Chapter 2

Of the deceitfulness of the heart in regard of others.

Taking then the anatomizing knife of the word, and ripping up the belly of this monster, I find such an infinite number of the veins of deceitfulness, and those so knotty and intricately enfolded together, that hard it is distinctly, and clearly to show them all. Nevertheless, God assisting, we shall do our best endeavor. I think therefore that all the deceitfulness of the heart, discovered to us in the word, may be reduced to these two heads. First, the deceitfulness, whereby we deceive others only: secondly that, whereby also we deceive ourselves.

The former is not that, which here the Prophet so much aims at. And therefore we will not so much insist upon it. It shows itself specially in two things; in dissimulation, and simulation, in dissembling and concealing that which indeed is, and in feigning, and counterfeiting that which indeed is not. Dissimulation is either of evil or good. The dissembling of evil is threefold: of evil to be done or in doing: secondly, from being done: thirdly already done.

The heart's deceitfulness in hiding that evil which she purposes to do or is in doing, is to make fair even of the quite contrary. And therefore in her witty wickedness, she invents some colorable pretense to shadow her malice and mischief. When Herod intended wolfishly to worry Christ, he pretended yet religiously to worship him. Simeon and Levi cloaked their purposed massacre of the Shechemites, with the conscience of circumcision: Absalom his treason, with the religion of his vow: Joab his perfidiousness to Abner, and Amasa with friendly words, and siren-like salutations: Ishmael his murderous mind toward those eighty men, with his crocodile tears: Judas his covetousness, with a show of a liberal and merciful affection towards the poor: and the Jews their envy against Christ, with their duty to Caesar. Think you that the Jews cared for Caesar? No, none so impatient of his yoke as they: but they had murderous hearts, thirsting for our Lord's blood; that was the true cause; and the cause of their malicious heart was their evil eye, that could not endure the glorious brightness of his grace. But if they should have alleged that, all the world would have cried shame on them: therefore to hide the odiousness of their act, they set on it the fair mask of loyalty to Caesar. Thus always in the persecutions of Joseph, his coat shall be brought forth, as it was once by his envious brothers, that sold him; by his whorish mistress, that slandered him. Some one specious and plausible pretense or other shall be devised by the wicked, to save their credit in the world. So like rowers in the boat, while in their pretense they look one way, in their intent they go the clean contrary. This trick of deceitfulness the heart has learned of that arch-master of deceits, the Devil. Who sometimes will needs become a preacher of the truth, as when he said, These are the servants of the most high God, etc. Jesus of Nazareth, I know who you are, even the holy one of God: but yet he then plots mischief, thinking by one truth, to convey and wind into our minds a hundred lies. Thus truth is made to usher falsehood: for even in those his sugared, flattering words, wherein he preaches Christ the Savior of the world, it is easy to spy out war in his heart, for it is to be marked, how he calls him Jesus of Nazareth, thereby to nourish the error of the multitude, that thought he was born there, and so not the Messiah, whose birth they all knew ought to be at Bethlehem. Jesus then, and the holy one of God are butter and oil, as was afterward, Good master you regard no man's person; but Jesus of Nazareth, that is a sword, as was afterward, Is it lawful to give tribute? And so that which Solomon speaks of the flatterer, that he spreads a net before his brother's feet, is true in those flattering speeches. The devil sometimes gives the truth: indeed he does but set a snare to catch the truth in. As Saul, a good scholar in this school did for David, in giving him Michal to wife: I will give him her, says he, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be upon him. Here is a goodly show of special favor and good will, even such, as simple David was in a manner ravished with it, to think that his lowliness should be honored with so great a marriage. But it is but a bait covering the hook, honey, poison. These of all other are the most secret deceits, which are thus mantled and masked with the disguised pretenses of special love and kindness. And therefore Solomon not ignorant hereof, when he commends bounty and munificence in a prince, he associates truth thereto. Bounty and truth do guard the King, that is to say a true — not a treacherous bounty: for there is a false and lying bounty, deceiving those on whom it is bestowed. And as in the proverb there are giftless gifts. Such as was that of Saul to David; bread in one hand, a stone in the other. Infinite were it to speak all that might be spoken here. It is so common a practice in the world, yes and it is counted wisdom for men thus to veil their intents with pretenses, their meaning with their words, that the truth may be thought false, and falsehood true. When they mean to strike the head with one hand, they will first stroke it with the other, or, as he says, with one hand they will claw on the head, with the other smite on the cheek. The tale-bearer when he comes to set his brother's good name at sale, how cunningly, how artificially will he traduce? Meaning to bite his brother, he will first kiss him. But well did Solomon prefer a friend's wounds before such kisses: for these kisses are Judas kisses. They wound mortally: the other medicinally. Therefore excellently does Solomon characterize him, The words of the whisperer (as Tremellius reads it) are like to the words of those that are often knocked: but they go down into the bowels of the belly. So deeply do they pierce. When he begins first to open his pack, he will fetch a deep sigh, professing that because of his great love to the party, he is very sorry for him; and so at length with a sad countenance, with eyes cast down, with a slow, and lamenting voice, as though the offense of his brother were to him as a blow with a cudgel, out comes the slander: lo, a cunning trick of deep and devilish deceitfulness, so to disguise murdering malice, that it shall be taken even for motherly mercy, to lament and cry as if himself were beaten, while he, with the scourge of his viperous tongue unmercifully lashes others.

