choke him, but is vain to save him. It is thy superficial, hypocritical, complimental services that will fall with thee, and fall upon thee, that will thus both deceive thee, and choke thee in the time of thy distress. To he told now that thy religion is vain, is a thing that thy dead, unbelieving heart can too easily bear; but to find then, when thou lookest for the benefit of it, that it is vain, is that which is not borne so easily, but will overturn the stoutest heart with terrors. If thou wert a man of no religion, and so hadst none to deceive and quiet thee, thou couldst scarcely keep off thy terrors now: if thou hadst not thy hollow-hearted prayers, thy affected zeal, or forms, and shows, and tasks of duty, thy profession, with its secret exceptions and reserves, thy smoothed outside, with the good conceit thou hast of thyself, and the good esteem that other men have of thee; if thou hadst not these to flatter thy conscience, and cloak thee from the storms of threatened wrath, thou wouldest perhaps walk about like another Cain, and be afraid of every man thou seest, and tremble at the shaking of a leaf, and still look behind thee as afraid of a pursuit. But, alas! it will be ten thousand times more terrible to find thy confidence prove deceit; and thy religion vain, when God is judging thee, when hell is before thee, and thou art come to the last of thine expectations! nay, then to find not only that thy superficial religion was vanity, and lighter than vanity, nothing, and less than nothing; but that it was thy sin, and that which will now torment thee, and the remembrance of it be to thee as the remembrance of drunkenness to the drunkard, and of fornication to the unclean, and of covetousness to the worldling, the rust of whose money will eat his flesh, and burn like fire. O what a doleful plight is this! when the sentence is ready to pass upon thee, and hell is gaping to devour thee, and thou lookest for help to thy vain religion, and criest out, "O now, or never help! help me, or I am a firebrand of unquenchable wrath: help me, or I must be tormented in those flames: help me now, or it will be too late, and I shall never, never more have help! Then to have thy self-deceit discovered, and thy seeming religion condemn thee, and torment thee, instead of helping thee, what anguish and confusion will this cast thy hopeless soul into, such as no heart can here conceive! Thy guilty soul will be like a hare among a company of dogs: whichsoever of thy duties thou fliest for help to, that will make first to tear thee, and devour thee.

Like a naked man in the midst of an army of his deadly enemies whichsoever he flieth to for pity and relief, is like to be one of the first to wound him. Poor self-deceiver! what wilt thou then do, or whither wilt thou betake thy soul for help? The reason why thou canst now make shift with a lifeless shadow of religion, is, because thou hast thy sports or pleasures, thy friends and flatterers, thy worldly business to divert thy thoughts, and take thee up, and rock the cradle of thy security; and thy piety is not yet brought unto the fire, nor thy heart and duties searched by the all-discovering light: but when the light comes in, and when all thy fleshly contents are gone, and when thou comest to have use for thy religion, and seest that, if it prove unsound, thou art lost for ever, O then it is not shadows, and shows, and compliments, that will quiet thee. That will not serve turn then, that serves turn now. Thou wilt find then that it was easier deceiving thyself than God. (Gal. vi. 3-5, 7.) "For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work: For every man shall bear his own burden. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."

But perhaps thou wilt say, it is not any duties, but Christ that I must trust to: he will be my help, and he is sufficient, and will not deceive the soul that trusteth in him.

Answer. Undoubtedly he is sufficient, and will not deceive thee. But doth he deceive thee, if he give thee not the salvation which he never promised thee? he never promised salvation to an hypocrite (without conversion). It is the upright soul devoted to him, that takes him for the absolute master of his life, and for his only portion and felicity, to whom Christ hath promised salvation: and his promise shall be made good, and the sincere shall find that Christ deceives them not. But where did he ever promise salvation to a superficial pharisee? to such a seeming Christian as thou? show such a promise from him if thou canst; and then trust it and spare not. But thou dost not trust him, but thy own deceit, if he have given thee no such promise to trust on. Nay, rather, should he not deceive all the world, if he should save such superficial hypocrites, when he hath professed in his word that he will not save them? and if he should not condemn such heartless formalists, when he hath so often

told us that he will condemn them? surely he that breaks his word is liker to be a deceiver, than he that keepeth it. Be it known to thee therefore (and O that thou wouldest know it while there is a remedy at hand) that if thou trust that Christ should save an unsanctified false-hearted person, whose soul was never renewed and revived by the Holy Ghost, and absolutely given up to God, and that setteth not up God and his service above all the interest of the flesh, and the commodities and contentments of the world, thou dost not then trust Christ, but thy own deceits and lies; and it is not Christ that is the deceiver, but thou art a deceiver of thyself, that makest thyself a false promise, and trustest to it; and when thou hast done, sayest, thou wilt trust to Christ: yea, trustest thyself against Christ, and trustets that he will break his word, and not that he will make it good. See whether he resolve not to condemn all such. Matt. x. 37, 38; Luke xiv. 27, 33; Matt. vii. 26, 27; James ii. 14; Heb. xii. 14; Rom. viii. 9. with the texts before cited, and abundance such. Christ will be a Saviour; but he is the Saviour of the body, and not of the affixed hypocrites. (Eph. v. 23.) And his body is the church which is subject to him. (Verse 24.) "He will save to the utmost:" but whom? "even all that come to God by him," (Heb. vii. 2, 5.) but not those that make the world their God, and would put God off with a few running heartless words and duties. It is the living fruitful branches that he will save but the withered branches he casteth forth, to be burned in the fire. (John xv. 2-7.) "No. man can serve God and Mammon : nor live both to the Spirit and the flesh he that hath two hearts, hath none that is acceptable unto God: he that hath two faces (a face of devotion in his formal customary services, and a face that smiles on the world and fleshly pleasures when he hath done) hath none that God will ever smile upon. The leaves of the barren fig-tree saved it not from the curse of Christ. (Matt. xxi. 18, 19.) "Hew it down and cast it into the fire," shall be the sentence of the most flourishing tree that is fruitless. (Luke xiii. 7.) "The earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be. burned." (Heb. vi. 7, 8.) So that if thy religion be vain, the blood of Christ, and all the treasures of his grace will be vain to thee, that are saving unto others. An infidel may then as

