Chapter 7

Section 1.

We now come, according to the method proposed, to make trial of the truth or falseness of grace by the duties we daily perform in religion. And certainly they also have the use and efficacy of fire for this discovery (1 John 2:4-5): 'He that says, I know him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoso keeps his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; and hereby know we that we are in him.'

This is a practical lie of which the apostle speaks here, by which men deceive others for a while, and themselves forever. A lie not spoken but done — when a man's course of life contradicts his profession. The life of a hypocrite is but one long continued lie. He says or professes he knows God, but takes no care at all to obey him in the duties he commands. He either neglects them, or if he performs them, it is not as God requires. 'If they draw near to him with their lips, yet their heart is far from him' (Isaiah 29:13). 'You are near in their mouth, but far from their minds' (Jeremiah 12:2).

There are some that feel the influence and power of their communion with the Lord in duties, going down to their very inmost parts. And there are others whose lips and tongues only are touched with religion.

This is an age of light and much profession. Men cannot now keep up a reputation in the sober and professing world while they let down and totally neglect the duties of religion. But surely if men would be but just to themselves, their very performances of duty would tell them what their hearts are.

Section 2.

For there are, among others, the following particulars that do very clearly distinguish the sound from the unsound professor.

First, the designs and true aims of men's hearts in duty will tell them what they are.

A hypocrite aims low (Hosea 7:14): 'They have not cried unto me with their heart when they howled upon their beds; they assembled themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me.' It is not for Christ and pardon, for mortification and holiness, but for corn and wine, that they make a market of religion. All their ends in duty are either carnal, natural, or legal — it is either to accommodate their carnal ends, or to satisfy and quiet their consciences. And so their duties are performed as a sin-offering to God.

But an upright heart has very high and pure aims in duty. 'The desire of their soul is to God' (Isaiah 26:8); their soul follows hard after God (Psalm 63:8). 'One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to see the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple' (Psalm 27:4). These are the true eagles that soar toward the sun and will not stoop to low and earthly objects. Alas, if the enjoyment of God is missed in a duty, the greatest enlargements of gifts will not satisfy. He comes back like a man that has taken a long journey to meet his friend upon important business and lost his labor — his friend was not there.

Secondly, the engagement of men's hearts to God in duties will tell them what they are. The hypocrite takes little heed to his heart (Isaiah 29:13). They are not truly grieved for the hardness, deadness, unbelief, and wanderings of their hearts in duty as upright ones are. Nor do they engage their hearts and labor to get them up with God in duty as his people do. 'I have sought your favor with my whole heart,' says David (Psalm 119:58). They are not pleased in duty until they feel their hearts stand toward God like a bow in its full bent. I do not say it is always so with them — what would they give that it might always be so! But surely if their souls in duty are empty of God, they are filled with trouble and sorrow.

Thirdly, the conscience men make of secret as well as public duties will tell them what their hearts and graces are — true or false. A vain professor is conscientious in the former, and either negligent or at best formal in the latter. For he finds no inducements of honor, applause, or ostentation of gifts externally moving him to them. Nor has he any experience of the sweetness and benefit of such duties internally to allure and engage his soul to them.

The hypocrite therefore is not for the closet but the synagogue (Matthew 6:5-6). Not but that education, example, or the impulse of conscience may sometimes drive him there; but it is not his daily delight to be there — his meat and drink to retire from the clamor of the world to enjoy God in secret. It is the observation of others that is the great inducement to these men to perform their duties. 'Verily,' says our Lord (verse 2), 'they have their reward' — they have carried off all the benefit and advantage that ever they shall have by religion. Much good may they do with their applause and honor; let them make much of that airy reward, for it is all that ever they shall have.

But now for a soul truly gracious, he cannot long subsist without secret prayer. It is true, there is not always an equal freedom and delight, a like enlargement and comfort in those retirements. But yet he cannot be without them. He finds the want of his secret communion in his public duties. If he and his God have not met in secret and had some communion in the morning, he sensibly feels it in the deadness and unprofitableness of his heart and life all the day after.

