and, so much more evil, as the good which is denied is more good: and therefore the denial of the Power of Godliness, must needs be as ill as the Form or Shew of Godliness would seem good, and as the Power of Godliness is good.

This is, therefore, the perfect Hypocrisy of fashionable Christians: they have the Form; they deny the Power. Here is then a direct and professed opposition, betwixt μópowrs and dúvauis, the form and the power and no less between the actions employed about them both; the one having, the other denying: having the form,'denying the power.

As all sin is originally from the Devil, so especially Hypocrisy : he is The Father of Lies: and what is Hypocrisy but a real lie? that is, his darling: and these two are well put together, ev izoupices Leudoλóywv, 1 Tim. iv. 2. in hypocrisy speaking lies. Now, as all things are more eminent in their causes and originals, than in the effects derived from them; so it must needs be said, that the greatest hypocrite in the world is the Devil. I know he hears what I say; but we must speak truth, and shame him. For Satan is transformed into an angel of light; saith the Apostle: not, he was; but, he is so transformed, that he never did, never will put off that counterfeit. And, as all his Imps are partakers of the Satanical nature; so, in every hypocrite, there is both the angel and the devil: the seeming angel is the Form of Godliness; the real devil is the denial of the Power of Godliness. It must be in another sense, that that Father said, Innocentia tempore posterior est quàm malitia. I am sure the angel of light was before the Satan; and now, because he is Satan, he puts on the angel of light.

Such shall be our method in this Hypocrite we treat of: first, we will begin with the ANGEL OF HYPOCRISY; and then, shew you the DEVIL IN HIS TRUE SHAPE.

I. First then, here is a Form, and but A FORM, OF GODLINESS.

A form does well; but, if it be but a form, it is an immaterial shadow of piety. Such was this of these men: for they were unnatural, traitors, heady, highminded, dovo. Surely, if they were unnatural, they must needs be unchristian: if they were traitors to their king, they could be no subjects to God: if heady and high-minded, they had nothing to do with him whose first lesson was, Learn of me, for I am meek. Nulla creatura humilior Deo; "No creature is more humble than God;" as Laurentius well if they had pleasure for their idol, they could not have the Lord for their God. So as, even without God, they had yet a Form of Godliness.

Godliness is a thing much talked of; little understood. While the Ancient School had wont to say, That it is not practical, not speculative, but affective; their meaning was, That it is in all these, in the heart, in the brain, in the hand; but most in the heart. It is speculative, in the knowledge of God; practical, in the service to God; affective, in our fear of him, love to him, joy in him. Shortly then, to apprehend God as he hath revealed, to serve him

as he hath required, to be affected to him as we ought, is Godliness; and the outward expression and counterfaisance of all these, is the Form of Godliness.

To this outside of Godliness then belongs all that glorious pageant of fashionable profession, which we see made in the world; whether in Words, Gesture, Carriage.

1. First, here is a world of GOOD WORDS; whether to God, or of him.

Here are words of sacred compliment with God: for the Hypocrite courts God in his prayers: no man speaks fairer, no man louder, than he. Here is Saul's benedictus: here is the Pharisee's Lord, I thank thee: here is the colloguing Jews' Domine, Domine; Lord, Lord.

And, as to him, so of him. Here are words of religious protestation for God, like to the Jews' Templum Domini; the Temple of the Lord: or Herod's pooиuvow, Matth. ii. 8. I will worship the Babe. The man's secret fire of zeal smokes forth into the holy breath of a good confession. Here are words of fervent excitation to the frozen hearts of others; yea, if need be, words of deep censure of the cold moderation which he apprehends in his wiser brethren: so as he is comptus in verbo, if turpis in facto; "neat in words, if foul in fact ;" as Bernard.

2. Yet more, here is a perfect scene of PIOUS GESTURES; knees bowed, hands erected, turned up eyes, the breast beaten, the head shaken, the countenance dejected, sighs ascending, tears dropping, the Bible hugged and kissed, the ear nailed to the pulpit: what formality of devout Godliness is here unacted? If the man were within, as he is without, there were no Saint but he.

3. Yet, this is not all to make up a perfect Form of Godliness: here is a smooth face of HOLY CARRIAGE IN ACTIONS.

Devout Saul will be saving the fattest of the Amalekitish flocks and herds, for sacrifice to the Lord his God. Good man! he will not have God take up with the worst. Every man is not of this diet: too many think any offal good enough for their Maker: but here is one, that holds the best fittest for those sacred altars; when, in the mean time, the Hypocrite had already sacrificed them to his own Mammon, and God must take up with the reversion.

