Sermons on Psalm 119, Sermons · Sermon 177
SERMON CLXXVII.
PSALM CXIX. VER. 163.
I hate and abhor lying, but thy law do I love.
IN this Verse, the Man of God sheweth his Affection to the Word, by the Hatred of those things which are contrary to the Word. Observe here,
First, Affection set against Affection.
Secondly, Object against Object.
First, Affection against Affection, Hatred against Love. Love and Hatred are natural Affections which are good or evil, according to the Objects to which they are applyed. Place Love on the World, Sin, and Vanity, and nothing worse; place Hatred on God, Religion, Holiness, and it soon proveth an hellish thing: But now, set them upon their proper objects, and they express a gracious Constitution of Soul: let us hate Evil, and love Good, Amos 5. 15. and all is well. Man needeth affections of Aversation, as well as Choice and Pursuit. Hatred hath its use as well as Love; Love was made for God, and things that belong to God: and Hatred for Sin, 'twas put into us that at the first appearance, sense, or imagination of Evil, we might retire our selves and fly from it; and is any thing so evil as sin, so contrary to God, so baneful to the Soul? The office of Love, is to adhere and cleave to God, and whatever will bring us to the injoyment of him: and the office of hatred is, that we may truly and sincerely turn from all evil, with Detestation, according to the nature and degree of evil that is in it. The Emphasis of the Text is notable, [I hate and abhor] it must be a thorough Hatred which David Psal. 139. 22. calleth a perfect hatred.
Secondly, Here is Object set against Object: As Love is opposed to Hatred, so the Law, to Lying: for the Word of God is Truth, and requireth truth of all that submit to it; pure sincerity and simplicity. Some render the word more generally; the Sept. foreign, I hate, and abominate iniquity: other Translations render it not so; they expound it so, that one kind is put for all the rest; and fitly; for every sin is a falsehood, and often called in this Psalm, a false way, and a lye; and will fail and beguile all them who are delighted with it; and the purport and drift is, that we should admit, omit, commit nothing, which is contrary to the Word of God, which is the great object of an holy mans Love.
The Points are three.
Doctrine. I. They that love the word of God, must hate sin.
Doctrine. II. That a slight hatred of a sinful course is not enough, but we must hate and abhor it.
Doctrine. III. That among other sins, we must hate falshood and lying, and all kind of frauds and deceits.
For the first Point.
Doct. I. They that love the Word of God, must hate sin.
This implyeth four things.
1. That our Love must be demonstrated by such effects, otherwise it is but pretended, if we do not avoid what it forbiddeth; for our love to God and his VVord, is mostly seen in Obedience and dutiful Subjection to him and it; for Gods Love is a Love of Bounty, our Love is a Love of Duty: he is said to love us, when he blesseth us, and bestoweth on us the effects of his special Grace and Favour; we are said to love him, when we obey him. These Propositions are clear in Scripture, That our love to God, is tryed by our love to the VVord; And our love to the VVord, by our hatred of Sin. Ioh. 14. 21. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And Verse 23. If any man love me, he will keep my words. On the contrary, our Enmity to God and his VVord, is determined by our love to Sin: Enmity to God, Col. 1. 21. Enemies in your minds by evil works. To his VVord, Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is not subject to the Law, neither indeed can be. Habitual sin argueth a Malice, or Hatred of God and his holy Law: and actual Sin, an actual Hatred. 'Tis finis operis, if not operantis; whether a man thinketh so or no, 'tis the intent of the Action: A Rebellion, or an act of disloyalty against God: yea, there is not only a vertual hatred in Sin, but a formal hatred; not only implyed, but exprest: they wish there were not a God to punish them and call them to an account, such a Law to forbid such Practices, as they affect, or that such things were not sin. VVell then, 'tis not some kind of pleasure in the study of the VVord, will shew our love to the VVord; but an Impartial, Intire, and Uniform Obedience; strictly abstaining from such things as if forbiddeth, and carefully practising what it requireth at our hands.
2. That our hatred of Sin must flow from such a Principle; a man may hate sin upon forreign and accidental reasons, and so that obstaining from sin, is not a true hatred, but a Casual dislike; as when we forbare some sins, but retain others that sute better with our Condition, Callings, Employment, Temper; or because of some difficulty in compassing, shame in Practising, or repugnant to our natural Temper; No, it must be out of a principle of Love to God, Psal. 97. 10. Ye that love the Lord, hate evil. So Psal. 119. 113. I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love. An hatred of Sin arising from love to God and his VVord, is the only true hatred; that's hatred of sin as sin, as 'tis foreign, 1 Iohn. 3. 4. A transgression of the Law, as 'tis ingratitude to God, contrary to our Obligations to him, not only as destructive to our selves; not principally, timore poenae, but amore virtutis. The VVord of God furnisheth us with divers Reasons and Arguments to move us to hate sin; they all have their place, but some are more Noble and Excellent than others: As when a Man hateth sin, because God hath forbidden it. True hatred cometh from a love of the contrary: therefore he that hath a vehement love to the Law, hateth all things which are contrary to it: Matth. 6. 20. He will hate the one, and love the other: There is no serving two Masters; love to the one, inforceth hatred of the other; To love the Good, and hate the Evil, are inseparable.
