holy, gracious, thy having faith unfeigned, pure love, and the other graces, which will prove thee sound, and bring in evidence for thy interest in Christ, and through him of Heaven.

CHAP. XI.

THE WEAK GROUNDS WHEREBY TEMPTED SOULS ARGUE AGAINST THEIR OWN UPRIGHTNESS.

WE proceed to the false grounds from which sincere souls do many times go about to prove themselves hypocrites, yea for a while conclude they are such.

First, Sure I am a hypocrite, saith the poor soul, or else I should not be as I am. God would not thus follow me on with one blow after another, and suffer Satan also to use me as he doth. This was the grand battery Job's friends had against his sincerity; and sometimes Satan so far prevails as to make the sincere soul set it against his own breast, saying, much like him, "If God be with us, why is all this befallen us?" if God be in us by his grace, why appears he against us?

Answ. This fire into which God casts thee proves thou hast dross, and if because thou art held long in the furnace, thou shouldest say thou hadst much dross, I would not oppose; but how thou shouldest spell hypocrite out of thy afflictions and troubles I marvel; the wicked indeed make much use of this argument to clap hypocrite on them; but the Christian methinks should not use it against himself: though the Barbarians presently gave their verdict, upon sight of the viper on Paul's hand, that he was a murderer, yet Paul thought not worse of himself for it. Christian, give but the same counsel to thyself, when in affliction and temptation, that thou usest to do to thy fellow-brethren in the same condition, and thou wilt get out of this snare. Darest thou think thy neighbour a hypocrite, merely from the hand of God upon him? no, I warrant thee, thou rather pitiest him,

and helpest him to answer the doubts that arise in his spirit from this very argument. It would make one smile to see how handsomely and roundly a Christian can untie the knots and scruples of another, who afterward, when brought into the like condition, is gravelled with the same himself; he that helped his friend over the stile, is now unable to stride it himself. God so orders things that we should need one another. She that is midwife to others cannot well do that office to herself: nor he that is the messenger to bring peace to the spirit of another able to speak it to his own. The case is clear, Christian; affliction cannot prove thee a hypocrite, which wert thou without altogether thou mightest safer think thou wert a bastard; the case I say is clear, but thy eyes are held for some further end God hath to bring about by thy affliction. But, may be, thou wilt say, it is not simply the affliction makes thee think thus of thyself; but because thou art so long afflicted, and in the dark also as to any sense of God's love in thy soul. Thou hast no smiles from God's sweet countenance to alleviate thy affliction; and if all were right, and thou a sincere child of God, would thy heavenly father let thee lie groaning, and never look in upon thee to lighten thy affliction with his sweet presence? As to the first of those, the length of thy affliction, I know no standard God hath set for to measure the length of his saints' crosses by, and it becomes not us to make one ourselves; which we do, when we thus limit his chastisements to time, that if they exceed the day we have writ down in our own thoughts, which is like to be short enough if our hasty hearts may appoint, then we are hypocrites. For the other, thou must know, God can, without any impeachment to his love, hide it for awhile; and truly he may take it very ill that his children, who have security enough given them for his loving them, besides the sensible manifestation of it to their souls, should call this in question, for not coming to visit them, and take them up in his arms, when they would have him: in a word, may be thy affliction comes in the nature of purging physic; God intends to evacuate some corruption by it, which endangers thy spiritual health, and hinders thy thriving in godliness. Now

the manifestation of his love God may reserve, as physicians do their cordials, to be given when the physic is over.

Secondly, I fear I am a hypocrite, saith the tempted soul, why else are there such decays and declensions to be found in me? it is the character of the upright, that he goes from strength to strength, but I go backward from strength to weakness. Some Christians are like those that we call close men in the world; if they lose any thing in their trade, and all goes not as they would have it, we are sure to hear of that over and over again, they speak of their losses in every company; but when they make a good market, and gains come in apace, they keep this to themselves, not forward to speak of them. If Christians would be ingenuous they should tell what they get, as well as what they lose. But to take it for granted that thou dost find a decay, and direct our answer to it:

Answ. 1. I grant it is true that the sincere soul grows stronger and stronger; but how? even as the tree grows higher and bigger, which we know meets with a fall of the leaf and winter, that for awhile intermits its growth. Thus the sincere soul may be put to a present stand by some temptation; as Peter, who was far from growing stronger when he fell from professing to denying; from denying Christ to swearing and cursing if he knew him: yet as the tree, when spring comes, revives and gains more in the summer then it loseth in the winter, so doth the sincere soul; as we see in Peter, whose grace that squatted in for awhile, came forth with such a force that no cruelty from men could drive it in ever after; shaking temptations end in settlement, according to the Apostle's prayer: "the God of all grace, after ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." 1 Pet. v. 10.

