Direct. XX. Come into the light, that your hearts and lives may be thoroughly known to you. Love the most searching, faithful ministry and books; and be thankful to reprovers and plain-dealing friends. Darkness is it that cherisheth deceit: it is the office of the light to manifest. Justly do those wretches perish in their hypocrisy, who will not endure the light which would undeceive them; but fly from a plain and powerful ministry, and hate plain reproof, and set themselves by excuses and cavils to defend their own deceit.[154]
Direct. XXI. Be very diligent in the examining of your hearts and all your actions by the word of God, and call yourselves often to a strict account. Deceit and guilt will not endure strict examination. The word of God is quick and powerful, discovering the thoughts and imaginations of the heart. There is no hypocrite but might be delivered from his own deceits, if by the assistance of an able guide, he would faithfully go on in the work of self-trying, without partiality or sloth.
Direct. XXII. Live continually as one that is going to be judged at the bar of God, where all hypocrisy will be opened and shamed, and hypocrites condemned by the all-knowing God. One thought of our appearing before the Lord, and of the day of his impartial judgment, one would think should make men walk as in the light, and teach them to understand, that the sun is not eclipsed as often as they wink, nor is it night because they draw the curtains. What a shame will it be to have all your dissimulation laid open before all the world! Luke xii. 1-3, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy: for there is nothing covered, which shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets, shall be proclaimed on the house-tops."
Direct. XXIII. Think not that you avoid hypocrisy by changing the expressions of it; but see that you run not into a more subtle kind, while you avoid a grosser. There is no outward way of worshipping God, nor any opinion in religion, so sound, but a hypocrite can make a cloak of it. You see an ignorant, ridiculous hypocrite, such as Bishop Hall describeth in his character, that can pray up to a pillar, when his heart knoweth not what his tongue is doing; that babbleth over a few words to God while he is dressing or washing him, and talking between to the standers-by; who offereth to God the sacrifice of a fool, and knoweth not that he doth evil, Eccles. v. 2; that serveth God with toys and antic gestures, and saying over certain words which were never acquainted with the feeling of his heart, nor scarce with his understanding. And to avoid his hypocrisy, perhaps, you can merrily deride him, and make a formal popish hypocrite the subject of your jests; and you can yourselves, with good understanding, pour out yourselves many hours together in orderly and meet expressions of prayer: but remember that many a hypocrite maketh himself a cloak of as good stuff as this; and that as pride hath more advantage to work upon your greater knowledge and better parts, so hypocrisy is but the offspring of pride. All this, without a heart entirely devoted unto God, is but a carcass better dressed; as the rich have more curious monuments than the poor. There is no outside thing, in which a hypocrite may not seem excellent.
Direct. XXIV. Be true to conscience, and hearken diligently to all it saith, and be often treating with it, and daily conversant and well acquainted with it.[155] Hypocrites bear little reverence to their consciences: they make so often and so grossly bold with them, that conscience is deposed from its office at the present, and silenced by them, lest it should gall them by preaching to them those hard sayings which they cannot bear: and perhaps at last it is seared or bribed to take part with sin. But usually a hypocrite hath a secret judge within him which condemneth him. Take heed how you use your conscience, as you love your peace and happiness. Next Christ, it must be your best friend, or your greatest enemy: palliate it how you will at present, if you wound it, it will smart at last. And it is easier to bear poverty, or shame, or torment, than to bear its wounds, Prov. xviii. 14. 1. Mark the very principles and former judgment of your consciences; and if they are changed, know what changed them. 2. Hearken to all the secret counsel and reproofs of conscience, especially when it speaketh oft and terribly; turn it not off without a hearing; yea, know the reason of its very scruples and doubts. 3. When it is sick and disquieted, know what the matter is, Psal. liii. 5, and vomit up the matter that justly disquiets it, whatever it cost you; and be sure you go to the bottom, and do not leave the root behind. 4. Open your consciences to some able, trusty guide when it is necessary, though it cost you shame. An over-tender avoiding of such shame is the hypocrite's sin and folly. Counsel is safe in matters of such importance. 5. Prefer conscience before all men, how great soever: none is above it but God. It is God's messenger, when it is conscience indeed: remember what it saith to you, and from whom, and for what end. Let friends, and neighbours, and company, and business, and profit, and sports, and honour stand by, and all give place whilst conscience speaketh; for it will be a better friend to you than any of these, if you use it as a friend. It would have been better to Judas than his thirty pieces were. 6. Yet see that it be well informed, and see its commission, for it is not above God; nor is it masterless or lawless. 