So also under the color of zeal and hatred against sin, do some cover their hatred against men's persons in their bitter censuring of them. And others under the color of giving thanks to God hide their vain ostentation of their own virtues, as that Pharisee, that said, Lord I thank you I am not as this publican. But as Chrysostom says, this would not serve his turn: for it is no thanksgiving to upbraid others with their faults, and boastingly to insult over those which have done amiss.

But here we should do the Church of Rome injury to leave her out, who indeed carries away the bell from all others in this kind of deceitful painting and coloring: under the name of Christ's spouse playing the filthy harlot; under the title of the Church fighting against the Church; under the color of religion taking away the vigor of it, and in a word making the show of godliness to be only a cloak of wickedness. I would rather set out this in Master Fox's words, than in my own, he has so lively and in the right colors described, or rather deformed this monster, thus writing of her. As in doctrine, so in order of life, and deep hypocrisy was she corrupted, doing all things under pretenses and dissembled titles. Under the pretense of Peter's chair, they exercised a majesty above emperors and kings: under the visor of their vowed chastity reigned adultery: under the cloak of professed poverty, they possessed the goods of the temporality: under the title of being dead to the world, they not only reigned in the world, but also ruled the world: under the color of the keys of Heaven to hang under their girdle, they brought all the estates of the world under their girdle, and crept, not only into the purses of men, but also into their consciences: they heard their confessions, they knew their secrets; they dispensed as they were disposed, and loosed what pleased them. And so much for the first deceitful dissimulation of evil to be done.

