Chapter 11
Section 1.
Inference 1. Are there such a variety of trials appointed to examine the sincerity of men's graces? How great a vanity then is hypocrisy, and to how little purpose do men endeavor to conceal and hide it! We say murder will out, and we may as confidently affirm hypocrisy will out. When Rebekah had laid the plot to disguise her son Jacob, and by personating his brother to get the blessing, Jacob thus objected against it: 'My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing' (Genesis 27:12). As if he said, 'But what if my father detects the cheat — how then shall I look him in the face? how shall I escape a curse?' After the same manner every upright soul scares itself from the way of hypocrisy. 'If I dissemble and pretend to be what I am not, my Father will find me out.' Ah, there is no darkness nor shadow of death that can conceal the hypocrite. But out it will come at last, let him use all the art he can to hide it. Oftentimes God discovers him by the trials he appoints in this world. 'Men shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not' (Malachi 3:18). But if he makes a hard shift to get by a private way to hell, carrying this comfort with him to the last step that nobody knows or thinks he is gone there, yet there will be a day when God will strip him naked before the great assembly of angels and men, and all shall point at him and say:
'Lo, this is the man that made not God his hope; this is he that wore a garment of profession to deceive, but God has now stripped him out of it, and all men see what he is.' 'For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hidden that shall not be known' (Matthew 10:26). And the apostle assures us (1 Timothy 5:24-25) that they that are otherwise cannot be hidden. If men's works are not good, it is impossible they should be hidden long. A gilded piece of brass may pass from hand to hand a little while, but the touchstone will discover the base metal. If that does not, the fire will.
O sinners, away with your hypocrisy. Be honest, sincere, plain, and hearty in religion. If not, confusion of face shall be your recompense from the Lord — that is what you shall get by it.
Inference 2. Secondly, are there such trials appointed and permitted by the Lord for the discovery of his people's sincerity in this world? Then let none of God's people expect a quiet station in this world. Certainly you shall meet with no rest here. You must go out of one fire into another. And it is a merciful condescension of the Lord to poor creatures thus to concern himself for their safety and benefit. 'What is man, that you should magnify him, and that you should set your heart upon him, that you should visit him every morning, and try him every moment?' (Job 7:17-18).
O, it is a great deal of honor put upon a poor worm, when God will every moment try him and visit him. It argues the great esteem the goldsmith has of his gold, when he will sit by the furnace himself and order the fire with his own hand. When he peers so often and so curiously into the refining pot, to see that none of his precious metal upon which he sets his heart is lost.
Think it not then a debasing to you to be so often exposed to trials. If God did not value you highly, he would not try you so frequently. What would become of you if your condition here should be more settled and quiet than now it is? I believe you find dross enough in your hearts after all the fires into which God has cast you. Surely there is filth enough in the best of God's people to account for all this — it may be a great deal more trouble than they have yet met with. We fancy it a brave life to live at ease. And if we meet with long respites and intervals of trial beyond the usual, we are apt to say, 'We shall never be moved,' as David did (Psalm 30:6), or 'We shall die in our nest' (Job 29:18) — our hard and difficult days are over. But woe to us if God should give us the desire of our hearts in this. See what the temper of those men's spirits is that meet with no changes (Psalm 55:19): 'Because they have no changes, therefore they have not God.' O, it is better to be preserved sweet in brine than to spoil in honey.
Inference 3. Thirdly, let none boast in a carnal confidence of their own strength and stability. You are yet in a state of trial. Hitherto God has kept you upright in all your trials — bless God, but boast not. You are but feathers in the wind of temptation if God leaves you to yourselves. Peter told Christ — and doubtless he spoke no more than he honestly meant — 'Though all men forsake you, yet will not I.' And you know what he did when the hour of his trial came (Matthew 26:35). Angels left to themselves have fallen. It is better to be a humble worm than a proud angel.
Ah, how many Pendletons will this professing age show, if once God brings us to the fiery trial? 'Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.' You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. None stand upon firmer ground than those that see nothing in themselves to stand upon. He that leans upon his own arm usually benumbs it and makes it useless.
Inference 4. Fourthly, does God kindle so many fires in Zion and set his furnaces in Jerusalem to discover and separate the dross from the gold? How contrary then are those men to God who allow — yes, and prize — the dross of hypocrisy which God hates, and stick not to make the holy God a patronizer and countenancer of it in the hearts and lives of men!
It is amazing to read what Popish pens have impudently written about this matter. Sylvester puts the question, whether it is a sin to make a false show of sanctity, and answers it thus: 'If it is for the honor of God and the profit of others, it is no sin.' Nay, they have a reverence for hypocrisy as a holy art. Vincentius spends a whole chapter in commendation of the hypocrisy of Saint Dominick, and entitles it 'Of the Holy Hypocrisy of that Saint,' reckoning it among his commendations that he had the art of dissembling. And yet one peg higher: 'A religious person,' says another, 'that feigns himself to have more holiness than he has, that others may be edified, sins not, but rather merits.'
