[11.] Eleventhly, An hypocrite never perfoi^ms religious duties from spiritual pHnciples, nor in a spimtual manner. An hypocrite is never inclined, moved, and carried to God, to Christ, to holy duties, by the power of a new and inward principle of grace working a suitable- ness between his heart and the things of God. An hypocrite rests him- self satisfied in the mere external acts of religion, though he never feels anything of the power of religion in his own soul. An hypocrite looks to his words in prayer, and to his voice in prayer, and to his gestures in prayer, but he never looks to the frame of his heart in prayer. An hypocrite's heart is never touched with the words his tongue utters ; an hypocrite's soul is never divinely affected, delighted, or graciously warmed with any duty he performs. An hypocrite's spiritual perform- ances never flow from spiritual principles, nor from a heart universally sanctified. Though his works may be new, yet his heart remains old ; his new practices always spring from old principles ; and this will prove the hypocrite's bane, as you may see in that Isa. i. 15, ' When you spread forth your hands to heaven, I will hide my eyes ; and when you make many prayers, when you abound in duty,' adding prayer to prayer, as the Hebrew runs, ' I will not hear, your hands are full of blood.' These were unsanctified ones ; their practices were new, but their hearts were old still, Isa. i. 10-16. The same you may see in the scribes and pharisees, who fasted, prayed, and gave alms, but their hearts were not changed, renewed, sanctified, nor principled from above ; and this proved their eternal bane. Mat. vi., xxiii, ; Luke xviii. Nicodemus was a man of great note, name, and fame among the pharisees, and he fasted, and prayed, and gave alms, and paid tithes, &:c., and yet a mere stranger to the new birth ; regeneration was a paradox to him. ' How can a man be born when he is old ? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born ? '^ John iii. 4. This great doctor was so great a dunce, that he understood no more of the doctrine of re- generation, than a mere child does the darkest precepts of astronomy. Look, as water can rise no higher than the spring from whence it came, so the natural man can rise no higher than nature, 1 Cor. ii. 14. An
' It is reported that when the tyrant Trajan commanded Ignatius to be ripped and un- bowelled, they found Jesus Christ written upon his heart in characters of gold. Here was a heart worth gold. That is the golden Christian indeed, whose heart is writ upon all his duties and services.
* No man can understand spiritual mysteries by carnal reason.
460 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. IV.
hypocrite may know much, and pray much, and hear much, and fast much, and give much, and obey much, and all to no purpose, because he never manages anything he does in a right manner ; he never carries on his work from inward principles of faith, fervency, life, love, delight, &c. Will the hypocrite delight himself in the Almighty ? Ans. No ; he cannot delight himself in the Almighty.
(1.) To dslight in God is one of the highest acts of grace ; and how can an hypocrite put forth one of the highest acts of grace, who hath no grace ? An hypocrite may know much of God, and talk much of God, and make a great profession of God, and be verbally thankful to God ; but he can never love God, nor trust in God, nor delight in God, nor take up his rest in God, &c.^
(2.) An hypocrite knows not God; and how then can he delight in that God whom he does not know ? An hypocrite has no inward, saving, transforming, experimental, affectionate, practical knowledge of God ; and therefore he can never take any pleasure or delight in God.
(3.) There is no suitableness between an hypocrite and God ; and how then can an hypocrite delight himself in God ? There is the great- est contrariety imaginable betwixt God and an hypocrite. God is light, and the hypocrite is darkness ; God is holiness, and he filthiness ; God is righteousness, and he unrighteousness ; God is fulness, and he empti- ness, 2 Cor. vi. 15, 16. Now what complacency can there be where there is such an utter contrariety ?
(4.) Every hypocrites heart is full of enmity against God ; and how then can he delight himself in God ? ' The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be,' Rom. viii. 7. The best part of an hypocrite is not only averse, but utterly adverse to God and all goodness.^ The eagle, saith the philoso- pher, hath a continual enmity with the dragon and the serpent. And so an hypocrite's heart is still full of enmity against the Lord ; and therefore he can never delight himself in the Lord.
(5.) The stream, cream., and strength of an hypocrite's delight runs out to himself, and to this lust or that, or this relation or that, to this creature-comfort or that, to this worldly enjoyment or that, or else to arts, parts, gifts, privileges, &c., and therefore how can he delight him- self in the Almighty ? An hypocrite always terminates his delight in something on this side God, Christ, and heaven. Look, as the apricock tree,^ though it leans against the wall, yet it is fast rooted in the earth ; so though an hypocrite may lean towards God, and towards Christ, and towards heaven, yet his dehght is still rooted fast in one creature-com- fort or another, &c. God nor Christ is never the adequate object of an hypocrite's delight. An hypocrite is never principled to delight himself in a holy God, neither can he cordially, divinely, habitually delight him- self in holy duties. An hypocrite may reform many evil things, and he may do many good duties, and yet all this while it is only his practices, but not his heart or principles, that are changed and altered. Mark, though an hypocrite hath nothing in him which is essential to a Christian
' Job xxvii. 10, Job speaks of the hypocrite, as is evident, ver. 8. * To delight in God, is Christianorum propria virtus, saitli Jerome. 2 Early form of ' apricot.' — G.
Chap. IV.] A cabinet of jewels. 461
as a Christian, yet he may be the complete resemblance of a Christian in all those things which are not essential to him. An hypocrite, in all the externals of religion, may be the complete picture of a sincere Christian ; but then if you look to his principles, and the manner of hLs managing of holy duties, there you will find him lame and defective, and as much unlike a sincere Christian, as ever Michal's image was un- like to David, 1 Sam. xix. 13-16 ; and this will prove the great crack, the great break-neck of hypocrites at last.