The peril of the times displayed. Or the danger of mens taking up with…

1. When men pretend to be Godly, & yet by their lives, discover themselves not to be so; and this is a thing too frequent. There are indeed those Hypocrites who deceive the People of God, and act Godliness so speciously, that they are not discovered: but there are others, who for all their stickling and noise, do yet express such vanity, and want of any savour of Piety in their lives, that give, at least to discerning Christians, if not to others, just reason to suspect that the root of the matter is not in them: such an one was Simon Magus, unto whom Peter plumply saith, Acts 8. 23. I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity. He that no hath grace, cannot be said to have the power of it in him: such then as lead Unregenerate Lives, say that they are such, Psal 36, 1. The transgression of the wicked saith in mine heart, there is no fear of God before his eyes; and yet such as these flatter themselves; verse 2.

1. When men pretend to be Godly, & yet by their lives, discover themselves not to be so; and this is a thing too frequent. There are indeed those Hypocrites who deceive the People of God, and act Godliness so speciously, that they are not discovered: but there are others, who for all their stickling and noise, do yet express such vanity, and want of any savour of Piety in their lives, that give, at least to discerning Christians, if not to others, just reason to suspect that the root of the matter is not in them: such an one was Simon Magus, unto whom Peter plumply saith, Acts 8. 23. I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity. He that no hath grace, cannot be said to have the power of it in him: such then as lead Unregenerate Lives, say that they are such, Psal 36, 1. The transgression of the wicked saith in mine heart, there is no fear of God before his eyes; and yet such as these slatier themselves; verse 2.

2. When men make a great stir about ⟨p. 26⟩