《基督徒的全副军装》：认信与假冒为善The Christian in Complete Armor — Profession and Hypocrisy

PROFESSION and HYPOCRISY

William Gurnall

"The hypocrite's hope shall perish!" Job 8:13

Such a generation there ever shall be, that mingle
themselves with the saints of God; who pretend Heaven, with heavenly
speeches — while their hearts are lined with hypocrisy, whereby they
deceive others, and most of all themselves. Such may be the world's
saints — but are devil's in Christ's account. "Have not I chosen you
twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!" And truly, of all devils, none so
bad as the professing devil, the preaching, praying
devil.

Satan can live very peaceably, as a quiet neighbor,
by the door of such as will content themselves with an empty name of
profession; this alters not his property. Judas' profession did not put
him a step out of his way to Hell. Just so, the devil can show a man a
way to damnation through duties and ordinances of God's worship. That
covetous, traitorous heart which Judas carried with him to hear Christ's
sermon, and preach his own, held him fast enough to the devil; and
therefore he gives him line enough, liberty enough to keep his credit a
while with his fellow apostles. The devil cares not though others think
him a disciple of Christ, so he knows him to be his own slave.

The hypocrite at first blush may be taken for a
saint, by such as see only his outside, as he passes by in his holiday
dress, and therefore is fitly by one called the stranger's saint
— but a devil to those who know him better.

The hypocrite can show a pious tongue — and yet have
a foul heart.

He who has a false end in his profession, will soon
come to the end of his profession, when he is pinched on that toe where
his corn is; I mean, called to deny that which his naughty heart aimed
at.

Many there are that have nothing to prove themselves
Christians but a naked profession, of whom we may say as they do of the
cinnamon tree, that the bark is more worth than all they have besides.

Many take up their saintship upon trust, and trade in
religion with the credit they have gained from others' opinion of them.
They believe themselves to be Christians, because others hope them to be
such; and so their great business is, by a zeal in those exercises of
religion that lie outermost, to keep up the credit they have
abroad — but do not look to get a stock of solid grace within; and this
proves their undoing at last.

They say trees grow as much in the root underground
as in the branches above, and so does true grace. Remember what was the
perishing of the seed in stony ground — it lacked root; and why so, but
because it was stony? Be willing the plough should go deep enough to
humble you for sin, and rend your heart from sin.

A hypocrite never got pardon in the disguise
of a saint. He will call you by your own name, though you come to Him in
the semblance of a penitent: "Come in, O wife of Jeroboam," said the
prophet. Hypocrisy is too thin a veil, to blind the eyes of the
Almighty. You may put your own eyes out, so as not to see Him — but
you can never blind His eyes so that He should not see you.

Speak, O you hypocrites! can you show one tear that
ever you shed in earnest for a wrong done to God? It is a good gloss
Augustine has upon Esau's tears (Hebrews 12): "He wept that he lost
the blessing, not that he sold it."

Time-serving. The hypocrite sets his watch, not
by the sun, the Word I mean — but by the town clock; what most do, that
he will do.

Self-righteousness. Take heed uprightness proves
not a snare to you. The young man in the gospel might have been better,
had he not been so good. His honesty and moral uprightness was his
undoing, or rather his conceit of them. Better he had been a publican,
driven to Christ in the sense of his sin — than a Pharisee, kept from
Him with an opinion of his integrity. Maybe you are honest and upright
in your course. Bless God for it — but take heed of blessing yourself in
it: there is the danger; this is one way of being "righteous over much."
There is undoing in this over-doing, as well as in any under-doing.

What men do by themselves, they do for
themselves; they devour the praise of what they do. The Christian only
that does all by Christ, does all for Christ. Many souls
do not only perish, praying, repenting, and believing after a sort — but
they perish by their praying and repenting, while they carnally trust
in these.

Few are so bad indeed, but seem to like religion in
the notion; but living and walking holiness bites; the pharisees can
lavish out their money on the prophets' tombs — but Christ is scorned
and hated. What is the mystery of this? The reason was, these prophets
are off the stage — and Christ is on.

False zeal. Zeal without uprightness is of no
service, nay, no one will go to Hell with more shame than the
false-hearted zealot, who mounts up towards Heaven in his fiery chariot.
Be not reluctant to be searched; there will need then no further search
to prove you unsound; if God's officers are denied entrance, all is not
right within. If your heart is sincere, it will delight in privacy. A
false heart calls others to witness his zeal for God. It is the trick of
the hypocrite, to strain himself to the utmost in duty, when he
has spectators — and to be careless alone.

A false heart may seem very hot in praying against
one sin — but can skip over another. A hypocrite will be favorable to
one lust, and violent against another; whereas a sincere Christian
abhors all sin: "Order my steps in your word: and let not any
iniquity have dominion over me" (Psalm 119:133).

