An antidote against distractions, or, An endeavour to serve the church, in the daily…An antidote against distractions, or, An indeavour to serve the church, in the daily…

SECT. V.

THE fifth Evil of these rovings of heart,¹ is, That they are sins of Hypocrisy^*. And there can be no little evil in ⟨p. 154⟩the sin of Hypocrisy. What is Hypocrisy? Matth. 15.7, 8. But the Honour of the lips, and the Distance of the heart, vox & preterea nihil, as it is said of the Nightingale, a sound of words, and no soundness in the heart, that's Hypocrisy; of all sins most odious unto God and man. And though the purpose of the heart be wanting to make it formal, and full Hypocrisy, yet a custom in these will beget that at length, and he that useth to lye in jest, will come at length to lye in earnest, Hos. 11.12. Ephraim compasseth me about with lies. Oh how often may the Lord say over us, these people compass me about with lies. What a Generation of Vipers are here! like the Viper that's speckled without, and poisonous within! Moses took a veil, when he spake to Israel, and put it off, when he spake to God. But the Hypocrite doth quite contrary, he shows his best to men, his worst to God, but the Lord sees both the veil, and the face; and it's hard to say, whether he hates more the veil of dissimulation, or their face of wickedness. This, 'tis a disappointing of God, in a sense a deceiving of him, Mal. 1.4. Cursed be the deceiver, that hath in his flock a Male, and voweth and sacrificeth to God a corrupt ⟨p. 155⟩thing. Yea, says God, you have in your flock a Male, you can be serious when you will, but a corrupt thing (it seems) will serve my turn; you disappoint me, you deceive me, you appoint a meeting between an heart and me, and here I come, and the heart is gone; you knock at my door with great earnestness, and when I come, the heart is gone: you are deceivers, and deserve my curse. If this be not repented and reformed, such deceitful Hypocrites must carry away no blessing of mine, but a curse.