thoroughly subdued to a willingness to
Now, all this Satan knows, and therefore he labors mightily to engage hypocrites to live in the allowance of some one sin. O sirs! remember that as one hole in a ship will sink it, and as one stab at the heart will kill a man, and as one glass of poison will poison a man, and as one act of treason will make a man a traitor—so one sin lived in and allowed will damn a man forever. One wound strikes Goliath dead, as well as twenty-three did Caesar; one Delilah will do Samson as much mischief as all the Philistines; one vein's bleeding will let out all the vitals as well as more; one bitter herb will spoil all the pottage. One Achan was a trouble to all Israel; one Jonah was too heavy for a whole ship; so one sin lived in and allowed, is enough to make a man miserable forever. One millstone will sink a man to the bottom of the sea as well as a hundred; so one sin lived in and indulged will sink a man to the bottom of hell as well as a hundred.
I have read of a great Roman captain, who, as he was riding in his triumphant chariot through Rome, had his eyes never off a beautiful woman who walked along the street, which made one say, 'Behold how this great captain, who has conquered such and such armies, is himself conquered by one silly woman!' There is never a hypocrite in the world—but lies under the conquest of one base lust or another— but lives under the reign and dominion of one sin or another. That soul that can in sincerity of heart appeal to a heart-searching God, that it is otherwise with him, namely, that he does not live nor allow himself in any one sinful way or practice, that soul, I dare assure in the Lord's name, is no hypocrite.
3. As a hypocrite's heart is never thoroughly subdued to a willingness to
part with every lust, so neither is his heart thoroughly subdued to a willingness to perform all known duties.
Sometimes he is all for public duties—but makes no conscience of closet-duties, or of family-duties; sometimes he is all for the duties of the first table—but makes no conscience of the duties of the second table; and sometimes he is all for the duties of the second table—but makes no conscience of the duties of the first table. If he obeys one command, he willingly lives in the neglect of another; if he does one duty, he will be sure to cast off another; as he is not willing to fall out with every sin, so be is not willing to fall in with every duty. A hypocrite's obedience is always partial, it is never universal; he still baulks or boggles with those commands which cross his lusts.
The pharisees fasted, prayed, gave alms, and paid tithes—but they omitted "the weightier matters of the law—judgment, mercy, and faith," Matt 6; and they were unnatural to parents; and under a pretense of praying, they made a prey of widows' houses; under a pretense of piety, they exercised the greatest covetousness; unrighteousness, and cruelty, and that upon widows, who are usually the greatest objects of pity and charity; they made no bones of robbing the widow, under a pretense of honoring God. So Judas, under a pretense of laying up for the poor, robbed the poor; he pretended to lay up for the poor—but he intended only to lay up for himself, and to provide against a rainy day. It is probable that he had no great mind to stay long with his Lord, and therefore he was resolved to make the best market he could for himself. Judas being willing to set up for himself, under a cloak of holiness, he practices the greatest unfaithfulness. Though the eagle soars high, yet still her eye is upon her prey; so though Judas did soar high in profession; yet
his eye was still upon his prey, upon his bags; and so that he might have it, he cared not who went without it; so that he might be rich, he did not care though his Lord and his retinue grew ever so poor. Judas under all his shows and sanctity, had not so much as common honesty in him.
Counterfeit holiness is often made a stalking-horse to much righteousness; but certainly it were better to have honesty without religion, than to have religion without honesty. A hypocrite may exercise himself in some outward, easy, ordinary duties of religion; but when shall you see a hypocrite laying the axe to the root of the tree, or searching and trying his own heart, or severely judging his bosom sins, or humbly mourning and lamenting over secret corruptions, or doubling his guards about his own soul, or rejoicing in the graces, services, or excellencies of others, or striving or pressing after the highest pitches of grace, holiness, and communion with God, or endeavoring more to cast out the beam out of his own eye, than the mote out of his brother's eye, or to be more severe against his own sins than against the sins of others? Alas! a hypocrite is so far from practicing these duties, that he thinks them either superfluous or impossible.
A hypocrite's obedience is always a limited and stinted obedience. It is either limited to such commands which are most suitable to his ease, safety, honor, profit, pleasure, etc., or else it is limited to the outward part of the command, and never extends itself to the inward and spiritual part of the command; as you may see in the scribes and pharisees. Their obedience was all outward; they had no regard at all to the inward and spiritual part of any command. They did not murder, they did not commit adultery, they had an eye to the outward part of the command; but Christ charges them with unjust and adulterous thoughts, unchaste glances, contemplative