lies like a load upon their hearts, and how soon would it bring them into a condition of peace, comfort, quietness, and settlement. 0 sirs ! every working and appearance of hypocrisy doth not presently prove the per- son in whom it is to be an hypocrite. A man may be hypocritical, either, 1, really ; or, 2, in opinion and fancy. Many of the dear children of God are very apt and prone many times both to suspect and falsely charge the true estate of their souls. A child in a distemper may question the inheritance which is entailed on him, &c. ; but, remember this, if thy heart be upright, all comfort is thy portion ; for as our dis- trustful fears do not prejudice the reality of the estate of grace, so our frequent suspicions that we are hypocrites, does not cut us off from the title and right of promised comforts. Christians must carefully distinguish between the presence of hypocrisy and the predominancy of hypocrisy. In the most upright hearts that are in the world, there is more or less hypocrisy remaining in them. All the saints that ever were in the world have found more or less of this root of bitterness springing up in them, Rom. vii. 22, 23, Heb. xii. 15. It is not the pre- sence of hypocrisy, but the reign of hypocrisy that damns the soul. That hypocrisy that is discerned, resisted, opposed, and mourned over, will never make a Christian miserable. Where the standing frame and general bent of a man's heart is upright, there the presence of hypocri-sy cannot denominate a man an hypocrite. All men must stand and fall for ever according to the standing frame and general bent of their hearts. If the standing frame and general bent of their hearts be sincere, they are happy for ever ; but if the standing frame and general bent of their hearts be hypocritical, they are miserable for ever. But,
The fourteenth 'maxim or consideration.
XIV. Fourteenthly, Consider you must never judge yourselves un- sound, or hypocrites, for such things, or from such considerations, or by such arguments or reasonings, which being admitted and granted to be true, will necessarily and xmavoidably prove the vjhole genera- tion of the faithful, tlie whole body of them that fear the Lord, to be unsound, and to be a pack of notoHous hyptocrites, Ps. Ixxiii. 15. He that shall judge himself unsound, or an hypocrite, because his thoughts and imaginations are that he is not sincere, or becavise he is thus and thus tempted, or because he is at particular times, and in par- ticular cases, thus and thus worsted and cajjtivated by sin, Isa. Iv. 7-9, notwithstanding all the resistance that he is able to make against it, and notwithstanding his hatred of it, and his loathing and judging of him- self for it, or because he is thus and thus afflicted in his family, or in his relations, or in his own person ; or because he is thus and thus dis- tracted in prayer, and straitened in prayer ; or because he is sometimes troubled with sad, hard, hideous, and blasphemous thoughts of God ; he does in so judging judge and condemn the whole generation of the righteous, for there are none of them but first or last, more or less, have been exercised even as he is, or as he has been exercised.^ Who dare judge his neighbour, his brother, his friend, an hypocrite, because
' Jacob, Joseph, Job, David, Heman, Paul, and those worthies in the 11th of the Hebrews, have been as much afflicted as thou liast been : now for tliee to conclude tliat thou art not beloved, because thou hast been thus afflicted, this is to conclude against all those worthies, of wliom this world was not worthy, Heb. si. 38.
SOO A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. I.
the hand of the Lord has been various ways lifted up against him, or because Satan has been let loose to play witli his grand battery upon him ? Now if thou darest not judge thy neighbour an hypocrite upon these accounts, how darest thou to judge thyself an hypocrite upon the very same accounts ? When thy neighbour, thy brother, thy friend is thus and thus afflicted, tempted, distressed, &c., thou canst tell them that this has been the common lot of the people of God in all the ages of the world ; thou canst tell them that no man knows love or hatred by these things, and that all things come alike to all ; thou canst tell them that the choicest saints have been most afflicted, tempted, clouded, and distressed ; thou canst tell them that all shall end well, that all shall issue well.^ Remember the patience of Job, and consider the end that the Lord made with him. Thou canst tell them that thou hast got that good by afflictions, temptations, cloudings, distresses, that thou wouldst not exchange for ten thousand worlds. Now if Christians, when they are afflicted, tempted, clouded, distressed, would be but as kind, favourable, and merciful to themselves as they are to others in the same condition, how well would it be with them, how soon would they get out of the snare ! O sirs ! if this rule were but prudently con- sidered, and seriously practised, how would the fears, doubts, and dark- nesses of many poor weak, doubting, staggering, and trembhng Christians vanish, and what peace, comfort, and settlement would they quickly find. O sirs ! we must never stand to that judgment which we pass upon our spiritual estates, which is irrational, or without sufficient ground from Scripture, or which would be to condemn the generation of the just. We may safely appeal from that sentence of our judgment, which acts itself in times of passion or violent temptation, as he did from Alexander drunk to Alexander sober, &c. We must not unjustly vex our own hearts, and dash out our integrity, when the sentence that we pass upon ourselves is rather of imagination than of reason. When a man tliinks, and thinks asfain and a^ain that his heart is not sincere with God, though many, if not all, evidences of sincerity appear in him, and when he cannot produce any one inherently distinguishing ground of an hypocrite in himself, why this is but an imaginary judgment, and utterly unreasonable, for this is to condemn the innocent without cause. O sirs ! that soul will never be settled in peace and comfort, which gives way to his own imaginations and passions, and which hath a con- ceit that every sinful thought, or violent temptation, or more durable conflict with an inward corruption, or the resurrection of some old sin, or frequent distractions in religious duties, or particular falls or slips into this or that sin, cannot stand with grace, cannot stand with up- rightness, cannot stand with singleness and soundness of heart. Oh that you would for ever remember this, viz., that where a man hath either no ground at all, or those that he hath are false, he should never so settle on them, and yield and entertain them, as to question his estate for them, or for them to shut the door of comfort against his own soul. But,
T J te fifteenth maxim or consideration.