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well expect to be saved by the Christ whom he rejected, as thou. Nay it is Christ himself that will condemn thee it is his own mouth that will say to such as thee, "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity." And though thou couldest say, “Lord, Lord, I have prophesied, or cast out devils, or done many wonderful works in thy name," he "will profess to thee that he never knew thee," or owned thee. (Matt. vii. 22, 23.) If crying would then serve, I know thou wouldest not spare thy cries. But he must so pray as to be accepted and heard on earth, that looks to be accepted and regarded then; when the miserable soul, with endless horrors in its eye, is looking round about for help, and findeth none; when all the creatures say, we cannot, and he that can shall say, I will not; who can apprehend the calamity of such a soul? what soul so sleepy and regardless now, that will not then cry, "Lord, Lord, open to us," when the door is shut, and it is too late? (Matt. xxv. 10-12.) Then if thou roar in the anguish of thy soul, and cry out to him that saveth others 'Condemn me not, O Lord, but save me also! now Lord have mercy on a miserable sinner! save me, or I am lost for ever: save me, or I must burn in yonder flame: turn not thy heart against an undone perishing soul; if thou cast me off, I have no hope!' a thousand such cries would be in vain, because thou hadst but a vain religion. (Prov. i. 24, &c.) "Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded, but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you; then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me :- -Therefore they shall eat of their own way, and be filled with their own devices," saith the Lord.

And when hell hath once taken thee into its possession, if thou cry and roar there ten thousand millions of ages it will be all in vain. Thy strongest and thy longest cries cannot procure thee a drop of water to cool thy tongue, tormented in those flames. (Luke xvi. 24-26.)

In a word, if thy religion be vain, all is vain to thee; thy life itself is vain. (Eccles. vi. 12.) Thou walkest in a vain show. (Psalm xxxix. 6.). Thou disquietest thyself in vain, in all thy labours; (Psalm xxxix. 6, and cxxvii. 1, 2;) and vanity and vexation is all that thou shalt possess. (Eccles. i. 2, 14; Prov.

xxii. 8.) And if conscience, when thy day of grace is past, shall force thee upon the review to say, 'My piety was but seeming and self-deceit, and all my religion was vain ;' it will be the voice of utter desperation, and will stab the heart of all thy hopes. This, and no better, being the self-deceiver's case, is not conscience now at work within you, and asking, as each of the disciples did, (Matt. xxvi. 24, 25,) "Is it I?" If thou have a heart within thee, beseeming a reasonable creature, by this time thou art afraid of self-deceit, and willing to be searched, and to know thy hypocrisy while it may be cured. For my part, I shall pronounce no one of you personally to be an hypocrite, as knowing that hypocrisy is a sin of the heart, which, in itself, is seen by none but God and him that hath it. But my business is only to help such to know and judge themselves. Could I name the man to you in the congregation that had none but a seeming, vain religion, I am persuaded you would all look upon him as a most unhappy, deplorable wretch. Alas! sirs, hypocrites are not so rare among us, as some imagine. There are few, or none, but saints and hypocrites in this assembly, or in most of the assemblies in the land. I think here are none that make not a profession of the christian faith, and of love to God. All, therefore, that have not this faith and love, must needs be hypocrites, as professing to be what they are not. In your baptism you engaged and professed yourselves the disciples of Christ, and gave up yourselves in solemn covenant to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This covenant, you will say, you stand to yet; and none of you will be known to have renounced your Christianity. As Christians, you use to come to these assemblies, and here to attend God in the use of his ordinances, and some of you to renew your covenant with him in the sacrament of the Lord's supper. I meet with none that will say, 'I am no Christian, nor a servant of the God of heaven; I am an infidel, and rebel against the Lord.' I think there is none of you but would take it ill if I should call you such, or should deny you to be Christians and men fearing God. If, therefore, you are not such, indeed, you must needs be hypocrites. What say you? Is there any of you that profess yourselves to be ungodly, unbelievers, and servants of the devil; and will take this as your current title, disclaiming the love and service of the Lord? I think you will not. If you are such as you profess, you are all saints, and shall be saved. If any of you be not such, they can be nothing else but hypocrites.

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