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 swift, 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 Christs." 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. "So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite's hope shall perish"."" 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 himi?" "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 reacheth 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. PART IV. Directions against inordinate Man-pleasing: or that overvaluing the Favour and Censure of Man, which is the fruit of Pride, and a great cause of Hypocrisy. Or, Directions against Idolizing Man. As in other cases so in this, iniquity consisteth not simply in the heart's neglect of God, but in the preferring of some competitor, and prevalence of some object which standeth i Job xxvii. 8, 9. k Job xx. 4-7. 2 Tim. ii. 19. h Job viii. 13. up for an opposite interest'. And so the obeying man before God and against him, and the valuing the favour and approbation of man before or against the approbation of God, and the fearing of man's censure or displeasure more than God's, is an Idolizing Man, or setting him up in the place of God. It turneth our chiefest observance, and care, and labour, and pleasure, and grief into this human, fleshly channel, and maketh all that to be but human in our hearts and lives, which (objectively) should be divine. Which is so great and dangerous a sin, partaking of so much impiety, hypocrisy, and pride, as that it deserveth a special place in my Directions, and in all watchfulness and consideration to escape it. As all other creatures, so especially man, must be regarded and valued only in a due subordination and subserviency to God. If they be valued otherwise, they are made his enemies, and so are to be hated, and are made the principal engine of the ruin of such as overvalue them. See what the Scripture saith of this sin: "Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of "? "And call no man your Father upon the earth; for one is your Father which is in heaven"." "And be not ye called Rabbi; for one is your Master, even Christ: but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant "." Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm"." "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear what man can do unto me. It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man,-yea, in princes." "Let me not accept any man's person; neither let me give flattering titles unto man: for I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my Maker would soon take me away." "As for me, is my complaint to mans?" " Do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be a servant of Christ'." "But with me it is a very small thing to be judged of you, or of man's judgment"." "If a man come 66 Non quam multis placeas, sed qualibus stude. Martin. Dumiens. de Morib. m Isa. ii. 22. " Matt. xxiii. 9. Socrates contemnebat. • Matt. xxiii. 8. Job xxxii. 21, 22. u | Cor, iv. 3. Magna animi sublimitate carpentes se atque objurgantes to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake." Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven." "Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers." "So we speak, not as pleasing men but God, who trieth our hearts"." Having men's persons in admiration because of advantage." This is enough to shew you what Scripture saith of this inordinate man-pleaing, or respect to man: and now I shall proceed to direct you to escape it. Direct. 1. Understand well wherein the nature of this sin consisteth, that you may not run into the contrary extreme, but may know which way to bend your opposition.' I shall therefore first shew you, how far we may and must please men, and how far not. 1. Our parents, rulers, and superiors must be honoured, obeyed, and pleased in all things which they require of us, in the several places of authority which God hath given them over us and this must be not merely as to man, but as to the officers of God, for whom, and from whom, (and not against him,) they have all their power". 2. We must in charity, and condescension, and meekness of behaviour, seek to please all men in order to their salvation. We must so thirst for the conversion of sinners, that we must become all things (lawful) to all men, that we may win them. We must not stand upon our terms, and keep at a distance from them, but condescend to the lowest, and bear the infirmities of the weak, and in things indifferent not take the course that pleaseth ourselves; but that, which by pleasing him, may edify our weak brother. We must forbear and forgive, and part with our right, and deny ourselves the use of our Christian liberty, were it as long as we live, if it be necessary to the saving of our brethren's souls, by removing the offence which hindereth them by prejuEphes. vi. 6. Col. iii. 22. 1 Thess. ii. 4. y Matt. v. 11. a Jude 16. When Chrysippus was asked why he exercised not himself with the most, he answered, if I should do as the most do, I should be no philosopher. Laert. in Chrysip. lib. vii. sect. 182. p. 479. Adulationi fœdum crimen servitutis, malignitati falsa species libertatis inest. Tacit. Hist. lib. i. c. 1. Valpy's edit. vol. iii. p. 3. Secure conscience first, Qua semel amissa, postea nullus eris. b Rom. xiii. Exod. xx. 12. Titus iii. 1. 