Shall I tell you of another as good, as devout, as he? Do ye not remember, that Absalom would go to pay his vow in Hebron? The fair prince of Israel was courteous, before: now, he will be Godly too. It was piety, that he would make a vow to God: our gallants have somewhat else to do, than to make holy vows: at every word, they protest, and vow, and perhaps swear; but, all like themselves, vainly and idly but Absalom makes a solemn and religious vow. It was more piety, that he would perform it; this is not every man's care: too many care not how much they run upon God's score; this man will pitch and pay. Unnatural Parricide! First, he had stolen the subjects' hearts, and now he would steal his father's crown; and all this villainy must stalk un

der a beast's hide, a sacrifice at Hebron. Blood was in his thoughts, while the sacrifice was in his mouth.

The old word is, "Full of courtesy, full of craft:" when ye see too glittering pretences, in unapproved persons; suspect the inside. Had you but seen a Jew's Fast, you would say so; Isaiah lviii. 6. Here was nothing but drooping and ash-strawed heads, torn garments, bare feet, starved cheeks, scrubbed skins, pined maws, afflictive devotions; yet, a Jew still.

But, had you seen Herod's formality, you would have said it yet more: mark a little, and see Herod turned Disciple to John Baptist. What, Saul among the prophets? Herod among the Disciples? Surely so; for he hears him, Tush, hears him? what's that? There are those, that hear and would not; forced to hear by compulsion of laws: who may say to Authority, as the Psalmist says to God, Aurem perforasti mihi; Mine car hast thou bored: their ear is a Protestant, while their heart is a Recusant. There are those, that hear and hear not; that come fashionably, and hear perfunctorily whose ears are like the Psalmist's idols; for form only, not for use. There are those, that hear and care not: who is so deaf as the wilful? there is auris aggravata, heavy ear; Isa. lix. I there is auris surda, deaf ear; Mic. vii. 16. But Herod hears déws, gladly; with pleasure: he heard, because he loved to hear. Yea, so doth many a hollow heart still; ye shall have such an one listen, as if he were totus auris, "all ear;" as if he would catch every word from the preacher's mouth, ere it could get out: perhaps it is new; perhaps, witty; perhaps, elegant; or, some way pleasing. Yea, there are some, not only willing, but greedy hearers: they have aures bibulas; they hear hungrily and thirstily: but it is but to catch advantages; somewhat they hope may fall to pay the preacher. Herod is better than so: Guvelper, he observed, he respected, he countenanced this rough-hewn chaplain. Yea, so doth many a lewd patron for his own turn; either the easy passage of his simoniacal subductions, or for a favourable connivancy at his guilty debauchedness. Good looks are good-cheap. Perhaps a meal's meat may come in, for a further obligation too: but here is no good action, the while. Herod is better than so, Toλλà ¿zoia, he did too, and did many things. Lo here, he doth not hear, but do: and not some things, but many. It may be this camel-haired monitor told him of some outrageous disorders in his court; those he was willing to amend: perhaps he told him of some bribery of his officers, unjust or hard measures offered by oppressive ministers to his poor subjects; those he was ready to reform: ewole he did many things. One would think Bernard should not need to brand his Abailardus with intùs Herodes, forìs Johannes ; "Herod within, John without." His very outside was generally good; else, he had not done many things. Here was a Form of Godliness: but, let me tell you, a higher form, than many of us, for ought I see, care to climb up unto. There is hearing, and talking, and professing enough in the world; but where is the doing?

or, if there be doing, yet it is small doing, God wot! Some things, we may be drawn to do; not many: one good deed in a life is well. one fault amended meriteth: to do many, is not incident to many. So as too many of us are upon a Form of Godliness ; but it is a lower form than Herod's, who heard, and heard gladly, and observed his teacher, and did, and did many things; yet a gross Hypocrite still, because he did but many. "Hoλws, й μy' öλws; "Either all, or none at all;" is God's rule.

What should I weary you with instances? Do you see an Ananias and Sapphira making God their heir of their half-shared patrimony? Do you see a griping usurer build schools and hospitals, with ten in the hundred? Do you see a man, whose stomach insatiably craves new superadditions upon the indigested morsels of his last hour's Lecture, and yet nauseates at the Public Prayers of the Church? Do you see a superstitious votary, looking ruefully from his knees upon his adored crucifix; and, as Isaac the Syrian prescribes, living like a dead man in a solitary sepulchre, yet making no bones of killing kings?

