Some men have taken up an opinion and are devoted to a way and their heat is so much as they follow it on with might and maine and spits in the faces of others besides Such a hypocrite was Paul as to zeale-persecuting the Church I followed them on I dragg'd them to prison saith he so it is certaine there are some men have taken up an opinion some way or other and have no more Religion than the stones in the street and that they will follow with fire and sword and thinke all Religion is lost if that be lost that is their end and Centre That is a zealous hypocrite I call him so for he hath nothing at all but that opinion come to aske him of Faith and Christ and the Worke of God upon his soule and he can tell you no more than a Heathen and commonly where-ever you find so much zeale and fire there is hypocrisie for the fire of the Sanctuary will enflame a soule there is that but it will not scorch the flesh nor burne the heart We have enough of those zealots in our daies that without they have their own opinions maintained they do not mind Christ or the Gospell nor observe how it will go with their own immortall soules no more than if they were heathens Thirdly There are confident and lofty hypocrites upon thiâ— opinion They are full of perswasions of the love of God and grace in their hearts they have lived under the bright sun-shine of the Gospell and never came to the truth of the Gospel never saw their own soules and hearts never came to the furnace of the Law and Gospell they have met with some good notions of grace and mercy and apprehensions of Gods love and joys in their spirits have had some little twangs of conscience now and then which have put them to seeke after the best kind of remedy and of a sudden are got to a great height in the apprehensions of Gods love those I call lofty confident hypocrites yet it is said in Job 8. the hope of the hypocrite shall perish many soules have great flourishings mighty buddings they thinke Summer is come and Winter is past and no more but an eternall spring in the soules like the stony ground they beleeved for a time and immediately received the word with joy Ob. How can they receive the Word with joy That is strange that a man should receive the Word with joy and wither presently Sol. Truly they had some workings on their soules and pangs in their consciences they saw some sins and had some feares and lived where it may be they had some sweet notions of the Gospell was and they had a promise and tooke it in presently before ever they knew the nature of it and rejoyced and were confident of their own estate and of the love of God so they go away merry from Sermons and duties and nothing at all of true grace this is the highest judgement of God upon soules in 2 Thes 2.11 the Apostle speakes of giving men up to strong delusions Though it is taken for delusion of doctrines yet it may as well be taken for mens being given up to their own strong perswasions of that they have This is a strong delusion saying I have seene heaven and the face of Christ and yet deluded in my own spirit I will adde but one more Fourthly and lastly A demure and stately hypocrite this is the highest sort of them as upon this principle one that will walke so exactly and curiously having conversed with all the notions and rules of the Gospell that hath sprung up so curiously and yet is choaked with something at the bottome of his own heart he goes on with that strictnesse that gravity in the Gospell that he condemnes all others as unfit as below him as one above all others he hath all kind of Artificiall motions one that hath a pretty even temper in his naturall constitution and what through restraining grace and what with morall considerations and enlightnings of the Gospell he hath got some exact formes of the Gospell this man walkes so strictly so curiously that none can discover him Such a hypocrite there is in the world Look to it this man walkes step by step he walkes so exactly that all the Saints may admire him so curiously that none can discover him But for those glorious converses with Christ and through powerfull workings he never knew them he is the fairest to looke upon of all sorts of hypocrites Now there be many things I should have shown to you how to discover those sorts of hypocrisie As First to shew to you that of all sorts and straine selfe is the bottome of all they do that is the secret of all their motions and indeed selfe-love is the ground of all hypocrisie for it makes a man perswade himselfe he is that which he is not and feigne himselfe to be what he knows he is not selfe-love is at the bottome and that workes at the heart secretly and closely there be two things I would have shewed you about this acting of selfe That First a man acts purely and moves most strongly from selfe-love and selfe-considerations and then Secondly Selfe-satisfaction is the uttermost of the desires of the best sort of hypocrites in the world Secondly know this likewise that you may discover such an hypocrisie in your own hearts that all such sorts of hypocrites as are known to themselves cannot abide to be tried to be unript doth not love launching and piercing he loves not to have his bowels turned up he cannot endure to thinke to be put to the uttermost of his own spirit that is a perfect signe of such a hypocrite These things that go between the marrow and the bone the soule and the spirit he cannot endure that he would avoid the dints of the sharpest Arrows in the Gospell if possible Looke how much