_Direct._ VII. Place not more in the externals, or modes, or circumstances, or ceremonies of worship, than is due; and lay not out more zeal for indifferent or little things than cometh to their share; but let the great substantials of religion have the precedency, and be far preferred before them.[150] Let the love of God and man be the sum of your obedience; and be sure you learn well what that meaneth, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." And remember, that the great thing which God requireth of you, is "to do justice, and love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.--Destroy not him with your meat for whom Christ died." Call not for fire from heaven upon dissenters; and think not every man intolerable in the church, that is not in every little matter of your mind. Remember that the hypocrisy of the Pharisees is described by Christ, as consisting in a zeal for their own traditions, and the inventions of men, and the smallest matters of the ceremonial law, with a neglect of the greatest moral duties, and a furious cruelty against the spiritual worshippers of God. Matt. xv. 2, "Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread." Ver. 7-10, "Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me: but in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Matt. xxiii. 4-6, 13, 14, &c. "They bind heavy burdens, which they touch not themselves. All their works they do to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments; and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in public, and to be called Rabbi.--But they shut up the kingdom of heaven against men," and were the greatest enemies of the entertainment of the gospel by the people. They "tithed mint, and anise, and cummin, and omitted the great matters of the law, judgment, and mercy, and faith." They "strained at a gnat, and swallowed a camel." They had a great veneration for the "dead prophets and saints," and yet were persecutors and murderers of their "successors" that were "living," ver. 23, &c. By this description you may see which way hypocrisy doth most ordinarily work: even to a blind and bloody zeal for opinions, and traditions, and ceremonies, and other little things, to the treading down the interest of Christ and his gospel, and a neglect of the life and power of godliness, and a cruel persecuting those servants of Christ, whom they are bound to love above their ceremonies. I marvel that many papists tremble not when they read the character of the Pharisees! But that hypocrisy is a hidden sin, and is an enemy to the light which would discover it.
_Direct._ VIII. Make conscience of the duties of obedience to superiors, and of justice and mercy towards men, as well as of acts of piety to God. Say not a long mass in order to devour a widow's house, or a christian's life or reputation. Be equally exact in justice and mercy as you are in prayers; and labour as much to exceed common men in the one as in the other. Set yourselves to do all the good you can to all, and do hurt to none; and do to all men as you would they should do to you.
_Direct._ IX. Be much more busy about yourselves than about others; and more censorious of yourselves than of other men; and more strict in the reforming of yourselves than of any others. For this is the character of the sincere: when the hypocrite is little at home and much abroad; and is a sharp reprehender of others, and perniciously tender and indulgent to himself. Mark his discourse in all companies, and you shall hear how liberal he is in his censures and bitter reproach of others: how such men, and such men (that differ from him, or have opposed him, or that he hates) are thus and thus faulty, and bad, and hateful. Yea, he is as great an accuser of his adversaries for hypocrisy, as if he were not a hypocrite himself; because he can accuse them of a heart sin without any visible control. If he call them drunkards, or swearers, or persecutors, or oppressors, all that know them could know that he belieth them; but when he speaks about matters in the dark, he thinks the reputation of his lies have more advantage. Many a word you may hear from him, how bad his adversaries are; but if such hypocritical talk did not tell you, he would not tell you how bad he is himself.[151]