Richard Baxter
A Christian Directory,
Practical Works, vol. 1, pp. 176-183

What is Hypocrisy?

Hypocrisy is the acting the part of a religious person, as upon a stage, by one that is not religious indeed. A seeming in religion to be what you are not, or to do what you do not. Or a dissembling or counterfeiting that piety which you have not. To counterfeit a state of godliness is the sin only of the unregenerate, who at the present are in a state of misery: to counterfeit some particular act of godliness, is an odious sin, but such as a regenerate person may be tempted into. This act of hypocrisy doth not denominate the person an hypocrite; but the state of hypocrisy doth. Every hypocrite therefore is an ungodly person, seeming godly: or one that indeed is no true Christian, professing himself a Christian.

Two Kinds of Hypocrites

Of hypocrites there be two sorts: 1. Some desire to deceive others, but not themselves, but know themselves to be but dissemblers; and these are commonly called, gross hypocrites. 2. And some deceive both themselves and others, and think they are no hypocrites, but are as confident of their honesty and sincerity, as if they were no dissemblers at all: but yet they are as verily hypocrites as the former, because they seem to be religious and sincere, when indeed they are not, though they think they are; and profess themselves to be true Christians, when they are nothing less. These are called close hypocrites, because they know not themselves to be hypocrites (though they might know it if they would). This is the commonest sort of hypocrites.

Two Levels of Hypocrisy

There are also two degrees of hypocrites: 1. Some of them have only a general profession of Christianity and godliness, which is the professed religion of the country where they live; and these are hypocrites because they profess to be what they are not. 2. And others make a greater and extraordinary profession of special strictness in their religion, when they are not sincere; and these are eminently called hypocrites: such as the Pharisees were among the Jews, and many friars, and Jesuits, and nuns among the Papists, who by their separating vows, and orders, and habits, profess extraordinarily an extraordinary measure of devotion, while they want the life of godliness.

The Matter and Means of Hypocrisy

In all hypocrisy there is considerable, 1. The thing pretended: 2. The pretence, or means of seeming, or the cloak of their deceit. 1. The thing pretended by common hypocrites is to be true Christians, and servants of God, and heirs of heaven, though not to be so zealous in it as some of a higher degree. The thing pretended by eminent hypocrites is to be zealous, eminent Christians, or at least to be sincere in a special manner, while they discern the common hypocrite not to be sincere. 2. The cloak of seeming or pretence by which they would be thought to be what they are not, is any thing in general that hath an appearance of godliness, and is apt to make others think them godly. And thus there are divers sorts of hypocrites, according to the variety of their cloaks or ways of dissimulation; though hypocrisy itself be in all of them the same thing.

Muslim & Papist Hypocrisy

As among the very Mahometans, and heathens, there oft arise some notable hypocrites, that by pretended revelations and austerity of life, profess themselves (as Mahomet did) to be holy persons, that had some extraordinary familiarity with God or angels. So among the Papists there are, besides the common ones, as many sorts of hypocrites as they have self-devised orders. And every where the cloak of the common hypocrite is so thin and transparent, that it sheweth his nakedness to the more intelligent sort: and this puts the eminent hypocrite upon some more laudable pretence, that is not so transparent. As for instance, the hypocrisy of common Papists, whose cloak is made up of penances and ceremonies, of saying over Latin words, or numbering words and beads for prayers, with all the rest of their trumpery before named, is so thin a cloak that it will not satisfy some among themselves, but they withdraw into distinct societies and orders, (the church and the profession of Christianity being not enough for them,) that they may be religious, as if they saw that the rest are not religious.

Protestant Hypocrisy

And then the common sort of ungodly Protestants have so much wit, as to see through the cloak of all the Popish hypocrisy; and therefore, they take up a fitter for themselves: and that is, the name of a Protestant Reformed religion and church, joined to the common profession of Christianity. The name and profession of a Christian and a Protestant, with going to church, and a heartless lip-service or saying their prayers, is the cloak of all ungodly Protestants. Others, discerning the thinness of this cloak, do think to make themselves a better: and they take up the strictest opinions in religion, and own those which they account the strictest party, and own that which they esteem the purest and most spiritual worship: the cloak of these men is their opinions, party, and way of worship, while their carnal lives detect their hypocrisy. Some that see through all these pretences, do take up the most excellent cloak of all, and that is, an appearance of serious spirituality in religion, with a due observation of all the outward parts and means, and a reformation of life, in works of piety, justice, and charity; I say, an appearance of all these, which if they had indeed, they were sincere, and should be saved: in which the godly Christian goeth beyond them all.