The hypocrite seems hot in prayer — but you
will find him cold enough at work; he prays very fiercely against
his sins, as if he desired them to be all slain upon the place; but does
he set himself upon the work of mortification? Does he withdraw the fuel
that feeds them?

Hypocrisy in religion springs from the bitter fruit
of some carnal affection unmortified. So long as your prey lies below,
your eye will be on the earth — when you seem, like an eagle, to mount
in your prayers to Heaven. God is in the hypocrite's mouth —
but the world is in his heart, which he expects to gain through his
good reputation.

No man can say that Jesus is the Lord — but by the
Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). A man may say the words, without any
special work of the Spirit — and so may a parrot. But to say Christ is
Lord believingly, with thoughts and affections comporting with the
greatness and sweetness thereof, requires the Spirit of God to be in his
heart.

Knowledge without grace. An orthodox creed
with an unholy heart and ungodly life — is like a man's head on a
beast's shoulders! That man has little cause to boast that what he
holds is truth, if what he does be wicked.

Knowledge may make you a scholar — but not a saint;
orthodox — but not gracious. He who increases in knowledge, and does not
get grace with his knowledge, increases sorrow to himself, yes, eternal
sorrow! It would be an ease to gospel sinners in Hell, if they could
erase the remembrance of the gospel out of their memories.

He who can venture on the appearance of evil under
pretense of liberty, may, for anything I know, commit that which is more
grossly evil, under some appearance of good. It is not hard, if a man
will be at the cost, to put a good paint on rotten stuff and practice
also.

It is possible that a man may have a rotten body
under a gaudy suit! And also possible under fine language, to have a
poor ragged conscience. Who had not rather be sincere with small
abilities, than rotten-hearted with great abilities?

Hypocrisy exposed. The Christian, like a star in
the heavens, wades through the cloud, that for a time hides his comfort;
but the hypocrite, like a meteor in the air, blazes a little, and then
drops into some ditch or other, where it is quenched. "The light of the
righteous rejoices: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out"
(Proverbs 13:9).

Sincerity enables the Christian to do two things in
affliction which the hypocrite cannot — to speak good of God, and to
expect good from God.

"Will he always call upon God?" (Job 27:10). The
hypocrite is often exposed here. An unsound heart will be meddling with
prayer now and then — but grows weary of the work at last, especially if
he is made to wait long for an answer. Saul prays to God, and because he
hears not from Him — goes at last to seek the devil in a medium.

One spot occasions, the whole garment to be washed.
David overcome with one sin — renews his repentance for all (Psalm 51).
A good husband, when he sees it raining at one place, sends for the
workmen to look over all the roof. This indeed, differences a
sincere heart from an hypocrite — whose repentance is partial,
soft in one place and hard in another. Judas cries out of his treason
— but not a word of his thievery and hypocrisy. The hole
was no wider in his conscience, than where the bullet went in; whereas
true sorrow for one, breaks the heart into shivers for others also.

If profession would serve the turn, and
flocking after sermons with some seeming joy at the word, were enough to
save — then Heaven would soon be full. But as you love your souls, do
not try yourselves by this coarse sieve; that is, seek by an easy
profession, and cheap religion, such as is hearing the word, performance
of duties and the like. Of this kind there are many who will come and
walk about Heaven's door, willing enough to enter, if they may do it
without ruffling their pride in a crowd, or hazarding their present
carnal interest by any contest and scuffle.

Take Christians under the notion of "seekers," and,
by Christ's own words, there are many; but consider them under the
notion of "strivers," such as stand ready shod with a holy resolution,
to strive even to blood, if such trials meet them in the way to Heaven,
rather than not enter, and then the number of Christian soldiers will
shrink, like Gideon's goodly host, to a little troop.

In this old age of England's withered profession, how
great a rarity is a sincere convert! When we see a tree that used to
stand thick with fruit, now bring forth but little, maybe an apple on
this bough, and another on that, we look upon it as a dying tree.
Those golden days of the gospel are over, when converts came flying as a
cloud, as the doves to the window in flocks. Now gospel news grows
stale, few are taken with it. Our old store of saints, the treasure of
their times, wears away apace; what will become of us, if no new ones
come in their room? Alas! when our burials are more than our births — we
must needs be on the losing hand. There is a sad list of holy names
taken away from us; but where are those who are born to God? If the good
go, and those which are left continue bad, yes, become worse and worse —
we have reason to fear that God is clearing the ground, and making way
for a judgment.

None sink so far into Hell as those that come
nearest Heaven, because they fall from the greatest height. None will
have such a sad parting from Christ as those who went half way with Him,
and then left Him.