flinching you find in your own spirits so much hypocrisie A hypocrite cannot abide to be touched fully to the quick and laid open to be ripped at the heart to have the naile driven into the vitals which a gracious heart longs for Thirdly There is ever some secret unmortified lusts under all those seeming graces of a hypocrite ever some secret unmortified lust either pride passion or covetousnesse or concupiscence something or other which will and doth breake forth some time or other and looke to your selves you that have been ten or twenty yeares under the power of a lust and it breakes forth continually upon you if you be not hypocrites you are as nigh them as ever was egge to egge as to the likenesse of them you that have been known to be what you are so many yeares together I durst denounce such a man a hypocrite that hath lived so many yeares under a secret lust unmortified what is there no power in Christ hast thou not kept thy lust close all this while It may be thou goest to prayer
are they have the same motion as to will and desire but not the same principles And therefore it is no wonder a man may be deceived in his own spirit and thinkes he knows Christ and beleeves on Christ and hath many motions of him and all it may be are of outward considerations of him never hath a pure light shining from heaven upon his soule so that I say it is a very easie thing to see how a man can be a hypocrite and not know it to consider what voluntary motions there are of the Holy Ghost upon a mans spirit yet not a saving worke for as the Spirit blows upon whom he will is not bound to convert you so he may present the outward species of Christ to you and never change your will nor understanding and yet a man may thinke he knows perfectly what 's the nature of the whole Gospell in his soule For a man hath to be improved in the Gospell a rationall understanding the Gospell can improve as well as any other Rule Secondly There are those passionate love-expressions that will worke mightily upon the affections as they are taken in with so much fulnesse and variety as to thinke of Christs dying that was innocent and out of love if it were but read in a History would worke upon the affections and yet leave nature as nature a man thinks he loves Christ and may weep at the thoughts of Christs death and yet be unsound for all this Fourthly if you consider the variety of Gods workings upon soules in conversion how many waies he workes he may thinke he is perfectly converted and yet an unsound man for all this Alas the ways of God are so mysterious it is comapred to a new birth Joh. 3. who knows how a child is borne in the womb A man must have a divine light in his soule to see through and through his soule Take a Saint himselfe in his cleare light he can hardly tell how to discerne into the variety of Gods workings what hath been the pure working of God where lies the Child the new-borne babe as it were It hath come and past through the many varieties of Nature and Grace and then if I should adde how apt men are to be perswaded of the goodnesse of their conditions and not know the badnesse of them and how easily self-selfe-love will be trying to set off what hath but a shadow of Religion with many other deceits then you will easily say A man may be unsound and never know it in his own spirit for a long while Secondly A man may be sincere and have honest intentions in all his duties and actions and yet be an hypocrite And that it may be so I shall demonstrate it thus to you First There is in some men such a morall such a naturall sincerity as I may so say in their actings that they are not disposed unto the contradicting of their principles and their actings they are tempered within themselves they are not disposed to contradict their actings so it is said of the sincerity of Alimelech as concerning Abraham's wife he appealed to God in Genesis 20. in the beginning Saies he in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this saies God I know thy integrity Now there is such a sinceritie even in men that have not grace that they would not do such a thing if they knew it to be unjust according to their Principles they would not do it for a world or if they had taken up an opinion they would not go against their opinion there is such a kind of sincerity Now the same may be in the Gospell that is I go on honestly as I think able to preach and pray and I have no kind of ill intention to deceive only I have not a spirituall principle to act me there is my misery I come not so much to be seen of men as from the intention of my heart but I come not to have Christ or to meet with Christ so I am a hypocrite because I come not from the maine principle Therefore first know this as a Rule that you may see this cleare That simplicity of intention cannot justifie any acts of men that are bad all will grant that for as it was with Pilate he washed his hands yet that did not excuse him Secondly My intentions in any action doe not make a thing to be true or good in it selfe at all as if I have a Jewell to sell my intention in the selling it for a good one may deceive the buyer it being counterfeit no act can be good without a good intention but my good intention makes not the thing really good in it self if the thing in it selfe be not perfect and good it is hypocrisie Thirdly know that a meere good intention may proceed from the naturall constitution of a person not from the goodnesse of his heart It may be I am not given so much to cunning and deceit as other