By this it is plain, that, among us in England, all men that are not saints are hypocrites, because that all (except here or there a Jew or infidel) profess themselves to be Christians; and every true Christian is a saint. They know that none but saints or godly persons shall be saved: and there are few of them that will renounce their hopes of heaven; and therefore they must pretend to be all godly. And is it not most cursed, horrid hypocrisy, for a man to pretend to religion as the only way to his salvation, and confidently call himself a Christian, while he hateth and derideth the power and practice of that very religion which he doth profess? Of this, see my Treatise of “Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite.”

Reasons for Hypocrisy

The hypocrite’s ends, in his pretences and dissemblings, are not all the same. One intendeth the pleasing of parents, or some friends on whom he doth depend, that will else be displeased with him, and think ill of him. Another intendeth the pleasing of the higher powers, when it falls out that they are friends to godliness. Another intends the preserving of his esteem with religious persons, that they may not judge him wicked and profane. Another intendeth the hiding of some particular villainy, or the success of some ambitious enterprise. But the most common end is, to quiet and comfort their guilty souls, with an image of that holiness which they are without, and to steal some peace to their consciences by a lie: and so, because they will not be religious indeed, they will take up some shew or image of religion, to make themselves, as well as others, believe that they are religious.

Directions Against Hypocrisy

1. Understand the True Life and Power of Godliness

Direct. I. ‘To escape hypocrisy, understand well wherein the life and power of godliness doth consist, and wherein it differeth from the lifeless image or corpse of godliness.’ The life of godliness is expressed in the Seventeen Grand Directions in chapter 3. It principally consisteth in such a faith in Christ, as causeth us to love God above all, and obey him before all, and prefer his favour and the hopes of heaven before all the pleasures, or profits, or honours of the world; and to worship him in spirit and truth, according to the direction of his Word. The images of religion I shewed you before. Take heed of such a lifeless image.

2. Focus on the Heart

Direct. II. ‘See that your chief study be about the heart, that there God’s image may be planted, and his interest advanced, and the interest of the world and flesh subdued, and the love of every sin cast out, and the love of holiness succeed: and that you content not yourselves with seeming to do good in outward acts, when you are bad yourselves, and strangers to the great internal duties.’

The first and great work of a Christian is about his heart. There it is that God dwelleth by his Spirit, in his saints; and there it is that sin and Satan reign, in the ungodly. The great duties and the great sins are those of the heart. There is the root of good and evil: the tongue and life are but the fruits and expressions of that which dwelleth within. The inward habit of sin is a second nature: and a sinful nature is worse than a sinful act. “Keep your hearts with all diligence: for from thence are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23). Make the tree good, and the fruit will be good: but the “viperous generation that are evil, cannot speak good: for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Mat. 12:33-34). Till the Spirit have regenerated the soul, all outward religion will be but a dead and pitiful thing: though there is something which God hath appointed an unregenerate man to do, in order to his own conversion, yet no such antecedent act will prove that the person is justified or reconciled to God, till he be converted. To make up a religion of doing or saying something that is good, while the heart is void of the Spirit of Christ, and sanctifying grace, is the hypocrite’s religion.

3. Make Conscience of Sinful Desires

Direct. III. ‘Make conscience of the sins of the thoughts and the desire, and other affections or passions of the mind, as well as of the sins of tongue or hand.’ A lustful thought, a malicious thought, a proud, ambitious, or covetous thought, especially if it proceed to a wish, or contrivance, or consent, is a sin the more dangerous by how much the more inward and near the heart; as Christ hath shewed you (Matthew 5 and 6). The hypocrite who most respecteth the eye of man, doth live as if his thoughts were free.

4. Root Out Your Secret Sins

Direct. IV. ‘Make conscience of secret sins, which are committed out of the sight of men, and may be concealed from them, as well as of open and notorious sins.’ If he can do it in the dark and secure his reputation, the hypocrite is bold: but a sincere believer doth bear a reverence to his conscience, and much more to the all-seeing God.

5. Be Faithful in Secret Duties

Direct. V. ‘Be faithful in secret duties, which have no witness but God and conscience:’ as meditation and self-examination, and secret prayer; and be not only religious in the sight of men.

6. Focus on Holy Desires

Direct. VI. ‘In all public worship be more laborious with the heart, than with the tongue or knee: and see that your tongue overrun not your heart, and leave it not behind.’ Neglect not the due composure of your words, and due behaviour of your bodies: but take much more pains for the exercise of holy desires from a believing, loving, fervent soul.

7. Cherish Substantials Over Externals

Direct. VII. ‘Place not more in the externals, or modes, or circumstances, or ceremonies of worship, than is due; and lay not out more zeal for indifferent or little things, than cometh to their share; but let the great substantials of religion have the precedency, and be far preferred before them.’ Let the love of God and man be the sum of your obedience: and be sure you learn well what that meaneth; “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” And remember, that the great thing which God requireth of you, is “to do justice, and love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.—Destroy not him with your meat for whom Christ died.” Call not for fire from heaven upon dissenters; and think not every man intolerable in the church, that is not, in every little matter, of your mind.

