a trouble to me, I am weary to bear tbein.' What hateful thing is this that God eries so out u])on ? ] t is nothing but li yjxicrisy. Surely, friends, that must needs be very loathsome, which makes God speak so coarsely of his own ordi- nances, yea, makes them a Nehushtan, prayer no prayer, but a mere idol to be broken in pieces ; faith no faith, but a fancy and a delusion; repentance no re- pentance, but a loud lie, Psa. Ixxviii. ,31: ' They returned, and inquired early after God;" see how the Spirit of God gl(;sseth upon this, ver. 36, 37 : ' Never- theless they did flatter with their lips, and tliey lied unto him with their tongues ; for their heart was not right with him.' It smoked God out of his own house, and made him out of love with that place, whereof he had said it should be his resting place for ever.
It brought the wrath of God upon that vmhappy peo])le to the uttermost. Mark how the commission runs, which God gave the Assyrian, who was the bloody executioner of his fierce wrath upon them, Isa. x. 5, 6: ' O Assyrian, the rod of my anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge ' to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down as mire in the street.' See Jer. vii. 10 — 13. There needs not the coroner to be sent for, or a jury to go up on this miserable people, to find out how they came to their dismal end; they were an ' hypocritical nation,' that was it they died of. God had rather see the abomination of desolation standing in his temple, making havoc of all, than the abomination of dissimulation mocking him to his face, while they worship him with their lips, and their lusts with their hearts. Of the two, it is more tolerable in CJod's account, to see a Belshazzar, that never had a name of being his servant, to quafi'and carouse it to his gods profanely in the bowls of the sanctuary, than for a people that would pass for his servants to pollute them in his own worship by their ciu'sed hypocrisy ; if God be dishonoured, woe to that man, of all, that doth it imder a shew of honouring him. CJod singles out the hypocrite as that sort of sinners whom he would deal with hand to hand, and set himself, even in this life, to bear witness against, in a more extraordinary manner than others. The thief, murderer, and other sinners, provision is made by God that the magistrate should meet with them, they come under his cognizance ; but the hypocrite, he is one that sins more secretly, God alone is able to find him out, and lie hath undertaken it, Ezek. xiv. 7 : ' For every one of the house of Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and Cometh to a prophet, to inquire of him concerning me,'- — (an excellent descrip- tion of a hypocrite ; he is one that denies God in his heart, reserving it for idols, his lust, yet is as forward as any to inquire after God in his ordinances,) — ' I the Lord will answer him by myself.' And how shall he answer him ? ' And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him oiFfrom tlie midst of my people, and ye shall know that I am the Lord,' ver. 8. That is, my jiulgments shall be so remarkable on him, that he shall be a spectacle of my wi'ath for others to see Knd speak of. 'J'hus God pays the hypocrites often in this life, as Ananias and Sapphira, who died by the hand of God with a lie sticking in their throats ; and Judas, who purcha.sed nothing b}' his hypocritical trade but a halter to hang himself with : his playing the hypocrite with Christ ended with his playing the devil upon himself, when he became his own executioner. But if the hyj)ocrite at any time steals out of the world, before his vizard falls off^ and the wrath of God falls on him, it will meet him certainly enough in hell, and it will be ])oor comfort to him there to think how he hath cheated his neighbours, in arriving at hell, whom they so confidently thought under sail for heaven. The good opinion which he hath left of himself in those that are on earth, will cool no ilames for him in hell, where lodgings are taken up, and bespoken for the hypocrite, as the chief guest expected in that infernal court : all other sinners seem but as younger brethren in damnation to the hypocrite, under whom, as the great heir, tliey receive every one their portion of wrath, be<jueathed to them by the justice of God: Matt. xxiv. 51, there the evil servant is threatened by his Master 'that he will cut him asunder, and appoint him his ])ortion with liypocrites.'
Quest. But why should (Jod be so angry with the hypocrite? He seems a tame creature to other sinners, who, like wild beasts, rage and rave, not fearing
2^2 HAVING YOUR LOINS