A Christian Directory, Part 1: Christian Ethics

by Richard Baxter

The hypocrite's ends in his pretences and dissemblings are not all the same: one intendeth the pleasing of parents, or some friends on whom he doth depend, that will else be displeased with him, and think ill of him. Another intendeth the pleasing of the higher powers, when it falls out that they are friends to godliness. Another intends the preserving of his esteem with religious persons, that they may not judge him wicked and profane. Another intendeth the hiding of some particular villany, or the success of some ambitious enterprise. But the most common end is to quiet and comfort their guilty souls, with an image of that holiness which they are without, and to steal some peace to their consciences by a lie: and so because they will not be religious indeed, they will take up some show or image of religion, to make themselves as well as others believe that they are religious.[148]

Direct. I. To escape hypocrisy, understand well wherein the life and power of godliness doth consist, and wherein it differeth from the lifeless image or corpse of godliness. The life of godliness is expressed in the seventeen grand directions in chap. iii. It principally consisteth in such a faith in Christ, as causeth us to love God above all, and obey him before all, and prefer his favour and the hopes of heaven before all the pleasures, or profits, or honours of the world; and to worship him in spirit and truth, according to the direction of his word. The images of religion I showed you before, page 176. Take heed of such a lifeless image.

Direct. II. See that your chief study be about the heart, that there God's image may be planted, and his interest advanced, and the interest of the world and flesh subdued, and the love of every sin cast out, and the love of holiness succeed; and that you content not yourselves with seeming to do good in outward acts, when you are bad yourselves, and strangers to the great internal duties. The first and great work of a christian is about his heart. There it is that God dwelleth by his Spirit, in his saints; and there it is that sin and Satan reign, in the ungodly. The great duties and the great sins are those of the heart. There is the root of good and evil: the tongue and life are but the fruits and expressions of that which dwelleth within.[149] The inward habit of sin is a second nature: and a sinful nature is worse than a sinful act. "Keep your hearts with all diligence: for from thence are the issues of life," Prov. iv. 23. Make the tree good, and the fruit will be good: but the "viperous generation that are evil, cannot speak good; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," Matt. xii. 33, 34. Till the Spirit have regenerated the soul, all outward religion will be but a dead and pitiful thing: though there is something which God hath appointed an unregenerate man to do, in order to his own conversion, yet no such antecedent act will prove that the person is justified or reconciled to God, till he be converted. To make up a religion of doing or saying something that is good, while the heart is void of the Spirit of Christ, and sanctifying grace, is the hypocrite's religion, Rom. viii. 9.

Direct. III. Make conscience of the sins of the thoughts, and the desire and other affections or passions of the mind, as well as of the sins of tongue or hand. A lustful thought, a malicious thought, a proud, ambitious, or covetous thought, especially if it proceed to a wish, or contrivance, or consent, is a sin the more dangerous by how much the more inward and near the heart; as Christ hath showed you, Matt. v. and vi. The hypocrite who most respecteth the eye of man, doth live as if his thoughts were free.

Direct. IV. Make conscience of secret sins, which are committed out of the sight of men, and may be concealed from them, as well as of open and notorious sins. If he can do it in the dark and secure his reputation, the hypocrite is bold: but a sincere believer doth bear a reverence to his conscience, and much more to the all-seeing God.

Direct. V. Be faithful in secret duties, which have no witness but God and conscience: as meditation, and self-examination, and secret prayer; and be not only religious in the sight of men.

Direct. VI. In all public worship be more laborious with the heart, than with the tongue or knee: and see that your tongue overrun not your heart, and leave it not behind. Neglect not the due composure of your words, and due behaviour of your bodies: but take much more pains for the exercise of holy desires from a believing, loving, fervent soul.

Direct. VII. Place not more in the externals, or modes, or circumstances, or ceremonies of worship, than is due; and lay not out more zeal for indifferent or little things than cometh to their share; but let the great substantials of religion have the precedency, and be far preferred before them.[150] Let the love of God and man be the sum of your obedience; and be sure you learn well what that meaneth, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." And remember, that the great thing which God requireth of you, is "to do justice, and love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.—Destroy not him with your meat for whom Christ died." Call not for fire from heaven upon dissenters; and think not every man intolerable in the church, that is not in every little matter of your mind. Remember that the hypocrisy of the Pharisees is described by Christ, as consisting in a zeal for their own traditions, and the inventions of men, and the smallest matters of the ceremonial law, with a neglect of the greatest moral duties, and a furious cruelty against the spiritual worshippers of God. Matt. xv. 2, "Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread." Ver. 7-10, "Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy 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 do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Matt. xxiii. 4-6, 13, 14, &c. "They bind heavy burdens, which they touch not themselves. All their works they do to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments; and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in public, and to be called Rabbi.—But they shut up the kingdom of heaven against men," and were the greatest enemies of the entertainment of the gospel by the people. They "tithed mint, and anise, and cummin, and omitted the great matters of the law, judgment, and mercy, and faith." They "strained at a gnat, and swallowed a camel." They had a great veneration for the "dead prophets and saints," and yet were persecutors and murderers of their "successors" that were "living," ver. 23, &c. By this description you may see which way hypocrisy doth most ordinarily work: even to a blind and bloody zeal for opinions, and traditions, and ceremonies, and other little things, to the treading down the interest of Christ and his gospel, and a neglect of the life and power of godliness, and a cruel persecuting those servants of Christ, whom they are bound to love above their ceremonies. I marvel that many papists tremble not when they read the character of the Pharisees! But that hypocrisy is a hidden sin, and is an enemy to the light which would discover it.

Direct. VIII. Make conscience of the duties of obedience to superiors, and of justice and mercy towards men, as well as of acts of piety to God. Say not a long mass in order to devour a widow's house, or a christian's life or reputation. Be equally exact in justice and mercy as you are in prayers; and labour as much to exceed common men in the one as in the other. Set yourselves to do all the good you can to all, and do hurt to none; and do to all men as you would they should do to you.

Direct. IX. Be much more busy about yourselves than about others; and more censorious of yourselves than of other men; and more strict in the reforming of yourselves than of any others. For this is the character of the sincere: when the hypocrite is little at home and much abroad; and is a sharp reprehender of others, and perniciously tender and indulgent to himself. Mark his discourse in all companies, and you shall hear how liberal he is in his censures and bitter reproach of others: how such men, and such men (that differ from him, or have opposed him, or that he hates) are thus and thus faulty, and bad, and hateful. Yea, he is as great an accuser of his adversaries for hypocrisy, as if he were not a hypocrite himself; because he can accuse them of a heart sin without any visible control. If he call them drunkards, or swearers, or persecutors, or oppressors, all that know them could know that he belieth them; but when he speaks about matters in the dark, he thinks the reputation of his lies have more advantage. Many a word you may hear from him, how bad his adversaries are; but if such hypocritical talk did not tell you, he would not tell you how bad he is himself.[151]