3. The more we hate Sin, the more prepared we are to love the Law; A carnal Heart hateth the Law, Ioh. 3. 20. He that doth evil, hateth the light. And Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is not subject to the Law. He that doth not hate sin, hateth the word of God. VVe cannot delight in it, till our Affections be purified and sanctified: Mens evil practices and dispositions cause them to hate the Light; 'tis a reproving light, can sore Eyes delight to look upon the Sun? or an unsound heart delight in that which will so ransack and search the Conscience?
4. According to the degree of Love, so will the degree of our Hatred be: they that have the highest love of the Law, will have most hatred of Sin; they hate every lesser contrariety, a vain Thought. Psal. 119. 113. They do not only hate open and scandalous sins, but sin carried on in a more close and cleanly manner; yea, they groan under the Relicks of Corruption, and feel it an heavy burden: Rom. 7. 22, 23, 24. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. And then, Oh wretched man that I am. Next to the Object of our affection, the principle or spring of it must be regarded; and next to the spring and rise of it, the degree must be looked after, that we love the good and hate the evil proportionably: that is to say, that our Hatred must be proportionable to the evil of the thing hated; and our love to the good of the thing loved: and indeed where the one is, the other will be; where a great love, a great hatred; where a little love, a little hatred. Psal. 119. 127, 128. I love thy commandments above gold, yea above fine gold; therefore I esteem thy precepts in all things to be right, and hate every false way.
Use. Well then, if we would shew our love to the Word, we must truly, sincerely, and constantly turn from all known sin, with Detestation and Abhorrence; for hatred of sin, is an infallible evidence of love to the Word. Now hatred of sin, if it be right,
1. 'Tis Universal, foreign, to the whole kind, as Haman thought scorn to lay hands upon Mordecai alone, but sought to destroy the whole Race of the Iews; Ester 3. 6. one sin is as inconsistent with the love of God, as another; there may be as much Contempt of Gods Authority in a sin of Thought, as in a sin of Practice; in a small sin, as in a greater. There may be much crookedness in a small line, and in some Cases the Die is more than the Stuff: I hate every false way; 'tis twice repeated in this Psalm, in the 104. verse, and verse 128. To hate what God hateth, Prov. 8. 13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.
2. 'Tis Implacable; it aimeth at the utter Extirpation and Expulsion of Sin: they seek to remove the guilt, to weaken the inclination; they groan sorely under the very Being of sin, that any thing of sin is left: O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of death, Rom. 7. 24.
3. 'Tis still growing; at first 'tis a dubious Case, men that are Convinced, have some Mind to let sin go, or a wish that Christ would save them from it, but 'tis with such Reserves, that they have rather a mind to keep it, than let it go: As Pharaoh had no mind to dismiss Israel, and therefore stood hucking with God; or as David when he sent out Forces against Absalom, yet be tender of the young Man. Pleasing Lusts, we have but a remiss Will against them; our love to it, is greater than our dislike of it; therefore so unstable: Iam. 1. 8. but when the soul is Converted, the soul is armed with a resolution. 1 Pet. 4. 1. Then the love of sin is weakned in their hearts, and the strength and vigour of it abated; the soul is armed with a serious purpose to give it up, and shake off this servitude, in the confidence of that Grace which is purchased for them by Christs Death: there is a Godly Inclination and bent of soul to live unto God. Again, as our Communion with God, and sense of his Love is increased in us, so our hatred of sin groweth more keen and fierce; when God had told what he would do for Ephraim, what have I any more to do with Idols, Hosea 14. 8. I have had too much to do already; what, any more? In what proportion there is a sense of Gods Love, in the same proportion an hatred of Evil. Moses when he had talked with God in the Mount, at his return he is full of indignation, and broke the Tables. So those that have had sweet Communion with God, have a more severe displicency against their Corruptions; and there is a more lively principle at work in their hearts, for the expulsion of them: every act of kindness on Gods part, layeth a new Obligation, and their hatred is awakened by the holy use of the Ordinances.
