we can be saved but by Jesus Christ the only Mediator between sinful man and the offended Majesty and yet what is there in all the world that is more abused to the deceiving of mens souls then the Name Grace of Jesus Christ Men that might be saved by an effectual Faith are cheated and destroyed by false Faith and presumption The merciful nature of God is the ground-work of all the comforts of the godly and yet there is nothing that is more abused to the deceiving of mens souls that will profess that they trust in the mercies of God while they are labouring to be miserable by the refusing and resisting the mercy that would save them The free promises of the Gospel do support true believers but are abused to the deceiving of the presumptuous world And so the Apostle telleth us that many do by their Religion They will have a Religion to deceive themselves but not to save them It is the Hypocrite that is the subject in my text who is described by this double property 1. That he seemeth to be Religious 2. That his obedience answereth not this seeming or profession the instance is given in the bridling of his tongue because that was the point that the Apostle had some special reason to insist on with those to whom he immediately directed his Epistle Though its plain in ver 22 23 c. that it is the whole work of obedience that he implyeth where he instanceth in this particular The sin of the tongue which he specially intendeth to reprove was the bitter reproaching of their brethren upon the account of their differences in matters of Religion and the vilifying of others and uncharitable passionate contendings and censures upon pretence of knowing more then others as appeareth in the third Chapter throughout The Predicate is double one by way of supposition viz. that this hypocrite doth but deceive his own heart The other by way of assertion viz. that his Religion is vain Whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be fetcht as far as from Orpheus the Thracian as Erasmus and many others imagine is of no great moment to our understanding of the text it being evident that it is the worshipping of God that is here meant by Religion and it is men addicted to his worship that are called Religious The seeming here spoken of refers both to himself and others he that seemeth to himself to be Religious or is judged so by other men By bridling the tongue is meant restraining it from evil speech By deceiving himself is meant the mistake of his judgement concerning the sincerity and acceptableness and reward of his Religion and the frustrating of his own expectations hereupon His Religion is said to be in Vain in that it shall not attain the ends of an unfeigned true Religion of which more anon The sence of the Text then is contained in these two Propositions 1. There is a seeming Religiousness which is but self-deceiving and will prove in Vain 2. Where sincere obedience doth not accompany the profession of Religion and in particular when such men bridle not their tongues their Religion is but Vain and self-deceiving These two being contained in the text the former comprized in the latter I shall handle them together and shew you 1. What this seeming Religion is and how it differeth from true Religion 2. Wherein this self-deceiving by a seeming Religion doth consist 3. Whence it is that men are so prone to this self-deceit 4. In what respects this Religion is Vain and why 5. And then we shall consider how to improve these truths by a due application 1. Concerning the first I must shew you 1. What this seeming Religion is made up of 2. And what it wants which maketh it delusory and vain In general This Vain Religion is made up sometimes of all that 1. A laudable nature or temperature of body 2. And good education and excellent means 3. Assisted by the common workings of the Spirit can produce More particularly 1. A Vain Religiousness may have a great deal of superficial opinionative knowledge and so may have the truest Religion for its object the true doctrines of Faith may be believed by a Faith that is not true the hypocrite as to the 〈…〉 Creed may be 〈…〉 ignorance a boundâ—◠〈…〉 be a knowing man and 〈…〉 ignorance of others when errors abound he may be of the right opinion in Religion and speak much against the errors of the times as one that is wiser then the giddy heretical sort of people He may Know the will of God and approve the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the Law and be confident that he himself is a guide of the blind a light of them which are in darkness an instructer of the foolish a teacher of babes which hath the form of knowledge and of the truth in the Law Rom. 2. 18 19 20. He may know as much materially as the upright may and be able to convince gainsayers and be a notable Champion for the defending of the truth against the many adversaries that oppose it and so may be eminently usefull in his generation 2. He that is but Religious in Vain may be frequent in the worshipping of God and may seek him daily and delight to know his wayes and to approach him and ask of him the Ordinances of justice as if he were one of the people that did righteousness and forsook not the Ordinances of their God Isa 58. 1 2. He may be oft in fasting and punctual in keeping holy dayes and ceremonies as verse 3. Isa 1. 12 13 14 15. Luke 18. 11 12 13. and exercise much severity on himself after the commandments and doctrines of men in things that have a shew of wisdom in Will-worship and Humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh Col. 2. 20 21 22 23. Though he be slow paced in the right way he is swift in his mistaken paths Though he liketh not preciseness zeal and forwardness in the spiritual works that God prescribeth yet when it comes to his own or other mens inventions he will be religious and righteous overmuch Eccles 7. 16. and forward to offer the sacrifice of a fool that considereth not that he is but doing evil while he thinks to please God with the sacrifice of his services though he turn away his ear from an obedient hearing the word that should direct him Eccles 5. 1 2. Prov. 28. 9. 3. He that is but Religious in Vain may see the evil of discord and divisions and inveigh much against schismaticks and see the excellency of unity and peace and therefore may joyn himself with the visible Catholick Church and with the Christians and Congregations that are most for unity There have alwayes been Hypocrites in the most orderly peaceable societies of believers and still will be 4. The self-deceiving Hypocrite is oft-times very sensible of
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