The second is, when the evil which we are ready to do, is yet, by a subtle kind of violence kept in, so that it comes not forth into the outward act. Thus many there are that politically, by a smooth and close carriage, smother, and press in many of their vices, which if they should break forth, might hinder them in their designs or desires. An example we have in Haman; who though inwardly he swelled with malice against Mordecai, because of his stiff knee, and stout heart: yet, as the Scripture says, he refrained himself; he broke not forth into any distemper of words, but craftily concealed and confined his anger within the bounds of his own bosom; lest otherwise the success of his bloody plot, already assented to by the King, might have been hindered; when as by this means, the gross abuse of the King in his false suggestions against the Jews, and feigned pretences of the public good would soon have come to light, and that the true cause was but a matter of private spleen against Mordecai. Thus many, while they are in petition of some office, or in expectation of some profit or preferment, how witty, how wily are they in the dissembling of their greedy, griping, cruel, ambitious, avaricious, and other vicious dispositions, which might make any rub in their way? There are not so many, nor so cunning devices for the hiding of natural infirmities of the body (as the crookedness of the legs, or back, want of a tooth, or an eye, or such like) as in such cases the deceitful heart will find out for the hiding of the unnatural deformities of the soul. But let once their desires be granted, then they show themselves, then the waters before stopped, and dammed up run over, and rage furiously. Hence it was that the prophet well acquainted with the craft of these foxes; prays, Let not the wicked have his desire O Lord, perform not his thought, lest he be proud. Why? was he not proud before? Indeed, in his very wishes he was proud, but then pride was locked up, and imprisoned; now his desire being satisfied, it would walk abroad and play pranks. The meaning then of the prophet is, that the wicked, that before the obtainment of his purpose, was proud inwardly, but yet in policy repressed it, would now be proud outwardly, and open the flood-gates, that the current might run amain. And surely so it is often times, that as Saul hid himself in the stuff, when he was to be chosen King, so the wicked in the like cases, when they look, either by election, or other means, to get this or that, very closely hide, though not with Saul, themselves, yet their filthy stuff and baggage within? And that with no less subtle sleights, than once Rachel hid the idols, Rahab the spies. They will make even those, that do more narrowly mark them, believe, that they have discarded, and sent away packing those corruptions, which yet lie secretly harbored in the closets of their hearts. As Rahab bore the Jerichonites in hand the Israelites were gone away, when as they lay hid under the stalks of flax, upon the roof of the house. Such stalks of flax, such cloaks of shame, as the Apostle speaks, as it were the torn rags, and worn shoes of those guileful Gibeonites have all such that walk craftily, to hide their filthiness from the eyes of the world. In which regard the Scripture very fitly has called them generations of vipers: for as the viper has his teeth buried in his gums, so that one would think it were a harmless beast, and could not bite, so also have these deceitful hypocrites their secret corners and conveyances, wherein they so cunningly couch their wickedness, that one would take them of all others, to be the most innocent. To this appertains that similitude of our Savior (Luke 11:44): Woe be to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them perceive not. As the deep grave hides the stinking carcass, and keeps in the stench from offending any man's smell, that men walk over them and yet never perceive the evil savor that is within: so the deep, and dissembling heart of man is a cunning digger of such graves, indeed it itself, as it were, is a grave, wherein their rottenness and corruption lies so closely covered, that hardly the sharpest noses of such as converse with them shall be able to smell them out. So powerful is policy in the wicked to restrain their corruption from scandalous eruption: more by far sometimes than is grace in some that are truly religious. For look how Isaac made show of strangeness with Rebecca his wife, when the knowledge of that nearness might have hazarded his life: so do evil men counterfeit a kind of strangeness even with their best beloved sins, where open familiarity might be dangerous. But as Isaac was at length discovered, when Abimelech saw him sporting with her: so these close companions let them be heeded continually, but with something more attentive an eye, and it will be hard, but sometime or other, we shall take them napping, and (as beggars feigning lameness without their crutches) without their veils, even very familiarly sporting themselves with those sins, by the crafty forbearance whereof they formerly deceived us.