men but have a plaine naturall constitution but if it come to a particular it may be I have as much in my intention if I were put to it as others Fourthly know this about intentions and the sincerity of them That sincerity that will demonstrate a man to be a Saint must flow from the pure and even workings of principles towards their ends sincerity must flow from the even acting of faculties within towards their ends I do not act sincerely to God though I pray never so much in duties if I have not a divine spirituall spring of love to God A heart impulsed moved to God from the power of his own spirit If I have not graces acting together in a harmony faith and love and all other graces purely and really working to God For sincerity as I may say is but the spirituall tune of the motions of all graces in a mans soule it is no more But I will close up all there are many things I should have shown you But now for distinction sake having laid down this That a man may be a hypocrite and not know it thinke he hath grace and hath it not I shall therefore come and shew you the severall sorts of hypocrites I will but name them First there is a meer formall hypocrite that insensibly drudges on in his duties praies and heares and comes to Church and no more and hath no inward power nor virtue in his own soule nor is convinced of any thing to the contrary as Papists say over their beads whilst they are sleeping I confesse every Formalist is a hypocrite but there is a low sort of Formalist that meerely drudges and that is all there is something wanting within Secondly there is a zealous hypocrite and he seemes to actuate his Forme a fiery hypocrite as I may so say one that you would thinke had life and soule indeed and follows on Religion to purpose and yet it is but his passion and humour no grace at all
foolish Virgins Mat. 25. they went on smoothly a long time and slumbred and slept and thought themselves as pure Virgins as the wise untill midnight came And the young man in the Gospell Mat. 19. he came to Christ with a confidence in his own intentions that he had kept the Law or else he would never have come to Christ as he did but yet he lacked something he wanted the maine principle he wanted selfe-deniall never knew what it was to cast himselfe upon the Lord Jesus purely All his hypocrisie lay in that If there be but a naturall ingenuity and simplicity and it come under the Gospell it will be mightily improved by a mans following the outward Letter of it he will be as simple-hearted in all duties as much as formerly he was by following the common principles of honesty therefore when the young man came to Christ there was a kind of affection in Jesus Christ to him and a love to him and yet this was his hypocrisie he did all those things and had no intention at all to deceive the world or himselfe by it but he wanted the principle that should have carried him on in all things So that a man appeares to be what he is not appeares to be a Saint and does duties well but is not this comes from a want of principles a defect in that It is not my intention that makes me a hypocrite before God but if I go on in profession and have not what should make out that profession to be from God it is hypocrisie Only these are the most to be pittied and bewailed that go innocently to hell they thinke they have grace and no man in the world can perswade them to the contrary and as strong a faith as any in the world and alas they have not they thinke they love Christ and would do any thing for him but they never had that love flaming in them from the power of divine love and spirituall Gospell-principles Now the reasons why men go on thus are First because they never had the sight of their own natures they never were under the through-convictions of their sinfull state by nature only bred up fairely and ingenuously in the Gospell God never shewed them their own faces in the glasse of the Law only they have looked on the Law with their own eye in their own prospect it is impossible if God shewed a man his nature he should go without principles in his heart Secondly It comes from a generall view of the Gospell meerly from generall considerations of the Gospell and outward rule without any particular inward sense of the spirit and frame that should be in him men looke upon the Gospell as a History and never come to see what spirituall frames should be in their hearts to every duty Thirdly Men do find some kind of comfort in those waies and they have not those checks of conscience that others have because they are not so grosse in their actings but go on smoothly without questioning their own state and their spirits are pretty well composed Fourthly The maine and the great reason is want of through-examination want of diving into the depths of the heart not putting a mans selfe to it every day men take up meerly the imitation as it were of others and the shadow and the outward expression and consider them no otherwaies whereas they are but shews men never go no further in their own spirits than the outsides never search their hearts to lay them open before the Majesty and Authority of a great God and so they live and dye securely And is not this a sad thing that a man should thinke he hath grace and have no intention at all to deceive That is he hath not that cunning and desperate frame but only goes on and trusts his own judgment and trusts his own generall apprehensions and hopes well of himselfe and thinkes surely he would do no wrong do no evill and this