Blush, O heavens, that ever such agents of hell should open and sell such wares as this in the public market, and invite the world to hypocrisy as that which makes for the glory of God, the edification of men, and a work meritorious in the hypocrite himself. This is the doctrine of devils indeed.
Inference 5. Fifthly, if it is so that all grace must come to the test and be tried as gold in the fire even in this world, how are all men concerned to lay a solid foundation at first, and thoroughly deliberate the terms upon which they close with Christ and engage in the profession of his name! 'Which of you,' says Christ, 'intending to build a tower, sits not down first and counts the cost?' (Luke 14:28). If some men had sat down at first and pondered the conditions and terms of Christ, they had not been sitting down now, discouraged and tired in the way. The apostle Paul went to work at another rate: he counted all but dung and dross for Christ (Philippians 3:8), and was of the same mind when the actual trial came. For then he tells us he counted not his life dear unto him (Acts 20:24). And the apostle Peter admonishes believers not to think it strange concerning the fiery trial which was to try them (1 Peter 4:12). As if to say, 'Let none of these things be surprises to you; you were told beforehand what you must trust to.' Every Christian must be a martyr, at least in the disposition and resolution of his heart.
O that men would balance the advantages and disadvantages of religion and thoroughly ponder the matter in their deepest thoughts. To the test you must come. The rain will fall and the storm beat upon your buildings. Look carefully therefore to the foundations.
Inference 6. Sixthly and lastly, learn from this point the unavoidableness of scandals and offenses in the way of religion. For if there is a necessity of trial, there is also a necessity of scandal. 'It must needs be that offenses come' (Luke 17:1). Why must it needs be? The reason is evident: all must come to the trial, and all are not able to bear it. Our Lord tells us (Matthew 24:8-10) of a day of great straits and perplexity coming. 'And then,' says he, 'shall many be offended.' The day of trial is the day of scandal. By these offenses some are put to searching themselves, and some fall to censuring all others. But the holy God brings about his end both ways — in them that are saved and in them that perish.
Section 2.
Well then, if it is so that all must go into the furnace, let every man try his own work. Examine yourselves, professors; search your hearts; commune with your innermost parts. Nothing concerns you more in all the world than this. O that you would be more in your closets, and more often upon your knees. O that you would look into the Bible, then into your hearts, and then to God, saying with David: 'Search me, O God, and know my heart; prove me, and try my mind; and see if there is any way of iniquity in me.' Religion has never thrived in the world since men's heads have been so overheated with notions and controversies and their hearts so sensibly cooled in their closet work. I have elsewhere more largely pressed this duty upon the professors of this generation, and thither shall refer the reader for the present, to see the necessity and importance of this work.
Here I shall only urge the duty of self-trial by some pressing motives and awakening considerations.
Motive 1. The first shall be the exceeding difficulty of this work. Difficulty in some cases may be a discouragement, but where the matter is of absolute necessity as it is here, nothing provokes more to diligence. 'Strive,' says our Lord, 'to enter in at the narrow gate, for many will seek to enter in and shall not be able' (Luke 13:24). A double difficulty is found attending this work of self-trial: difficulty in bringing the heart to it, and difficulty in the right and successful management of it. Who does not find it hard to persuade his heart to such work as this? Nature declines it; flesh and blood relish it not. It is one of the great severities of religion. It is no easy thing to bring a man and his own heart together.
It is in this case as in the study of geography: we are more inquisitive to know, and more delighted when we discover, the rarities of foreign countries and strange things in the remote parts of the world, than those of our own native country. I fear there are many professors of religion that can spend day after day in hearing and love to be disputing fruitless controversies, who never spent one day in searching what influence all those sermons they have heard have had upon their hearts, or in rightly stating and determining that great controversy — in whose right and possession their souls are, and which way they shall go as soon as death has divided them from those mortal bodies. Yes, I doubt many sinful hours are spent in prying into, reporting, and censuring the failings of others, and not one hour faithfully employed in judging their own hearts before the Lord. O, men had rather be about any other work than this — there is no pleasure in it to the flesh.
And yet, however difficult it may be to bring our hearts to the work, it is certainly much more difficult to manage it successfully and bring the great question of our sincerity to a clear result and issue. O how many upright hearts have sat close to this work many a year, and lifted up many a cry to heaven, and shed many a secret and undissembled tear about it, and yet are still in the dark, their minds greatly perplexed and filled with fear about it. What would they not do? What would they not suffer? What pleasant enjoyment would they not gladly part with to arrive at the desire of their souls — the full assurance of their sincerity! It was the saying of a pious woman: 'I have borne seven children, and they have cost me as dear as ever children cost a mother; yet would I be content to endure all that sorrow over again, to be assured of the love of God to my soul.'