Remember that the hypocrisy of the Pharisees is described by Christ, as consisting in a zeal for their own traditions, and the inventions of men, and the smallest matters of the ceremonial law, with a neglect of the greatest moral duties, and a furious cruelty against the spiritual worshippers of God. “Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.—Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me: but in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” “They bind heavy burdens, which they touch not themselves. All their works they do to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments; and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in public, and to be called Rabbi.—But they shut up the kingdom of heaven against men,” and were the greatest enemies of the entertainment of the Gospel by the people. They “tithed mint, and anise, and cumin, and omitted the great matters of the law, judgment, and mercy, and faith.’ They “strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel.” They had a great veneration for the “dead prophets and saints,” and yet were persecutors and murderers of their “successors” that were “living.”

By this description you may see which way hypocrisy doth most ordinarily work: even to a blind and bloody zeal for opinions, and traditions, and ceremonies, and other little things, to the treading down the interest of Christ and his Gospel, and a neglect of the life and power of godliness, and a cruel persecuting those servants of Christ, whom they are bound to love above their ceremonies. I marvel that many Papists tremble not when they read the character of the Pharisees! But that hypocrisy is a hidden sin, and is an enemy to the light which would discover it.

8. Don’t Neglect Second Table Duties

Direct. VIII. ‘Make conscience of the duties of obedience to superiors, and of justice and mercy towards men, as well as of acts of piety to God.’ Say not a long mass in order to devour a widow’s house, or a Christian’s life or reputation. Be equally exact in justice and mercy as you are in prayers: and labour as much to exceed common men in the one as in the other. Set yourselves to do all the good you can to all, and do hurt to none: and do to all men as you would they should do to you.

9. Mind Your Own Business

Direct. IX. ‘Be much more busy about yourselves than about others: and more censorious of yourselves than of other men: and more strict in the reforming of yourselves than of any others.’ For this is the character of the sincere: when the hypocrite is little at home and much abroad; and is a sharp reprehender of others, and perniciously tender and indulgent to himself. Mark his discourse in all companies, and you shall hear how liberal he is in his censures and bitter reproach of others: how such men, and such men (that differ from him, or have opposed him, or that he hates,) are thus and thus faulty, and bad, and hateful. Yea, he is as great an accuser of his adversaries for hypocrisy, as if he were not an hypocrite himself: because he can accuse them of a heart-sin without any visible control. If he called them drunkards, or swearers, or persecutors, or oppressors, all that know them could know that he belieth them; but when he speaks about matters in the dark, he thinks the reputation of his lies have more advantage: many a word you hear from him, how bad his adversaries are; but if such hypocritical talk did not tell you, he would not tell you how bad he is himself.

10. Judge Yourself Impartially

Direct. X. ‘Be impartial, and set yourselves before your consciences in the case of others.’ Think with yourselves: ‘How should I judge of this, in such and such a man, that I use to blame? What should I say of him, if my adversary did as I do? And is it not as bad in me as in him? Is not the sin most dangerous to me that is nearest me? And should I be more vigilant over any man’s faults than my own? My damnation will not be caused by his sin; but by my own it may. Instead of seeing the gnat in his eye, I have more cause to cast out a gnat from my own than a camel from his.’

11. Endeavor to Be What You Want to Seem to Be

Direct. XI. ‘Study first to be whatever (judiciously) you desire to seem.’ Desire a thousand times more to be godly, than to seem so; and to be liberal, than to be thought so; and to be blameless from every secret or presumptuous sin, than to be esteemed such. And when you feel a desire to be accounted good, let it make you think how much more necessary and desirable it is to be good indeed. To be godly, is to be an heir of heaven: your salvation followeth it. But to be esteemed godly is of little profit to you.

12. Don’t Overvalue Others Opinions of You

Direct. XII. ‘Overvalue not man, and set no more by the approbation or applause of his thoughts or speeches of you than they are worth.’ Hypocrisy much consisteth in overvaluing man, and making too great a matter of his thoughts and words. The hypocrite’s religion is divine in name, but human in deed: it is man that he serveth and observeth most: and the shame of the world is the evil which he most studiously avoideth: and the high esteem and commendation of the world is his reward. O think, what a silly worm is man! And of how little moment are his thoughts or speeches of you, in comparison of the love of God! His thoughts of you make you not the better or the worse: and if they either lift you up or trouble you, it is your proud and foolish fantasy that doth it when you might choose. If you have not lost the key and government of your hearts, shut you the door, and keep all thence, and let men’s reproaches go no further than your ears; and then what the worse will you be for all the lies and slanders of the world? And, besides the pleasing of an effeminate mind, what the better are you for their applause?

