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CHA P. XI.

Containing divers practical inftructive inferences from this doctrine; with a ferious exhortation to felf-trial and thorough

examination.

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SECT. I.

Infer. 1. RE there fuch variety of trials appointed to examine the fincerity of mens graces; how great a vanity then is hypocrify, and to how little purpose do men endeavour to conceal and hide it? We fay, Murder will out; and we may as confidently affirm, Hypocrify will out. When Rebecca had laid the plot to disguise her fon Jacob, and by perfonating his brother, to get the bleffing, Jacob thus objects against it, "My father, peradventure, will feel me, " and I fhall feem to him as a deceiver; and I fhall bring a "curfe upon me, and not a bleffing," Gen. xxvii. 12. as if he fhould fay, but what if my father detect the cheat, how then fhall I look him in the face? How fhall I escape a curfe? After the fame manner every upright foul feares itself from the way of hypocrify. If I diffemble, and pretend to be what I am not, my Father will find me out. Ah there is no darknefs nor fhadow of death that can conceal the hypocrite, but out it will come at last, let him use all the art he can to hide it. Oftentimes God difcovers him by the trials he appoints in this world; and men in that day fhall "return and difcern betwixt "the righteous and the wicked, between him that ferveth "God, and him that ferveth him not," Mal. iii. 18. But if he make an hard fhift to get by a private way to hell, carrying this comfort with him to the last step, That no body knows or thinks he is gone thither; yet there will be a day when God will strip him naked before the great affembly of angels and men, and all shall point at him, and fay, Lo! this is the man that made not God his hope.

This is he that wore a garment of profeffion to deceive, but God hath now ftript him out of it, and all men fee what he' is: For, "There is nothing covered, that fhall not be reveal

ed, and hid, that thall not be known," Matth. x. 26. And the apoftle affures us, 1 Tim. v. 24, 25. "That they that are "otherwise, cannot be hid." If mens works be not good, it is impoffible they should be hid long: A gilded piece of brais

may pass from hand to hand a little while, but the touchstone will discover the base metal: If that do not, the fire will.

O finners! away with your hypocrify, be honeft, fincere, plain and hearty in religion: If not, confufion of face shall be your.recompence from the Lord; that is what you fhall get by

it.

Infer. 2. Secondly, Are there fuch trials appointed and permitted by the Lord for the discovery of his people's fincerity in this world? Then let none of God's people expect a quiet ftation in this world; Certainly you shall meet with no reft here, you muft out of one fire into another; and it is a merciful condefcenfion of the Lord to poor creatures, thus to concern himself for their fafety and benefit: "What is inan, that thou shouldst "magnify him? and that thou shouldft fet thine heart up"on him? that thou shouldft vifit him every morning, and 46 try him every moment?" Job vii. 17, 18.

O it is a great deal of honour put upon a poor worm, when God will every moment try him and visit him; it argues the great esteem the gold-fmith hath of his gold, when he will fit by the furnace himself, and order the fire with his own hand; when he pries fo often, and fo curiously into the fining-pot, to fee that none of his precious metal, upon which he fets his heart, be loft.

Think it not then a debafing to you to be fo often exposed to trials. If God did not value you highly, he would not try you fo frequently; What would become of you, if your condition here fhould be more fettled and quiet than now it is? I believe you find drofs enough in your hearts after all the fires into which God hath caft you: Surely there is filth enough in the beft of God's people to take all this, it may be a great deal more trouble than they have yet met with. We fancy it a brave life to live at eafe; and if we meet with longer refpites and intervals of trial than ufual, we are apt to fay, We shall never be moved, as David did, Pfal, xxx. 6. or we shall die in our neft, as it is Job xxix. 18. Our hard and difficult days are over; but woe to us if God fhould give us the defire of our hearts in this. See what the temper of those mens fpirits is, that meet with no changes, Pfal. Iv. 19. " Because they have "no changes, therefore they fear not God." O it is better to be preserved sweet in brine, than to rot in honey!

Infer. 3. Thirdly, Let none boaft in a carnal confidence of their own ftrength and fability. You are yet in a ftate of trial: Hitherto God hath kept you upright in all your trials; bless God, but boast not; you are but feathers in the wind of

temptation, if God leave you to yourfelves. Peter told Christ, (and doubtless he spoke no more than he honeftly meant) "Though all men forfake thee, yet will not I:" And you know what he did when the hour of his trial came, Matth. xxvi. 35. Angels left to themfelves have fallen: It is better to be an humble worm, than a proud angel.

Ah! how many Pendletons will this profeffing age fhew, if once God bring us to the fiery trial? "Let him that thinks he "ftands, take heed left he fall." You have not yet refifted unto blood, ftriving against fin. None ftand upon firmer ground than those that see nothing in themselves to stand upon ;* he that leans upon his own arm, usually benumbs it, and makes it useless.

Infer. 4. Fourthly, Doth God kindle fo many fires in Sion, and fet his furnaces in Jerufalem, to discover and feparate the drofs from the gold? How contrary are those men to God, that allow, yea, and prize the drots of hypocrify, which God hates, and tick not to make the holy God a patronifer, and countenancer of it in the hearts and lives of men?

