comfort that preaches Christ and so shall he that lives to Christ when a Wolsie Acts and Mon. in life Wols whose conscience tels him he served the King his Master better then God and more faithfully shall languish away in discontent Tom. 1. ep Luth. As
shew it to such as would accuse him from his words but waite a time Which counsell he observed and thence forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He expressed his impiety darkely and in the Clouds with ambages and perplexed phrases so some render the Text in Theodoret. This very cunning had before their time been practised by Arrius of whom when the Emperour Constantine required the confession of his faith he was able to lap it up handsomely he dissembled his impious opinions and cited Scriptures cunningly after the manner of the devill I know not whether I should credit Lucas Osiander a zealous Luther an Divine indeed but one as I observe in all his writings of an implacable hatred against all that follow Calvins doctrine who leaves a suspition of such like jugling in reverend Beza and Farell He saith that they being sent by the French Churches to obtaine an Intercession from the Protestant Princes in the behalfe of many poore prisoners persecuted for Religion in France came to Wormes and there gave in writing unto Melancthon Brentius and other Divines who were met there for a publick conference with the Papists a confession of their Faith in which among other things they confessed That the very substance of Christs flesh is exhibited in the holy Supper and that they dissented not about the thing it selfe but only concerning the manner of his presence and in generall so exprest themselves that their Confession seemed rather to be Lutheran then Calvinisticall Osiander saith hee saw and read the very Originall Writing signed with Beza's and Farels own hands Clam apud se in scrin●o pectoris sui duas voces per ●idem spiritualiter retinuisse And moreover that when the Tigurine Divines reproved them for it they both answered That it was needfull to use some good deceit to helpe their brethren and that in that Confession of theirs they did reserve secretly in their own breasts these two words by faith and spiritually Truly if this relation be all current there was aliquid humani there was some halting and unsoundnesse in this point and businesse in those good men 3. Others there are that have a zeale in some things but in others they are cold carelesse and remisse Now as wee know that the sweat of the whole body is a signe of health but the sweat of some one part onely shewes a distemper Jo. Fernel de sebribus l. 4 c. 19. And therefore physitians doe reckon such a sweat to be Symptomaticall Such is the zeale of many who are sharpe sighted in corruptions Ecclesiasticall but winke at Errours politicall and having nothing to say against the rapines and oppressions of their Patrons that are zealous against Popery but have no further care of Religion which that reverend and worthy man Mr Calvin observed in Geneva Beza in vita Calvini for when he lay sicke and all the Ministers came together upon the 28th of April to visit him he gave them a farewell Exhortation among other things that he spake to them he told them that when he came first to Geneva to preach he found things much out of order as if Christianity were nothing else but the plucking downe of Images Such a Religion just as was among some with us here in England in good King Edward the 6th dayes and perhaps in some in these dayes of ours They were such who in the ancient Church brought a blemish upon Religion Apostasie of last times p. 148. and provoked Eunapius a Pagan Writer to blaspheme as I receive the testimony from Mr Mead for I have not seen the booke it selfe He speaking of some Monkes in Aegypt calls them Men indeed for shape but living like swine who yet took it for a piece of Religion to despise the Temple of Scrapis for then saith he whosoever wore a black-coate and would demeane himselfe absurdly in publick got a tyranicall authority to such an opinion of vertue had that sort of men attained What I say of the demolishing of Images I may apply to the earnestnesse of some in some points of controversie Some gallants of dissolute and debauched behaviour and sometimes Ministers of scandalous life and obnoxious will declaime earnestly against some errors of opinion And me-thinks 't is a pretty reason that one gives of this Jufrif fa●th Sect. 1. c. 15. p. 283. That such men are afraid to looke upon themselves without a foyle and seeing they can hardly find others of life and conversation much fouler they propose unto themselves these opinions to declaime against as a salve unto their sore consciences and that they may be able to say as the Pharisee Lord we thank thee that we are not as other men not as these mishapen hereticks Thus it may be possible they may rayle against others faults with much earnestnesse to hide their own like the Host in Guzman I have observed this experiment among others in one man especially a man of a private condition who set himselfe eagerly against his Minister for one passage delivered which he conceived to tend to Arminianisme to the wonder indeed of all Life of Guzman p. 50. Acts 18.17 that knew him to be a Gallio that cares for none of these things a man mindlesse of Religion and otherwise vitious This made Abraham Bucholzer a great Divine in Germany Melch Adam Vit. Theol. p. 558. to decline all Theologicall conflicts because he saw many controversies stir'd up in the Church of Christ by those who were not warmed with the least sparkle of Gods love as is noted by the writer of his life I know we cannot too much too earnestly contend for truth for saving truth's but yet we may overstrive for truths lesse necessary Briefe Tract of z●ale p. 89. as Mr Dod observed that many are hot about matters of ceremonie but altogether cold in matters of substance 'T is the great commendation of Andrew Knophius that he preacht at Riga the Doctrine of Christ painfully and faithfully but he had a turbulent Colleague one Sylvester Tegetmeir D Clytrae Saxo i. e l. 10. who went furiously to worke to cast Statues out of the Churches and remove Tombe-stones and Monuments wherein Luther writes gravely to that City That Christian piety consists in true faith in sincere love to our neighbours c. and not only in the abolishing of humane and external rites which may be tolerated without impietie and scandall Melc Adam in vita Luth. p. 123. And Luther alwayes shewed this temper being offended with the busie humour of Carolostadius and his doings at Wittenburg for when he return'd after his retirement and saw what worke he had made there in his absence he took occasion in his Sermons every day to shew what he liked and what he disallowed in those alterations that were made and blames them for many things Luth. Tom. 2. Epist not that they had done wickedly but not in order and as himself writes in one of