13. Remember that All Flesh is as Grass

Direct. XIII. ‘Look upon all men that you converse with, as ready to die and turn to dust, and passing into that world where you will be little concerned in their censure or esteem of you.’ If you do any thing before an infant, you little care for his presence or observation of you: much less if it be before the dead. If you knew that a man were to die to-morrow, though he were a prince, you would not be much solicitous to avoid his censure or procure his applause; because his thoughts all perish with him; and it is a small matter what he thinks of you for a day. Seeing therefore that all men are hasting to their dust, and you are certain that all that applaud or censure you, will be quickly gone, how little should you regard their judgment! Look that man in the face whose applause you desire, or whose censure you fear, and remember that he is a breathing clod of clay; and how many such are now in the grave, whose thoughts you once as much esteemed! and this will make you more indifferent in the case.

14. Your Life is a Vapor

Direct. XIV. ‘At least remember, that you are passing out of the world yourselves, and look every moment when you are called away, and certainly know that you shall be here but a little while.’ And is it any great matter what strangers think of you as you are passing by? You can be contented that your name, and worth, and virtues be concealed in your inn, where you stay but a night, and that they be unknown to travelers that meet you on the road. The foolish expectation of more time on earth than God hath given you warrant to expect, is the cause that we overvalue the judgment of man, as well as other earthly things, and is a great maintainer of every sensual vice.

15. Mortify Your Self-Love and Pride

Direct. XV. ‘Set yourselves to the mortifying of self-love and pride: for hypocrisy is but the exercise of these.’ Hypocrisy is dead so far as pride is dead; and so far as self-denial and humility prevail. Hypocrisy is a proud desire to appear better than you are. Be thoroughly humbled and vile in your own eyes, and hypocrisy is done.

16. Be Suspicious of Your Own Heart

Direct. XVI. ‘Be most suspicious of your hearts in cases where self-interest or passions are engaged:’ for they will easily deal deceitfully and cheat yourselves, in the smoke and dust of such distempers. Interest and passion so blind the mind, that you may verily think you are defending the truth, and serving God in sincerity and zeal, when all the while you are but defending some error of your own, and serving yourselves, and fighting against God. The Pharisees thought they took part with God’s law and truth against Christ. The pope, and his cardinal, and prelates think (as in charity I must think) that it is for Christ, and unity, and truth, that they endeavour to subject the world to their own power. And what is it but interest that blindeth them into such hypocrisy? So, passionate disputers do ordinarily deceive themselves, and think verily that they are zealous for the faith, when they are but contending for their honour or conceits. Passion covers much deceit from the passionate.

17. Beware of Man-Pleasing

Direct. XVII. ‘Suspect yourselves most among the great, the wise, the learned, and the godly, or any whose favour, opinion, or applause you most esteem.’ It is easy for an arrant hypocrite to despise the favour or opinion of the vulgar, of the ignorant, of the profane, or any whose judgment he contemneth. It is no great honour or dishonour to be praised or dispraised by a child, or fool, or a person that for his ignorance or profaneness is become contemptible. But hypocrisy and pride do work most to procure the esteem of those, whose judgment or parts you most admire. One most admireth worldly greatness; and such an one will play the hypocrite most, to flatter or please the great ones he admireth. Another that is wiser, more admireth the judgment of the wise and learned; and he will play the hypocrite to procure the good esteem of such, though he can slight a thousand of the ignorant; (and his pride itself will make him slight them.) Another that is yet wiser, is convinced of the excellency of godly men, above all the great and learned of the world: and this man is more in danger of pride and hypocrisy in seeking the good opinion of the godly; and therefore can despise the greatest multitude of the ignorant and profane. Yea, pride itself will make him take it as an addition to his glory, to be vilified and opposed by such miscreants as these.

18. Remember that God Sees Everything

Direct. XVIII. ‘Remember the perfections of that God whom you worship, that he is a Spirit, and therefore to be worshipped in spirit and in truth; and that he is most great and terrible, and therefore to be worshipped with seriousness and reverence, and not to be dallied with, or served with toys or lifeless lip-service; and that he is most holy, pure, and jealous, and therefore to be purely worshipped; and that he is still present with you, and all things are naked and open to him with whom we have to do.’

The knowledge of God, and the remembrance of his all-seeing presence, are the most powerful means against hypocrisy. Christ himself argueth from the nature of God, who is a Spirit, against the hypocritical ceremoniousness of the Samaritans and Jews (John 4:23-24). Hypocrites offer that to God, which they know a man of ordinary wisdom would scorn if they offered it to him. If a man knew their hearts as God doth, would he be pleased with words, and compliments, and gestures, which are not accompanied with any suitable seriousness of the mind? Would he be pleased with affected, histrionic actions?