man slips down and away to the bottome of hell here is a hypocrite though not a professed one he is deceived though he intend not to deceive for here is that I would have you look to ☞ It is not your thinking and saying you have grace you may be hypocrites for all that if you are not what you appeare to be you are a hypocrite whatsoever you seeme to be and whether you think so or no. God thinkes so and know's so and you will find it so one day when you come to have the vaile taken off from your eyes Paul wondred what he was a doing when God opened his eyes what he had been doing all this while Therefore you had need be trying your hearts every day dayly fearing your hearts and jealous over your spirits and suspecting every motion untill you have tried your hearts by Law and Gospell yea and waited upon the Spirit for a new triall Now there is a second sort and they are such as are conscious to themselves of their hypocrisie that they are not yet sound in the maine and yet go on in their profession from their education or for some designe and cannot leave it have many stirrings of God in their hearts under Ordinances from light convictions of the Lord upon their Spirits And this is exceeding common many go on a long time in profession and cannot leave it but have many motions of God in their soules and many sharpe reproofes from God and yet cannot see a through work upon their hearts yet go on and professe and hope it may be but take themselves for Saints continually and must have their names enrolled for Saints in Churches and yet have a jealousie of their own hypocrisie and go on so for many yeares under many regrets and wounds of spirit they have many twangs that pierce them sometimes and yet the Conviction is not so strong as to shew them their miserable and vile estate or to presse them on to the through worke of the Gospell upon their hearts And you shall find those persons very high in prayer and very able to speake well in their converse with Saints But they never met with God in duties never had Gods assistance never found that spirituall strength when they heare men Anatomising of soules they are only for keeping up the glorious outside and the glory of outward formes they have been some ten or twenty years and knew that Christ never appeared to them and yet they cannot leave off duties conscience and the outward rule lies upon them still this is very common And so it was with Saul he knew in his own heart that God had forsaken him and yet he would be doing something he would have Samuel to pray for him but God had left him he knew in his own conscience he was unsound and had not done the will of God And so a man may go up and down a great while having a conscience and ability as to outward actings and yet never be sound
of wants and pure thoughts of the love of Jesus Christ it can pray everlastinglie if he had a body fit to his soule he could be alwaies praying and though a Saint may faile in expressions towards the latter end yet his affections are higher he can hardly leave Christ or the thoughts of him he would be alwaies with him there is abundance of adoe to get up our hearts to any frame but when once it is up and goes on with the strength of God then he finds new assistance every moment comming in you shall have a hypocrite at first like a fountaine flowing in expressions but he begins to grow low at last and just so much water let out as may maintaine him for a while and turne his wheele and motion but take a Saint he is commonlie best at last as to faith and spirituall workings in his own heart And this my Brethren will a little informe you of the nature of hypocrisie as to prayer for a hypocrite acts for himself and from self-strength and any artificiall motion as a Clock or so grows slower at latter end untill it be woond up againe so it is really with those men Fourthly The hypocrisie of men in prayer is seen in this that an hypocrite never goes with an absolute present sence of his needs of assistance or of acceptance either of the Spirits power or of Christs intercession if he go to Christ for strength it is to employ it to his own ends But my Brethren there is no Saint goes to a duty ordinarilie and commonly but he goes with that deep sence of that perfect need he hath of the Holy Ghost to supply him he can do nothing though he have parts yet he sees he must have his assistance else he cannot act and when he hath acted he sees as much need of acceptance at last as of assistance at first A hypocrite acts meerlie from his owne strength in some extraordinarie dutie it may be he may cast up his eye and say Lord carry me on in this extraordinary dutie but commonly in prayer he never fees the need of the Holy Ghost to teach him how to pray how to move to God and what to pray and that Jesus Christ should hold out his mediation and stand betweene him and the Father to make a perfect attonement there is nothing will discover hypocrisie more than this if you do but consider it seriously for there is no hypocrite that ever was unbottomed of himselfe his own strength that ever saw the eternall constant need of Christ Fifthly That I may not hold you long a hypocrite in his duties he praies for those things with seeming earnestnesse that he never prized nor knew the worth of He praies for pardon it may be elegantlie with exceeding affections as to our hearing but he never knew what it was to have pardon to have divine incomes in his heart he praies for enjoyments of Christ but yet he never knew the worth of an