peaceable paths of wisdom. When he feels himself in the arms of the devil, and the wrath of God at his heels, this is the fight of faith with Satan, and the hiding of God's countenance. If the poor and needy bear their testimony against him, this is the contradiction of sinners, and a taking up and bearing the cross; and when he is justly buffeted for his faults, or rebuked by the just for his lies, this is called suffering persecution for righteousness' sake. Thus he denies, and is an enemy to, all righteousness but his own. Resisting the truth, is called opposing errors; and setting himself against the testimony of the just, in behalf of his own falsehood, is called contending for the faith once delivered unto the saints. When the affections of nature are stirred, or the passions moved, this is called the operations of the Spirit. If the wrath of God flashes in his face, this is called knowing the terrors of the Lord, which drives him to persuade men; and when he can represent glorified saints in the great day, with all their present passions, weeping over their lost children and friends, till the audience cry out, This is powerful preaching! and when conscience confounds him for his villany, it is called strong oppositions against the good work he is engaged in. And when God sensibly fetters his soul, as he did Balaam's, it is called the oppositions of the flesh; which lead him to enforce the doctrines of mortification, by abstaining from meat every Wednesday and Friday, at least. Thus the vile person

is to be known by the doctrine that he advances: his habitual, his accustomary, his native language, is villany. This leads me to my fourth head; which is to shew, that all

Which proceeds from his mouth springs from the irreconcilable enmity of his heart against the Lord Jesus Christ. "His heart," saith my text, "will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the Lord." Here we have

First, The inward labour of his heart; it works iniquity.

Secondly, The production hammered in that forge is practised in hypocrisy. And,

Thirdly, What is prepared in the heart, and practised by the tongue, is levelled at the King of Zion; he utters error against the Lord. I shall begin,

First, with the workings of his heart. That which leads him first into a profession, as a hypocrite and a false teacher, is, he perceives that a child of Zion's King is a prince; and that he rules in judgment in his royal, venerable, and ever adorable Father's household. He sees that the eyes of these princes are not dim: hence he is pleased with them, he follows them, and at times rejoices in their light; but it is only for a season. He admires the fluency of speech, and plain speaking, which these princes use, who, in my text, are said to speak plainly, or elegantly; and finding that these princes are had in honour, he aims at the honour of their office, which is double honour;

feigns to be one of the family; and, like Simon Magus, would buy the Holy Ghost, in order to cut a figure, by commanding the power of Heaven to work miracles to gratify his humour, that he might gain a name, by running away with the glory of the power, which is due to God only. In process of time, he finds that the gospel system levels the sinner in the dust, and keeps him there; that it excludes all boasting; that the greatest labourer is nothing; that free grace must have the honour of all that is done in these princes, or done by them: that those who honour Christ, he will honour, and none else; that the mean man must be bowed down, the haughty humbled, and the Lord of hosts only exalted; that the wise man must become a fool; that the weak are to say, I am strong; that the perishing, self-condemned sinner, is nighest the gate of life, and the most selfrighteous Pharisee the furthest off; and that a humble and meek soul, comparable to a little child, is greatest in the kingdom of heaven, while he that makes flesh his arm is cursed of God, and lighter than vanity; that the last are the first, and the first last; and that many be called who were never chosen at all; and he that thinks himself to be something, is nothing in God's account, but only deceives his own heart, and his religion is vain. This dispensation he finds, of all under heaven, is the least calculated to gratify, feed, or humour, a carnal, ambitious, and aspiring mind. Hence he begins, at times, to shift his mask, and utter a

little of his inward iniquity; or, to keep to my text, he begins to practise the iniquity that his heart works, which the royal family begin to perceive, and reject, being jealous of their heavenly Father's honour, and wishing themselves to be nothing, so that the King may be all in all. But the hypocrites in Zion, which often are the majority, appear to approve and applaud the bane, or, as my text says, the lying words that he speaks. Hence he proceeds with caution, till the princes appear quite obstinate, and the contrary party call out for Barabbas. Now the net that has been spread has caught the fish, and the end is answered. Zion's King allows of no rival, his doctrines admit of no boasting; therefore hostilities must be commenced against Jesus. His decrees, his sovereignty, his discriminating grace, his particular redemption, his resisting the proud and favouring the humble, gall his soul, chafe his mind, and work him up to desperate rage. Now violence must be offered to his doctrine, and a company of rebels must be mustered together against his princes, in order to oppose their testimony, and so to pave a way for the exaltation of flesh and blood, and carry on the war begun between Cain and Abel, renewed between Hagar and Sarah, revived between the Pharisees and Apostles, and which will be finished by Christ himself.

This churl is conscious that the Lord has done nothing for him, nor wrought any glory in him. And Satan knows it too: therefore the unclean

spirit goes out of the man; he willingly withdraws, that the churl may garnish his own house, and put a glory upon himself, by sweeping and decorating the clay cottage, and by white-washing the walls of it. His heart having thus worked iniquity, he now begins,

Secondly, to practise hypocrisy. First, he reprobates the princes of Zion: who are grieved at him, discover him, see through him, oppose him, resist him, and bear their testimony against him; by which testimony, according to my text, the needy are said to declare the truth, or to speak right, even when he aims to destroy the poor with lying words. This open rebellion of his alienates the hearts of the royal family from him. At which the curious worldling begins to admire him; the bond-children approve and applaud him; the hypocrites in Zion stick close to him; and, at last, the bastard Calvinists lean toward him, and gradually follow the greater multitude, and the voice of fame, and at last go over to him. He being destitute of all spiritual power, endeavours to make up that deficiency by an external order of his own devising, which secures the honour to himself, and keeps his slaves in subjection; and having no inward glory from the Saviour, he makes a splendid external shew. All internal glory is God's own work, and bears the image of God; but the external decorations of a graceless man is the work of his own arm, performed after the devil is gone out of the house,