Fourthly, the spirituality of our duties tries the sincerity of our graces. An unregenerate heart is carnal while engaged in duties that are spiritual. Some men deceive themselves in thinking they are spiritual men because their employment and calling is about spiritual things (Hosea 9:7). This indeed gives them the name, but not the frame, of spiritual men. And others judge themselves spiritual persons because they frequently perform and attend upon spiritual duties. But alas, the heart and state may be carnal notwithstanding all this. O my friends, it is not enough that the object of your duties is spiritual — that they respect a holy God. Nor that the matter be spiritual — that you be conversant about holy things. But the frame of your heart must be spiritual. A heavenly temper of soul is necessary. And what are the most heavenly duties without it?

The end and design you aim at must be spiritual — the enjoyment of God, and a growing conformity to him in holiness. Else, multiply duties as the sand on the seashore, and they will not amount to one evidence of your sincerity. 'God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit,' says the apostle (Romans 1:9). He seems to appeal to God in this matter: 'I serve God in my spirit, and God knows that I do so.' 'I dare appeal to him that it is so; he knows that my heart is with him, or would be with him in my duties.' O how little satisfaction do gracious hearts find in the most excellent duties, if God and their souls do not sensibly meet in them!

Certainly, reader, there is a time when God comes near to men in duty, when he deals familiarly with men and sensibly fills their souls with unusual powers and delights. The near approaches of God to their souls are felt by them, for souls have their senses as well as bodies. And now their minds are abstracted and marvelously refined from all that is material and earthly, and swallowed up in spiritual excellencies and glories.

These are the real foretastes of glory, which no man can by words make another to understand as he himself does who feels them.

These seasons, I confess, do but rarely occur to the best of Christians, nor continue long when they do. Alas, this wine is too strong for such weak vessels as we are. 'Hold, Lord,' said a holy man once, 'it is enough; your poor creature is a clay vessel and can hold no more.' This is that joy unspeakable and full of glory which is mentioned in 1 Peter 1:7-8 — something that words cannot describe. These seasons are the golden spots of our lives, when we are admitted to these near and ineffable views and tastes of God. Possibly some poor Christians can say but little to these things; their sorrows are exercised in duties more than their joys. They are endeavoring to mount, but the stone hangs at the heel. They essay but cannot rise to that height that others do, who are gotten up by their laboring faith into the upper region, and there display their wings and sing in the sunbeams. But though they cannot reach this height, yet they have no satisfaction in duties wherein there is no intercourse between God and their souls.

That which contents another will not content a Christian. If the king is absent, men will bow to the empty chair; but if God is absent, an empty duty gives no satisfaction to a gracious spirit. The poorest Christian is found panting after God by sincere desires, and laboring to get up that dead and vain heart to God in duty. Though alas, it is many times but the rolling of the returning stone against the hill. Yet he never expects advantage from a duty wherein the Spirit of God is not. Nor does he expect the Spirit of God to be where his own spirit is not.

Fifthly, assiduity and constancy in the duties of religion makes a notable discovery of the soundness or rottenness of men's hearts. The hypocrite may show some zeal and forwardness in duties for a time, but he will tire and give out at length. 'Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God?' (Job 27:10). No, he will not. If his motions in religion were natural, they would be constant; but they are artificial. He is moved by external inducements, and so must needs be off and on. He prays himself weary of praying, and hears himself weary of hearing. His heart is not delighted in his duties, and therefore his duties must needs grow stale and dry to him after a while. There are three seasons in which the zeal of a hypocrite may be inflamed in duties.

First, when some imminent danger threatens him, and some sharp rod of God is shaken over him. 'When he slew them, then they sought him, and returned and inquired early after God' (Psalm 78:34). O the goodly words they give, the fair promises they make. And yet all the while they do but flatter him with their lips and lie to him with their tongues (verses 36-37). For let but that danger pass over and the heavens clear up again, and he will restrain prayer and return to his old course again.

Secondly, when the times countenance and favor religion, and the wind is at his back. O what a zeal will he have for God! So in the stony ground (Matthew 13:5), the seed sprang up and flourished until the sun of persecution arose, and then it faded away, for it had no depth of earth — no deep, solid, inward work or principle of grace to maintain it.