The third deceit in dissimulation is to dissemble and conceal evil already done. The strumpet when she has eaten stolen bread, yet she has such a dexterity in the wiping of her lips, that not the least crumb shall hang on to betray her, not the least sign of her wantonness shall appear. And therefore boldly she says, I have done no wickedness. And this she carries so closely from the eye of the world, that Solomon shows it to be as hard to find it out, as those things which are hardest; namely, as the way of an Eagle in the air, not to be seen after once flown away; the way of a Serpent on a stone, gliding away, without leaving any impression of her body behind, and afterward creeping into some hole of the earth; the way of a Ship in the Sea, swiftly carried away with the winds; and lastly as the way of a man with a maid that is a close and chaste virgin, that is kept close from the access of strangers. Look how hard it is for a man judged unworthy, to get an honest modest virgin, kept close in her parents' house (which is made no less difficult than to get a flying Eagle) so hard it is to discover a whore, to convince her of her wickedness. Thus is the way of an adulteress, that is as hard to find out as any of the four aforementioned things. Her deceitful heart is so fruitful a hatcher of shifts and evasions. And this is natural to all the sons of Adam, after the example of their Father, when they have done evil, presently to run into the thickets to seek out coverlets to hide their nakedness. Sometimes by gross and palpable lying, at other times by the neater and finer kind of lying; I mean that sophistical, Jesuitical equivocation: a trick the Devil their master has taught them by his own example; but so much the worse in them than in him: for he equivocated to hide his ignorance of that which he could not reveal: these equivocate to hide their knowledge of that they can and ought to reveal: for being sometimes posed with some questions concerning future events, and not knowing well what to answer, and yet not willing to lose his credit with his blind worshippers either by silence or plain speech, he shaped his answers in such an ambiguous hovering manner, that whichever way the event should fall out, it could not fall out amiss to his answer; because, being upheld with this prop of equivocation, it would stand true even in contrary events. Thus when in his Prophets he was demanded by Ahab concerning his going to war against Ramoth Gilead and the success thereof, he answered, Go, the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the King. Indeed, but of what King, you lying equivocating spirit? Whether into the hands of the adversary King to be subdued, or of its own King to be rescued and delivered? This he determines not, but speaks suspensely and uncertainly to gull Ahab, and make him run headlong upon his own destruction. And yet here once again mark, how the Devil's equivocating is not altogether so bad, as the Jesuits': for he confesses his equivocating to be plain lying; I will go, says he, and be a lying spirit in the mouths of the Prophets. He was only an equivocating spirit in their mouths: for the words in some sense, and as the Devil might interpret them might be true, and yet he grants that his words, though never so qualified with equivocating quirks, were no better than lies. But the Jesuits, not having so much as the Devil's ingenuity in them, stick not to justify their equivocations as just and lawful. The wicked deceitfulness whereof the Devil's practice, even of itself alone, without his confession, is sufficient to discover; for (besides the example already mentioned, and his daily practice in his crooked oracles among the heathen) thus dealt he at the first with our first parents, telling them that by eating the forbidden fruit, their eyes should be opened, and they should be as gods, knowing good, and evil. Now the knowledge of evil is twofold: first, a pure and simple knowledge of it, in itself. 2. A feeling, and experimental knowledge of it, in ourselves. The Devil indeed meant only this latter, possessing yet the minds of Adam and Eve, with an apprehension, and expectation of the former. Now if the Devil should have been challenged for deceiving, had not his defense been ready with this shield of equivocation; might he not have said, even that which Moses having reference to this his speech speaks (verse 7): why? Are not my words true? Are not your eyes now opened to see your error, which before you saw not? Do not you know yourselves to be naked, and so have not you that knowledge of evil which I promised, even a knowledge arising out of your own experience? And yet for all this, Paul for this fact calls him a deceiver (2 Corinthians 11:3), and our Savior a murderous liar (John 8:44). This habit of his he kept with Christ himself; when showing him only the shadows, and imaginary representations of things he said, All these will I give you. A great catch sure; even just nothing. Thus also played he with Saul, taking upon him to foretell future events in the hands of God, Tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me, that is, shall die (1 Samuel 28:19). How came the Devil to be of God's counsel, that he can so certainly determine the end of any man's days which are numbered with God? No, he does not define it certainly, but speaks darkly, and deceitfully; for "tomorrow" does not only signify the day immediately following; but also the time to come indefinitely, and at large, as in that of our Savior, Care not for tomorrow (Matthew 6:34), and in that of God, when your son shall ask you tomorrow, what is this? That is, hereafter in the time to come, and in that of the Poet: Seek not what shall be tomorrow, and, I care only for today, who knows tomorrow? Now indeed Saul did not die the next day after this conference, as will appear to the more diligent peruser of the whole context of that history. Yet Satan seeing some likelihoods of it, ventured so to speak, as if the next day he should have died: but withal, because he was not sure of it, he so tempered his speech with the ambiguity of the word "tomorrow," that his credit might be saved, though Saul had not died till a year after. Thus we see how the Devil as he is the Father of lies in general, so also of this more handsome, and cleanly manner of lying, wherewith the deceitful heart of man uses to dissemble, and hide its shame. Not but that it abounds with variety of diverse other such like tricks, and devices: for we see how David could go about to cloak his adultery, first by sending for Uriah home, and then commanding him to go to his wife. 2. When this took not, by making him drunk, thinking wine would persuade him better than words. 3. When neither this would work, by murdering him, and marrying his wife: but of all other fetches none to this of the artificial lie, disguised by equivocation. All other lies are the Devil's children (John 8:44), but this is his firstborn. And this is most in request with his scholars at this day, and therefore we have the longer insisted upon it. And so much for dissimulation of evil.