God understands all your devises if ye turne your selves downward to be hid he can and will turne the down-side upward the inside outward This is the shame whereby Hypocrites shall bepunish'd which was Plutarchs conceit where he brings in The spesius returning from hell and relating the severall kinds of punishments there Plut. de his qui sero pun p 203. mihi he makes him tell that Hypocrites are plagued by turning up and down and some that they had their skins drawn off Yea this shame is not alwaies reserved to the judgment of the great day but sometimes God layes it upon hypocrites even here in this life Euseb Hist l. 5. c. 1. mihi p. 118. e f g. as Eusebius notes it speaking of the persecutions under Verus Those that being apprehended denied the faith were not only led to prison with the rest for their poor deniall would not serve their turn but forced also to suffer the same torments and as they who freely professed what they were were laid in prison with no other crime objected against them but only that they were Christians but those denyers were put in as homicides and flagitious persons and sustain'd a double punishment Those upright ones were full of joy but these crushed down with the great and heavy weight of conscience so that as they were led through the streets men might discerne them by their countenances demisse abject deformed with the foule blot of their basenesse contemned and scorned even of the Gentiles as base and effeminate cowards But especialy I say at the great day Hypocrites shall be made a spectacle of shame though possibly they may have waies here to keep themselves undiscovered and hide their blemishes as men that weare white Gloves upon foule hands or as the crookednesse of the body may be hid under a stuffe and bolstred Gowne but what will they doe when the Glove must be pluckt-off and the body shewed naked for all things are naked in the eyes of him with whom we have to doe as one said to an old-man with gray-hairs who dyed his head and his beard of a youthfull colour Though thou couldst deceive the world with thy false haire Scit te Proserpina canum Death knows well enough that thou art gray Thou keepest thy booke shut clasped tyed up but what wilt thou doe when it shall be untied and opened then the heresies that are in it that thou studiest the wanton lives that thou spendest thy time to reade the lascivious and filthy pictures that thou usest to seed thine eyes with shall all be knowne Thou maist deceive all the world like that counterfeit Alexander in Josephus his Story but Augustus will not be deceived he hath quicker and more piercing eyes God will not be mocked and ye shall find that the hidden things of dishonesty will be the hidden things of shame one and the same Greek signifies and expresseth both both dishonesty and shame 2 Cor. 4.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 6.21 Dishonesty is shame in the Act and will be shame in the event What fruit said the Apostle had ye of those things wherof ye are now ashamed At least if they be past shame here they shall be forced at last to confesse their shame and as the ancient Authour of the book of Wisdom speaketh Wisd 3.1 2. The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God though in the sight of the unwise they seeme to die and those unwise ones shall be forced to confesse themselves fools when they shall say concerning the upright man Wisd 5.4 6. We fools accounted his life madnesse but we are they that have erred from the way of truth Let me therefore renew unto these men the words of our blessed Saviour Beware yee of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisie Luk. 12.1 2 3. for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed neither hid that shall not be known Whatsoever ye have spoken in the darknesse shall be heard in the light and that which ye have spoken in the eare in closets shall be proclaimed upon the house tops This consideration may be effectuall to purge unsoundnesse as it hath been powerfull to preserve others in their uprightnesse as in St Augustine Behold all mine iniquities shall be laid naked before thousands of people before many troupes of Angels shall all my faults appeare For this was the opinion of many Ancients Aug l. medit c. 4. L. de extr Jud. c. 1. Ambr in Ps 43 Jer in Dan. 7. Olimpiod in Eccl. 12. Thom. in 4. Sect. dist ●3 Bonav art 2. q. 2. Dom. Sote dist 47. q. 12. besides St Augustine that even all that the godly hath done shall also be layed open as of Ephraem Ambrose Jerome Olimpiodours and of the Schoole-men Aquinas Bonaventure and Soto And for my part I subscribe to them but with that distinction that passeth among them That all the actions of the godly shall be opened to be under the judgement of approbation but those of hypocrites as of all other wicked men under the strict scrutinie and judgement of condemnation Thus having heightned this 4th Medicament by putting in this other ingredient least it should yet misse it's effect I proceed to prepare and make ready some more CHAP. XVI The fifth Medicament The exalted thoughts of our Christian Dignitie 5. High thoughts of Christian dignitie cure hypocrisie BEcause basenesse of spirit makes hypocrites they are Faex populi a low and for did flattering generation let us get raised and exalted minds The lowest of the people were fit to be Priests to Jeroboam they would say as said and serve his turn best because they would serve his humour and make even Religion it self a state busines for the setling of his new crown But let us remember that though we are the Kings people and our friends friends yea and their servants too in all offices of righteousnesse and love yet we serve also an higher master the Lord Christ He that published the sweet Poems of that happy man Mr George Herbert saith of him that to testifie his Independency upon all others and to quicken his diligence in Gods service he used in his ordinary speech when he made mention of the blessed name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to adde my Master If men were unfainedly of his mind their respects would be to Christs commands to Christs will to Christs pleasure Ps 123.1 2. If we could lift up our eyes to God to him that dwels in the Heavens then as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistresse so would our eyes wait upon the Lord our God We are Gods speciall people peculiar precious to him a purchased people 1 Pet. 2.0 10. and therefore to refer all our wayes to his liking to shew forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darknesse into his