One that seeth a Papist priest come out in his formalities, and there lead the people, in a language which they understand not, to worship God by a number of ceremonies, and canting, repeated, customary words, would think he saw a stage-player acting his part, and not a wise and holy people, seriously worshipping the most holy God. And not only in worship, but in private duties, and in converse with men, and in all your lives, the remembrance of God’s presence is a powerful rebuke for all hypocrisy. It is more foolish to sin in the sight of God, because you can hide it from the world, than to steal or commit adultery in the open market-place, before the crowd, and be careful that dogs and crows discern it not. If all the world see you, it is not so much as if God in secret see you. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked” (Gal. 6:7).

19. Remember How Much God Hates Hypocrisy

Direct. XIX. ‘Remember how hypocrisy is hated of God; and what punishment is appointed for hypocrites.’ They are joined in torment with unbelievers. And, as wicked men’s punishment is aggravated by their being condemned to the fire prepared for the devil and his angels; so the punishment of ordinary ungodly persons, is aggravated by this, that their portion shall be with hypocrites and unbelievers. How oft find you the Lamb of God himself, denouncing his thundering woes against the hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees! How oft doth he inculcate to his disciples, “Be not as the hypocrites.” And no wonder if hypocrites be hateful to God, when they and their services are lifeless images, and have nothing but the name and outside of Christianity, and some antique dress to set them off, and human ornaments of wit and parts: as a corpse is more dressed with flowers than the living, as needing those ceremonies for want of life to keep it sweet. And a carrion is not amiable to God. And the hypocrite puts a scorn on God; as if he thought that God were like the heathen’s idols, that have eyes and see not, and could not discern the secret dissemblings of his heart! or as if he were like fools and children, that are pleased with fair words and little toys. God must needs hate such abuse as this.

20. Live in the Light

Direct. XX. ‘Come into the light, that your hearts and lives may be thoroughly known to you. Love the most searching, faithful ministry and books: and be thankful to reprovers and plain dealing friends.’ Darkness is it that cherisheth deceit. It is the office of the light to manifest. Justly do those wretches perish in their hypocrisy, who will not endure the light which would undeceive them; but fly from a plain and powerful ministry, and hate plain reproof, and set themselves by excuses, and cavils, to defend their own deceit.

21. Examine Your Heart

Direct. XXI. ‘Be very diligent in the examining of your hearts and all your actions by the Word of God, and call yourselves often to a strict account.’ Deceit and guilt will not endure strict examination. The Word of God is quick and powerful, discovering the thoughts and imaginations of the heart. There is no hypocrite but might be delivered from his own deceits, if by the assistance of an able guide, he would faithfully go on in the work of self-trying, without partiality or sloth.

22. Live Knowing that You Will be Judged

Direct. XXII. ‘Live continually as one that is going to be judged at the bar of God, where all hypocrisy will be opened and shamed, and hypocrisy condemned by the all-knowing God.’ One thought of our appearing before the Lord, and of the day of his impartial judgment, one would think should make man walk in the light, and teach them to understand, that the sun is not eclipsed as oft as they wink, nor is it night because they draw the curtains. What a shame will it be to have all your dissimulation laid open before all the world? “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisee, which is hypocrisy: for there is nothing covered, which shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets, shall be proclaimed on the house-tops” (Luke 12:1-3).

23. Beware of Shifting Hypocrisy

Direct. XXIII. ‘Think not that you avoid hypocrisy by changing the expressions of it; but see that you run not into a more subtle kind, while you avoid a grosser.’ There is no outward way of worshipping God, nor any opinion in religion so sound, but an hypocrite can make a cloak of it. You see an ignorant, ridiculous hypocrite, such as Bishop Hall describeth in his character, that can pray up to a pillar, when his heart knoweth not what his tongue is doing, that babbleth over a few words to God while he is dressing or washing him, and talking between to the standers-by; who offereth to God the sacrifice of a fool, and knoweth not that he doth evil; that serveth God with toys and antique gestures, and saying over certain words which were never acquainted with the feeling of the heart, nor scarce with his understanding. And to avoid his hypocrisy, perhaps, you can merrily deride him, and make a formal Popish hypocrite the subject of your jests; and you can yourselves, with good understanding, pour out yourselves many hours together in orderly and meet expressions of prayer: but remember that many an hypocrite maketh himself a cloak of as good stuff as this; and that as pride hath more advantage to work upon your greater knowledge and better parts, so hypocrisy is but the offspring of pride. All this, without a heart entirely devoted unto God, is but a carcass better dressed; as the rich have more curious monuments than the poor. There is no outside thing, in which an hypocrite may not seem excellent.