enjoyment of Christ and that is â—â—scovered in these particulars First In that he can quiet himselfe with common hopes of him I hope I shall have him though now I have him not and so takes his duties instead of Christ for present he can pray for Christ and yet content himselfe with a generall common apprehension that he will shew himselfe good at last though he have no earnest pressing nor longing for him at present Secondly it is seen in this that the soule secretly dislikes what he praies for as to those enjoyments as to the power and spirit and life of them there is no hypocrite but if he pray for to be transformed to be made like unto Christ and be sanctified but oh he hath a secret regret when he comes to the practicall part of it he could rather wish there were no such thing or he had stood upon his own bottome Thirdly and especiallie it is seen in this that those things are matter of petition but not any ground of endeavour after the enjoyment of them they are only the bare matter of Petition I pray for them and seek after them but I never endeavour for them I pray for Christ but never look after him I pray to have my sins mortified but I never take the course to have that vertue and that power from Christ that may kill my corruptions we only put it into our prayers as complementall acts and no more Those prayers that are not accompanied with earnest heartie endeavours to get the things prayed for according to the rule propounded are hypocriticall I pray I may be pardoned and I go on in sin and never looke after the mediation of the Lord Jesus nor study how these blessed conveyances are made over to my soule Oh there is a mightie straine as to that Sixthlie A hypocrite in prayer calls God Father by his own spirit not by the spirit of adoption pray you observe that by his own spirit for he hath not the spirit of prayer which is the spirit of adoption now that you may know the spirit of prayer what the meaning of that is he calls God Father by his own spirit not by the spirit of adoption First He goes not to God from an inward sence of fatherly love there is no hypocrite in the world but he hath a secret inward frame of spirit whereby he looks upon God as an enemie and judge to him in his greatest enlargements he goes not to God from the sence of fatherlie love though he may call God father with abundance of varietie in expression pray you consider that no man can call God father but from the spirit of adoption but from the sence of his love shed abroad in his heart in prayer I go to him because his love as well as my needs workes me up to go to him the tastes of the sweetnesse of that fatherlie love workes up my heart I cannot but go to him Secondlie this spirit of prayer lies in that sutablesse of a son-like affection unto God that sutablenesse of a son-like affection and nature unto God whereby I go as a Son unto a Father Now that is certaine a hypocrite hath no relation to God he never minds him as a father he hath not that inward propensitie that inward love and affection unto God as a Son which lies in the working of the heart inwardlie unto God as unto a Father as it is in nature so it is in grace take a child and tell him it is his Father from once he knows it is his Father there will be an inward working towards him more than to any person in the world there will be some disposition in the heart that will answer presently your representation of him as a Father so it is in the Gospell when you go to the Father there will be something that will answer this thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us the soule must cry Abba Father that no hypocrite can do in the world
substantiall enjoyment of God when the very nature of sin is against thy heart and when the nature of godlinesse is in thine eye as to enjoyment to be fully possessed with that Fourthlie know this too Never say thou art a hypocrite when no outward act can content thee though never so glorious without thou hast an inward frame according to that act according to the inward spiritualitie of the Gospell if thou lookest to have thy soule in a frame to thy duty thou needest not feare hypocrisie Fifthly While thy soule is as much troubled for omission of thy duty as for commission of thy sin thou needest not feare that thou art a hypocrite while thy soule is as much troubled for omission of a duty or an act of faith or closing with Christ or of any outward duty wherein thou hast enjoyed Christ as for commission of sin thou needest not feare thou art a hypocrite Sixthly and lastly thou needest not feare thou art a hypocrite whilst thou hatest thine own strength in thy duties as much as an outward act of sin or the most distemper of thy spirit or a corruption done in the wickednesse of thy heart I speake only this a little to divert the thoughts of poore soules that say I am certainly under this frame of spirit But looke to your own hearts every one if you find all these or any of them in any life upon your soules you are free from that state but if you find not such an universall opposite nature to sin but a frame to sin against God if you find not such constant pure frames in your owne spirits as to principles intentions and ends you will never be able to free your selves from such a state and condition SERMON VII LUKE 12.1 Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees which is Hypocrisie I Have endeavoured in many exercises to open to you the nature of hypocrisie and have told you the sorts of hypocrites that are up and down the world