THE VAIN RELIGION OF THE Formal Hypocrite And the mischief of an unbridled Tongue as against Religion Rulers or Dissenters described in several Sermons Preached at the Abby in Westminster before many Members of the Honourable House of Commons 1660. AND The Fools Prosperity The occasion of his destruction A Sermon Preached at Coven-Garden Both published to heal the effects of some Hearers misunderstandings and misreports By Richard Baxter London Printed by R. â— for F. Tyâ—oâ— at the three daggers in Fleet-street and Novel Sâ—mâ—n â—ookseller at Kedenmaster 1660. At â—â—boâ—nd TO THE READER THough God be not the Author of sin he knows why he permitteth tin the world He will be no loser and Satan shall be no gainer by it in the end The malice of the Devil wicked men is ordinarily the destruction of the cause which they most desire to promote and an advantage by accident to the cause and persons which they would root out from the earth Were there no more to prove this than the Instances of Josephs brethren of Pharaoh and the murderers of our Lord it were enough We usually lose more by the flatteries of Satan and the world than by their violence If these hasty course unpolished Sermons shall prove beneficial to the souls of any this also may come in among the lower rank of Instances If the Devil had let me alone they 〈◊〉 have been cast aside and no further molested him or his Kingdom for ought I know than they did upon the Preaching of them But seeing he will needs by malicious misreports and slanders kindle suspicion and raise offence against them and the Author let him take what he gets by it He hath never yet got much from me by violence or by his foulmouthed slanderous instruments No not when the impudence or multitude of their slanders have forced me to be silent lest I trouble the Reader or misspend my time The first of these Discourses being intended to undeceive the Formal Hypocrite and to call men from a Vain to a Saving serious Religion and to acquaint them that cry out against Hypocrisie where the Hypocrite is to be found it seems provoked the Ignorant or the Guilty in so much that the cry went that I Preacht down all Forms of Prayer and all Government and Order in the Church when there is not a Syllable that hath any such sense But it seems what I spoke against the Carkass was interpreted to be spoken against the Body of Religion The words of Mr. Bolton and other Divines which I have cited against the Reproachers of serious piety are added since the Preaching of the rest as being more fit to be presented here to the eye than in the Pulpit to the ear The petulancy of men on both extreams constrained me to add The Bridle for their tongues The second Discourse I understand offended some few of the Gallants that thought they were too roughly handled let them here peruse it and better concoct it if they please I only add this Observation to the Heirs of Heaven that are above this world and live by Faith Few rich men are truly Religious It is as hard for them to be saved as for a Camel to go through a needles eye Yet rich men will every where be the Rulers of the world and so as to outward protection or opposition the Judges in matters of Religion Judge therefore whether Dominion and earthly raign be the portion of the Saints as Jewishly some of late imagine and what usage we must ordinarily expect on earth and what condition the Church of Christ is like to be in to the end As his Kingdom so ours is not of this world A low despised suffering state is it that Behevers must ordinarily expect and prepare for and study to be serviceable in If better may I call it better come take it as a Feast and grudge not when the table is withdrawn and look not it should be our every dayes fare But yet value the more highly those few of the Rich and Great and Rulers that are above this world and devote their power and riches to the Lord and are Holy and Heavenly in the midst of so great temptations and impediments The Lord teach us to use this transitory world as not overusing it that we may never hear Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things Luke 16. 25. How shortly will they find themselves everlastingly undone that made not sure of a more enduring portion Reader that thou mayst savingly remember these common but necessary though much neglected truths is the end of these endeavours and shall be the matter of my hearts desire and prayers while the Lord continneth me His servant for the promoting the increase and edification of his Church Nov. 15. 1660 R. Baxter Postscript REaders meeting in his consideration of the Liturgy with these following words of Reverend D. Gauden I cannot but commend the Candor Justice and Integrity of M. Baxter who lately professed to me that he saw nothing in the Liturgy which might not well bear a good construction if men looked upon it as became Christians with eyes of Charity I was sensible of the great respects of this Learned and Reverend man but lest you misunderstand both him and me I think it best to tell you more fully what were my words Speaking for reformation of the Common prayer Book and an addition of other forms in Scripture phrase with liberty of choice c. I said That for the Doctrine of the Common prayer Book though I had read exceptions against divers passages I remembred not any thing that might not receive a good construction if it were read with the same candour and allowance as we read the writings of other men So that it was only the Truth of the Doctrine that I spoke of against which I hate to be peevishly quarrelsome when God hath blest this Church so wonderfully with a moderate and cautelous yet effectual Reformation in matter of Doctrine The more pitty is it that the very modes of Worship and Discipline should be the matter of such sharp and uncharitable discords which must one day prove the grief of those that are found to have been the causes of it and of the sufferings of the Church on that occasion The Contents THe Introduction Page 1. c. Dict There is a seeming Religiousness which is but self-deceiving and will prove in Vain Ten particulars that constitute the Hypocrites Vain Religion 11. to 20. Ten things that are yet wanting to the Hypocrite that prove his Religion Vain 20. to 34. By what means and method the Hypocrite makes shift to deceive himself by his Religion 34. to 49. What moveth the Hypocrite to this self-deceit and what are the reasons and uses of his Vain Religion 49. In what respects the Hypocrites religion is not Vain 80 In what respects his religion is Vain 92 Use 1. Why a seeming outside Hypocritical religion is so common in
comparison of serious faith and godliness 95 Why Popery hath so many followers 100 Use 2. To awaken the self-deceiving Hypocrite 108 Ten infallible marks of grace which are in all that are sound believers and set together describe his state premised to prevent the misapplication of what followeth and groundless troubles of the sincere iii Terror to the self-deceiver 1. His religion being Vain his hopes and comforts are all Vain 118 2. It will deceive him in his extremity 129 The detection of the Hypocrite by his contradicting all the parts of his Christian profession shewing that all the ungodly among us that profess to be true Christians are Hypocrites 148. to 173 The Hypocrites unbridled tongue 175 Sins of the tongue 177 What the text means 179 Three sorts especially reproved 180 1. The deriders scorners revilers or opposers of serious godliness Their terror in the aggravation of their sin 181. to 198 2. Those that uncharitably reproach each other for lesser differences in religion 198 Of the common malicious use of the nicknames Puritans Precisians Zealots c. 205 Bishop Downames testimony of the use of the word Puritan in his time 210 The testimony of Dr. Rob. Abbot Regius Professer of Divinity in Oxford and Bishop of Salisbury 211 Mr. Robert Boltons testimony at large 212 His further description of the Formal Hypocrite 217 Bishop Halls Character of an Hypocrite 226 3. The sinfulness of passionate reproachful speeches against superiors when we suffer by them for religions sake Proposed to the consideration of suffering tempted Christians how sincere soever 231 How far we may mention such sins of others 247 Two causes of mens frowardness of speech 250 Who is indeed the Hypocrite The impudency of our common Hypocritus that take serious godliness for hypocrisie If we will be Christians indeed we must be content to be 10 though we are not thought to be so and to be accounted Hypocrites when we have done most to approve our hearts and wayes to God 251 Eight directions to the Hypocrite to save him from a Vain religion 261 The prosperity of fools destroyeth them Prov. 1 32 33. Proved by Scripture and the impiety of such 278 How it destroyeth them 306 The ill uses of this truth to be avoided 315 The right uses urged 317 A hint of comfort to the obedient souls that they shall dwell in safety and be quiet from the fear of evil even when evil seemeth to prevail against them 336 THE VAIN RELIGION Of the Formal HYPOCRITE Jam. 1. 