Dissembling of good is, when we conceal, and smother that grace, and conscience which is in us, being in such places, and companies, where such things may be prejudicial to us. Thus many Protestants, being in places of idolatry, honor the Mass with their presence. Thus many of the converted Corinthians, overtaken with the human temptation as Paul terms it — that is, a temptation arising from human frailty — too much fearing men, gratified their idolatrous acquaintance with their presence at the idols' feasts. And so by an outward show of idolatry they did hide that inward hatred of idolatry, that the Lord had wrought in them. Thus also did Peter himself, overcome with the same temptation, Judaize in the presence of the Jews, conforming himself to their ceremonies, contrary to his own both knowledge (Acts 10:15, 28) and former practice (Galatians 2:12). And thus some professors, being in the company of the profane, will not stick to game, to guzzle, and swear with them — every way so carrying themselves, that they seem to care for nothing more in such companies, than that their language may not betray them to be Galileans, or their countenance to be such as those which are going up to Jerusalem. O my brother, what a shame is this for you, to be ashamed of that which is your crown, your glory? How unworthy are you of the grace of God, who offer it, and so God himself, such vile indignity? If it be a shame among men for a child, though never so much advanced above his poor father, to be ashamed of him in regard of his meanness, what then for us to be ashamed of our heavenly Father, so full of glory and majesty? If it were a shame for David to play the natural fool, much more for a Christian to play the profane fool, to make show of wickedness. Surely yet of the two deceits, this is far the worse — to make men believe we are not religious when we are, than contrarily. True indeed; the lip of excellency does not become a fool, it is naught when wicked men will be using gracious speech, to seem religious: but much less does lying beseem a worthy man — it is far worse when good men will use the fashions of the wicked. For in the dissembling of vice, and feigning of godliness, though we do hurt to ourselves, yet we may do good to others by our example, causing them to do that in truth, which ourselves do only in hypocrisy. As oftentimes stage players, by feigned mourning, wring forth true tears out of the spectators' eyes. But in the dissembling of our grace, and making semblance of wickedness, as we hurt our own, so also the souls of many others, fleshing and hardening themselves in sin, by our example.

But here, perhaps, some will say, that it is impossible for any to feign himself to be wicked; forasmuch as none can counterfeit wickedness by doing that which is good: and he that does that which is evil, it is no counterfeit, but a wicked man indeed.

Answer 1: There are many indifferent actions in themselves, which yet have an appearance of evil, by the doing of which a man may feign wickedness.

2. In many evil actions there is a twofold evil. First, the evil itself that is done; secondly, the evil that is signified by that which is done. As in Joseph's swearing by the life of Pharaoh, in Peter's Judaizing, in Jehoshaphat's joining with Ahab in affinity and society of war — besides the evil of the actions themselves, there is a further evil signified, namely that Joseph is as profane as the Egyptians, Jehoshaphat as idolatrous as Ahab, Peter as superstitious as any of the Jews. Now however they that do evil are indeed evil in regard of the first kind of evil, yet not in regard of the second. When a professor wears long hair, he does evil, but yet he is not evil in that kind of wickedness, which this action seems to import. For to wear long hair is commonly a badge of a roister, or ruffian, yet the professor is not such a one indeed. And therefore he makes show of that evil to be in him, which indeed is not. For as a man may belie himself in words, as he that told David he had slain Saul, when indeed he had not; so also in his deeds, which also have their language. And this is, when we do some lesser evil, that carries with it a foul note, and shrewd suspicion of a greater evil, of which yet we are innocent. If Joseph with his mouth should have said, I care for the true God as little as the Egyptians, who does not see but that he should have feigned that wickedness to be in himself, which in truth was not? Now by swearing by Pharaoh's life, in effect he said as much.

