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
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 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
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 every comfortable Sermon or discourse which he heareth is abused to increase his self-deceit 11. It increaseth the Hypocrites self-deceit when he findeth some partial reformation in himself and that he hath mended many things that were amiss This he takes for a true conversion and thinks that the civilizing and smoothing of his life the change of his opinion and the taking up a form of godliness are true Sanctification and that he is not the man that once he was and therefore is in a safe condition Though alas he hath never yet known by experience the new heart the new ends the new resolutions affections and conversation of a Saint 12. Lastly he deceiveth himself by misunderstanding the nature of hypocrisie Because he perceiveth not that he is a gross dissembler but meaneth as he speaks so far as he goes therefore he thinks he is no Hypocrite Whereas besides the gross Hypocrite that knoweth he doth dissemble and only deceiveth others there are also close Hypocrites that know not they are Hypocrites but deceive themselves And these are they that my Text here speaks of when it saith He deceiveth his own heart It is Hypocrisie to seem better then one is and to profess to be a sincere Christian when he is none though he confidently think that he is what he professeth himself to be III. BUt what is it that can move a Reasonable creature to be willfully guilty of such self-deceit in the day-light of the Gospel when he hath so much help to see his way Answ 1. The are first acceived by the vanities of the world and the pleasures of sin before they deceive themselves by their Religion Their Religious self-deceiving is but subservient to their fleshly servitude and the worlds deceit They are carnal from the birth for that which is born of the flesh only is but flesh Joh. 3. 6. and custom in sinning fixeth and increaseth their sinful disposition Their hearts are engaged to their worldly accommodations and to their vain-glory and the things that please the flesh They are willing slaves to their conâ—upiscence And therefore they cannot admit of that Religion which would deprive them of that which they most dearly love Christ speaks too late to them They tell him they are promised already Their affections are pre-engaged sin hath taken up the chiefest rooms And the heart that loveth sensuality and prosperity best cannot love God best too for it can have but one best The 〈◊〉 of true Sanctification is to 〈…〉 the darling of a carnal 〈◊〉 and to cross it in its dearest loves and to lay that at our feet that before was as our treasure and to tame that body and bring it into subjection which before was in the throne The motions of such a change will not be acceptable till they are made so effectual as to cause that change The command will be unpleasant till the heart be suited to the nature of the command He that seeth what care and labour there is to gather a worldly treasure and what a stir is made in the world about it can never expect that all this should be vilified and despised at a word and that any doctrine how true and heavenly soever can be wellcome to these worldly men that would debase their glory and embitter their delights and make their Idol seem but dung The doctrine of Christ would take the old heart out of their bodies and they will not easily leave their hearts It doth not only command the drunkard to live soberly and the glutton temperately and the lascivious filthy sinner chastly and the proud person humbly and the covetous to live contentedly and liberally but it commandeth the hearty forsaking of all for the sake of Christ Luke 14. 33. and the accounting them but as loss and dung that we may win him Phil. 3. 7 8 9. and mortifying of that flesh which before we daily studyed to please Col. 3. 4 5. and the crucifying of its affections and lusts Gal. 5. 24. and the denyal even of our selves Luk. 9. 23 24. And for a carnal mind to love and yield to such commands were no other then to cease to be a carnal mind All this is largely expressed by the Apostle Rom. 8. 1 c. They that are in Christ Jesus walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit For to be carnally-minded is death but to be Spiritually minded is life and peace Because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if through the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live You see here why it is that the self-deceiver will not entertain the power of godliness nor be Religious seriously according to the true intent of the Gospel and the nature of Christianity even because he is engaged to a contrary object and hath another game in chase which he will not leave and which true Religion requireth him to leave and will not give him leave to follow And therefore he parteth with the Religion which would have parted him from that which he will not part with 2. But withall he is all this while under the threatenings of the Law of God and conscience is ready to bear witness against him and betwixt Law and Conscience the poor wretch is as the corn between two Milstones he would be ground to powder and tortured with terrors before his time if he had not some opiate or intoxicating medicine to ease him by deceiving him and to abate his fears and quiet his conscience as long as a palliate cure will serve turn So that here are two things for which the self-deceiving Hypocrite is fain to fall into his Vain Religion The one is that it may be a cloak to the sin which he will needs keep The other is that it may save him from the terrors and disquietments that for this sin his conscience would else afflict him with A belief that he may be saved for all his sin is the relief that he hath against the terrors of the Law of God He therefore chooseth out such parcels of Religion as may serve him for this use and yet will not separate him from the sin that he delighteth in The power of godliness will not consist with his coveâ—ous proud or fleshly life but the form and outside will And therefore this regeneration and mortification and self-denyal and subjection to the whole will of God and this heavenly mindedness and watching the heart and walking with God and living above the trifles of this world and making it the chief business to prepare for another this kind of Religion which is Religion indeed he cannot because he will not entertain This