and in Churches Now in the latter daies they grow more glorious than ever therefore Christs exhortation had need be more pressing formerlie hypocrisie was coursely cloathed could hardlie step out among the Saints they were so prying and so cunninglie carefull to observe the dangers of the Devill in times of danger and persecution Now when the Sun shines faire daies againe Religion seems to flourish in the outside of it and there is a benefit by the name of it men will be very glorious in hypocrisie and if ever there were need to presse Christs exhortation it is now upon all sorts of men and professours among his owne disciples there was one among twelve he bids them beware take heed It is a good caution for them all Saints are subject to the straines of it many times without they have an abundant care in their own spirits Therefore that I shall do is still to presse this exhortation upon your hearts that it may take some weight and impression for beleeve it however you looke upon your selves or whatever thoughts others have of you we had need to tell you to beware of hypocrisie the better you are thought of the more danger And you may remember the last time first I told you you had need to looke to your own spirits concerning this sin because of the danger of it in its nature and workings Secondlie because of the uglinesse and vilenesse of it of all other sins in the soule how it is that which is perfectlie against the nature of God his holinesse and simplicitie his faithfulnesse and realitie to the Sons of men how it is that that makes a man like the devill most of any sin he will beleeve and is convinced of the things that the Gospell speakes of that they are true but here lies the greatnesse of his wickednesse the cunningnesse of his deceit that he sets up an art of deceiving in the world to deceive the Sons of men that they should not beleeve the word of God there is none like the devill so perfectlie like the devill as hypocrites I have chosen you twelve and one of you is a devill none is called a devill in Scripture but he and there lies the sutablenesse that he is a lyar and hypocrisie is a perfect lye in the soule Then I shewed you the uglinesse of it likewise that it doth indispose the soule to every thing that is good when one is in the best frame as it were that spoiles all it is of a poysonous nature I shall go on to shew you what is that you must continuallie look after if you meane to beware of it and prevent it as the care and remedie of this sad condition Therefore first as to the generall and as the maine thing if ever you meane to beware of hypocrisie you must principle your hearts and farnish them with all the graces of the spirit you will never be sincere else you will never be sincere till you have all graces and the workings of them proportionable in your soules and spirits Ephes 3. he begs of them to go on and this I pray that your love may abound more and more in all knowledge and in all experience that you may be able to approve the things that are excellent that you may be sincere Phil. 1.9 A man must have all judgement a discerning eye for sinceritie doth not lye only in the intentions of men but in the reall workings of all the frames of the soule of all the graces as they are in the heart when a man can approve the things that are excellent that is he can judge them and try them and act them as they are discovered to be truths that is sinceritie for sinceritie is not so much a distinct grace as a result of the harmonious workings of all graces in the soule there must be a rectified mind to make a man sincere for it is not a good intention that will make an action good or make you sincere in any action but as it flows from inward reall frames and principles that are sutable Peter was an affectionate man and he said to Christ when he told him of his sufferings spare thy selfe do not go and suffer he did it out of a good intention but he was rebuked for it he had a cleare intention would not have the least hurt come to Christ but it was against the designe that Jesus Christ came about therefore he said get thee behind me Sathan It was not that sincerity therefore the Apostle saith that you may be sincere Oh that sincerity of soule it lies in those two things that you may be sincere you must be able to judge and approve things that are excellent First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies such a straine as is without any mixture hath no composition of any forraigne thing in it when every thing is pure in its native colour you must prove all things be able to try all things and have a judgement of them that you
much as in that dutie wherein they excell and go beyond many Saints as to the outward performance of it I shall shew their hypocrisie therefore as to this And first in generall know that all that a hypocrite doth as to prayer is from an art of it not from a spirit of it within him some do distinguish it thus between a gift of prayer and a grace of prayer but I had rather take it in these termes for graces are gifts and we must come and distinguish again and againe of common gifts and spirituall gifts and supernaturall gifts and supernaturall gifts of such a kind c. but this is cleare that all that ever a hypocrite doth in prayer is from an artificiall motion in his spirit my meaning is thus he hath gotten by industrie by imitation by converse by custome and use in that dutie such an art that there is nothing either belongs to prayer or the exact performance of it outwardlie