Motive 2. Secondly, as the work is full of difficulty, so the discovery of your sincerity will be full of sweetness and joy unspeakable. It will never repent you that you have prayed and mourned, that you have trembled and feared, that you have searched and tried. Nay, it will never repent you that God has tried you by thousands of sharp afflictions and deep sufferings, if after all your sincerity may be fully cleared up to the satisfaction of your souls. For in the same day your sincerity shall be cleared, your title to Christ will be made as clear to your souls as your sincerity is. You may then go to the promises boldly, and take your own Christ into the arms of your faith, and say, 'My beloved is mine, and I am his.' Yes, you may be confident it shall be well with you in the judgment of the great day, for 'God will not cast away the upright man' (Job 8:20). If the word clears you now, it cannot condemn you then.
O what an ease it is to the soul when the fears and doubts that hung about it are gone! When a man sees what he is, and what he has in Christ and the promises, and what he has to do — even to spend the time between this and heaven in admiring the grace of God that has delivered him from the ruining mistakes and miscarriages by which so great a part of the professing world perishes to all eternity.
Motive 3. Thirdly, the deep concernment of your souls in the matter to be tried should awaken you to the utmost diligence about it. The trials of men for their life at human bars is but a trifle to this. It is your eternal happiness that stands or falls with your sincerity.
It is said in the trial of opinions that if a man builds hay or stubble upon the foundation, he shall suffer loss, yet he himself may be saved (1 Corinthians 3:12). But if hypocrisy is in the foundation, there is no such relief — there is no possibility of salvation in that case.
Ah, reader, you must be judged forever according to the integrity or hypocrisy of your heart with God. Summon then all the powers of your soul. Bring your thoughts as close as it is possible to bring them to this matter. If there is any subject of consideration able to drink up the spirits of a man, here it is. Never was time put to a higher improvement; never were thoughts spent upon a more important business than this is. Happy is the man that rescues the years, months, days — yes, the very moments of his life — from other employments, to consecrate them to this solemn, awful, and most important business.
Motive 4. Fourthly, how evidential will it be of your sincerity when you are willing to come to the trial of your own hearts!
Suppose your doubts and fears should in some degree remain with you, yet in this you may take some comfort: that if hypocrisy is in your heart, it is not there by your consent. You are not loath to search and come to the trial, because like Rachel you sit upon your idols. Certainly it is a good sign your heart is right when it is filled with so much fear lest it should be false. You know all the disciples said, 'Master, is it I?' before Judas, who was the traitor, spoke a word. 'Last of all,' says the text, 'Judas said, Is it I?' Our willingness to be tried is a good sign that the desire of our souls is to be right with God.
Motive 5. Fifthly, conclude it to be your great advantage to be thoroughly tried, whatever you may be found to be in the trial. If you are found sincere, you are richly rewarded for all your pains and labor. Never did that man repent of digging and toiling who, after all, hit upon the rich vein that he dug for. What is a vein of gold to a vein of sincerity!
If upon search you find the contrary — a false, hypocritical, unsound heart — yet in that very sad discovery you meet with the greatest advantage that ever you had in your lives for salvation. This discovery is your great advantage. For now your vain confidence being overturned and your ungrounded hopes destroyed, you lie open to the stroke of a deep and effectual conviction of your sin and misery, which is the introductive mercy to all other mercies to your souls. And surely, until you come to that — to give up your false hopes and quit your vain pretensions — there is no hope of you. Christ told the Pharisees (Matthew 21:31): 'Publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of heaven before you.' Publicans were the worst sort of men, and harlots the worst sort of women, and yet they stood in a fairer way for heaven than the hypocritical Pharisees, because conviction had easier access to their consciences. They had not those defenses and pleas of duty and strictness to ward off the word that the self-deceiving Pharisees had.
I may say of your vain and groundless hopes what Christ in another sense said to the officers that came to seize him in the garden: 'If you seek me, let these go their way.' So it is here: if you expect Christ and salvation by him, let your vain confidences go their way. Away with your masks and disguises, if ever you expect to see Christ. O, it is your happiness to have all these things stripped off and your nakedness and poverty discovered, that you may be rich as the text speaks.
Motive 6. Sixthly, consider how near the day of death and judgment approaches you. Oh, these are searching days in which you cannot be hidden. Will your consciences, do you think, be put off in a dying day as easily as they are now? No, no — you know they will not.
I have heard of a good man that consumed not only the greatest part of the day, but a very considerable part of the night also in prayer, to the great weakening of his body. And being asked by a relation why he did so and prayed to favor himself, he returned this answer: 'O, I must die, I must die.' Plainly intimating that so great is the concernment of dying in a clear and assured condition, that it is richly worth the expense of all our time and strength to secure it.
You know also that after death comes the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). You are hastening to the judgment of the great and terrible God. Death will put you into his balance to be weighed exactly. And what gives the soul a louder call to search itself with all diligence, while it stands at the door of eternity and its turn is not yet come to go before that awful tribunal? O that these considerations might take hold upon our hearts!
