CC the foundation of it shall be taken away at the final judgment, when every difguife fhall be ftripped off, and the hidden works of darkness fhall be brought to light. Nay, God may detect your base hypocrify even before you leave this world; fo that, as it is written, Job xxvii. 23. "Men fhall clap their hands at you, and hifs you out of your place."Is it riches you feek by your feeming religioufnefs? In this likewife you may be difappointed, according to that other threatening denounced against the hypocrite, Job xxii. 16. "Though he heap up "filver as the duft, and prepare raiment as the "clay; he may prepare it, but the juft fhall put "it on, and the innocent fhall divide the filver." Befides, "Riches profit not in the day of God's "wrath :" And after all, "What is the hope of "the hypocrite though he hath gained, when "the Lord taketh away his foul?-Can the "rufh grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water? While it is yet in its CC greennefs, and not cut down, it withereth "before any other herb. So are the paths of "all that forget God, and the hypocrite's hope "fhall perish: whose hope fhall be cut off, and "whofe truft fhall be a fpider's web. He fhall "lean upon his house, but it fhall not ftand; he "fhall hold it faft, but it fhall not endure:" And, oh! how vain is that hope, which fhall " perish" at the very time when enjoyment is expected. Be awakened then, ye felf-deceivers, and know that your formality, like the harlot's paint, is only a falfe and borrowed beauty, which fhall melt away when you draw near the fire: and how ever you may now hope, while under the threaten- But there are finners of another kind, to whom 44 all this fubject leads me to fpeak; thofe, I mean, who have not fo much as the form of godliness. -You, I doubt not, have got a great deal to fay against hypocrites; perhaps too you are very well pleased that so much has been faid to expose them in the courfe of this fermon: and now you exult in the thought, that fuch a hateful denomination cannot be applied to you; if you are not godly, yet furely you are honeft; for you do not pretend to be godly. We fhall, by and by, examine your boafted honesty; in the mean time, it deferves your ferious confideration, that, by your own confeffion, you are in great measure useless in the world; as you contribute nothing either to the glory of God, or to the fpiritual improvement of your brethren around you. Now, here the formalift hath plainly the advantage of you: for though he neglects and deftroys destroys his own foul; yet, by his fair outfide, and perhaps by the exercise of his gifts, he may recommend religion to the esteem and choice of others; like the fign-poft, which, though it hath its station without, doth nevertheless mark the door to ftrangers, and invite them into the house: whereas you neither enter in yourselves, nor give any affistance to others; but, on the contrary, do much to difcourage and hinder them.But honesty, you say, is the qualification you chiefly value, and you are confident that your claim to that is unquestionable.---Not fo unquestionable as you imagine.As you do not profess Atheism, you must be understood to acknowledge the being of a God; and as you have not publicly renounced your baptifin, you certainly mean to pafs for Chriftians. None of you, I fuppofe, are willing to be reputed the enemies of God and of Chrift; on the contrary, would you not exclaim against that man as a cenforious malevolent hypocrite, who fhould venture to hint the remoteft fufpicion of this kind?-And now wherein doth your honefty lie? You would be thought to love, yet you live in open contempt of his authority, while you with-hold that worship and homage which are due to him: Is this honefty?--Your call yourselves Chriftians, yet you practically reject the inftitutions of Christ, and caft his moft facred commandments behind your back: Is that to be honeft, to profess one thing, and to do the contrary? This, I apprehend, is the very effence of hypocrify: fo that if you hate hypocrites, you are bound in juftice to hate yourselves; for even you are hypocrites no less than the formalift, though :though you are not commonly branded with that opprobrious title. The difference betwixt you lies chiefly in this: The formalift is a fort of bafh-ful hypocrite, who, becaufe he cannot deny the debt, makes a fhew of paying part, and would be thought to pay the whole: whereas the profane finner, who retains the appellation of Chrif tian, though he pays no part of what he acknowledgeth to be due, would neverthelefs be -reputed an honeft man; and therefore he too is a hypocrite as well as the other, with as little fenfe, and with much less modefty. I fhall conclude this difcourfe with a few advices, for the help of thofe who are aiming at real godliness, and would not be deceived with names and counterfeits. Let your religion, then, my dear friends, be principally feated in the heart; and never reckon that you are poffeffed of it, fo long as it lodges merely in the understanding. Knowledge and faith are in order to practice; and we neither know nor believe to any good purpofe, unlefs - our knowledge and faith influence our practice, and make us truly better men. Be fure to live upon the great fundamentals of religion, and let not your attention to these be diverted by an intemperate zeal about leffer things. Place not your religion in difputable points and ineffectual opinions, but in those weighty matters of the law and goipel, which are of undoubted importance, and in which holy men, among all the different denominations of Chriftians, are better agreed than is commonly apprehended.Choofe God for your portion and felicity; be ware ware of thinking, that any thing befides himself is neceffary to make you happy; and live daily upon Chrift Jefus, as the only Mediator by whom you can either have access to God, or acceptance with him.--Indulge no fin; plead for no infirmity; but make it the daily bufinefs of your lives, to "mortify the deeds of the "body," and "to crucify the flesh with its affections and lufts."-Walk continually as in the fight of a holy, juft, and heart-fearching God; and study to be the fame in fecret that you wifh to appear in public.--Reft not in a low degree of holiness, but love, and long, and strive for the higheft.--And for thefe purposes, pray without ceafing for thofe promifed influences of divine grace, which alone can heal your diseased natures, and carry you forward from one degree of holiness to another, till, being ripened for glory, an entrance fhall in due time be miniftred unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift. To whom, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, be glory and honour, dominion and thanksgiving, for ever and ever. Amen. VOL. I. G SERMON |