7. Converse not with it only in a crowd, but in secret, Psal. iv. 4. 8. Keep it awake; and keep it among awakening means and company: it will much sooner fall asleep in an ale-house, or a play-house, or among the foolish and profane, than at a lively sermon, or prayers, or reverent discourse of God. If I could but get conscience awakened to perform its office, and preach over all this that I have said in secret, it would ferret the hypocrite out of his self-deceit. Go, conscience, and search that deceitful heart, and speak to it in the name of God: ask that hypocrite whether conversion ever made him a new creature, and whether his soul and all that he hath be entirely devoted unto God? and whether his hopes and treasures be laid up in heaven, and his heart be there? and whether he subject all his worldly interest to the will of God, and the interest of his soul? and whether his greatest work be about his heart, and to approve himself to God? and whether he make an impartial, diligent inquiry after the truth, with a desire to receive it at the dearest rates? Tell him that a proud self-flattery may now make him justify or extenuate his sins, and take his formalities, and lip-service, and abuse of God for true devotion, and hate every man that would detect his hypocrisy, and convert him by bringing in the light; but a light will shortly appear to his soul, which he shall not resist. And then let him stand to his justification if he can; and let him then make it good that he gave up himself in sincerity, simplicity, and self-denial, to his God.
Direct. XXV. Remember that hypocrisy lieth much in doubling, and in a dividing heart and life: see therefore that you serve God in singleness of heart, or simplicity and integrity, as being his alone. Think not of serving God and mammon: a deep reserve at the heart for the world, while they seem to give up themselves in covenant to God, is the grand character of a hypocrite. Live as those that have one Lord and one Master, that all power stoopeth to; and one end or scope, to which all other are but means; and one work of absolute necessity to do; and one kingdom to seek first, and with greatest care and diligence to make sure of; and that have your hearts and faces still one way; and that agree with yourselves in what you think, and say, and do.[156] A double heart and a double tongue is the fashion of the hypocrite, Psal. xii. 2; 1 Tim. iii. 8. He hath a heart for the world, and pride, and lust, which must seem sometimes to be lifted up to ask forgiveness, that he may sin with quietness and hope of salvation: you would not think when you see him drop his beads, or lift up his hands and eyes, and seem devoutly to say his prayers, how lately he came from a tavern, or a whore, or a lie, or from scorning at serious godliness. As Bishop Hall saith, he seemeth to serve that God at church on holy-days, whom he neglecteth at home; and boweth at the name of Jesus, and sweareth profanely by the name of God. Remember that there is but one God, one heaven for us, one happiness, and one way;[157] and this one is of such moment, as calls for all the intention and attention of our souls, and is enough to satisfy us, and should be enough to call us off from all that would divert us. A divided heart is a false and self-deceiving heart. Are there two Gods? or is Christ divided?[158] While you grasp at both (God and the world) you will certainly lose one, and it is like you will lose both. To have two Gods, two rules, two heavens, is to have no God, no true rule, no heaven or happiness at all. Halt not therefore between two opinions: if God be God, obey him and love him; if heaven be heaven, be sure it be first sought. But if thy belly be thy god, and the world be thy heaven, then serve and seek them, and make thy best of them.
Direct. XXVI. Take heed of all that fleshly policy or craft, and worldly wisdom, which are contrary to the wisdom of the word of God, and would draw thee from the plain and open-heartedness which godly sincerity requireth. Let that which was Paul's rejoicing be yours, "that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, you have had your conversation in the world," 2 Cor. i. 12. Christianity renounceth not wisdom and honest self-preservation; but yet it maketh men plain-hearted, and haters of crafty, fraudulent minds. What is the famous hypocritical religion superadded to christianity and called popery, but that which Paul feared in his godly jealousy for the Corinthians, "lest as the serpent beguiled Eve by his subtilty, so their minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ," 2 Cor. xi. 1-3. A forsaking the christian simplicity of doctrine, discipline, worship, and conversation, is the hypocrisy of religion, and of life. Equivocating and dishonest shifts and hiding, beseem those that have an ill cause, or an ill conscience, or an ill master whom they dare not trust; and not those that have so good a cause and God as christians have.