26. If any man among you seem to be Religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart this mans Religion is vain BEloved hearers I may suppose that we are all come hither to day for the great end of our lives and to labour in that work for which we are created redeemed preserved instructed and furnished with the helps and means of Grace even to prepare for death that is coming to arrest us and for the presence of our Judge who stands as at the door and to make our Calling and Election sure that the glory of the Saints may be our lot when the world of the ungodly are cast into endless misery and despair And I hope I may suppose that in order to this end you would gladly be acquainted with the causes of damnation that you may avoid them with your greatest dangers that you may escape them and with the hinderances of your salvation that you may overcome them When we read in the Gospel that salvation is to be offered unto all and no man is excepted or shut out but such as shut out and except themselves and yet read that there are but few that find the strait gate and the narrow way and that the flock is little that shall have the Kingdom and that many shall seek to enter that shall not be able Matth. 7. 13 14. Luk. 12. 32. and 13. 24. we must needs conclude that some powerful enemy standeth in the way that can cause the ruine of so many millions of souls But when we go further and find what rich preparations God hath made and what means he hath used and what abundant helps he offereth and affordeth to bring men to this blessed state of life it forceth us to admire that any enemy can be so strong as to frustrate so many and such excellent means But when we yet go further and find that salvation is freely offered and that the purchase is made by a Saviour to our hands and that hearty consent is the condition of our Title and nothing but our wilful refusal can undo us when we find that salvation is brought down to mens wills and also what motives and convincing helps and earnest perswasions are appointed and used to make men willing we are then surprized with yet greater admiration that any deceiver can be so subtile or the heart of man can be so foolish as to be drawn in despight of all these means to cast away the immortal crown that else no enemy could have taken from him And now we discern the quality of our enemy of our snares of our danger and of our duty It is not meer Violence but Deceit that can undo us not force but fraud that we have to resist And were not the mind of a carnal man exceeding brutish while he seemeth wise for carnal things it were a thing incredible that so many men could by all the subtilty of hell be drawn in the day-light of the Gospel deliberately and obstinately to refuse their happiness and to choose the open way of their damnation and leave their friends lamenting their calamity that might have mercy and cannot be perswaded to consent That Satan is the great Deceiver and layeth the snare and manageth the bait we are all convinced that the world and all our fleshly accommodations are the instrumental Deceivers the snare the bait which Satan useth is also a thing that we all confess But that beside the Devil and the World a Reasonable Creature should be his own Deceiver and that in a business of unspeakable everlasting consequence and that Religion it self a seeming Religiousness that indeed is Vain should be made by himself the means of his Deceit this is a mysterie that is opened to you in my Text and requireth our most careful search and consideration When Satan and the World have wounded us by their Deceits Religion is it that helpeth us to a cure He that is Deceived by pleasures and profits and the vain-glory of the world must be undeceived and recovered by Religion or he must perish But that Religion it self should become his deceit and the remedy prove his greatest misery is the most stupendious effect of Satans subtilty and a sinners fraudulency and the saddest aggravation of his deplorable calamity And yet alas this is so common a case that where the Gospel is Preached it seems to be Satans principal game and the high-way to hell There is no other Name by which
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
an universal hatred of known sin and an actual conquering of it so far as to live out of gross sin which some call mortal and to be weary of infirmities and to be truly desirous to be rid of all and to be willing to use Gods means against it Thus it is with the sincerely Religious but not with these hypocrites that deceive themselves Joh. 3. 19 20. Rom. 7. 24. Luk. 13. 3 5. Rom. 8. 1. to the 14. Gal. 6. 7 8. The hypocrite hath not only some particular sin which all his Religion makes him not willing to see to be a sin or to forsake but his very state is sinful in the main by the predominancy of a selfish carnal interest and principle And he is not willing of close plain dealing much less of the diligent use of means himself to overcome that sin because he loveth it 9. This Vain Religion is not accompanied with an unseigned Love to a life of holiness which every true believer hath delighting to meditate in the Law of God with a practical intention to obey it and delighting in the inward exercise of grace and outward ordinances as advantages hereunto desiring still more of the grace which he hath tasted and grieving that he knoweth and trusteth and loveth and feareth and obeyeth God so little and longing to reach higher to know and love and fear him more Psal 1. 2. and â—19 1 2 3 4 5 9 10 c. Heb. 12. 14. 2 Pet. 3. 11. Matth. 7. 13 14. But the self-deceiver either hath a secret dislike of this serious diligence for salvation and loving God with all the soul and might because he is conscious that he reacheth it not himself or at least he will not be brought to entertain any more then will stand with his carnal ends 10. A Vain Religion doth not so far reveal the excellency of Christs image in his servants as to cause an entire Love to them as such and to delight in them above the most splendid and accomplisht persons that are strangers to the life of grace and so far to love them as when Christ requireth it to part with our substance and hazard our selves for their relief Thus do the truly Religious Psal 16. 2. and 15. 4. 1 Joh. 3. 14. Matth. 10. 40. 11. 42. and 25. 