CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

To bring this Truth home to your hearts, Consider these things.

1. There was never any such pure Society and company of holy men upon the Earth but there were also some Hypocrites and insincere men mingled amongst them; Either wilful convinced Hypocrites or else unsound men in the bottom, and therefore when a Temptation came they discovered what they were; It's in vain to look for such a Church, wherein all the members of it shall be perfect and pure; In the Old Testament we read of many eminent at least for a while in the Church of God, but yet rotten at the Core; Saul was in a remarkable manner chosen by God to temporal government, he pretends ⟨p. 378⟩much zeal for Gods people and heartily himself to destroy the enemies of Israel, yea, the Spirit of prophecy came upon him, but it became a Proverb, Is Saul among the Prophets? We were not to condemn the Prophets, because a deceitful bloody Saul was amongst them: Among the good Kings in the Old Testament, David, Hezekiah, and Josiah, We read also of Jehu, who for outward appearance did many glorious things of Reformation; The Text saith, He did all things that were in Gods heart, yet for all that he was not with David, a man after Gods own heart: He was a Meteor, not a fixed Star, he was a picture, not a living man in Religion, he was moved up and down as his carnal Interests did lead him; Again as there were the good Prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah with many others, so there were also the bad Prophets who came not in Gods Name, who prophesied peace, and sowed pillows under wicked mens elbows, that they might sin the more securely; Should a man therefore have cried out against all the Prophets that they were a deceitful, self-seeking generation, and that it was no matter what they said, for they drave on their own designs, to be Lords over all, to obtain great things; Thus it was of old and in the New-Testament-dispensation though their outward profession of the Truth was subject to many dangers, insomuch that there was little encouragement to hypocrites we might justly think that (if ever) in those primitive days all should have been upright, but there were even then Foxes amongst the Sheep,