Direct. XXVII. Remember how much of sincerity consisteth in seriousness, and how much of hypocrisy consisteth in seeming, and dreaming, and trifling in the things of God and our salvation: see therefore that you keep your souls awake, in a sensible and serious frame.[159] Read over the fifty considerations, which, in the third part of my "Saints' Rest," I have given to convince you of the necessity of being serious. See that there be as much in your faith as in your creed, and as much in your hearts and lives as in your belief. Remember that seeming and dreaming will not mortify deep-rooted sins, nor conquer strong and subtle enemies, nor make you acceptable to God, nor save your souls from his revenging justice. Remember what a mad kind of profaneness it is to jest and trifle about heaven and hell, and to dally with the great and dreadful God. "Seeing all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness?" 2 Pet. iii. 11. You pray for an obedience answering the pattern of the heavenly society, when you say, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;" and will you be such hypocrites as to pray, that you may imitate saints and angels in the purity and obedience of your hearts and lives, and when you have done, take up with shows, and seemings, and saying a few words, and a lifeless image of that holiness which you never had; yea, and perhaps deride and persecute in others the very thing which you daily pray for. O horrible abuse of the all-seeing God! Do you no more believe or fear his justice? When the apostle saith, Gal. vi. 7, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked;" he intimateth, that hypocrites go about to put a scorn on God by a mock religion, though it is not he, but themselves, that will prove mocked in the end. They offer God a deaf nut, or an empty shell or cask, for a sacrifice. An hypocrite differeth from a true christian, as a fencer from a soldier; he playeth his part very formally upon a stage with much applause; but you may perceive that he is not in good sadness, by his trifling and formality, and never killing any of his sins. Would men show no more of the great, everlasting matters of their own professed belief, in any seriousness of affection or endeavour than most men do, if they were not hypocrites? Would they hate and scorn men for doing but that (and part of that) which they pray and profess to do themselves, if they were not hypocrites? Woe to the world, because of hypocrisy! Woe to the carnal members of the church! Woe to idol shepherds, and the seeming, nominal, lifeless christians, of what sect soever! for God will not be mocked. They are christians, but it is with a mock christianity, while their souls are strange to the true esteem and use of Christ. They are believers, but with a mock belief, described James ii. They believe God should be loved above all, but they love him not. They believe that holiness is better than all the pleasures of sin; yet they choose it not, but hate it.[160] They are religious, with a seeming vain religion, which will not so much as humble them, nor bridle their tongues, James i. 26. They are wise, with a mock wisdom; they are wise enough to prove their sins to be all lawful, or but venial sins: and wise enough to cast away the medicine that would heal them; and to confute the physician, and to answer the learnedst preacher of them all, and to scape salvation, and to secure themselves a place in hell, and keep themselves ignorant of it till they are there. They are converted, but with a mock conversion; which leaveth them as carnal, and proud, and worldly as before; being born of water but not of the Spirit, and being sensual still, John iii. 5, 6; Jude 19. They repent, but with a mock repentance; they repent, but they will not leave their sin, nor confess and bewail it, but hate reproof, and excuse their sin. They are honest, but with a mock honesty; though they swear, and curse, and rail, and slander, and backbite, and scorn at piety itself, yet they mean well, and have honest hearts: though they receive not the word with deep-rooting in their hearts, but are abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate, they are honest for all that, Luke viii. 15; Tit. i. 16. They love God above all, though they love not to think or speak of him seriously, but hate his holiness and justice, his word and holy ways and servants, and are such as the Scripture calleth "haters of God;" and keep not his commandments, nor live to his glory.