34 35 40 42 45 46. But the hypocrice either secrâ—tly hateth a heavenly holy life and consequently the people that are such because they seem to condemn him by overgoing him and differing from him or at least he only superficially approveth of them but will forsake both Christ and them in tryal rather then forsake his earthen God I have now shewed you what the self-deceiver wants in which you may see sufficient reason why his Religion is but Vain II. WE are next to shew you How these Hypocrites do deceive themselves and wherein their self-deceit consisteth It may seem strange that a man of reason should do such a thing as this when we consider that truth is naturally the object of the understanding and that all men necessarily love themselves and therefore love what they know to be simply good for them How then can any man that hath the use of reason be willing to be deceived yea and be his own deceiver and that in matters of unspeakable consequence But it is not as falshood nor as deceit that they desire it but as it appeareth necessary to the carnal ease and pleasure which they desire The way by which they deceive their own hearts consisteth in these following degrees 1. The hypocrite resisteth the Spirit of grace and rejecteth the mercies offered in the Gospel and so by his refusal is deprived of a part in Christ and of the life of grace and the hopes of glory which were tendered to him 2. But withal he is willing of so much of this mercy as consisteth with his sinful disposition and carnal interest He is willing enough to be happy in general and to be saved from hell fire and to be pardoned and to have such a heaven as he hath framed a pleasing imagination of 3. And therefore he maketh him up a Religion of so much of Christianity as will stand with his Pleasures profits and reputation in the world that so he may not be left in despair of being saved when he must leave the world that he must loved The cheap and the easie parts of Christianity and those that are most in credit in the world and that flesh and blood have least against these he will cull out from among the rest and make him a Religion of passing by the dearer and more difficult and spiritual parts 4. Having gone thus far he perswadeth his own heart that this kind of Religion which he hath patcht up and framed to himself 〈…〉 Religion the Faith the Hope the Charity the Repentance the Obedience to which Salvation is promised And that he is a true Christian notwithstanding his defects and that his spots are but such as are consistent with grace and that his sins are but pardoned infirmities and that he hath part in Christ and the promises of life and shall be saved though he be not of the preciser strain When he committeth any sin he confidently imagineth that his confession and his wishing it were undone again when he hath had all the pâ—easure that sin can give him is true repentance and that as a penitent he shall be forgiven And thus while he thinketh himself something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself Gal. 6. 3. He hath a counterfeit of every grace of God A counterfeit Faith and Hope and Love and Repentance and Zeal and Humility and Patience and Perseverance and these he will needs take to be the very life and image of Christ and the graces themselves that accompany salvation 5. Having got this Carkass of Religion without the soul he makes use of all those things to confirm him in his deceit which are appointed to confirm true Christians in their Faith and Hope When he reads or thinks of the infinite Goodness Love and Mercy of God he thinks God could not be so good and merciful if he should refuse to save all such as he When he readeth of the undertaking and sacrifice of Christ and how he is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world he confidently hence concludeth that a Saviour so gracious that hath done and suffered so much for sinners cannot condemn all such as he When he readeth of the extent and freeness of Grace in the promises of the Gospel he concludeth that these promises belong to him and that Grace could not be so free and so extensive if it did shut out all such as he When he observeth the Mercies of God upon his body in his friends and health and credit and prosperity he concludeth that surely God loveth him as a child in that he dealeth so Fatherly with him If he suffer adversity he thinks that it is the Fatherly chastisement of
God and therefore proveth him to be his son and that he shall have his good things in the world to come because he had his evils here If he suffer any thing for a good cause or a cause that he taketh to be good he taketh himself to be a Confessor and marked out for life eternal If he give any considerable alms he applyeth all the promises to himself that are made to those that are truly charitable though he giveth but the leavings of the flesh and giveth but on common compassions or for applause or for some common end and not as to Christ whom he honoureth in his members as one that hath resigned all unto him If he pray from the lips only or only for pardon and such other mercies as flesh it self would be glad to have without the unexpressable groans of the spirit for spiritual mercies Rom. 8. 26 he presently applyeth all the promises to himself that are made to the upright that call upon God And thus Love Mercy and Christ himself are abused by him to this damning work of self-deceit 6. Moreover he makes use of all the ordinances of God to the deceiving of his own heart The outward part of Baptism perswades him that he is inwardly regenerate He receiveth the Lords supper that he may confirm his presumption and increase his self-deceit as the godly receive it to confirm and increase their saving faith He joyneth with the Church in those prayers and praises that are fitted to the true believers state that he may thence more confidently deceive his own heart with the conceit that he is a true believer And thus he turneth the bread of life and all the helps and means of grace to the strengthening of his sin and the furthering of his perdition 7. Moreover this miserable self-deceiver doth usually get into such company as may further his self-deceit and maketh use of them to that end If he get into any holy well-ordered Church of Christians it is that by his outward communion with the Saints he may seem to himself to have inward communion with them If he get among able godly Ministers and other judicious Christians and finds that he is well esteemed of by them he is confirmed hereby in his presumption and self-deceit when alas we must in charity judge of men as they profess and seem and leave the infallible judgement of the heart to God Vsually this self-deceiving hypocrite doth associate with some carnal or factious men with whom he makes himself a party and such will smooth him up and make a Saint of him either because they are as bad themselves and dare not condemn him lest they condemn themselves or because they are flatterers and dawbers or men that were never themselves acquainted with those saving operations of the Spirit which he wants or because they are partial to one of their own faction And thus a formal hypocrite may be stroaked by Formalists and a Schismatical Hypocrite may be soothed up by those of his own Sect as lamentable experience telleth us that such do to the increase of their pernicious self-deceit Yea more then so if these hypocrites fall in company with the notoriously prophane from them they will fetch some confirmation of their self-deceit when they hear them swear and curse and rant and see them drunk they secretly with the Pharisee rejoyce and say I thank thee Lord that I am not as this Publican And this is one reason why such hypoorites are well content to have some servants in their families or some neighbours or company about them that are