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towards religion? Or do I carry myself so warily and covertly as to shun all hazards for religion, having a secret reserve in my heart to launch out no farther than I may return with safety, contrary to the practice and resolution of upright souls? Psal. cxvi. 3;` Psal. xliv. 18,

19; Rev. xxii. 11.

6. Do I make no conscience of committing secret sins, or neglecting secret duties? or am I conscientious both in the one and the other, according to the rules and patterns of integrity in Matth. vi. 5, 6; Psal. xix. 12?

A few such questions solemnly propounded to our own hearts in a calm and serious hour, would sound them, and discover much of their sincerity towards the Lord.

SECTION III.

And as upright hearts are too apt to apply to themselves the threats and miseries of hypocrites, so hypocrites, on the contrary, are as apt to catch hold of the promises and privileges pertaining to believers. To detect therefore the soul-damning mistakes of such deceived souls, O that these following rules might be studied, and faithfully applied to their conviction and recovery!

1. It is not enough to clear a man from hypocrisy, that he knows not himself to be a hypocrite.

All hypocrites are not designing hypocrites; they deceive themselves as well as others. "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?" Matt. vii. 22. Hell will be a surprisal to multitudes of professors. A man may live and die in a blind, ungrounded confidence of his safe condition, and not fear his ruin till he begins to feel it.

2. Zeal and forwardness in the cause of God, and for the reformation of his worship, will not clear a man from the danger of hypocrisy.

Jehu was a zealous reformer, and yet but a painted sepulchre. In the year 1549, reformation grew so much in reputation, even among the nobles and gentry in Germany, that many of them caused these five letters, V. D. M. I. E. being the initial letters of these words, “Ver

bum Domini manet in æternum," that is, "The word of the Lord abideth for ever," to be wrought, or embroidered, or set in plates, some upon their cloaks, and others upon the sleeves of their garments; to show to all the world, that forsaking all popish traditions, they would now cleave to the pure doctrine and discipline of the eternal Word. And no doubt they would have been as good as their word, if what was embroidered on their cloaks, had been engraven on their hearts; but, "Come, see my zeal,” mars all.

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3. It is no sufficient evidence of a man's own integrity, that he hates hypocrisy in another; for, as one proud man may hate another, and he who is covetous himself, will be apt to censure another for being so; as lusts may be contrary to one another, as well as all of them contrary to grace; so may a hypocrite loath that in another, which yet he allows in himself: nay, it is the policy of some to declaim against the hypocrisy of others, thereby to hide their own. Hypocrites are none of the most modest censurers of others, Psal. xxxv. 16. A salt jest seasoned their meat.

4. The mere performance of private duties will not clear a man from hypocrisy.

The influence of education, or support of reputation, or the impulse of a convinced conscience, may induce a man to it; and yet all this while his heart may not be carried thither with hungry and thirsty desires after God. It is not the matter of any duty that distinguishes the sound and unsound professors; but the motives, designs, and ends of the soul in them.

5. The character you have among Christians, for sincerity, will not be sufficient to clear you from the danger of hypocrisy.

Christ tells the angel of Sardis, Rev. iii. 1, "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." The fall of Hymeneus and Philetus could never have shaken the faith of the saints as it did, had they not had great credit in the church, and been men of renown for piety among them.

6. Your respects and love to them that are the sincere and upright servants of God, will not clear you from the

danger of being hypocrites yourselves; for the bare loving of a Christian is not evidential of a man's own Christianity, except he love him, as he is a Christian, or as he belongs to Christ; and so his sincerity becomes the attractive of your affection. There are a thousand by-considerations and respects that may kindle a man's love to the saints, besides their integrity.

SECTION IV.

Well then, if thou wouldst indeed see the unsoundness of thy own heart, propound such heart-sounding questions as these to thyself

1. Do I engage my heart to approach unto God in the course of my duties? or do I go the round of duties, taking no heed to my heart in them? If so, compare this symptom of thy hypocrisy with that in 2 Kings x. 3; and that in Ezek. xxx. 31, 32.