4. The constant discoveries of hatred against sin, are watching and striving against it; they are ever careful that they may not offend God: Acts 24. 16. And herein do I exercise my self, to keep a Conscience void of offence, both towards God and men; and keep striving, and a serious Resistance, even when they are foiled. Rom. 7. 15. The evil that I hate, that do I. A Christian always hateth sin, though he doth not always prevail against it. In sins of daily infirmity, Striving is Conquering; but in other sins, they prevail against them by degrees: sin doth not carry it freely, nor Reign in them: For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. Rom. 6. 14.
Doct. II. That a slight hatred of a sinful course is not enough, but we must hate it and abhor it. Rom. 12. 9. Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Hate it as Hell, as the word signifieth. We do too coldly speak against Evil, too slackly follow after that which is Good. If our pursuit after God, were more earnest, and our hatred of Evil, more serious and severe; we should be other manner of Christians than we are. There is a twofold hatred; 1. The hatred of offence and abomination. And 2. The hatred of enmity and opposition. By the one our hearts are turned from sin, by the other turned against it. Now both these are necessary for a Christian that would be safe. Hating and Abhorring, implyeth not only a naked Abstinence, or a simple Refusal; but an Enmity: Not a forbearing the Act, but a mortifying the Affection. We must not only leave off Evil, but abhor it; and not only abhor it, but pursue it with an hostile hatred, purposing, watching, striving, praying against it, thwarting the flesh, and contradicting the Motions thereof.
Reasons,
I. 'Tis not else an hatred becoming sin, which is so great an evil; so opposite to Gods Law, and derogatory to Gods Glory, so mischievous to us. There is a great deal of evil in sin, a great deal of evil after sin, that we can never hate it enough. 'Tis the Evil of Evils, that brought all other Evils into the World; it is the violation of a righteous Law, 1 Iohn 3. 4. A Contempt of Gods Authority, Exod. 5. 2. Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice? Psal. 12. 4. Our tongues are our own, who is Lord over us? 'Tis a defacing of his Image, and a casting off the Glory and Honour of our Creation; Rom. 3. 23. We have sinned, and are come short of the glory of God. Psal. 49. 12. Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not, he is like the beasts that perish. A despising of his power by a silly worm, as if we could make good our Party against him; 1 Cor. 10. 22. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousie? are we stronger than he? It separateth from Communion with God, Isa. 59. 2. Your iniquities have separated between me and you. It preferreth base Satisfactions, before the Enjoyment of him; 2 Tim. 3. 4. Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. As if the base and brutish Pleasures of the Flesh, were to be preferred before the Love of God. This and much more may be said of sin, and is any hatred too great for it? Psal. 101. 3. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside, it shall not cleave to me.
2. No other hatred will serve the purposes of Grace; a Love that is Cold, will soon fail: so also will an Hatred. Where our Zeal is not set against sin, we soon fall into a liking of it: therefore the Soul is not sufficiently guarded by a slight hatred: If sin be not Detestable, it will soon seem Tolerable. There is a brabble between many and their Lusts, and in all haste sin must be gone; but the quarrel is soon taken up, and sin stayeth for all that: where the Enmity is not great, a mans agreement with sin may be soon made. Therefore not only an offence, but an hostile hatred is required, such hating and abhorring, as will not admit of Reconciliation. Like the hatred of Amnon to Tamar, The hatred wherewith he hated her, was greater than the love wherewith he loved her, 2 Sam. 13. 15. he hated her with hatred greatly; did we more strongly dissent from sin, it would not so easily prevail over us. Sin dyeth, when it dyeth in our Affections, when our hearts are set against it; Get you hence, Isa. 30. 22. Get you gone, be there from henceforth an utter Divorce between me and you. This is to hate and abhor.
Use. Is to shew us the Reason, why so many are intangled again in the sins they seemed to renounce and forsake; they have frequently resolved to forsake their sins, but these resolutions have come to nothing: they have striven against them, but as a great stone that hath been rolled up Hill, it hath returned upon them with the more Violence. Or as in rowing against the Stream, when the Tide hath been strong against them, and they have been driven the more back, and therefore are discouraged. Yea, they have prayed, and found little success, and therefore think 'tis vain to make any further Trial: What shall we say than to these? If the Premises were clear, yet the Inference and Conclusion is wrong and false: for we are not to measure our Duty by the success, but Gods injunction. God may do what he pleaseth, but we must do what he hath Commanded. Abraham obeyed God, not knowing whither he went; Heb. 11. 8. Peter said unto Christ, we have toiled all night, and have caught nothing, nevertheless at thy Command we will cast forth the Net. Though the first attempt succeed not, yet afterwards sin may be subdued and broken. In Natural things we do not sit down with one Trial, or one Endeavour; but after many disappointments, pursue our designs till we compleat them. A Merchant will not leave off for on bad Voyage; nor an Ambitious Man, because his first Essayes were fruitless: and shall we give over our Conflicts with worldly and fleshly Lusts? That sheweth our Will is not fixedly bent against them; because we cannot presently subdue them. He that will be Rich, 1 Tim. 6. 10. If you had such a Will to be holy and heavenly.