notoriously prophane that their deluded consciences considering that they are more civil and religious themselves may hence gather comfort that they are the servants of God and in a state of grace Hence also it is that those of them that go on the Schismatical side do purposely go into separated societies that by withdrawing from so many and as they speak coming out from among them they may seem to themselves to be fellow-Citizens with the Saints and to be of the little flock that shall have the Kingdom This is the use that self-deceivers make of their companions 8. Moreover the Hypocrite confirmeth his self-deceit by observing the great numbers of ungodly persons worse then he that are in the world This makes him think that God should be unmerciful and heaven be empty if all such as he should be shut out the damnation of so many seemeth so incredible to him that it much increaseth his confidence and self-deceit 9. And he deceiveth himself also by a misobserving and misapplying the falls and infirmities of the servants of the Lord and the scandalous lives of many Hypocrites like himself When he readeth of Noahs drunkenness and Lots drunkenness and incest and Davids adultery and murder and Peters denyal of his Master with cursing and swearing he considereth not how much these singular actions were contrary to the scope of their lives nor by what serious repentance they did rise and do so no more but he hence concludeth that sure he is in a state of grace that hath no such heinous sins as these though indeed he hath more heinous continually within him even a love of the world and pleasure above God a secret root of unbelief a servitude to the flesh c. when he seeth any about him that profess the fear of God prove Hypocrites or Apostates or fall into any scandalous sin he strengtheneth his presumption by it and concludeth that this profession of greater holiness then he himself hath is but Hypocrisie and that he is as good as those that seem more devout though he make not so much ado with his religion or at least that such as he shall be saved when those are so bad that are accounted better If there be but a Cham in the Ark and Family of Noah an Ishmael in Abrahams house an Esau in Jacobs an Absalom in Davids a Judas among the Disciples of Christ these self-deceivers will thence fetch matter for their own delusion and perdition as if the rest were all as bad or sanctification were not necessary to salvation 10. The self-deceiver also is confirmed in his presumption by taking to himself the comforts that Ministers hold forth for truly humbled upright souls that are apt to be too much disquieted and cast down Our Congregations are mixt of godly and ungodly and broken-hearted and hard-hearted dejected and self-confident sinners besides all those that are well setled in their spiritual peace And as we cannot tell how to tell the wicked of their misery nor open the Hypocrites self-deceit but the self-suspecting humbled souls will misapply it to themselves and be more dejected by it and say It is thus with me so we cannot tell how to comfort the distressed and clear up the evidences of a drooping soul but the presumptuous Hypocrite will lay hold upon it and think that it belongs to him Every comfortable Book or Scripture that he readeth
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
And first Negatively it is not Vain to his own carnal ends but to the true ends of Religion 1. He intendeth by it the quieting of his own accusing conscience and the keeping up his hopes of salvation and keeping off the terrors of the Lord and so consequentially the deceiving of his own heart and to these ends it s not in Vain Here he sitteth as quietly as if all were well between God and him and heareth the threatenings as securely as if they concerned not him at all and applyeth the promises as boldly as if he were one of the heirs of promise you would little think that this man must shortly be cast into utter darkness from the presence of the Lord and have his portion with Hypocrites Matth. 24. 51. His everlasting horrours appear not now to himself upon his heart nor to others in his face what sign can you see of the curse of the Law or the wrath of God in that mans countenance what sign of his spiritual captivity and slavery and of the load of sin that lyeth upon his soul unless it be that he feels it not what sign of a man in so great danger of eternal torment unless it be that he little feareth it Doth he sit there like a man that is within a step of hell and shall shortly be there with the Devil and his Angels as sure as he is here unless he be saved by that grace and holiness which he now resists No he is as confident to be saved as the precisest of you all he is as little troubled with the fears of hell or the wrath of God as those that are discharged from it by Justification and perhaps much less For all this he is beholden to his Vain Religion that in the point of self-deceiving is not Vain As solid evidences promote the comâ—orts of true believers so this superficial kind of Religion promoteth the present peace of the presumptuous 2. This Religion is not Vain as to the frustrating of all the means of grace and hindering the conversion and Salvation of the Hypocrite This is his armour of defence against the sword of the Spirit that would pierce his heart and let out his close corruption and separate him from his beloved sin What tell you him of Repentance and Conversion He thinks he needeth no Conversion or is converted long ago what is he not a Christian a Protestant a Religious man Tell swearers and cursers and drunkards and extortioners and cruel Land-lords and fornicators of Conversion tell these that they are slaves of Satan and under the wrath and curse of God that are indeed so past all controversie but tell not him of it that makes no doubt but he is a member of Christ a Child of God and an heir of heaven He loveth to hear a Minister rouze up the prophane and grossely sensual offendors and seems in pitty to wish for their conversion and perhaps will exhort them to turn and mend their lives himself But he little thinks that he is faster in the prison of Satan then they and that he is himself in the same condemnation Do you go about to tell him of the necessity of the fear of God and of loving him above all and of trusting him and serving him as our only Lord Why all this he will confess and perhaps is as forward to say as you and verily thinks that he is one that doth it you may assoon make him believe that he is not an English man as that he is not a Christian and that he loveth not himself as that he loveth not God even while he liveth not to think of him to speak of him to call upon him to obey him while he loveth not his word his waies or servants or while he loveth the world and the pleasures of sin more heartily and seeketh them more eagerly and cleaveth to them more tenaciously yet if you would perswade him that he hath not a heart as true to God as any of you all you will lose your labour Do you tell him of hypocrisie he will tell you that its the thing he hateth who speaks against it more then he And because the world shall see he is no Hypocrite he will call them all Hypocrites that are faithful to God and to their souls and will not sit down in his truely-hypocritical Vain Religion but will be more holy and diligent then he What can you say to such a man in order to his conversion which his self-deceiving Religion will not frustrate