_Direct._ I. To escape hypocrisy, understand well wherein the life and power of godliness doth consist, and wherein it differeth from the lifeless image or corpse of godliness. The life of godliness is expressed in the seventeen grand directions in chap. iii. It principally consisteth in such a faith in Christ, as causeth us to love God above all, and obey him before all, and prefer his favour and the hopes of heaven before all the pleasures, or profits, or honours of the world; and to worship him in spirit and truth, according to the direction of his word. The images of religion I showed you before, page 176. Take heed of such a lifeless image.
_Direct._ II. See that your chief study be about the heart, that there God's image may be planted, and his interest advanced, and the interest of the world and flesh subdued, and the love of every sin cast out, and the love of holiness succeed; and that you content not yourselves with seeming to do good in outward acts, when you are bad yourselves, and strangers to the great internal duties. The first and great work of a christian is about his heart. There it is that God dwelleth by his Spirit, in his saints; and there it is that sin and Satan reign, in the ungodly. The great duties and the great sins are those of the heart. There is the root of good and evil: the tongue and life are but the fruits and expressions of that which dwelleth within.[149] The inward habit of sin is a second nature: and a sinful nature is worse than a sinful act. "Keep your hearts with all diligence: for from thence are the issues of life," Prov. iv. 23. Make the tree good, and the fruit will be good: but the "viperous generation that are evil, cannot speak good; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," Matt. xii. 33, 34. Till the Spirit have regenerated the soul, all outward religion will be but a dead and pitiful thing: though there is something which God hath appointed an unregenerate man to do, in order to his own conversion, yet no such antecedent act will prove that the person is justified or reconciled to God, till he be converted. To make up a religion of doing or saying something that is good, while the heart is void of the Spirit of Christ, and sanctifying grace, is the hypocrite's religion, Rom. viii. 9.
_Direct._ III. Make conscience of the sins of the thoughts, and the desire and other affections or passions of the mind, as well as of the sins of tongue or hand. A lustful thought, a malicious thought, a proud, ambitious, or covetous thought, especially if it proceed to a wish, or contrivance, or consent, is a sin the more dangerous by how much the more inward and near the heart; as Christ hath showed you, Matt. v. and vi. The hypocrite who most respecteth the eye of man, doth live as if his thoughts were free.
_Direct._ IV. Make conscience of secret sins, which are committed out of the sight of men, and may be concealed from them, as well as of open and notorious sins. If he can do it in the dark and secure his reputation, the hypocrite is bold: but a sincere believer doth bear a reverence to his conscience, and much more to the all-seeing God.
_Direct._ V. Be faithful in secret duties, which have no witness but God and conscience: as meditation, and self-examination, and secret prayer; and be not only religious in the sight of men.
_Direct._ VI. In all public worship be more laborious with the heart, than with the tongue or knee: and see that your tongue overrun not your heart, and leave it not behind. Neglect not the due composure of your words, and due behaviour of your bodies: but take much more pains for the exercise of holy desires from a believing, loving, fervent soul.