It is amazing to read what popish pens have impudently written about this matter: * Sylvefter puts the question, Whe ther it be a fin to make a falfe fhew of fanctity? And anfwers it thus: If it be for the honour of God, and profit of others, it is no fin. Nay, they have a reverence for hypocrify, as an holy art. Vincentius fpends a whole chapter in commendation of the hypocrify of St. Dominic, and entitles it, De fanita ejus hypocrifi; i. e. Of the holy hypocrify of that faint; reckoning it among his commendations, that he had the art of dif fembling. And yet, one peg higher, a religious perfon (faith + another) that feigns himself to have more holiness than he hath, that others may be edified, fins not, but rather merits.

Blush, O heavens! that ever such factors for hell should open and vend fuch ware as this in the public market, and invite the world to hypocrify, as that which makes for the glory of God, the edification of men, and a work meritorious in the hypocrite himself: This is the doctrine of devils indeed!

Infer. 5. Fifthly, If it be fo, that all grace must come to the teft, and be tried as gold in the fire, even in this world; how are all men concerned to lay a folid foundation at firft, and thoroughly deliberate the terms upon which they close with Chrift, and engage in the profeffion of his name?" Which of "you, (faith Chrift) intending to build a tower, fitteth not down

* A fum adv fimulatio, n. 4. ↑ Rosella in v. hypacrifis, n. 1.

"firft, and counteth the coft ?" Luke xiv. 28. If fome ment had fet down at firft, and pondered the conditions and terms of Chrift, they had not fat down now discouraged, and tired in the way. The apostle Paul went to work at another rate; he accounted all but dung and drofs for Chrift, Phil. iii. 8. and was of the fame mind when the actual trial came; for then he tells us, "He counted not his life dear unto him," Acts xx. 24. And the apostle Peter admonishes believers "not to think "it ftrange concerning the fiery trial which was to try them," 1 Pet. iv. 12. q. d. Let none of these things be furprifals to you; you are told before-hand what you must trust to; every Christian must be a martyr, at least in the disposition and refolution of his heart.

O that men would balance the advantages and disadvantages of religion, and thoroughly ponder the matter in their deepest thoughts! To the teft you muft come; the rain will fall, and the ftorm beat upon your buildings; look carefully therefore to the foundations.

Infer. 6. Sixthly, and laftly, Learn from this point the unavoidableness of scandals and offences in the way of religion; for if there be a neceflity of trial, there is alfo a neceffity of fcandal. "It must needs be that offences come," Luke xvii. 1. Why, must it needs be? The reason is evident; all must come to the trial, and all are not able to bear it. Our Lord tells us, Matth. xxiv. 8, 9, 10. of a day of great straits and perplexity coming: "And then (faith he) fhall many be of"fended." The day of trial is the day of fcandal: By these offences fome are put a fearching themfelves, and fome fall a cenfuring all others; but the holy God brings about his end both ways in them that are faved, and in them that perish.

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SECT. II.

ELL then, if it be fo that all muft into the furnace, let every man try his own work; examine yourselves, profeffors, fearch your hearts, commune with your reins, nothing more concerns you in all the world than this doth. O that you would be more in your clofets, and oftner upon your knees! O that you would look into the Bible, then into your hearts, and then to God, faying, with David, "Search me, "O God, and know my heart; prove me, and try my reins, "and fee if there be any way of iniquity in me !" Never did religion thrive in the world fince mens heads have been fo overheated with notions and controverfies, and their hearts to

fenfibly cooled in their clofet-work. I have elfewhere ‡ more largely preffed this duty upon the profeffors of this generation, and thither fhall refer the reader for the prefent, to see the neceflity and importance of this work.

Here I fhall only urge the duty of self-trial by some preffing motives, and awakening confiderations.

Motive 1. And the first shall be, the exceeding difficulty of this work; difficulty in fome cafes may be a difcouragement; but where the matter is of abfolute neceffity, as it is here, nothing provokes more to diligence; " Strive (faith our Lord) to

enter in at the ftrait gate, for many will feek to enter in, and fhall not be able," Luke xiii. 24. A double difficulty is found attending this work of felf-trial: Difficulty in bring ing the heart to it; and difficulty in the right and fuccessful management of it. Who finds it not hard to perfuade his heart to fuch work as this? Nature declines it, flesh and blood relish it not: It is one of the great feverities in religion: It is no eafy thing to bring a man and his own heart together.`

It is in this cafe, as in the ftudy of geography; we are more Inquifitive to know, and delighted when we difcover, the rarities of foreign countries, and ftrange things in the remote •parts of the world, than those of our own native country. I fear there be many profeffofs of religion that can spend day after day in hearing, and love to be difputing fruitless controverfies, that never spent one day in fearching what influence all those fermons they have heard have had upon their hearts, or in rightly ftating and determining that great controverfy, in whofe right and poffeffion their fouls are, and which way they fhall go as foon as death hath divided them from those mortal bodies; yea, I doubt, many finful hours are spent in prying into, reporting and cenfuring the failings of others, and not one hour faithfully employed in judging their own hearts before the Lord: Oh! men had rather be about any other work than this; there is no pleasure in it to the flesh.

And yet how difficult foever it be to bring our hearts to the work, it is certainly much more difficult to manage it fuccefsfully, and bring the great queftion of our fincerity to a clear refult and iffue. O how many upright hearts have fat clofe to this work many a year, and lifted up many a cry to heaven, and shed many fecret undiffembled tears about it; and yet stil are in the dark, and their minds greatly perplexed, and filled with fear about it! What would they not do? What would

‡ See before, my Saint Indeed, G.

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