Do you tell him of hell fire and of the wrath of God against the ungodly All this he can hear as calmly as another man for he thinks that he is none of the ungodly he hath scapt the danger let them be afraid of it whom it doth concern If you tell him of his sins he can tell you that all men are sinners we are here imperfect and you shall never perswade him that his raigning deadly sins are any other then such humane frailties and infirmities as may stand with grace Do you put him upon the inward practice of Religion and the fuller devoting of his soul to God and the life of faith and a heavenly mind Hee 'l tell you that in his measure he doth all this already though none of us are so good as we should be And his heart being unseen to you he thinks you must believe him Do you blame him for his slightness and Formality in Religion and put him upon a more serious diligent course and to live as one that seeketh heaven with all his heart and soul and might why he thinks you do but perswade him to some self-conceited over-zealous party and draw him from his moderation to be righteous overmuch and to make too much ado with his Religion Unless he be an Hypocrite that falleth into the Schismatical strain and then he will make a greater busle with his opinions and his outside services then you can desire So that one with his meer book-prayers forms and ceremonies and the other with his meer extemporate words and affected outside seeming fervour and both of them by a meer Opinionative lifeless carnal kind of Religion subjected to their fleshly ends and interests do so effectually cheat their souls that they are armed against all that you can say or do and you know not how to get within them or fasten any saving truth upon their hearts 3. This Vain Religion is not Vain as to the preserving of his reputation in the world It saveth him from being numbered with the filthy rabble and from being pointed at as notoriously vicious or branded with the disgraceful characters of the scandalous Men say not of him There goeth a drunkard a swearer a curser a fornicator or a prophane ungodly wretch He may be esteemed civil ingenuous discreet and perhaps Religious and be much honoured by wise religious men Though most commonly his formal or opinionative heartless kind of Religion is discerned or much suspected
by experienced judicious Christians by his sapless unexperienced common and carnal kind of discourse and duty sticking most in opinions parties or some outside things and by his temporizing and reserved and uneven kind of conversation yet it is not alwaies so but sometime he is as far unsuspected as the best perhaps he may be esteemed a Reverend Preacher or a discreet Religious well accomplisht Gentleman and may be set in the head of Church or Commonwealth as a leader of the Saints on earth that shall be thrust into the place of Hypocrites and not come neer the meanest of the Saints in heaven 4. Lastly but better then all this his Religion is not Vain as to the good of others He may by the perfume and odour of his gifts be kept from stinking to the annoyance of others while he is dead in sin He may be very serviceable in the Church of God a judicious earnest expounder of the Scripture and Preacher and defender of the truth In his place as a Magistrate or Master of a family he may be a severe corrector of prophaness and promoter of godliness it being much easier to drive others from their sin then to forsake their own and to drive on others to a godly life then to practise it themselves And by their owning godliness and disowning sin they perswade themselves the more effectually that they are truely godly The Church cannot well spare the gifts and services of Hypocrites and many ungodly men As bad or sick Physicians may be Gods instruments to cure our bodies and a wicked Carpenter may make a good house so a wicked Minister may well expound and apply the Scriptures and he that refuseth the grace of Christ may prevail with others to accept it The sign post that stands out of dore it self may invite others into the house and the hand upon a post that goes not one step of the way may point it out to others There 's more self-denyal required to the forsaking of their own sins then to perswade others to forsake theirs A covetous man cares not how liberal others be nor a glutton drunkard or fornicator how temperate and chaste his neighbours be And hence it is that many of these that refuse a holy life themselves are willing their children or servants should embrace it The end of the ballance that goeth down it self doth cause the other to go up Other mens souls are more beholden to Hypocrites then their own They are like the common Mariners that enrich the Merchant by fetching home his treasure when they have nothing but a poor maintenance themselves Or like Taylors that make garments for others which they never wear themselves Or like Carpenters that build fair houses which they never dwell in Or like the Cook that dresseth meat which he eateth not God giveth Hypocrites their useful gifts for the service of the Church more then for themselves He sometimes maketh those to be nursing Fathers to his Church that are butchers of their own souls and makes those his instruments to undeceive others that deceive themselves And thus far their Religion is not Vain But 1. It is Vain as to Gods special acceptation True Religion pleaseth God but the self-deceivers Religion he abhorreth He hath no pleasure in fools Eccles 5. 4. He asketh such To what purpose is the multitude of their sacrifices Isa 11. 11. and saith he is full of their burnt-offerings and delights not in them when they come to appear before him he asketh them Who required this at their hands to tread in his Courts and bids them bring no more vain oblations incense is an abhomination to him the calling of their assemblies he cannot away with and their solemn meetings are iniquity ver 12 13. Their appointed feasts his soul hateth they are a trouble to him he is weary to bear them When they spread forth their hands he will hide his eyes when they make many prayers he will not hear because they do not forsake their sins ver 14. Because they turn away their ear from heâ—ring his law their prayer is abhomination to him Prov. 28. 9. and 15. 8. and 21 27. When they have sinned instead of repenting and forsaking it they think to please God by their Religion and stop the mouth of Justice with their services when as they do but provoke him more by adding Hypocrisie to iniquity Were they truly willing to let go their sins and to please God by universal obedience he would willingly accept them and be pleased with their services But when mens Religion their prayers and other duties are not used against their sins but for them nor to kill them but to cover them nor to overcome them but as it were to bribe God to give them leave to sin because they are not willing to forsake it this is the self-deceiving Religion of Hypocrites that is in Vain 2. And this Religion is in Vain as to any promoting of a work of Sanctification upon his soul It weaneth him not from the world It crucifieth not the flesh with its affections and lusts It doth not further his self-denyal nor driveth him to Christ by a faith unfaigned It never raiseth him to a heavenly life nor kindleth the love of God within him It is dead and uneffectual and cannot produce these high effects Yea on the contrary it hardeneth him in sin and self-deceit it hindereth his