These be the deceits of dissimulation: The deceit of simulation is specially, that whereby men make show of that grace and godliness which either they have not at all, or else not in that measure they make show of, being specially swayed with the sinister respects of gain and glory. To make show of more grace than indeed is, may be incident to the godly: but to make show of grace when there is not any at all, no not so much as the least liking of it, this is peculiar to the wicked. With whom that mischievous Machiavellian precept so much prevails; That virtue itself should not be sought after, but only the appearance; because the credit is a help, the use a cumber. Therefore as Jacob, to get Isaac's blessing, put on Esau's clothes; so do these hypocrites, to get the blessing, and praise of men, in outward habit apparel themselves like Christians. And as Jacob thereby deceived Isaac, so do these oftentimes the most judicious Christians; like as the fig-tree with her leaves deceived Christ, and as the empty boxes in apothecaries' shops, with their fair titles written upon them, deceive the ignorant comers in. Though their hearts be base, and vile earthen pots, yet they must be overlaid with the silver dross of flattering, and glorious words. Thus hypocrites speak not out of, but contrary to the abundance of their hearts. When their lips, like good men's, scatter knowledge, their hearts at the same time, naughtiness. They know themselves to have lions' teeth, and yet women's hair must on, to be wolves, and yet the sheep's clothing must on, to be dragons, and yet the lamb's horns must on; and that, as once among the Jews many rude unlettered, and unnurtured rustics wore the rough garment of the Prophets; namely to deceive. Some painters have had such a gift in the lively expressing of the forms of birds and other beasts, that true birds and living beasts have been deceived in taking them for their mates. But the hypocrite puts down the painter: for by his flattering and glittering shows in all outward works he does so perfectly resemble the true Christian, that he deceives not, as the painter, silly birds, but reasonable men, yes, learned and experienced Christians. From where it comes to pass, that as the horse neighed at the picture of a horse as if it had been a true horse, and as the calf in the epigram, went to suck the teats of a painted cow; so even sometimes the wisest Christians, alike deceived with the counterfeits, embrace and entertain them as their fellows, thinking to suck some sweetness of grace out of them: for as the Egyptian jugglers outwardly represented Moses' miracles, and so deceived Pharaoh: so do hypocrites the piety and zeal of Christians, and thereby blur the eyes of the godly. In fact, oftentimes, as false gold in glittering goes beyond true, and once their hired mourners in lamentation beyond the deceased parties' own friends, and fawning flatterers in outward complements of friendship, beyond true friends themselves; so may hypocrites in outward works seem to carry it away from the soundest Christians. Hypocrisy though it be but the ape of Christianity, and proposes it only for outward imitation; yet here, for all that the imitation exceeds in some points the sample, the picture the pattern. Is the true Christian hot in prayer? He will sweat: Is he something more sorrowful? He will weep and blubber. In preaching cries he? He will roar. In hearing does he but lift up his hand? He will lift up his voice. Does he but sigh softly? He will cry out amain. Does he run? He will gallop. Does the true-hearted publican look with his eyes on the ground? The hypocritical Jews will hang down their heads like bulrushes, when yet their hearts stand upright enough. Does Timothy weaken his constitution by abstinence? The Pharisee will never give over till his complexion be wholly withered and wasted. Does Paul correct his body with milder correction, as it were a blow on the cheek? The Jesuit will martyr his sides with the severer discipline of scorpions: how far will not pride and vainglory spur on the hypocrite? God's glory carries the sincere Christian no further than to martyrdom. There is the highest pitch of outward works, performable by a Christian, and yet vainglory drives the hypocrite there also. As Saint Augustine notably shows, writing upon those words of the Psalmist (Psalm 44:21-22): You know the secrets of the heart: That for your sake we are slain continually. What means this (says the learned father) he knows the secrets of our hearts? What be these secrets? Surely these, that for your sake we are slain all the day long. You and I may see a man to be slain: but why he is slain you cannot tell. This God knows: it is hidden from us. Even in the very Catholic Church, think you there never were any Catholics, or that now there may not be some, that would suffer only for the praise of men? If there were not such kind of men, the Apostle would not have said, Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, I am nothing. There may be some therefore that may do this, rather in the vanity of boasting, than in the sincerity of love. So far Augustine. Whereby it may easily appear how strange are the feats, and feignings of man's deceitful heart. Jugglers' delusions are more easily espied than these of a false, and feigning heart. Hence it is that in Scripture hypocrisy is compared to leaven; which our eyes cannot distinguish from dough by the color; but only our palate by the taste. Our hands are more competent judges for these deceivers, than our ears; which will soon be bewitched with their goodly, and glorious words. But let us begin to handle them but a little, and presently we shall feel such a roughness, such a thorniness, that we may truly say, The voice of Jacob; but the hands of Esau.