Thirdly, when self-ends and designs are accommodated and promoted by these things. This was the case of Jehu (2 Kings 10:16): 'Come, see my zeal' — for what? For a base self-interest, not for God. How fervently will some men pray, preach, and profess while they sensibly feel the income and profit of these duties to their flesh — while they are admired and applauded!

These external incentives will put a hypocrite into a hot fit of zeal, but then, as it is with a man whose color is raised by the heat of a fire and not by the healthfulness of a good constitution, it soon fades and falls again.

But blessed be God, it is not so with all. The man whose heart is upright with his God 'will keep judgment and do righteousness at all times' (Psalm 106:3) — whether danger threatens or not, whether the times favor religion or not, whether his earthly interest is promoted by it or not. He will be holy still. He will not part with his duties when they are stripped naked of those external advantages. As the addition of these things to religion did not at first engage him, so the subtraction of them cannot disengage him.

If his duty becomes his reproach, yet Moses will not forsake it (Hebrews 11:26). If he loses company and is left alone, yet Paul will not flinch from his duty (2 Timothy 4:16). If hazard surrounds duty on every side, yet Daniel will not quit it (Daniel 6:10). For they considered these things at first and counted the cost. They still find religion is rich enough to pay the cost of all that they can lose or suffer for its sake — yes, and with a hundredfold reward, now in this life. They never had any other design in engaging in religious duties but to help them to heaven. And if they recover heaven at last, whether the way to it prove better or worse, they have their design and ends. And therefore they will be steadfast, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing their labor is not in vain in the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Sixthly, the humility and self-denial of our hearts in duties will try what they are for their integrity and sincerity toward God. Does a man boast his own excellencies in prayer as the Pharisee did (Luke 18:10-11): 'God, I thank you that I am not as other men' — which he speaks not in a humble acknowledgment of the grace of God that distinguishes man from man, but in a proud ostentation of his own excellencies? Does a man make his duties his saviors and trust in them with a vain confidence of their worth and dignity (Luke 18:9)? Surely his heart, which is thus lifted up within him, is not upright (Habakkuk 2:4). But if the heart is right indeed, it will express its humility — in all other things, but especially in its duties, wherein it approaches the great and holy God.

First, it will manifest its humility in those awful and reverential apprehensions it has of God, as Abraham did (Genesis 18:27): 'Behold now, I that am but dust and ashes have taken upon me to speak unto God.' The humility of Abraham's spirit is in some measure to be found in all Abraham's children.

Secondly, in those low and vile thoughts they have of themselves and their religious performances. Thus that poor penitent in Luke 7:38 stood behind Christ weeping. 'Yet the dogs eat the crumbs,' says another (Mark 7:28). 'I am more brutish than any man,' says a third (Proverbs 30:2). 'I abhor myself in dust and ashes,' says a fourth (Job 42:6). And as little esteem they have for their performances: 'All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags' (Isaiah 64:6). I do not deny that there is pride and vanity in the most upright ones; but whatever place it finds in their conversations with men, it finds little room in their conversations with God. Or if it does, they loathe it, and themselves for it.

Thirdly, but especially their humility in duty is discovered in renouncing all their duties in point of dependence, and relying entirely upon Christ for righteousness and acceptance. They have special regard to duties in point of obedience, but none at all in point of reliance.

Seventhly, the communion and intercourse between God and men in duties notably discovers what their persons and graces are. And it must needs do so, because whatever communion the hypocrite has with duties, or with saints in duties, to be sure he has none with God.

None can come near to God in duty but those that are made near by reconciliation. Special communion with Christ is founded in real union with Christ. But 'the wicked are estranged from the womb' (Psalm 58:3).

But there is real communion between God and his people in duties. 'Truly our fellowship — our communion — is with the Father and with the Son' (1 John 1:3). God pours forth his Spirit upon them, and they pour forth their hearts to God. It is sensibly manifest to them when the Lord comes near to their souls in duty, and as sensible are they of his retreats and withdrawals from their souls (Song of Songs 3:1, 4). They find their hearts like the heliotrope, open and shut according to the approaches and withdrawals of the divine presence. Those that never felt anything of this nature may call it a fancy, but the Lord's people are abundantly satisfied of the reality thereof.

