That which contents another, will not content a Christian. If the king be absent, men will bow^ to the empty chair : but if God be absent, an empty duty gives no satisfaction to a gracioiis spirit. The poorest Christian is found panting after God by sincere desires, and labouring to get up that dead and vain heart to God in duty, (though, alas ! it is many times but the rolling of the returning stone against the hill) yet he never expects advantage by that duty wherein the Spirit of God is not; nor doth he expect the Spirit of God should be where his own spirit is not.
5. Fifthlij, Assiduity and constancy in the duties of religion make a notable discovery of the soundness or rottenness of men's hearts. The hypocrite may shew some zeal and forwardness in duties for a time, but he will jade and give out at length ; Job xxvii. 10. '• Will *••' he delight himself in the Almighty ? Will he always call upon *' God ?^^ No, he will not. If his motions in religion were natural, they would be constant ; but they are artificial, and he is moved by external inducements, and so must needs be off and on ; he prays himself weary of praying, and hears himself weary of hearing : His heart is not delighted in his duties, and therefore his duties must needs grow stale and dry to him after a while. There be three sea- sons in which the zeal of an hypocrite may be inflamed in duties.
Firsts When some imminent danger threatens him ; some smart rod of God is shaken over him ; " When he slew them, then they <' sought him, and returned and enquired early after God,**' Psalm Ixxviii. 34?. O the goodly words they give, the fair promises they make ! and yet all the while " they do but flatter him with " their lips, and lie unto him with their tongues,'' ver. 36, 37. for let but that danger pass over, and the heavens clear up again, and he will restrain prayer, and return to his old course again.
Secondly^ When the times countenance and favour religion, and the wind is in his back, O what zeal will he have for God ! So in the stony ground, Matth. xiii. 5. the seed sprung up and flourished until the sun of persecution arose, and then it faded away, for it had no depth of earth, no deep solid inward work or principle of grace to maintain it.
Thirdly^ When self ends and designs are accommodated and pro- inoted by these things. This was the case of Jehu, ^ Kings x. 16.
570 nELIGIOUS DUTIES ARE IIEAKT-DISCOVERIES.
" Come, see ray zeal ;" for what ? For a base self-interest, not for Gcd. How fervently will some men pray, preach, and profess, whilst they sensibly feel the incomes and profits of these duties to their flesh ; whilst they are admired and applauded !
These external incentives will put an hypocrite into an hot fit of zeal ; but then, as it is with a man, whose colours are raised by the heat of the fire, and not by the healthfulness of a good constitution, it soon fades and fails again.
But, blessed be God, it is not so with all : The man whose heart is upright with his God, will " keep judgment, and do righteousness " at all times," Psal. cvi. 3. Whether dangers threaten or no ; whether the times favour religion or no ; whether his earthly interest be promoted by it or no, he will be holy still, he will not part with his duties when they are stript naked of those external advantages; as the addition of these things to religion did not at first engage him, so the subtraction of them cannot disengage him.
If his duty become his reproach, yet Moses will not forsake it, Heb. xi. 26. If he lose his company, and be left alone, yet Paul will not flinch from his duty, 2 Tim. iv. 16. If hazard surround duty on every side, yet Daniel will not quit it, Dan. vi. 10. for they considered these things at first, and counted the cost ; they still find religion is rich enough to pay the cost of all that they can lose, or suffer for its sake ; yea, and that with an hundred-fold reward now in this life. They never had any other design in engaging in religious duties, but to help them to heaven ; and if they recover heaven at last, whether the way to it prove better or worse, they have their design and ends ; and therefore they will be stedfast, " always abounding in the work " of the Lord, as knowing their labour is not in vain in the Lord," 1 Cor. XV. ult.
6. Sixthlyy The humility and self-denial of our hearts in duties, will try what they are for their integrity and sincerity towards God. Doth a man boast in his own excellencies in prayer, as the Pharisee did, Luke xviii. 10, 11. " God, I thank thee, I am not as other men :'' Which he speaks not in an humble acknowledgment of the grace of God which differences man from man, but in a proud ostentation of his own excellencies. Doth a man make his duties his saviours, and trust to them in a vain confidence of their worth and dignity ? I^uke xviii. 9. Surely, " his heart, which is thus lifted up within him, is " not upright, Hab. ii. 4. But if the heart be upright indeed, it will express its humility, as in all other things, so especially in its duties wherein it approaches the great and holy God.
First, It will manifest its humility in those awful and reverential apprehensions it hath of God, as Abraham did. Gen. xviii. 27. " And now, I that am but dust and ashes, (saith he) have taken *' upon me to speak unto God." The humility of Abraham's spirit is, in some measure, to be found in all Abraham''s children. ,
Secondly, In those low and vik thoughts they have of themselves
RELIGIOUS DUTIES ARE HEART-DISCOVERIES. 571
and their religious performances : Thus that poor penitent, Luke vii. 38. stood behind Christ weeping: " Yet the dogs eat the crumbs," saith another, Mark vii. 28. " I am more brutish than any man," saith a third, Prov. xxx. 7. " I abhor myself in dust and ashes,'' saith a fourth, Job xlii. 6. and as little esteem they have for their performances, Isa. Ixiv. 6. " All our righteousnesses are as filthy *' rags." I deny not but there is pride and vanity in the most up- right ones ; but what place soever it finds in their converses with men, it finds little room in their converses with God, or if it doth, they loath it, and themselves for it.
Thirdly^ But especially their humility in duty is discovered in re- nouncing all their duties in point of dependence, and relying entirely upon Christ for righteousness and acceptance : They have special regard to duties in point of obedience, but none at all in point of reliance.
7. Seventhly^ The communion and intercourse which is betwixt God and men in duties, notably discovers what their person^ and graces are. And it must needs do so, because what communion so- ever the hypocrite hath with duties, or with saints in duties, to be sure he hath none with God.
None can come nigh to God in duty, but those that are made nigh by reconciliation : All special communion with Christ is founded in real union with Christ ; but " the wicked are estranged from the " womb," Psalm Iviii. 3.