Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

felf-conceit: If. lviii. 3. "Wherefore have we fafted, fay they, and thou feeft not? Wherefore. have we afflicted our foul, and thou takeft no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your faft, ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours." The more a perfon is graciously enlarged in duties, the more his finfulness, weakness, wants, and nothingness appear, notwithstanding of all his meltings, mournings, humiliations, &c. But the hypocrite, the more he is enlarged, appears to himself the more worthy that Chrift fhould do great things for him; and he becomes the less self-denied.

(2.) Gracious enlargements are fanctifying; they promote holiness in heart and life: Zech. xii. 10. "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerufalem, the fpirit of grace and fupplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they fhall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and fhall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born." They are a burning, as well as a fhining light, and make persons more tender in all moral duties to God and man. If one has been taken into the temple of God in duties, it will appear about him in the fubftantials of morality. He will fear fin more, and be more exercised to keep a confcience void of offence towards God and towards men. But delufive enlargements have not this effect. On the contrary, they readily leave people more proud, peevish, and selfish, often making them fuch fons of Belial, that a person cannot speak to them; and never strike at inward beloved lufts to mortify them. 2. But to be more particular,

[ocr errors]

(1.) A hypocrite may be much affected with forrow for fin in his duties. All mourners are not

true

true mourners, Zech. vii. 3. One may hear the word, or pour out a prayer with wet cheeks, and yet have a whole heart, a heart far from being broken for fin. Efau was in a flood of tears, feeking the blefling. Many times, where water goes out in their case, wind enters in. It is not always humbling grace that produces tears. Some are of foft difpofitions, and eafily wrought upon by a melancholy object, without any efficacy of grace, like the daughters of Jerufalem, Luke, xxiii. 27. and downwards. Some, of most rugged difpofitions, because their affections are vehement in any cafe, may be thus touched and affected, and yet there be nothing more than the product of nature. Thus, when David fhewed him mercy, even Saul lifted up his voice, and wept, 1 Sam. xxiv. 16. But the difference betwixt the Christian and the hypocrite lies here, (1.) That the chief ground of the true Chriftian's forrow for fin is, the offence and difhonour done to a holy gracious God, as an ingenuous child is moved with his father's displeasure and difhonour: Pfal. li. 4. «. Against thee, thee only, have I finned, and done this evil in thy fight; that thou mightest be justified when thou fpeakeft, and be clear when thou judgeft." But the bypocrite's chief ground is felfish, because of the evils to which he has thereby exposed himfelf, whether in time or eternity. (2.) The hypocrite's forrow is foon over; it is but a flash, and away; and he goes back again, if not to the fame fins, yet to others no lefs offenfive to God. His forrow never goes the length to loose the bonds of wickedness: Ifa. lviii. 5. 6. « Is it fuch a fast that I have chofen? a day for a man to afflict his foul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrufh, and to fpread fackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a faft, and an acceptable day to the Lord?

[ocr errors]

Is not this the fast that I have chofen? to loofe the bands of wickednefs, to undo the heavy bur dens, and to let the oppreffed go free, and that ye break every yoke ?" It is not fo with the godly Lam. iii. 49. 50. "Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermiffion: Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven." Their forrow for fin is habitual, becaufe the body of fin ftill remains, and this forrow influences them to war against all fin.

(2.) A hypocrite may have a kind of love to God and Chrift, and a defire after grace and good things. Hence Paul prays for grace to "them that love our Lord Jefus Chrift in fincerity," Eph. vi. 24. The Christian in the letter may fay, "Lord, evermore give us this bread," John, vi. 34. and join the foolish virgins in their defire to partake of the oil of the wife. But the difference betwixt the Christian and the hypocrite here lies:

[1. That a hypocrite may love God as his benefactor, as one who does him good every day, and from whofe hands he looks for good in time coming, either for time or for eternity, Mal. iii. 1, This is to love God for one's felf. But the true Christian loves him, not only because of his benefits, but becaufe of his lovely nature, his perfect holiness, truth, hatred of fin, &c. This is to love God for himself: Pfal. xxx. 4. " Sing unto the Lord, O ye faints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holinefs." And this the unholy heart can never do, Rom. viii. 7. "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God." Now, they that love God thus, they love his image, wherever it appears, and particularly in the holy law, even where it ftrikes against that fin which most easily besets them: Rom. vii. 22. VOL. II. "For

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

"For I delight in the law of God after the inward man."-The difference lies,

[2.] That they may defire grace, for its neceffity in order to fave them, but not for its intrinfic beauty and likeness to the Lord: Matth. v. 7. "Bleffed are they which do hunger and thirft after righteoufnefs, for they fhall be filled." It is the chief thing the true Chriftian defires, grace to be holy, as well as grace to be juftified and pardoned: Pfal. xxvii. 4. "One thing have I defired of the Lord, that will I feek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple."-The difference lies,

Lafly, That a hypocrite may have much joy and delight in the duties of religion; fo had the ftonyground hearers, Matth. xiii. 20.-If. lviii. 2. "Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteoufness, and forfook not the ordinances of their God; they afk of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God." There may be delufive raptures of joy, as well as unfound floods of forrow. I fhewed very lately the difference betwixt genuine joy and thefe delufive raptures. True joy rifeth orderly, after a preceding renting effect on the heart, &c.; delufive joy more quickly, &c. I now come,

*

III. To make fome fhort improvement.—I have endeavoured to lay before you, the differences betwixt the hypocrite and the fincere Christian; and from the whole, I think you may carry away these leffons. We may hence fee,

[ocr errors]

1. That it is no easy thing to be a real Christian.

* See Catechetical Sermors en Rom. v. 2.

A

A parcel of external performances do not make a Christian, nay, nor even internal things alfo, without the genuine fpirit of duties, performances, and attainments: That the great thing which makes the difference is, not fo much what is done, as how it is done, the principles, ends, manner, &c. of dɔing it. We may learn,

2. That a man may go a very great length in religion, and notwithstanding be naught in God's efteem. A perfon may look fo like a true Chriftian, that he may deceive both faints and finners, like him who is faid to have made an image with fuch motion, that others thought it had life. Nay, I know not but he may deceive the devil himself : Jer. xvii. 9. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and defperately wicked; who can know it ?" like him who is faid to have painted grapes fo lively, that the birds came and picked at them. He may deceive himself like the Laodiceans, and go to death with the delufion, like the foolish virgins. We may learn,

3. That however far the hypocrite goes, the true Christian goes beyond him; and therefore we muft not, we ought not, to fatisfy ourselves as to the point of fincerity, unless there be fomething in us which is not to be found in hypocrites. And therefore I exhort you to put yourselves to the trial. Try yourselves whether you be in Chrift or not, whether you be fincere Chriftians or not.-Confider,

[ocr errors]

(1.) True religion is very rare at all times: Mat. vii. 14. "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." The miferable decay and untenderness among all forts of perfons, fhew it to be especially rare at this time, in which we may fay, "Help, Lord, for the godly man ceafeth;

Q3

for

« PreviousContinue »