Their very countenance is altered by it (1 Samuel 1:18). The sad and cloudy countenance of Hannah cleared up — there was fair weather in her very face — as soon as she knew she had audience and acceptance with her God. I know all communion with God does not consist in joys and comforts. There is as real communion with God in the mortifying and humbling influences of his Spirit upon men as in the cheering and refreshing influences thereof. I know also there is great diversity in the degrees and measures thereof. It is not alike in all Christians, nor with the same Christian at all times. But that real Christians have true and real communion with God in their duties is as true and manifest in the spiritual sense and experience of the saints as their communion with one another.

Eighthly, growth and improvement in grace in duties notably distinguishes the sound and unsound heart. All the duties in the world will never make a hypocrite more holy, humble, or heavenly than he is. But as the watering of a dry stick will sooner rot it than make it flourishing and fruitful. What was Judas the better for all those heavenly sermons, prayers, and discourses of Christ which he heard? And what will your soul be the better for all the duties you perform weekly and daily if your heart is unsound? It is plain from John 15:4 that there must be an implantation into Christ before there can be an improvement in fruitful obedience. And it is as plain from 1 John 2:14 that the virtues of the ordinances must remain — the efficacy and powers that we sometimes feel under them must abide and remain in the heart afterward — or we cannot grow and be made fruitful by them.

But the false professor is neither rooted in Christ by union with him, nor does or can he retain the virtue of ordinances within him. But like one that views his face in a glass and quickly forgets what manner of man he was, his head may grow and his knowledge may increase, but he has a dead and withered heart.

But as the saints have real communion with God in duties, so they do make improvements answerable thereunto. There is most certainly a ripening of their graces that way — a changing or gradual transformation from glory to glory, a springing up to that full stature of the man in Christ. 'They that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God' (Psalm 92:13-14). There is pure and sincere milk in the breasts of ordinances. A believer sucks the very breasts of Christ in his duties, and does grow (1 Peter 2:2). They grow more and more judicious, experienced, humble, mortified, and heavenly by conversing with the Lord so frequently in his appointments.

There is, I confess, a more discernible growth and ripening in some Christians than in others. 'The faith of some grows exceedingly' (2 Thessalonians 1:3); others more slowly (Hebrews 5:12). But yet there are improvements of grace in all upright ones — habits are more deeply rooted, or fruits of obedience more increased.

Objection: If any upright soul is stumbled at this, not being able to discern the increase of his graces after all his duties.

Answer: Let such consider that the growth of grace is discerned as the growth of plants is — which we perceive rather to have grown than to be growing. Compare time past and present, and you may see it. But usually our eager desires after more make us overlook what we have as nothing.

Ninthly, the assistances and influences of the Spirit in duties shows us what we are. No vital, sanctifying influences can fall upon carnal hearts in duties. The Spirit helps not their infirmities, nor makes intercession for them with groanings that cannot be uttered, as he does for his own people (Romans 8:26-27). They have his assistances in the way of common gifts, but not in the way of special grace. He may enable them to preach judiciously, not experimentally; to pray orderly and neatly, not feelingly, believingly, and broken-heartedly. 'For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God' (Romans 8:14). He never so assists but where he has first sanctified. Carnal men furnish the materials of their duties out of the strength of their parts — a strong memory and a good invention are the fountains from which they draw. But it is otherwise with souls truly gracious. They have ordinarily a threefold assistance from the Spirit with reference to their duties.

First, before duties, exciting them to it, making them feel their need of it, like the call of an empty stomach. 'When you said, Seek my face; my heart answered, Your face, Lord, will I seek' (Psalm 27:8).

Secondly, in their duties, furnishing both matter and affection, as in that text already cited (Romans 8:26), guiding them not only what to ask, but how to ask.

Thirdly, after their duties, helping them not only to suppress the pride and vanity of their spirits, but also to wait on God for the accomplishment of their desires.

Now though all these things wherein the sincerity of our hearts is tried in duties are found in great variety as to degrees among the saints, yet they are mysteries unknown by experience to other men.