Secondly, There is great difference between the decay of a sincere soul and of a hypocrite. The hypocrite declines out of an inward dislike of the ways of God; hence they are called "backsliders in heart," Prov. xiv. 14. So long as they served his lust, and contributed any help to the obtaining his worldly interest, so long he had a seeming zeal; but that argument taken away, he

begins to remit by degrees, till he comes to be key-cold, yea as heartily sick of his profession as Amnon of Tamar; when the hypocrite begins to fall, he goes apace, like a stone down the hill, knows no ground but the bottom. Now speak freely, poor soul, darest thou say that there is an inward dislike to the ways of God? may be thou dost pray not with that heat and fervency which thou hast, but is it because thou dost not like the duty as formerly? thou dost not hear the word with such joy, but dost thou not therefore hear it with more sorrow? in a word, canst thou not say with the spouse, "when thou sleepest, thy heart waketh," Cant. v. 2, that is, thou art not pleased with thy present declining state, but heartily wishest thou wert out of it; as one that hath a great desire to rise, and be at his work, his heart is awake, but he is not able at present to shake off that sleep which binds him down; this will clear thee from being a hypocrite.

Thirdly, I fear, saith the poor soul, I am a hypocrite, because I have such a divided heart in the duties I perform; I cannot for my life enjoy any privacy with God in duty, but some base lust will be crowding into my thoughts, when I am at prayer, hearing of the word, or meditating; now I am lifted up with a self-applauding thought, anon cast down to the earth with a worldly thought, what with one and another, little respite have I from such company. And do such vermin breed any where but in the dunghill of a false hypocritical heart?

Answ. Woe were it to the best of saints, if the mere rising and stirring of such thoughts as these, or worse than these, did prove the heart unsound; take heed thou concludest not thy state therefore from the presence of these in thee, but from the comportment and behaviour of thy heart towards them. Answer therefore to these few interrogatories, and possibly thou mayest see thy sincerity through the mist these have raised in the soul.

First, What friendly welcome have such thoughts with thee, when they present themselves to thee in duty? Are these the guests thou hast expected and trimmed thy room for? didst go to duty to meet those friends, or do they unmannerly break in upon thee, and forcibly carry

thee, as Christ foretold of Peter in another case, whither thou wouldest not? If so, why shouldest thou bring thy sincerity into dispute? dost thou not know the devil is a bold intruder, and dares come where he knows there is none will bid him sit down; and that soul alone he can call his own house where he finds rest, Luke xii. 24. Suppose in your family, as you are kneeling down to prayer, a company of rioters should stand under your window, and all the while you are praying, they should be roaring and hollowing, this could not but much disturb you; but would you from the disturbance they make fall to question your sincerity in the duty? Truly it is all one whether the disturbance be in the room or in the bosom, so the soul likes the one no more than he doth the other.

Secondly, Dost thou sit contented with this company, or use all the means thou canst to get rid of them as soon as may be? Sincerity cannot sit still to see such doings in the soul; but as a faithful servant, when thieves break into his master's house, though overpowered with their strength and multitude, that he cannot with his own hands thrust them out of doors, yet he will send out secretly for help, and raise the town upon them: prayer is the sincere soul's messenger, it posts to Heaven with full speed in this case, counting itself to be no other than in the belly of Hell with Jonah, while it is yoked with such thoughts; and as glad when aid comes to rescue him . out of their hands, as Lot was when Abraham recovered him from the kings that had carried him away prisoner.

Object. But may be thou wilt say, though thou darest not deny that thy cry is sent to Heaven against them, yet thou hearest no news of thy prayer, but continuest still pestered with them as before, which encreaseth thy fear that thy heart is naught, or else thy prayer would have been answered, and thou delivered from these inmates.

Answ. Paul might as well have said so, when he besought the Lord thrice, but could not have the thorn in his flesh plucked out, 2 Cor. xii. 8. He doth not by this shew thee to be a hypocrite, but gives thee a fair advantage of proving thyself sincere; not much unlike his dealing with the Israelites, before whom he did not (as