Nay, to ascend unto a higher key of pretended holiness, Do ye see some of the elect Manichees lying upon hard mats, which St. Austin says were therefore called Mattarii? Do ye see the penances of the three super-mortified Orders of the Mahometan Saints? Do ye see an illuminate Elder of the Anabaptists rapt in divine ecstasies? Do ye see a stigmatical Friar, lashing himself to blood; wallowing in the snow naked; returning the lice into his bosom? Do ye see a nice Humourist, that will not dress a dish, nor lay a cloth, nor walk abroad on a Sunday; and yet make no conscience of cozening his neighbour on the work-day?

All these, and many others of the same kind, are swans; which, under white feathers, have a black skin. These have a Form of Godliness, and are the worse for it. For, as it is the most dangerous and killing slatery, that is brought in under a pretence of liberty; so it is the most odious and perilous impiety, that is hid under a Form of Godliness.

These men, I say, have a Form, and nothing else save a Form of Godliness. But, withal, let me add, that whosoever makes a good profession hath this form; and is so far commendable, as he professes well. If there be not matter to this form, the fault is in what is not, and not in what there is. Certainly, religion is not, chaos-like, without form. As not civility, so Godliness cannot be without due form. Ye cannot think God's service to be all lining; no outside: a form there must be. It was a Law, written in Greek and Latin letters over the gate of the first peculiar partition of the Temple, which was atrium Judæorum, "Every stranger that passes into the Holy Place must die." If he had not the mark of a Jew upon his flesh, it was capital to tread in those Holy Courts. The Temple was the type of the Church: if we have not so much as a Form of Godliness, procul, ó procul: without shall be dogs; and, if a beast touch the mount, it shall die.

What shall we say to those gallants, that hate to have so much

as a Form of Godliness? there cannot be a greater disparagement cast upon them, than the very semblance of devotion. To say grace at meals, to bow a knee in prayer, to name God other than in an oath, to once mention religion, is a base, mortified, pusillanimous tenderness. What talk ye of a sermon? a play, if you will. What speak you of weeping for sins? Talk of drinking healths, singing of rounds, courting of dames, revels, matches, games; any thing, save goodness. What should we say of these men? even this, He, that hath but a form, is a Hypocrite; but he, that hath not a form, is an Atheist. I know not whether I should sever these two: both are human devils well met: a Hypocrite is a masked devil; an Atheist is a devil unmasked. Whether of them shall, without their repentance, be deeper in hell, they shall once feel, I determine not. Only let me assure them, that if the infernal Tophet be not for them, it can challenge no guests.

II. Thus much for the Form of Godliness, which is the Angel of Hypocrisy our speech descends to the Devil in Hypocrisy, which is the DENIAL OF THE POWER OF GODLINESS.

1. But, while I am about to represent unto you the ugly face of that wicked one, God meets us in the way; and stays my thoughts and speech upon the POWER of Godliness, ere we fall upon the Denial of that power.

What power then is this of Godliness? what doth it? what can it do? The weakness of it is too apparent.

If we look to the Author of it Christ Jesus, alas! he is oustov avtiλeyóμevov, a but or mark for opposition to shoot at; whereas true Power is an Op, that bars resistance, Prov. xxx. 31. If to the Means of Godliness, here is the foolishness of preaching; 1 Cor. i. 21. If to the Effects of Godliness, here is weak grace, strong corruption; Rom. vii. If to the Opposites of Godliness, here is a law fighting. Fighting? perhaps so it may be, and be foiled: nay, but here is aixuaλwricwv, a conquering and captivating law; Rom. vii. 23. whereby I am not only made a slave, but sold for a save, Tε gaμέvos; Rom. vii. 14. So then, here is an opposed Saviour, a foolish preaching, a feeble grace, a domineering corruption; and where then is the Power of Godliness all this while ?

Know, O thou foolish man, that God is bb, the strong God: and yet there is a Devil. He could call in the being of that Malignant Spirit; but he will not he knows how to magnify his power by an opposite. Christ will be spoken against; not for impotence to resist, but for the glory of his prevailing: so we have seen a well-tempered target shot at, to shew the impenetrableness of it.

Preaching is foolishness; but, it is stultitia Dei; and the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men. Grace is weak, where corruption is strong; but, where grace prevails, sin dares not shew his head. Sin fights and subdues his own vassals; but the Power of Godliness foils it in the Renewed: so as, if it live, yet it reigns Great then is the Power of Godliness: great every way; great in respect of our enemies, great in respect of ourselves.

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