2. Am I not swayed and moved by self-interest and carnal respects in the ways of religion, the accommodation of some worldly interest, or the getting a name and reputation of godliness? If so, how apparently do the same symptoms of hypocrisy appear upon my soul, which did upon Judas, John xii. 6; and on Jehu, 2 Kings ix. 13, 14!

3. Have I not some secret reserves in my heart, notwithstanding that face and appearance of zeal which I put on? Certainly if there be any sin that I cannot part with, any suffering for Christ which I resolve against in my heart, I am none of his disciples; my heart is not right with God, the searcher of hearts himself being Judge, Luke xiv. 26, 27.

4. What conscience do I make of secret sins? Do I mourn for a vain heart, wandering thoughts, spiritual deadness? And do I conscientiously abstain from the practice of secret sins, when there is no danger of discovery, no fear of forfeiting my reputation by them? Is it God's eye, or man's, that awes me from the commission of sin? Certainly, if I allow myself in secret sins, I am not of the number of God's upright people, whose spirits

are of a contrary temper to mine, Psal. cxix. 113; Psal.

xii. 12.

SECTION V.

I will shut up all with five or six concluding counsels, (which the Lord impress upon the heart of him that writes, and those that shall read them!) to preserve and antidote the soul against the dangerous insinuation and leaven of hypocrisy.

1. Intreat the Lord, night and day, for a renewed and right spirit.

All the helps and directions in the world will not antidote and preserve you from hypocrisy; nothing will be found able to keep you right, till sanctification has first set you right. "I will put my Spirit within you; and cause you to walk in my statutes," Ezek. xxxvi. 27. A bowl may keep by a strait line, so long as the impressed force of the hand that delivered it remains strong upon it; but as that wears off, so its motion fails, and its own basis sways and turns it. A fright of conscience, a pang of warm affection, or the influence of some great example or a good education, may influence an unrenewed soul and push it on in the way of salvation for a season; but the heart so influenced, must and will return to its own natural course again. And I think there wants nothing but time or a suitable temptation, to discover the true temper of many a professor's spirit. Pray, therefore, as that holy man did in Psal. cxix. 80, "Let my heart be sound in thy statutes, that I be not ashamed."

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2. Always suspect and examine your ends in what you

Sincerity and hypocrisy lie much in your ends and designs; as they are, so are you. The intentions of the heart lie deep. A man may do the same action to a holy end, and his person and service be accepted with God; which another doing for a corrupt end, it may be reckoned his sin, and both his person and service be abhorred by the Lord. We find two men riding in one chariot, and both of them concerned in the same expedi tion, Jehu, the son of Nimshi, and Jonadab, the son of

Rechab, 2 Kings x. 15, 23; but though the work they engaged in was one and the same, yet the different ends they aimed at made the same action an excellent duty in Jonadab, and an act of vile hypocrisy in Jehu. It was the saying of a good man, when commended for a good action, "The work indeed is good, but I suspect the motive of it. Self ends are creeping and insinuating things into the best actions."

3. Stir up yourselves with the daily fears of the sin that is in hypocrisy, and the misery that will follow it.

Look upon it as the most odious sin in the eyes of God and men. To want holiness is bad enough, but to dissimulate and pretend it, when we have it not, is double impiety. To make religion, the most glorious thing in the world, a mere stirrup to preferment, and a covert to wickedness, O how vile a thing is this! God made Christ a sacrifice for sin, and the hypocrite will make him a cloak for sin.

And as to the punishments that follow it, they are suitable to the nature of the sin; for as hypocrisy is out of measure sinful, so the reward and punishment of it will be out of measure dreadful. "He shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth," Matt.

xxiv. 51.

4. Be daily at work in the mortification of those lusts that breed hypocrisy.

It is plain, without much sifting, that pride, vain-glory, self-love, and a worldly heart, are the seeds out of which this cursed plant springs up in the souls of men. Dig but to the root, you will certainly find these things there; and till the Lord helps you to kill and mortify these, hypocrisy will spring up in all your duties to God, and in all your converses with men.

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5. Åttend the native voice of your own consciences in the day of sickness, fear or trouble, and take special notice of its checks or upbraidings, which, like a stitch in your side, will gird at such times. Beware of that evil which conscience brands and marks at such times, whether it be your living in the practice of some secret sin, or in the neglect of some known duty. These frights

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