can display nothing, or, were it not deceiving and deceived, nothing but its own wretchedness and ruin. The Apostle hath a striking hint for professors of religion: "If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his heart, this man's religion is vain."

What is our end in religious conversation? If we speak without a purpose, surely it is folly. If we speak for our own praise, it is a wrong to our own souls, and a robbery of God. If we speak for his honour, and the edification of others, we should look up to him for his blessing, that our words, as they ought, may be weighty and wise. In this humble dependence upon God, and with a warm and generous concern for the spiritual welfare of others, our discourse may be comfortable and edifying, both to them and to ourselves. A word in season, thus spoken, may be remembered and blessed. The more of this kind of conference the better; care being taken of the spirit in which we speak, of the time and propriety of speaking, and of not mixing other things, as is too often the case, with our religious discourse, which may render it trifling or unsavoury. When we have said all that we could wish to say upon divine things, it will be profitable to withdraw, that there may be a due opportunity for reflection, meditation, digestion, and prayer.

F

CHAPTER VIII.

Upon False Appearances.

THE whole world walketh in a masquerade, or, as the Scripture calls it, an image or "vain show." Scarce any man would appear as he is, but as he is not, before others; and he loves to indulge even his own mind in the same deceitful view of himself. The more artfully he can put on the veil, the finer man he seems, often in his own esteem, generally in the esteem of others; and nothing mortifies him more than when some wind of trial blows this veil but a little aside, so that others perceive a part at least of what he hath been always very industrious to conceal.

This disguiseful clothing is the handy-work of evil and corrupt nature, fallen from the truth and purity of God into a strong love and likeness of the perplexed and foolish subtlety, which fully occupies that being who is the father and author of lies from the beginning. To plead for this dissimulation as some have done, is to turn advocate for the evil one, whose fees are vanity and vexation in this world, and something worse in the world to come.

Our depraved nature cannot bear to see its own wickedness, and much less to have it exposed. What shifts and turns, what labours and difficulties, will it not encounter, to obtain a great

although it be but a false one?

name and opinion,

And how will it be

delighted, as with a prize, in the fleeting breath of dying creatures, who have only for a memorial of themselves some filthy monument of sin or of shame ? To be open and sincere, is counted a weakness; because it lowers a man's power of taking those advantages for interest and fame, which all men by nature are pursuing, and which, in a state of nature, they think to be the only object worth pursuing, as the highest and greatest good.

And, alas! how much of this disguise is brought into the things and church of God!

one, how prone I am to cheat myself,

I lament, for

and to wish more for the esteem of others, than I ought to think of, or than I can possibly deserve! I would be all fair, and valuable, and excellent, and what not, in their esteem; while I am conscious to myself, that there is within me so much vanity, weakness, dulness, wretchedness, and evil, as might justly suffice to render me in their eyes, what any of them, that can look into themselves, must appear to be in their

own.

I have displeased some whom I did not intend to displease; and others have offended me, perhaps with a contrary intention. The same persons and myself have been mutually satisfied at one time, and dissatisfied at another; and wherefore? Not because my nature or theirs was better or worse at any time; but only because it sometimes discovered itself more according to the occasion: and when it drops the disguise of goodness which we can regard, or discovers itself too plainly, sinners as we are, we do not love it, so odious and depraved is it become since

the original ruin. We cannot love it in others, nor others because of it; though we are at a world of pains to conceal, to indulge, or to dress off, the ugly monster in ourselves.

It is this depravity, which hath begotten hypocrisy not only in the world at large, or in courts or particular callings of men, where certainly it doth reign absolutely and universally, but also in religious profession, where surely it ought not. It hath reigned especially in this last, since it hath been esteemed a scandal not to be called a Christian. It is true, indeed, that the appearance of religion is certainly better than the appearance of evil; but, however, when men seek to appear religious, for the selfish honour or carnal comfort which may follow from others upon account of it, they only seek themselves, and are but the less truly religious for all their professions.

Why am I grieved if others think lightly of my gracious attainments?-Because I am grown unjustly great in my own esteem for things which are not my own, but given to me. But doth not this very grief prove that their judgment is but too right, and that my real stature is not so tall as I think it? If I were humbled in myself, in some degree, as I ought to be, (for, in the full and just degree, no man can be humbled in this life,) I should approve their sincerity towards me, and contentedly sit down before them in the lowest room. Their low opinion would not hurt me, because it would be the same as my The vileness of my heart, and the low progress I have made in Christian experience, are in

own.

deed sufficient to humble me every day I breathe; and it is only my own blindness, or a falseness to myself, that leads me to forget either my own real condition, or the place where I ought to stand.

We are not naturally honest to ourselves; and we do not wish that others should deal honestly with us. If we were truly honest and wise, (and grace only can make us so in any degree,) we should meekly hear, and even wish to hear, of our own frailties, errors, and defects, that we might grow the true Christian growth, which doth not consist in the favourable opinion of men and of our own minds; but in lowliness of heart, and spirituality of life, respecting ourselves; in patience, quietness, and good-will with regard to others; in contrition, humiliation, and submission before God.

Professors live too much outwardly. Religion is carried often into the strong animal passions, not to subdue, but to feed them. Hence the poor anger and violence of a corrupted nature, are frequently mistaken for zeal, for life, and for power. But noise, and bustle, and tumult, and hurry; the agitations of temper, and strong concerns for influence or authority, or direction, among men; the parade of religion, or the superiority of a party, may all be carried on with very small degrees of real grace, and perhaps with none at all. Diotrephes loved to have the pre-eminence; but this could not suppress his inward bitterness, nor increase the signs of his Christian calling, 3 John 9. If we do not live for God in our religion, we must live outwardly, and so shall endeavour to make a "fair show in the flesh;" but if