[161] They love the servants of God, but they care not if the world were rid of them all; and take them to be but a company of self-conceited, troublesome fellows, and as very hypocrites as themselves; and the poor christians that are cruelly used by them, think they are neither in good sadness nor in jest, when they profess to love the worshippers of God. They love not their money, nor lands, nor lusts, with such a kind of love, I am sure. They have also always good desires; but they are such mock desires as those in James ii. 15, that wished the poor were fed, and clothed, and warmed, but gave them nothing towards it: and such good desires as the sluggard hath, that lieth in bed and wisheth that all his work were done, Prov. xxi. 25. "The desire of the sluggard killeth him, because his hands refuse to labour." They pray, but with mock prayers; you would little think that they are speaking to the most holy God, for no less than the saving of their souls, when they are more serious in their very games and sports. They pray for grace, but they cannot abide it; they pray for holiness, but they are resolved they will have none of it; they pray against their sin, but no entreaty can persuade them from it. They would have a mock ministry, a mock discipline, a mock church, a mock sacrament, as they make a mock profession, and give God but a mock obedience; as I might show you through all the particulars, but for being tedious. And all this, because they have but a mock faith: they believe not that God is in good earnest with them in his commands, and threatenings, and foretelling of his judgments; as Lot to his sons-in-law, Gen. xix. 14, "He seemeth to them as one that mocked," and therefore they serve him as those that would mock him. O wretched hypocrites! is this agreeable to your holy profession? You call yourselves christians, and profess to believe the doctrine of Christ: is this agreeable to christianity, to your creed, to the ten commandments, to the Lord's prayer, and to the rest of the word of God? Had you none but the holy, jealous God to make a mock of? Had you nothing less than religion, and matters of salvation and damnation, to play with? Do you serve God as if he were a child, or an idol, or a man of straw; that either knoweth not your hearts, or is pleased with toys, and compliments, and shows, and saying over certain words, or acting a part before him as on a stage?[162] Do you know what you offer, and to whom? His power is omnipotency; his glory is ten thousand-fold above that of the sun; his wisdom is infinite; millions of angels adore him continually; he is thy King and Judge; he abhorreth hypocrites. If thou didst but see one glimpse of his glory, or the meanest of his angels, the sight would awake thee from thy dreaming and dallying, and frighten thee from thy canting and trifling into a serious regard of God and thy everlasting state. Mal. i. 8, "Offer this now to thy governor: will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person, saith the Lord of hosts?" If your servants set before you upon your table the feathers instead of the fowl, and the hair and wool instead of the flesh, and the scales instead of the fish, would you not think they rather mocked than served you? How dear have some paid even in this life for mocking God, let the case of Aaron's sons, Lev. x. 1-3, and of Ananias and Sapphira, Acts v. inform you: if with the fig-tree, Matt. xxi. 19, you offer God leaves only instead of fruit, you are nigh unto cursing, and your end is to be burned. Do you not read what he saith to the church of Laodicea, Rev. iii. 15, 16, "I would thou wert cold or hot; because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth:" that is, either be an open infidel, or a holy, downright, zealous christian: but because thou callest thyself a christian, and hast not the life or zeal of a christian, but coverest thy wickedness and carnality with that holy name, I will cast thee away as an abominable vomit. It would make the heart of a believer ache to think of the hypocrisy of most that usurp the name of christians, and how cruelly they mock themselves. What a glory is offered them, and they lose it by their dallying! What a price is in their hands, what mercy is offered them, and they lose it by their dallying! What danger is before them, and they will fall into it by their dallying! Doth not the weight of your salvation forbid this trifling? You might better set the town on fire, and make a jest of it, than jest your souls into the fire of hell. Then you will find that hell is no jesting matter. If you mock yourselves out of your salvation, where are you then? If you play with time, and means, and mercy till they are gone, you are undone for ever. O dally not till you are past remedy. Alas, poor dreaming trifling hypocrites! Is time so sweet, and life so short, and death so sure and near, and God so holy, just, and terrible, and heaven so glorious, and hell so hot, and both everlasting, and yet will you not be in earnest about your work? Up and be doing, as you are men! and as ever you care what becomes of you for ever! Depart from iniquity, if you will name the name of Christ, 2 Tim. ii. 19. Let not a cheating world delude you for a moment, and have the kernel, the heart, while God hath but the empty shell. A mock religion will but keep up a mock hope, a mock peace, and a mock joy and comfort, till Satan have done his work, and be ready to unhood you and open your eyes. Job viii. 13, "So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish." Job xxvii. 8, 9, "For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?" Job xx. 4-7, "Knowest thou not this of old, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?" Away then with hypocritical formality and dalliance, and be serious and sincere for thy soul, and with thy God.