24. Be True to Your Conscience

Direct. XXIV. ‘Be true to conscience, and hearken diligently to all it saith, and be often treating with it, and daily conversant and well acquainted with it.’ Hypocrites bear little reverence to their conscience: they make so often and so grossly bold with them, that conscience is deposed from its office at the present, and silenced by them, lest it should gall them by preaching to them those hard sayings which they cannot bear: and perhaps at last it is seared or bribed to take part with sin. But usually an hypocrite hath a secret judge within him which condemneth him. Take heed how you use your consciences, as you love your peace and happiness. Next Christ, it must be your best friend, or your greatest enemy: palliate it how you will at present, if you wound it, it will smart at last. And it is easier to bear poverty, or shame, or torment, than to bear its wounds.

1. Mark the very principles and former judgment of your consciences; and if they are changed, know what changed them. 2. Hearken to all the secret counsel and reproofs of conscience, especially when it speaketh oft and terribly; turn it not off without a hearing: yea, know the reason of its very scruples and doubts. 3. When it is sick and disquieted, know what the matter is, and vomit up the matter that justly disquiets it, whatever it cost you; and be sure you go to the bottom, and do not leave the root behind. 4. Open your consciences to some able, trusty guide when it is necessary, though it cost you shame. An over-tender avoiding of such shame is the hypocrite’s sin and folly. Counsel is safe in matters of such importance. 5. Prefer conscience before all men how great soever: none is above it but God. It is God’s messenger, when it is conscience indeed: remember what it saith to you, and from whom, and for what end. Let friends, and neighbours, and company, and business, and profit, and sports, and honour stand by, and all give place whilst conscience speaketh; for it will be a better friend to you than any of these, if you use it as a friend. It would have been better to Judas than his thirty pieces were. 6. Yet see that it be well informed, and see its commission, for it is not above God; nor is it masterless or lawless. 7. Converse not with it only in a crowd, but in secret. 8. Keep it awake; and keep it among awakening means and company: it will much sooner fall asleep in an ale-house, or a play-house, or among the foolish and profane, than at a lively sermon, or prayer, or reverent discourse of God. If I could but get conscience awakened to perform its office, and preach over all this that I have said, in secret it would ferret the hypocrite out of his self deceit.

Go, conscience, and search that deceitful heart, and speak to it in the name of God: ask that hypocrite whether conversion ever made him a new creature, and whether his soul and all that he hath be entirely devoted unto God? and whether his hopes and treasure be laid up in heaven, and his heart be there? and whether he subject all his worldly interest to the will of God, and the interest of his soul? and whether his greatest work be about his heart, and to approve himself to God? and whether he make an impartial, diligent inquiry after the truth, with a desire to receive it at the dearest rates? Tell him that a proud self-flattery may now make him justify or extenuate his sins, and take his formalities, and lip-service, and abuse of God for true devotion, and hate every man that would detect his hypocrisy, and convert him by bringing in the light; but a light will shortly appear to his soul, which he shall not resist. And then let him stand to his justification if he can; and let him then make it good that he gave up himself in sincerity, simplicity, and self-denial, to his God.

25. Serve God with Singleness of Heart & Avoid a Double Life

Direct. XXV. ‘Remember that hypocrisy lieth much in doubling, and in a divided heart and life: see therefore that you serve God in singleness of heart, or simplicity and integrity, as being his alone. Think not of serving God and mammon: a deep reserve at the heart for the world, while they seem to give up themselves in covenant to God, is the grand character of an hypocrite. Live as those that have one Lord and Master, that all power stoopeth to, and one end or scope to which all other are but means, and one work of absolute necessity to do; and one kingdom to seek first, and with greatest care and diligence to make sure of, and that have your hearts and faces still one way, and that agree with yourselves in what you think, and say, and do.

A double heart, and a double tongue is the fashion of the hypocrite (Ps. 12:2; 1 Tim. 3:8). He hath a heart for the world, and pride, and lust, which must seem sometimes to be lifted up to ask forgiveness, that he may sin with quietness and hope of salvation: you would not think when you see him drop his beads, or lift up his hands and eyes, and seem devoutly to say his prayers, how lately he came from a tavern, or a whore, or a lie, or from scorning at serious godliness. As Bishop Hall saith, he seemeth to serve that God at church on holy days, whom he neglecteth at home; and boweth at the name of Jesus, and sweareth profanely by the name of God. Remember that there is but one God, one heaven for us, one happiness, and one way; and this one is of such moment as calls for all the intention and attention of our souls, and is enough to satisfy us, and should be enough to call us off from all that would divert us.