repentance it emboldeneth him in his fleshly worldly life and quieteth him in the neglect of Christ and heaven 3. Moreover this kind of Religion is in Vain as to any solid peace of conscience It affordeth him none of the well-grounded dureable comforts of the Saints But on the contrary keeps out solid comfort by feeding him with aery delusory conceits and maketh him to be but his own comforter upon fancies and confidence of his own when the Spirit of Christ is not his comforter nor doth the Word of God speak any peace at all unto him 4. Lastly his Religion is in Vain as to his Salvation As he had but an image of true Religion so he shall have but an image of Heaven Some dreams and self-created hopes of happiness may accompany him to the door of eternity but there they will leave him to everlasting horrour V. Vse 1. FRom what hath been said you may see the reason why an outside formal seeming Religiousness is a thing so common in the world in comparison of the life and power of godliness It is an easier thing to bring men to the strictest opinion then to bring them to the affectionate and deep reception and practice of the truth A strict opinion may be held without any great cost and trouble to the flesh It is the practice that bereaveth a sinner of the pleasure of his sin It is the common trick by which most Hypocrites cheat their souls to turn to the side and opinion and assemblies and company which they think to be the best that so they may perswade
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
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
Prophets and Apostles had been better used by the world And ask conscience whether more then you can truly say of him may not be said against your selves If all such must be defamed how infamous will you be 8. If you will speak ill you must hear ill You teach men how to use you Si mihi pergit quae vult dicere quae non vult audict Benedictis si certasset audisset bene saith the Comaedian And God usually in justice suffereth it so to be And as those that by violence trample down others when they feel themselves on the higher ground do oft live to be trampled on themselves so those that take their advantages to insult and defame others do usually live to be defamed For with what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again Matth. 7. 1 2. Judge not therefore that ye be not judged TO which of these two former ranks you should refer the common names of scorn that religious persons have been most loaded with among us you must judge by the particular occasion and person It is not my intention on or desire to plead for any faction disobedience irregularity or hypocrisie much less to palliate heresies or odious crimes that are cloaked with the name or profession of Religion It is the Hypocrite that I am all this while detecting But I must say that it hath been the highest brand or character of Hypocrisie and impudent profaneness conjunct and one of the most crying transgressions of this Land that men baptized into the Name of Christ have made a scorn at the diligent serving of him and lived in the hatred of that Religion in the life and practice which themselves profess And that if upon some small circumstantial differences any of their superiours have but encouraged them to use any nickname of reproach against their most consciencious brethren they have been glad of the occasion and used those reproaches against the serious practice of Religion which others pretend to use only against mens different opinions which they account their exorbitancies or mistakes How the names of Zealots Precisians Puritans and such like have been used in this Land and what sort of people have been made thereby and by the discountenance of those that should have cherished a diligent holy life to be the common scorn and how great a hindrance this hath proved to the salvation of many thousand souls is a thing that 's much more sad to mention then difficult to prove And when one nickname is grown out of use the serpentine enmity watcheth for the opportunity that 's afforded by differences and discountenance of the times to take up another that may have a sharper sting The dead form of Religion and as much as you will of words and shews they can reverence or endure But Life and Seriousness and Practice is the thing they hate Just like a Bear or other ravenous creature that will let their prey alone while it seems dead and stirs not but if it stir they leap upon it and tear it into pieces And therefore it is that the diligent zealous exercise of Religion among the Papists by Images and Tautologies and lifeless Ceremonies and forms is not half so much hated or reproached by the vulgar as the serious exercise of unquestionable duties that all are in words agreed in is here with us To pray in our families to instruct our children and servants in the necessary points of faith and duty to exhort a drunkard a swearer a covetous person or other ungodly ones to repent and to give up themselves to a holy life to take up any serious speech of death and judgement and the life to come and the necessary preparations thereto these and such like are the odious marks of a Zealot a Precisian or Puritan with the ungodly rabble so that serving the great and glorious God is with them become a matter of scorn while serving the Devil is taken for their glory if they can but do it in the plausible less disgraceful mode But because some of the chief accusers of the Brethren would needs perswade men that the ordinary usage of the forementioned Nicknames hath been less impious and more justifiable against a sort of people only whom they feign to be unfit for humane society I shall only appeal now to the Godly Bishops and conformable Ministers that mention it Bishop G. Downame who though he hath written so much for Bishops hath written as much to prove the Pope to be the Antichrist in his Sermon called Abrahams Tryal p. 72. saith And even in these times the godly live among such a generation of men as that if a man do but labour to keep a good conscience in any measure though he mâ—dâ—le not with matters of state or Discipline or Ceremonies As for example if a Minister diligently Preach or in his Preaching seek to profit rather then to please c. Or if a private Christian makes conscience of swearing sanctifying the Sebbâ—th frequenting Sermons or abstaining from the common corruptions of the time he shall strait way be condemned for a Puritan and consequently be less favoured then either carnal Gospeller or a close Papist c. Such were the times then Dr. Robert Abbot publike Professor of Divinity in Oxford and after Bishop of Salisbury in a Sermon on Easter day 1615. saith The men under pretence of truth and Preaching against the Puritans strike at the heart and root of faith and Religion now established among us that this Preaching against the Puritans was but the practice of Parsons and Campians Counsel when they came into England to seduce young Students And when many of them were afraid to lose their places if they should professedly be thus the Counsel they then gave them was that they should speak freely against the Puritans and that should suffice c. so he Of Arch-Bishop Lauds tract of Doctrinal Puritanism drawn up for and presented to the Duke of Buckingham see Prin in his Tryal p. 156. Divers Bishops have affirmed that the Jesuites were the masters of this nickname here in England and the promoters of it But of the common sense of this word and the use of it I shall now call in no more witnesses but Mr. Robert Bolton a man that frequently publisheth his judgement for conformity to Prelacy and Ceremonies In his Discourse of Hap. p. 193. he thus speaketh I am perswaded there was never poor persecuted word since malice against God first seized on the damned Angels and the graces of heaven dwelt in the heart of man that pâ—ssed through the mouths of all sorts of unregenerate men with more distastfulness and gnashing of teeth then the name of Puritan doth at this day which notwithstanding as it is now commonly meant N. B. and ordinarily proceeds from the spleen and spirit of prophaneness and good fellowship is an honourable nickname that I may so speak of Christianity and grace And yet for all this I dare