but he hath it with more abundant curiositie than the best Saint hath that he strives to perfect himselfe in exceedinglie But take this for the generall rule that is rather from an art than from the spirit prayer and many times he gets the art so curiouslie that he refresheth many Saints and poore souls by it though he have little of the sense of it on his own heart he acts that part so exactlie and carefullie to the sight of men that it works much upon the affections of all that heare him and converse with him This I speake now as to those that are most carefull Indeed there be some sorts of hypocrites that are not so curious that are rather for a meer outward forme and are very dead in it and make it up some other way but take hypocrisie in generall it is seene most in prayer In the second place and more particularlie to discover this hypocrisie to you as to the art First know that the great study of a hypocrite is about his expressions more than for any impressions or any reall sights of the nature of his condition or estate as if he were to mourne for sin and open his own heart he studies to set it out in the most melting way though his heart be not melted or if he be to set out the love of God he will do it with the exactest expressions but he finds not the love of Christ constraining and those expressions flowing from that love in his heart Secondlie as to that as his expressions so his greatest enlargements in that duty of prayer is when he is most in publike not so much in private and secret dealings with his own heart this is now to those that deale with others dead at home enlarged abroad Oh my Brethren this is a most wicked frame of hypocrisie in that duty when men look at their words not at their hearts to make their hearts speake within them if I be enlarged in prayer when I am with others and dead when I am in private it is a certaine signe I have nothing in my heart only some outward gales fill my sailes Thirdly as to that know there is a secret rejoycing in the very manner of the expressions of a mans wants or of his Petitions whatsoever he desires of God which none but those find that have to deale with those things in their owne hearts Fourthly And which is as to expressions againe know that a hypocrite in the fourth place is more troubled when he wants an enlargement as to expressions than when he wants a power of affection to duties and to God according to the whole nature of what he is to act in that dutie a Saint can content himselfe more with a sigh and a groane than all the externall enlargements that can be if a hypocrite can be enlarged as to gifts he can easily dispense with some deadnesse as to the frame of his owne heart pray you observe that if you cannot be in your closet as vehement in sighs and groanes as if you were in companie with others if your inward motions do not prompt you to as much vehemencie of soule to go out to God to beg what you want and longings after him to enjoy what he hath communicable to your soules when alone as well as when before others it is a dangerous symptome of hypocrisie it is a signe certainly that I have somewhat at the bottome that is not sound therefore consider that Secondly As to particulars know that a hypocrite loves to lengthen out his duties when he is to performe them before others and to hurrie them over in private truly most Professours are as Papists in that for they tell over their private duties as so many beads till they come to a publike Masse then they are solemne but there is nothing of Religion in all those things if they come to company then they do every thing circumstantially exactly then they lengthen them out according to time and every proportion and this is a very close discovery of hypocrisie in any soule that is slight in private and can hurry over his duties there yet can be mighty solemne when he is in a publike place pray you consider that Thirdly Take this for a Rule a hypocrite both in private and publike prayers he flags at last this will come close to every ones heart the longer he prayes the worse he is the heart more dead best at first at the beginning he is zealous it may be sence of wants presses him something holds him up but the longer he goes on the worse he is But the contrary is now in a Saint the longer he is with God the more his heart is with him he grows in his duties though he be dead at first he will be sure to get some review of God some quicknings some enlivenings though he have been long getting up his heart to a duty yet when once it is up he finds the water flows in the more he is with God the more he gets up his soule the divine nature gets more breath and strength by breathing after God the longer it breaths the stronger it breaths a hypocrite hath much adoe to keep up his affections to the first start either privately or publikely hardly able to keep in his spirit but he is at a loss as to the divine nature of those things as to the glory of them therefore he is fain to pumpe and strain for expressions when his affections are lost this you will find as a perfect secret in your own hearts that know and are privie to your own soules The Spirit may indeed withdraw sometimes but takes it commonly and ordinarily the soule is never so moved as when it is touched in the heart but a hypocrite you shall have his duties done very sleightlie at the latter end when there should be most vigour but you shall find the duties of Saints when once the soule begins to get heat and warmth with the love of Christ and sence