[10.] Tenthly, No hypocrite ever makes it his business, hisivork, to bring his heart into religious duties and services, Mat. xv. 8, Mark vii. 6. He never makes conscience of bringing his heart into his work. An hypocrite is heartless in all he does : Ps. Ixxviii. 34, ' When he slew them, then they sought him ; and they returned and inquired early after God.' Ver. 36, ' Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.' Ver. 37, 'For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his cove- nant.' All lip-labour is but lost labour. When men's hearts are not in their devotion, their devotion is mere dissimulation. These hypocrites sought God, and inquired early after God, but it was still with old hearts, which are no hearts in the account of God. They made lip work of it, and head work of it, but their hearts not being in their work, all was lost: their seeking lost, their inquiring lost, their God lost, their souls lost, and eternity lost : Hosea vii. 14, ' And they have not cried unto me with their hearts, when they howled upon their beds.'^ When men's hearts are not in their prayers, all their prajnng is but as an hideous howling in the account of God.^ The cry of the heart is the only cry that God likes, loves, and looks for. He accepts of no cry, he delights in no cry, he rewards no cry, but the cry of the heart. Hypo- crites are heartless in their cries, and therefore they cry and howl, and howl and cry, and all to no purpose. They cry and murmur, and they howl and repine ; they cry and blaspheme, and they howl and rebel ;
* The Jews sold Christ for thirty pence, and the Komans sold thirty of them for a penny, as Josephus relates.
* The fox when caught in a gin, looks pitifully, but it is only to get out. They wor- shipped the Lord as the Indians do the devil, that ho may do tliem no hurt.
* As dogs, brute beasts, and Indians do, when they are hunger-bit.
458 A CABINET OF JEWELS, [ChAP. IV.
and therefore they meet with nothing from heaven but frowns, and blows, and disappointments : Isa. xxix. 1 3, ' Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me/ Ezek. xxxiii. 31, ' And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them : for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.' Though this people flocked to the prophet in troops, as men and women do to places of pleasure ; and though they carried it before the prophet as if they were saints, as if they were the people of God, as if they were affected with what they heard, as if they were resolved to live out what the prophet should make out to them ; yet their hearts ran after their covetousness. Though these hypocrites professed much love and kindness to the pro- phet, and paid him home with smooth words, and seemed to be much affected, delighted, ravished, and taken with his person, voice, and doc- trine, yet they made no conscience of bringing their hearts into their duties. An hypocrite may look at some outward, easy, ordinary duties of religion, but he never makes conscience of bringing his heart into any duties of religion. Wlien did you ever see an hypocrite a-searching of his heart, or sitting in j udgment upon the corruptions of his soul, or lamenting and mourning over the vileness and wickedness of his spirit ? It is only the sincere Christian that is affected, afflicted, and wounded with the corruptions of his heart. When one told blessed Bradford that he did all out of hypocrisy, because he would have the people applaud him, he answered, It is true, the seeds of hypocrisy and vain glory are in thee and me too, and will be in us as long as we live in this world ; but I thank God it is that I mourn under and strive against. How seriously and deeply did good Hezekiah humble himself for the pride of his heart ! ' Out of the eater came meat,' out of his pride he gat hu- mility, 2 Chron. xxxii. 25.
O sirs ! a sincere Christian makes it his great business to get his heart into all his religious duties and services, to get his heart into every way and work of God, Cant. iii. 1-6. Jehoshaphat's heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord, 2 Chron. xvii. 6. So David, ' I will praise thee, O Lord, with all my heart,' Ps. xxxvi. 12. And so Ps. cxix. 7, ' I will praise thee with uprightness of heart.' Ver. 10, ' With my whole heart have I sought thee.' So Jehoshaphat he sought the Lord with all his heart, 2 Chron. xxii. 9. Isa. xxvi. 8, ' The desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.' Ver. 9, * With my soul have I desired thee in the night ; yea, with my spirit within me Avill I seek thee early.' Lam. iii. 41, ' Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.' Rom. i. 9, ' For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son.' Paul's very spirit, his very soul, was in his service. Philip, iii. 3, ' For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.' Rom. vii. 22, ' I de- light in the law of God after the inward man.' Ver. 25, ' With the mind I myself serve the law of God.' A sincere Christian is always best when his heart is in his work, and when he cannot get his heart into his duties, oh ! how does he sigh, and groan, and complain, and
Chap. IV.] a cabinet of jewels. 459
mourn at the foot of God ! Lord, my tongue has been at -work, and my head has been at work, and my parts have been at work, and my eyes and hands have been at work, but where has my heart been this day ? Oh ! it is and must be for a sore and sad lamentation that I have had so Httle of my heart in that service that I have tendered to thee ! ' This is the daily language of an upright heart. But now all the work of an h}^ocrite is to get his golden parts into his duties, and his silver tongue into his duties, and his nimble head into his duties; but he never makes conscience of getting his heart into his duties. If any beasts sacrificed by heathens, who ever looked narrowly into the entrails, was found without a heart, this was held ominous, and construed as very prodigious to the person for whom it was offered, as it fell out in the case of Julian. Hypocrites are always heartless in all the sacrifices they offer to God, and this will one day prove ominous and prodigious to them. But,