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against the hill; yet he never expects advantage by that duty wherein the spirit of God is not. Nor doth he expect the Spirit of God should be where his own spirit is not.

6. Assiduity and constancy, in the duties of religion, make a notable discovery of the soundness or rottenness of men's hearts. The hypocrite may shew some zeal and forwardness in duties for a time, but he will jade and give out at length.Job xvii. 10. Will he delight himself in the Almigh ty? Will he always call upon God?" No, he will not If his motions in religion were natural, they would be constant; but they are artificial, and he is moved by external inducements, and so must needs be off and on. He prays himself weary of praying, and hears himself weary of hearing. His heart is not delighted in his duties, and therefore his duties must needs grow stale and dry to him after a while. There be three seasons, in which the zeal of an hypocrite may be inflamed in duties.

First, When some imminent danger threatens him; some severe rod of God is shaken over him. "When he slew them, then they sought him and returned and enquired early after God." Psalm Ixxviii. 34. O the goodly words they give, the fair promises they make! and yet all the while they do but flatter him with their lips, and lie unto him with their tongues; ver. 36, 37. For let but that danger pass over, and the heavens clear up again, and he will restrain prayer, and return to his old course again.

Secondly, When the times countenance and favour religion, O what a zeal will he have for God! So in the stoney ground, Matth. xiii. 5, the seed sprung up and flourished 'till the sun of persecution arose, and then it faded away, for it had no depth of earth; no deep, solid, inward work, or principle of grace to maintain it.

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Thirdly, When self-ends and designs are accom modated, and promoted by these things. This was the case of Jehu, 2 Kings x. 15. Come see my zeal! For what? For a base self-interest; not for God. How fervently will some men pray, preach, and profess, whilst they sensibly feel the incomes and profits of these duties to their flesh; whilst they are admired and applauded!

These external incentives with put an hypocrite into an hot fit of zeal, but then, as it is with a man, whose colours are raised by the heat of the fire and not by the healthfulness of a good constitution, it soon fades and falls again.

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But, blessed be God, it is not so with all. The man whose heart is upright with his God, will keep judgment, and do righteousness at all times, Psalm cvi. 3. Whether dangers threaten or no; whether the times favour religion or know; whether his earthly interest be promoted by it or no; he will be holy still, he will not part with his duties when they are stript naked of those external advan tages. As the addition of these things to religion did not at first engage him, so the substraction of them, cannot disengage him.

If his duty become his reproach, yet Moses will not forsake it, Heb. xi. 26. If he lose his company, and be left alone, yet Paul will not flinch from his duty, 2 Tim. iv. 16. If hazard surround duty on every side, yet Daniel will not quit it, Dan. vi. 10, for they considered these things at first, and counted the cost. They still find religion is rich enough to pay the cost of all that they can lose, or suffer for its sake; yea, and that with an hundred-fold reward now in this life. They never had any other design in engaging in religious duties, but to help them to heaven; and if they recover heaven at last, whether the way to it prove better or worse, they have their design and ends.

Therefore they will be stedfast, always abounding in the work of the Lord, as knowing their labour is not vain in the Lord, 1 Cor. xv. end.

6. The humility and self-denial of our hearts in duties will try what they are for their integrity and sincerity towards God. Doth a man boast his own excellencies in prayer, as the pharisee did, Luke xviii. 10, 11, “God, I thank thee I am not as other men!" Which he speaks not in an humble acknowledgment of the grace of God, which distinguishes man from man, but in a proud ostentation of his own excellencies; doth a man make his duties his saviours, and trust to them in a vain confidence of their worth and dignity: Luke xviii. 9. Surely his heart, which is thus lifted up within him, is not upright, Hab. ii. 4. But if the heart be upright indeed, it will express its humility, especially in its duties, wherein it approaches the great and holy God.

First, It will manifest its humility, in those aw ful and reverential apprehensions it hath of God, as Abraham did, Gen. xviii. 27. And now I that am but dust and ashes (saith he) have taken upon me to speak unto God.' The humility of Abraham's spirit is, in some measure, to be found in all Abraham's children.

Secondly, In those low and vile thoughts, they have of themselves and their religious performances. Thus that poor penitent, Luke vii, 38, stood behind Christ weeping. Yet the dogs eat the crumbs, saith another, Mark vii. 28. I am more brutish than any man, saith a third, Prov. xxx. 7. I abhor myself in dust and ashes, saith a fourth, Job xlii. 6, and as little esteem they have for their performances, Isa. lxiv. 6. All our righteousness are as filthy rags. I deny not but there is pride and vanity in the most upright ones; but what place soever it finds in their converses

with men, it finds little room in their converses with God; or if it doth, they loathe it, and themselves for it.

Thirdly, But especially their humility in duty is discovered in renouncing all their duties in point of dependence, and relying entirely upon Christ for righteousness and acceptance. They have special regard to duties in point of obedience, but none at all in point of reliance.

7. The communion and intercourse which is betwixt God and men in duties, specially discovers what their persons and graces are. And it must needs do so, because what communion soever the hypocrite hath with duties, or with saints in duties, to be sure he hath none with God.

None can come nigh to God in duty, but those that are made nigh by reconciliation. All special communion with Christ is founded in real union with Christ; but the wicked are estranged from the womb, Psalm lviii. 3.

But now there is real communion betwixt God and his people, in duties. Truly our fellowship, our communion, is with the Father and Son, 1 John i. 3. God pours forth of his Spirit upon them, and they pour forth 'heir hearts to God. It is sensibly manifested to them when the Lord comes nigh to their souls in duty, and as sensible they are of his retreats and withdrawments from their souls, Cant. iii. 1, 4. They that never felt any thing of this nature, may call it a fancy, but the Lord's people are abundantly satisfied of the reality thereof.

Their very countenance is altered by it, 1 Sam. i. 18. The sad and cloudy countenance of Hannah cleared up, as soon as she knew she had audience and acceptance with her God. I know all communion with God doth not consist in joys and com forts; there is a real communion with God in the mortifying and humbling influences of his spirit

upon men, as in the cheering and refreshing influences thereof. I know also there is a great diversity in the degrees and measures thereof. It is not alike in all christians, nor with the same christian at all times. But that real christians have true and real communion with Gcd in their duties, is a truth as manifest in the spiritual sense and experience of the saints, as their communion is with one another.

8. Growth and improvement of grace in duties, constitutes another great difference between the sound and the unsound heart. All the duties in the world will never make an hypocrite more holy, humble, or heavenly than he is; but will, like the watering of a dry stick, sooner rot it, than make it flourishing and fruitful. What was Judas the better for all those heavenly sermons, prayers, and discourses of Christ which he heard? And what will thy soul be the better, for all the duties thou performest weekly and daily, if thy heart be unsound? It is plain from Job xv. 4, there must be an implantation into Christ, before there can be an improvement in fruitful obedience. And it is as plain from 1 John ii. 14, that the virtues of ordinances must remain; the efficacy and power that we sometimes feel under them, must abide and remain in the heart afterwards; or we cannot grow, and be made fruitful by them.

But the false professor is neither rooted in Christ by union with him, nor doth, nor can retain the virtue of ordinances within him. He is like one that views his face in a glass, and quickly forgets what manner of man he was. His head indeed may grow, his knowledge may increase, but he hath a dead and withered heart.

But as the saints have real communion with God in duties, so they do make improvements answerable thereunto. There is certainly a ripening of

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