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. Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.-Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honour 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'." "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"." 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.

Matt. xv. 2.7-10. m Matt. xxiii. 4-6. 13, 14.

" Ver. 23, &c.

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. 1x. 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 an hypocrite himself: because he can accuse them of a heart-sin without any visible control. he called 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 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.

If

Direct. x. Be impartial, and set yourselves before your consciences in the case of others.' Think with yourselves: How should I judge of this, in such and such a man, that I use to blame? What should I say of him, if my adversary did as I do? And is it not as bad in me as in him? Is not the sin most dangerous to me that is nearest me? And should I be more vigilant over any man's faults than my own? My damnation will not be caused by his sin; but

• It is one of Thales' sayings in Laert. Q. Quomodo optime ac justissime vivemus? Resp. Si, quæ in aliis reprehendimus ipsi non faciamus. To judge of ourselves as we judge of others, is the way of the sincere. Lib. i. sect. 36. p. 22.

by my own it may. Instead of seeing the gnat in his eye, I have more cause to cast out a gnat from my own than a camel from his.'

Direct. x1.Study first to be whatever (judiciously) you desire to seem.' Desire a thousand times more to be godly, than to seem so; and to be liberal, than to be thought so; and to be blameless from every secret or presumptuous sin, than to be esteemed such P. And when you feel a desire to be accounted good, let it make you think how much more necessary and desirable it is to be good indeed. To be godly, is to be an heir of heaven: your salvation followeth it. But to be esteemed godly is of little profit to you.

Direct. XII. Overvalue not man, and set no more by the approbation or applause of his thoughts or speeches of you than they are worth.' Hypocrisy much consisteth in overvaluing man, and making too great a matter of his thoughts and words. The hypocrite's religion is divine in name, but human in deed: it is man that he serveth and observeth most: and the shame of the world is the evil which he most studiously avoideth: and the high esteem and commendation of the world is his reward. O think, what a silly worm is man! And of how little moment are his thoughts or speeches of you, in comparison of the love of God! His thoughts of you make you not the better or the worse and if they either lift you up or trouble you, it is your proud and foolish fantasy that doth it when you might choose. If you have not lost the key and government of your hearts, shut you the door, and keep all thence, and let men's reproaches go no further than your ears; and then what the worse will you be for all the lies and slanders of the world? And, besides the pleasing of an effeminate mind, what the better are you for their applause ?

Direct. XIII. Look upon all men that you converse with, as ready to die and turn to dust, and passing into that

P Cato, homo virtuti simillimus qui nunquam recte fecit, ut facere videretur, sed quia aliter facere non poterat ; cuique id solum visum est rationem habere, quod haberet justitiam. Velleius Patercul. lib. 2. c. 35. Burman. Lug. Bat. p. 278.

Jam in ecclesiis ista quæruntur, et omissa Apostolicorum simplicitate et puritate verborum, quasi ad Athenæum et ad auditoria convenitur ut plausus circumstantium suscitentur, ut oratio rhetorică artis fucata mendacio quasi quædam meretricula procedat in publicum, non tam eruditura populos, quam favorem populi quæsitura. Hieron, in præf. 1.-3, in Galat.

world where you will be little concerned in their censure or esteem of you.' If you do any thing before an infant, you little care for his presence or observation of you: much less if it be before the dead. If you knew that a man were to die to-morrow, though he were a prince, you would not be much solicitous to avoid his censure or procure his applause; because his thoughts all perish with him; and it is a small matter what he thinks of you for a day. Seeing therefore that all men are hasting to their dust, and you are certain that all that applaud or censure you, will be quickly gone, how little should you regard their judgment! Look that man in the face whose applause you desire, or whose censure you fear, and remember that he is a breathing clod of clay; and how many such are now in the grave, whose thoughts you once as much esteemed! and this will make you more indifferent in the case.

Direct. XIV. At least remember, that you are passing out of the world yourselves, and look every moment when you are called away, and certainly know that you shall be here but a little while.' And is it any great matter what strangers think of you as you are passing by? You can be contented that your name, and worth, and virtues be concealed in your inn, where you stay but a night, and that they be unknown to travellers that meet you on the road. The foolish expectation of more time on earth than God hath given you warrant to expect, is the cause that we overvalue the judgment of man, as well as other earthly things, and is a great maintainer of every sensual vice.

Direct. xv. Set yourselves to the mortifying of selflove and pride for hypocrisy is but the exercise of these.' Hypocrisy is dead so far as pride is dead; and so far as self-denial and humility prevail. Hypocrisy is a proud desire to appear better than you are. Be thoroughly humbled and vile in your own eyes, and hypocrisy is done.

Direct. xvI. Be most suspicious of your hearts in cases where self-interest or passions are engaged:' for they will easily deal deceitfully and cheat yourselves, in the smoke and dust of such distempers. Interest and passion so blind the mind, that you may verily think you are defending the truth, and serving God in sincerity and zeal, when all the while you are but defending some error of your own, and

serving yourselves, and fighting against God. The Pharisees thought they took part with God's law and truth against Christ. The pope, and his cardinal, and prelates think (as in charity I must think) that it is for Christ, and unity, and truth, that they endeavour to subject the world to their own power. And what is it but interest that blindeth them into such hypocrisy? So, passionate disputers do ordinarily deceive themselves, and think verily that they are zealous for the faith, when they are but contending for their honour or conceits. Passion covers much deceit from the passionate.

Direct. XVII. Suspect yourselves most among the great, the wise, the learned, and the godly, or any whose favour, opinion, or applause you most esteem.' It is easy for an arrant hypocrite to despise the favour or opinion of the vulgar, of the ignorant, of the profane, or any whose judgment he contemneth. It is no great honour or dishonour to be praised or dispraised by a child, or fool, or a person that for his ignorance or profaneness is become contemptible. But hypocrisy and pride do work most to procure the esteem of those, whose judgment or parts you most admire. One most admireth worldly greatness; and such an one will play the hypocrite most, to flatter or please the great ones he admireth. Another that is wiser, more admireth the judgment of the wise and learned; and he will play the hypocrite to procure the good esteem of such, though he can slight a thousand of the ignorant; (and his pride itself will make him slight them.) Another that is yet wiser, is convinced of the excellency of godly men, above all the great and learned of the world: and this man is more in danger of pride and hypocrisy in seeking the good opinion of the godly; and therefore can despise the greatest multitude of the ignorant and profane. Yea, pride itself will make him take it as an addition to his glory, to be vilified and opposed by such miscreants as these.

Direct. XVIII. Remember the perfections of that God whom you worship, that he is a Spirit, and therefore to be worshipped in spirit and in truth; and that he is most great and terrible, and therefore to be worshipped with seriousness and reverence, and not to be dallied with, or served with toys or lifeless lip-service; and that he is most holy,