Use 1. It serves to inform us that the bare performance of the duties ot religion is no gracious evidence. Cain may sacrifice as well as Abel. A christian is rather tried by his graces than by his duties ; and yet this is the usual fallacy, the paralogism and false reason that we put upon our own consciences. We secure ourselves upon no other grounds but this, because we are conversant in holy duties. All the claim and title most men have to heaven is only some external acts of duty ; they pray, and hear, and keep the sabbath, as the people used to do : James i. 21, 'Be ve doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own souls.' The word is — TrapaXoyL^o/jbevoi, ' putting a false reasoning upon yourselves. We reason thus. He that hears the word shall be ever- lastingly happy : but I am a hearer of the word. Oh ! saith the apostle, * be not'hearers only.' And though the premisses come last in sight, yet we hold fast the conclusion, and think ourselves to be in a sure estate ; and this is all the ground of our confidence, an act of duty. Mat. vii. 24, the foolish builder represents those that lay the ground of their con- fidence in bare attendance on religious duties. Foolish men will raise a high Babel of confidence upon the weakest foundation that may be ; they are apt to rest upon unwarrantable evidences ; they think they must needs be saved because they hear the word and pray in the name of Christ Do but search what are your evidences and foundations upon which you build. Some live only by guess, and devout aims and conjectures, and never consider upon what terms they stand with God ; others content themselves wath very slight evidences, and think their hearts are good merely because they practise some external duties. Thou prayest, so many a pharisee ; thou worship])est God in the time of the solemn returns of duty, so did Cain ; and therefore build not upon these things. But because this is a conceit deeply rooted in our nature, I shall lay down a few convictive propositions.
1. "^Phe bare performance of any or.tw.u'd duty is not enough to endear
YeR. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 449
you to God. God doth not look to the outward acts, but to the frame
of the spirit. You may cheat conscience and deceive man by these out- ward acts of duty, but God is not mocked. When he comes to weigh the action, lie doth not consider the feir pretence, but the disposition of tlie heart : Prov. xvi. 2, ' The Lord weigheth the spirits ; ' he looks that the aim should be as good as the action, and the principle every way as good as the performance. If we did but go to the balance of the sanctuary and weigh our spirits, we should not be so carnally confi- dent as usually we are. Heathens did regard efr/ov vofiov, Rom. ii. 15, ' Which show the work of the law written in their hearts.'
2. A man may miscarry though he be employed in the highest minis- tries and duties of religion. You shall see among other things that are pleaded in the day or judgment this is one: Mat. vii. 23, 'We have prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils ;' consider, a man may do great service in the church, and yet come short of heaven ; ca.st out devils, and yet be cast out among devils ; a man may not only be a hearer, but a preacher of the word ; they may prophesy in Christ's name, and yet he will not own them. 0 the sad case of such ! Like the way-marks set up in high-ways, that direct others to travel, but do not stir themselves ; after they have taught others, they themselves are cast-aways : or like those that made Noah's ark to save others, and were drowned themselves in the water : or like the moon which gives light to others, but it hath none rooted in its own body ; they may do much service for Christ, yet be in a bad condition.
3. The heart may be somewhat exercised in duty, and yet it is no gracious evidence. There may be an exercise of memory, wit, and inven- t ion in and about the service of God, yet all this while the heart not right. Christians are not measured by their gifts, but by their graces. Gifts are for the body, the church ; therefore they may be bestowed some- times upon carnal men, and poured out in a large measure on them: 1 Cor. xiii. 1, ' Though 1 speak with the tongue of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.' Parts make but an empty sound. That is not the more excellent way.
4. There may be some exercise of affection, and yet men may mis- carry ; as there may be an exercise of joy in duties, and grief in the defect of duties.
[1.] There may be some kind of joy in duties. The stony ground 'received the word with joy,' Mat. xiii. 20. Men, out of a carnal respect, may delight in the ordinances of God. A judicious man may delight injudicious preaching, and take pleasure in the guts of the minister and the gracefulness of his utterance, when there is no grace in the heart : Ezek. xxxiii. 32, ' Thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument. They take delight in the tunable cadency of expressions, but yet ' they hear thy words, and do them not.' ]Men may delight in the carnal part of ordinances when there is no true, real, and spiritual delight in the soul. There is a higher delight than all this, which seems spiritual, but is not, when a man delights and finds contentment in the exercise of his own gifts rather than in communion with God There is a secret complacency, a tickling of the heart at the conceit of our own worth, in