And thus much briefly for the first branch of this doctrine of the heart's deceitfulness. The use whereof is twofold.

First, to teach us wisdom and wariness in giving entertainment in our hearts to others; that we do not presently set open the doors to let in all. No, though they be such as come commended to us, with all the grace that outward shows can lend them. Otherwise, if we be negligent herein, as once the Patriarchs by their readiness to hospitality, in stead of men received holy Angels; so we contrarily, by our readiness to believe, making our hearts common inns for every one to lodge in, in stead of holy Angels, may quickly receive the foul and filthy fiends: for false Prophets themselves, as Christ tells us, come in sheep's clothing, and so the Devil himself transfigured into an Angel of light. How humbly did those captains present themselves before Jeremiah desiring his prayer, his counsel, and promising obedience? And yet they had resolved before hand what to do, and did but dissemble in their hearts, in their so religious a show of coming to the Prophet. How easily may good Jeremiahs be deceived with such fair shows? In the Apostles times did not the false seducers which served not the Lord Jesus, but their own bellies, yet with fair and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple, and make merchandise of their souls? Did they not make great shows of more than ordinary humility and mortification? Or what austerity is there among the Papists, or what zeal in wooing and winning of proselytes, with which that of the Pharisees may not compare? Let us then try the spirits before we trust them, for though men may compose their faces and fashions to never so great shows of piety, yet for all that seven abominations may lie couched in their deceitful hearts. And therefore when our Savior tells us that by their fruits we shall know false Prophets, he means not so much the fruits of their lives, which in outward appearance, and in the judgment of men, may be as good, as the true Prophets; (for they come in sheep's clothing) as of their doctrine. That we must heed specially, trying it by the word, and not be carried away with the pompous ostentation, either of their words or works.

So also among ourselves, we must not presently reach forth the right hand of fellowship to every one that begins to cry Lord, Lord; but first we must weigh them in the balance of the sanctuary, to see whether they be current metal, or no. Jehu's question is fit for all good Christians to propose to such as Jehu was, before they admit them into their society, Is your heart upright? As Christ would not trust some that seemed to trust him, because he knew them well enough, so neither should we, because we do not know them. See how scrupulous the Christians were at first to receive Saint Paul into their company, which was not so much dainty niceness, as just cautiousness, to which the deceitfulness of man's heart does necessarily urge us. It is not good indeed to wrong any man with groundless suspicions, so neither is it good to wrong ourselves with over easy credulity. The same spirit that says, Charity believes all things, says also that a fool believes all things. And charity is no fool. As it is not easily suspicious, so neither lightly credulous.