A divided heart is a false and self-deceiving heart. Are there two Gods? or is Christ divided? While you grasp at both (God and the world) you will certainly lose one, and it is like you will lose both. To have two Gods, two rules, two heavens, is to have no God, no true rule, no heaven, or happiness at all. Halt not therefore between two opinions: if God be God, obey him and love him; if heaven be heaven, be sure it be first sought. But if thy belly be thy god, and the world be thy heaven, then serve and seek them, and make thy best of them.

26. Pursue Sincerity, Eschew Worldly Wisdom

Direct. XXVI. ‘Take heed of all that fleshly policy or craft, and worldly wisdom, which are contrary to the wisdom of the Word of God, and would draw thee from the plain and open-heartedness which godly sincerity requireth. Let that which was Paul’s rejoicing be your’s, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, you have had your conversation in the world. Christianity renounceth not wisdom and honest self-preservation; but yet it maketh men plain-hearted, and haters of crafty, fraudulent minds. What is the famous hypocritical religion superadded to Christianity and called Popery, but that which Paul feared in his godly jealousy for the Corinthians, “lest as the serpent beguiled Eve by his subtilty, so their minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Cor. 11:1-3). A forsaking the Christian simplicity of Doctrine, Discipline, Worship, and Conversation, is the hypocrisy of religion, and of life. Equivocating and dishonest shifts and hiding, beseem those that have an ill cause, or an ill conscience, or an ill master whom they dare not trust; and not those that have so good a cause and God as Christians have.

27. Be Serious in the Things of God

Direct. XXVII. ‘Remember how much of sincerity consisteth in seriousness, and how much of hypocrisy consisteth in seeming, and dreaming, and trifling in the things of God and our salvation. See therefore that you keep your souls awake, in a sensible and serious frame.’ Read over the fifty considerations, which in the third part of my “Saints’ Rest,” I have given to convince you of the necessity of being serious. See that there be as much in your faith as in your creed, and as much in your hearts and lives as in your belief. Remember that seeming and dreaming will not mortify deep-rooted sins, nor conquer strong and subtle enemies, nor make you acceptable to God, nor save your souls from his revenging justice. Remember what a mad kind of profaneness it is to jest and trifle about heaven and hell, and to dally with the great and dreadful God. “Seeing all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness?” (2 Peter 3:11).

You pray for an obedience answering the pattern of the heavenly society when you say, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;’ and will you be such hypocrites as to pray, that you may imitate saints and angels in the purity and obedience of your hearts and lives, and when you have done, take up with shews, and seemings, and saying a few words, and a lifeless image of that holiness which you never had; yea, and perhaps deride and persecute in others the very thing which you daily pray for. O horrible abuse of the all-seeing God! Do you no more believe or fear his justice? When the apostle saith, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked;” he intimateth, that hypocrites go about to put a scorn on God by a mock religion, though it is not he, but themselves that will prove mocked in the end. They offer God a deaf nut, or an empty shell, or cask, for a sacrifice.

An hypocrite differeth from a true Christian, as a fencer from a soldier; he playeth his part very formally upon a stage with much applause; but you may perceive that he is not in good sadness, by his trifling and formality, and never killing any of his sins. Would men shew no more of the great, everlasting matters of their own professed belief, in any seriousness of affection or endeavour than most men do, if they were not hypocrites? Would they hate and scorn men for doing but that (and part of that) which they pray and profess to do themselves, if they were not hypocrites? Woe to the world, because of hypocrisy! Woe to idle shepherds, and the seeming, nominal, lifeless Christians, of what sect soever; for God will not be mocked.

They are Christians; but it is with mock Christianity, while their souls are strange to the true esteem and use of Christ. They are believers, but with a mock belief, described in James 2. They believe that God should be loved above all, but they love him not. They believe that holiness is better than all the pleasures of sin; yet they choose it not, but hate it. They are religious, with a seeming, vain religion, which will not so much as humble them, nor bridle their tongues (James 1:26). They are wise, with a mock wisdom; they are wise enough to prove their sins to be all lawful, or but venial sins; and wise enough to cast away the medicine that would heal them; and to confute the physician, and to answer the most learned preacher of them all, and to escape salvation, and to secure themselves a place in hell, and keep themselves ignorant of it till they are there. They are converted, but with a mock conversion; which leaveth them as carnal, and proud, and worldly as before: being born of water but not of the Spirit, and being sensual still (John 3:5-6; Jude 19). They repent, with a mock repentance; they repent, but they will not leave their sin, nor confess and bewail it, but hate reproof, and excuse their sin.