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
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
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
in subtilty of argument but you could say that against the necessary means of your own salvation that none can answer when you die by your wisdom and have disputed your selves out of the reach of mercy will you not bewail it then as folly Is he wiser that being hungry eats his meat or he that gives such reasons for his refusing it and pleadeth so learnedly against eating and drinking that none can answer him Is the condemned man wiser that makes friends for a pardon or he that with unanswerable subtilty reasoneth against it till the ladder be turned such is your vain and seeming wisdom You are not wise enough to be cured but to give reasons why you should continue sick In the issue it will prove that you were not wise enough to be saved but notably wise to resist salvation and plead your selves into hell 2. You pretend that you have a saving faith when your hearts refuse that salvation from sin and that rule of Christ which is the object of faith and when you will not believe the doctrines precepts or threatnings that cross your own conceits and when your belief of heaven will not carry your hearts from earth nor work you to a holy heavenly life 3. You pretend to Repentance as I said before while you hold fast the sin and give not up your selves to God when as if your neighbour or Master or Husband should but beat one of you and tell you when he hath done that he repenteth and do this as oft as you commit your willful sins and say you repent I am confident you would not take it for true repentance You repent but will not confess when it is to your disgrace as long as you can hide your sin You repent but will not make restitution or reparation of injuries to your power You repent but your heart riseth against him that reproveth you You repent but you had rather keep your sins then leave them What 's this but to deceive your own hearts and to mock your selves with a seeming vain and mock-repentance 4. You pretend to love God above all as was before said when you love not his Image waies or communion but love that which he hateth and still prefer the world before him 5. You pretend that you have true desires to be godly and what God would have you be But they are such desires as the sluggard hath to rise and as the slothful hath to work that is if it could be done with ease and without labour you lie still and use not the means with diligence for all your desires When you can fit and have your work done with wishes and your families maintained and your necessities all supplied with wishes you may think to come to heaven with wishes The good desires that the poor may be warmed and cloathed that James speaks of Jam. 2. 15. did neither relieve the poor nor save the wisher The desire of the slothful killeth him because his hands refuse to labour Prov. 21. 15. Up and be doing according to thy desires or else confess that thy wishes are hypocritical and that thou deceivest thy own heart by Vain desires 6. You also pretend to be sincere worshippers of God You pray and you read the Scripture and good books and you hear the Word and receive the Lords Supper But I have before shewed you your hypocrisie in these you pray against the sin that you love and would not leave you pray for holiness when you hate it or desire it not in any degree to cross your flesh you serve God with meer words whether of your own conceiving or of others prescribing with some forced acknowledgement of that God that hath not your hearts or lives Let Christ pass the sentence on you and not I Matth. 15. 7 8 9. Ye hypocrites well did Esaias Prophesie of you saying This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me But in vain they do worship me teaching for doctrines the commandements of men You like that teaching that sooths you in your own opinions and galleth not your consciences in the guilty place A Ministry you would have that should stand like an adorned Idol that hurts no body and toucheth not your sores or that is but instead of a pair of Organs or a tinckling Cymbal to tickle your fancy and make Church-worship to be as a kind of religious stage-play to you But a true Minister of Christ to open to you the doctrine of the Kingdom and roundly to awake you from security in sin and to call you up to the most serious holy heavenly life and follow you and let you take no rest till you yeild and practise it and to call you to open confession of your open scandalous sins that you may make such reparation to the wronged honour of God and souls of men as you are capable of and accordingly to absolve you or to bind you over to answer it at the bar of God and charge the Church to avoid communion with you if you are impenitent and incorrigible such a Ministry as this which is the Ministry of Christs appointment you abhor at least when they come to touch your sores Then you are too proud to be taught and ruled by such as these though you hypocritically profess to be ruled by Christ who ruleth his Church by his Spirit Word and Ministers conjunct Then you say who gave you authority to do thus and thus by me As if you knew not that Christ in Scripture hath described confirmed and limited the Ministerial office Like condemned Traytors that should say to him that â—â—â—ngeth them a pardon Who 〈◊〉 you authority to make so 〈…〉 me or like a man that hath the plague or leprosie that asketh the Physician Who gave you authority to tell me that I am sick and put me on such medicines as these or as the Israelite to Moses Exod. 2. 14. Who made thee a Prince and a Judge over us not understanding that God by his hand would deliver them saith Stephen Act. 7. 25. Or as the Jews to Christ when he was teaching men the way to heaven Matth. 21. 23. By what authority dost thou these things and who gave thee this authority so because you hate the way of your recovery you will not be saved without authority nor be satisfied of their authority that would save you but are like a beggar that should proudly refuse a piece of gold and ask By what authority do you give it me A Ministry that agreeth with Gods dâ—scription you cannot abide Act. 20. 〈…〉 36. Heb. 13. 7 17. 1 Cor. 4. 〈◊〉 1 Thes 5. 12 13. 1 Tim. 5â— 17. 20. and 2 Tim. 4. 1. So that indeed it is but a mock-minister a mock-sacrament a mock-prayer and so a seeming vain Religion which you desire 7. Lastly you pretend also to sincere obedience If we ask you whether you are willing to obey God you will