Second, we must all take notice of this corruption of our hearts, whereby we are ready to deceive our brethren, both by feigning and by dissembling. As Saint John speaks of sin in general, so I of this particular: if we say we have no deceitfulness of heart, we deceive ourselves, etc. We are ready to take notice of this in others, and we may hear foul-mouthed persons casting the aspersion of hypocrisy upon such as deserve it far less than themselves. For these carnal and loose Gospellers, they of all others are the grossest hypocrites — who in their outward profession make in the public worship of God a form of godliness, but indeed have denied the power thereof, being reprobate to every good work; who by making covenant with God in sacrifice seem to be saints, yet by breaking covenant in their slanders, thefts, and adulteries show themselves to be devils. Therefore, as the devil in the Gospel was commanded silence when he began to take the name of Jesus into his mouth, so also these. What have you to do to take my name [reconstructed: into your] mouth? etc. And yet these hypocrites, who cannot see the huge beam of hypocrisy in their own eye, must needs be tampering with the little mote in their brethren's. O that once we could learn to leave this prying into others, and turn our eyes upon ourselves; for the prophet here says, the heart — not of this kind of men or that, but challenging us all in general — the heart is deceitful. Either then deny yourself to be a man, or confess your deceitfulness. And indeed whose heart is there that can plead guiltless? Who can with good conscience before God's tribunal say, I am not soured with this leaven? Nay, how true is Solomon's complaint: every man boasts of his own goodness, but who shall find a faithful man? As in that one particular of liberality, so in the general of Christianity — that performs fully as much in works as he makes show of in words — such a one is a black swan, an odd man, scarce one of a thousand, to be wondered at with our Savior's "Behold." Behold a true Israelite, etc. How many covers and curtains has every one's heart drawn before it to hide itself? The eyes, the forehead, the countenance lie often; the tongue, how often? Who can say of all that he has ever written, that which Saint Paul said of his epistles to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 1:13): "We write no other things than those you read" — that is, that which you read written is indeed written as well in our hearts as in this paper? And so of his speeches and countenance: "I speak no other things than those you hear; I have no other face than that you see" — which as the painted strumpet cannot say, so neither can the guileful dissembler, who paints over his malicious and dogged countenance with laughter, sweet smiles, and such semblance of fair and lovely looks. Let us therefore ransack our own hearts, and finding any of the visors of deceitfulness, let us take them off by repentance. This is the best unmasking of the hypocrite — namely, when he shall unmask himself: not when God shall unmask him by judging him, but when he shall unmask himself by judging and humbling himself; not when God shall do it by condemnation, but he himself by reformation; not when God shall wash out your paintings with the dashing tempests of his judgments, but when you yourself shall wash them out with the sweet dew of your repenting and weeping eyes — being angry with yourself for your former deceit, and now turning shows into substance, shadows into truth, a double heart and cloven tongue into a heart of simplicity and lips of sincerity. Polus, an actor on the stage in the representation of grief, remembering the death of his own son, fell from his personate feigned mourning to weep in good earnest, and to cry out earnestly in the bitterness of his spirit. So should you, who hitherto, as an actor on the stage only to please men, have made semblance of repentance — fall from your fictions, to repent seriously and in good sadness. But alas, how many of us do quite contrary to that of Polus? For he performed the truth of that whereof only the imitation and resemblance was expected; we only the semblance of that whereof the very truth itself is expected. He wept indeed when he was thought only to counterfeit; we counterfeit grief when we are — at least would be — thought to grieve indeed. But it shall be best for us to imitate him, and in the midst of our histrionic and hypocritical repentance, to turn to the true practice of repentance, pulling off our visors and making our own faces as fair as our visors. It is fearful, which sometimes is reported to have come to pass, when among a company of counterfeit devils on the stage the true devil shall come in and chase away these feigned ones — but it is comforting when, among the company of many painted and gilded graces, the truth of grace itself at length comes, causing all those shows to go away as the body causes the shadow.

Thus if your own hand shall unmask you, it shall be for your credit and comfort; if not, but you will rather wait until God's hand comes to unmask you — for certainly every hypocrite must be unmasked either by God or by himself — O happy is he who, by doing it himself, can save both God a labor and himself pain! You shall find how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of God, who shall pluck your mask from your face and your head from your body both at once; he will unmask and strip you of your colors, you colored hypocrite; he will strike you, you painted wall, to your shame and confusion. It may be in this life, by giving you over into the hands of Satan and the power of his temptations, that you should fall into apostasy, and with Demas embrace the present world (2 Timothy 4). For such as profess only in hypocrisy, and together with their outward profession of the truth receive not inwardly the love of the truth — to such the Lord shall send the efficacy of error, that they should believe lies (2 Thessalonians 2). But if in this life God does not thus expose your donkey's ears beneath your lion's skin, assuredly he will do it thoroughly in the life to come, at the last day, when he shall strip you completely of all your cloaks of craftiness wherewith you veiled your shame here, and present you before that general assembly — as it were on the stage — a laughingstock to men and angels.