at as the only dissemblers of the world You must not only be honest but patiently expect to be accounted dishonest you must not only bewise and sober but patiently expect to be accounted fools and mad men You must not only be liberal charitable and contemners of the world but patiently expect to be called covetous even though you give away all that you have You must not only be chaste and temperate but also patiently expect to be defamed as incontinent and licentious and as Christ was called a wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners A Minister must not only lay out himself wholly for the saving of mens souls and spend himself and all that he hath on his Masters work but also patiently expect to be accounted unfaithful coveâ—ous and negligent and murmured at by almost all whose unreasonable desires he doth not answer and be censured by almost all whose wills and humours he doth not fulfill and that is most that have a self that ruleth at home and therefore they think should be the Idol of others as it is their own and that are but unacquainted with the reasons of those things that do displease them It s little comfort to us to do good if we cannot bear the estimation of doing evil and cannot lose all the observation acknowledgement and applause of man as if we had never done the good at all It is far from Christian perfection to be honest and godly and sincere if we must needs be accounted to be as we are and cannot patiently be esteemed dishonest ungodly and hypocritical and be judged worst when we are best what have the servants of Christ lost their lives for in flames and by other sorts of torments but for the best of their service and greatest of their piety and fidelity When dogs bark at passengers commonly it signifieth but two things viz. that they are persons that they know not or that they hate but it is no sign that the persons are bad or poor or sick For be they never so bad and miserable if they know them and love them the dogs will not bark at them See that thou be not an Hypocrite and then it must be accounted a small matter by thee to be called an Hypocrite yea if persons that fear God themselves shall so esteem thee it is no other affliction but what thou must be armed for and patiently undergo Even from the godly through mistake we oft suffer most for our greatest duties and are censured most for that which God and conscience most approve us for and lose our reputations for that which God would be greatly offended with us if we did otherwise As ever then you would not prove your selves Hypocrites see that you look not for the Hypocrites reward as Christ calls it Matth. 6. 2. which is to be approved of men be they good or bad men their overvalued applause may be but the Hypocrites reward To be content and patient in doing well and being judged to do ill and in being good and being judged to be bad is the property of him that is sincere indeed therefore to be unthankfully requited and reviled and spit upon and buffeted and shamefully used and put to death even by those whose lives and souls he had with greatest care and condescension pittied this was the pattern of love and self-denyal that was set us by our Lord. And though we cannot reach his measure and distempered Christians find much strugling before they can bring themselves to patience under such ingratitude and unworthy usage from the world especially from their mistaken froward brethren yet in some prevailing measure it must be done For he that cannot serve God without the Hypocrites reward is but an Hypocrite If he will not be a Christian obedient charitable diligent faithful for heaven and the pleasing of God alone he is not a Christian indeed And alas what a pittiful reward is it to be thought well of and applauded by the tongues of mortal men How few were ever the more holy by applause but thousands have been hurt if not undone by it Thou givest all thou hast to the poor thou spendest thy self wholly and all that thou hast for the service of God and the good of others Its well it must be so But after all thou art censured slandered vilified and unthankfully and unmannerly used And what of that what harm dost thou fear by it what advantage thy pride and selfishness might have taken even by due applause and thankfulness its easie to perceive But now the temptation is taken out of thy way thou art secluded from all creature-comforts and so art directed and almost forced to look up to the love of God alone Now thou hast no other reward before thee it s easier to look singly on the Saints reward When God hath no competitour to whom else then canst thou turn thy thoughts when all others abuse thee it is easiest to have recourse to him When earth will scarce afford thee any quiet habitation thou 'lt surely look to heaven for rest Thus much I thought meet to interpose here for the confirmation of the sincere on occasion of the worlds unjust accusations and so to perswade them to be satisfied in the portion of the sincere I now return again to the self-deceiver ANd here I shall conclude all with these two requests to you which as one that foreseeth the approaching misery of self-deceivers I earnestly intreat you for the sake of your immortal souls that you will not deny me The first is that you will be now but as willing to try your selves as I have been to help you and as diligent and faithful when you are alone in calling your own hearts to a close examination as I have been to hold the light here to you O refuse not delay not to withdraw your selves sometimes from the world and set your selves as before the eye of God and there bethink your selves whether you have been what you have vowed and profest to be and whether that God hath been dearest to your hearts and obeyed in your lives and desired as your happiness who hath been confessed and honoured with your lips Consider there that God judgeth not as man nor will he think ever the better of you for thinking well of your selves and that there must go more to prove your approbation with God then commonly goes to keep up your reputation in the world The Religion that serveth to honour you before men and to deceive your selves will never serve to please the Lord and save your souls And the day is at hand when nothing but God can give you comfort and when self-deceivers will become everlastingly self-tormentors O therefore go willingly and presently to the Word to your lives and hearts and consciences and try your selves and try again and that with moderate suspicion that in so great a business you may not be deceived and be self-deceivers 2. My second request is that if you do
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