1 Pet. ii. 13. 2 Pet. ii. 10. dice. We must not seek our own carnal ends, but the benefit of others, and do them all the good we can. 3. As our neighbour is commanded to love us as himself, we are bound by all lawful means to render ourselves amiable to him, that we may help and facilitate this his love, as it is more necessary to him than to us: for to help him in obeying so great a command must needs be a great duty. And therefore if his very sin possess him with prejudice against us, or cause him to distaste us for some indifferent thing, we must, as far as we can lawfully, remove the cause of his prejudice and dislike; (though he that hateth us for obeying God, must not be cured by our disobeying him.) We are so far from being obliged to displease men by surliness and morosity, that we are bound to pleasing gentleness, and brotherly kindness, and to all that carriage which is necessary to cure their sinful hatred or dislike. 4. We must not be self-conceited, and prefer a weak, unfurnished judgment of our own, before the greater wisdom of another; but in honour must prefer each other: and the ignorant must honour the knowledge and parts of others that excel them, and not be stiff in their own opinion, nor wise in their own eyes, nor undervalue another man's reasons or judgment; but be glad to learn of any that can teach them, in the humble acknowledgment of their own insufficiency. 5. Especially we must reverence the judgment of our able, faithful teachers, and not by pride set up our weaker judgment against them, and resist the truth which they deliver to us from God. Neither must we set light by the censures or admonitions of the lawful pastors of the church: when they are agreeable to the Word and judgment of God, they are very dreadful. As Tertullian saith, 'If any so of fend as to be banished from communion of prayer, and assembly, and all holy commerce, it is a judgment foregoing the great judgment to come.' Yea, if the officers of Christ should wrong you in their censures by passion or mistake, while they act in their own charge about matters belonging to their cognisance and judgment, you must respectfully and patiently bear the wrong, so as not to dishonour and contemn the authority and office so abused. 6. If sober, godly persons, that are well acquainted with us, do strongly suspect us to be faulty where we discern it not ourselves, it should make us the more suspicious and fearful and if judicious persons fear you to be hypocrites, and no sound Christians, by observing your temper and course of life, it should make you search with the greater fear, and not to disregard their judgment. And if judicious persons, especially ministers, shall tell a poor, fearful, doubting Christian, that they verily think their state is safe, it may be a great stay to them, and must not be slighted as nothing, though it cannot give them a certainty of their case. Thus far man's judgment must be valued. 7. A good name among men, which is the reputation of our integrity, is not to be neglected as a thing of naught; for it is a mercy from God for which we must be thankful, and it is a useful means to our successful serving and honouring God. And the more eminentwe are, and the more the honour of God and religion is joined with ours, or the good of men's souls dependeth on our reputation, the more careful we should be of it; and it may be a duty sometimes to vindicate it by the magistrate's justice, against a slander. Especially preachers, (whose success for the saving of their hearers depends much on their good name) must not despise it c. 8. The censures of the most petulent, and the scorns of enemies, are not to be made light of, as they are their sins, which we must lament; nor as they may provoke us to a more diligent search, and careful watchfulness over our ways. Thus far man's judgment is regardable. But 1. We must know how frail, and erroneous, and unconstant a thing man is: and therefore not to be too high in our expectations from man. We must suppose that men will mistake us, and wrong us, and slander us, through ignorance, passion, prejudice, or self-interest. And when this befals us, we must not account it strange and unexpected. 2. We must consider how far the enmity that is in lapsed man to holiness, and the ignorance, prejudice, and passion of the ungodly, will carry them to despise, and scorn, and slander all such as seriously and zealously serve God, and cross them in their carnal interest. And therefore, if for the sake of Christ and righteousness, we are accounted as the scorn and offscouring of all things, and as pestilent fel с • Quicquid de te probabiliter fingi potest, ne fingatur ante devita. Hieron. ad Nepot. Non solum veritas in hac parte sed etiam opinio studiose quærenda est, ut te hypocritam agere interdum minime pœniteat, said one harshly enough to Acosta, ut lib. 4. c. 17. p. 413. |