They are honest, but with a mock honesty; though they swear, and curse, and rail, and slander, and backbite, and scorn at piety itself; yet they mean well, and have honest hearts: though they receive not the Word with deep-rooting in their hearts, but are abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate, they are honest for all that (Luke 8:15; Titus 1:16). They love God above all, though they love not to think or speak of him seriously, but hate his holiness and justice, his Word, and holy ways and servants, and are such as the Scripture calleth “haters of God;” and keep not his commandments, nor live to his glory. They love the servants of God, but they care not if the world were rid of them all, and take them to be but a company of self-conceited, troublesome fellows, and as very hypocrites as themselves: and the poor Christians, that are cruelly used by them, think they are neither in good sadness nor in jest, when they profess to love the worshippers of God. They love not their money, nor lands, nor lusts, with such a kind of love, I am sure.

They have also always good desires; but they are such mock desires as those in James 2:15 that wished the poor were fed, and clothed, and warmed, but gave them nothing towards it: and such good desires as the sluggard hath that lieth in bed and wisheth that all his work were done. “The desires of the sluggard killeth him, because his hands refuse to labour” (Prov. 21:25). They pray, but with mock prayers; you would little think that they are speaking to the most holy God, for no less than the saving of their souls, when they are more serious in their very games and sports. They pray for grace, but they cannot abide it; they pray for holiness, but they are resolved they will have none of it; they pray against their sin, but no entreaty can persuade them from it. They would have a mock ministry, a mock discipline, a mock church, a mock sacrament, as they make a mock profession, and give God but a mock obedience, as I might shew you through all the particulars, but for being tedious. And all is, because they have but a mock faith: they believe not that God is in good earnest with them in his commands, and threatenings, and foretellings of his judgments, as Lot to his sons-in-law. “He seemeth to them as one that mocked,” and therefore they serve him as those that would mock him.

O wretched hypocrites! is this agreeable to your holy profession? You call yourselves Christians, and profess to believe the doctrine of Christ: is this agreeable to Christianity, to your creed, to the ten commandments, to the Lord’s prayer, and to the rest of the Word of God? Had you none but the holy, jealous God to make a mock of? Had you nothing less than religion, and matters of salvation and damnation to play with? do you serve God as if he were a child, or an idol, or a man of straw, that either knoweth not your hearts, or is pleased with toys and compliments, and shews, and saying over certain words, or acting a part before him on a stage? Do you know what you offer, and to whom? His power is omnipotency; his glory is ten thousand-fold above that of the sun; his wisdom is infinite; millions of angels adore him continually; he is thy King and Judge; he abhorreth hypocrites. If thou didst but see one glimpse of his glory, or the meanest of his angels, the sight would awaken thee from thy dreaming, and dallying, and frighten thee from thy canting and trifling into a serious regard of God and thy everlasting state. “Offer this now to thy governor: will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person, saith the Lord of Hosts?” (Mal. 1:8).

If your servants set before you upon your table, the feathers instead of the fowl, and the hair and wool instead of the flesh, and the scales instead of the fish, would you not think they rather mocked than served you? How dear have some paid even in this life for mocking God? Let the case of Aaron’s sons, and of Ananias and Sapphira, inform you: if with the fig-tree, you offer God leaves only instead of fruit, you are nigh unto cursing, and your end is to be burnt. Do you not read what he saith to the church of Laodicea: “I would thou wert cold or hot; because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth:” that is, either be an open infidel, or a holy, downright, zealous Christian: but because thou callest thyself a Christian, and hast not the life or zeal of a Christian, but coverest thy wickedness and carnality with that holy name I will cast thee away as an abominable vomit.

It would make the heart of a believer ache to think of the hypocrisy of most that usurp the name of Christians, and how cruelly they mock themselves. What a glory is offered them, and they lose it by their dallying! What a price is in their hands! What mercy is offered them, and they lose it by their dallying! What danger is before them, and they will fall into it by their dallying! Doth not the weight of your salvation forbid this trifling? You might better set the town on fire and make a jest of it, than jest your souls into the fire of hell. Then you will find that hell is no jesting matter: if you mock yourselves out of your salvation, where are you then? If you play with time, and means, and mercy till they are gone, you are undone for ever. O dally not till you are past remedy.

Alas! poor dreaming, trifling hypocrites! Is time so swift, and life so short, and death so sure and near; and God so holy, just, and terrible; and heaven so glorious, and hell so hot, and both everlasting, and yet will you not be in earnest about your work? Up and be doing, as you are men, and as ever you care what becomes of you for ever! “Depart from iniquity,” if you will “name the name of Christ.” Let not a cheating world delude you for a moment, and have the kernel, the heart, while God hath but the empty shell. A mock religion will but keep up a mock hope, a mock peace, and a mock joy and comfort till Satan have done his work, and be ready to unhood you and open your eyes. “So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish.” “For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?” “Knowest thou not this of old, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reacheth unto the clouds; yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say where is he?” Away then with hypocritical formality and dalliance, and be serious and sincere for thy soul and with thy God.