2. There is a fault in these Purposes, in these strivings and prayers, they do not come from an heart thoroughly set against sin.
1. These purposes are not hearty and real, and then no wonder they do not prevail: there may be a slight purpose, and there is a full purpose. Acts 11. 23. if thy purposes were more full and strong, and throughly bent against sin, they would sooner succeed. Is it the fixed decree and determination of thy Will? When you are firmly resolved, your Affections will be sincere and stedfast, you will pursue this work close; not be off and on, hot and cold; unstable in all your wayes: your full purpose, or the habitual bent of your hearts, are known by your drift and scope. Or it may be this purpose may be extorted, not the effect of thy Judgment and Will, but only thy Conscience awakened by some present fear. Many are by some pangs and qualmes of Conscience, frighted into some Religiousness: but this humour lasts not long, Psal. 78. 35, 36, 37. And they remembered that God was their rock, and the most high their redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lyed to him with their tongues; for their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his Covenant. In their dangers they remembered God, but their hearts were not right with him. Ahab in his fears, had some relentings. So had Pharaoh. The Israelites turned to the Lord in their distress, but they turned as fast from him afterwards; Resolves not of love, but fear. So are these resolutions wrested from you by some present Terrours; which when they cease, no wonder that they are where they were before: Violent things never hold long; they will hold as long as the principle of their violence lasteth. Or it may be, you rest in the strength of your own Resolutions: now God will be owned as the Author of all Grace, who reneweth and quickeneth every Affection in us, still we must have a sense of our own insufficiency, and resolve more in the strength and power of God; and relie upon the Grace of Jesus Christ; by his Spirit mortifying the deeds of the Body, as knowing that without him, you can do nothing; neither continue, nor perform our Resolutions. Men fall again, as often as they think to stand by their own power; there is much Guile and Falshood in our own hearts, we cannot trust them: the Saints still resolve, God assisting; Psal. 119. 8. I will keep thy precepts, O forsake me not utterly. Verse 32. I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt inlarge my heart. They beg God to keep up their Inclination and Bent against Sin, Verse 36. Incline my heart to thy Testimonies, and not to Covetousn…ss.
2. As to Sriving: let us examine that a little; if it be so serious, so diligent, so circumspect as it should be. Certainly that is no effectual striving, when you are disheartned with every difficulty; for Difficulties do but influence a resolved Spirit, as stirring doth the fire. No question but it will be hard to enter in at the streight Gate, or walk in the narrow way: God hath made the way to Heaven so narrow and streight, that we may the more strive to enter in thereat. Luk. 13. 24. Now, shall we sit down and complain, when we succeed not upon every faint attempt? Who then can be saved? This is to cry out with the Sluggard, There is a Lion in the way. Should a Mariner as soon as the Waves arise, and strong gusts of Wind blow, give over all guiding of the Ship? No, he is resolved upon his Voyage. To give out upon every difficulty, is against all the experience and wont of Mankind. Again, this striving and opposing is but slight, not accompanied with that Watchfulness, and Resolution which is necessary. Many pretend to watch against sin, yet abstain not from all occasions of sin: if we play about the Cockatrice hole, no wonder we are bitten. Never think to turn from thy sin, if thou dost not turn from the occasion of them: Prov. 4. 15. Go not in the way of evil men, avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. This is a practice becoming the hatred of sin. Evil Company is a Snare; if thou hast not strength to avoid the occasion, which is less; how canst thou avoid the sin, which is greater? He that resolveth not to be burnt in the Fire, must not come near the Flames. Iob made a Covenant with his Eyes, Iob 31. 1. Our Saviour taught us to pray, lead us not into temptation, he doth not say, into sin; Temptation openeth the gate to it: Certainly it argueth an hanckering of mind, when we dally with Temptations: as the Raven, when he is driven from the Carrion, loveth to abide within the sent of it; so they have an inclination to sin, when they forbear the the practice of it.
3. For Praying; we oftener pray from our Memories, than from our Consciences; and from our Consciences Enlightened, than Hearts Renewed by Grace. Prayer, as it is the fruit of Memory and Invention, is but a few slight and formal Words said of Course; a Body without a Soul: As dictated by Conscience, it may be retracted by the Will, at noli modo. Austin, when he prayed against his Youthful Lusts, time… ne me excluderet Deus, was afraid left he should be heard too soon: at best but half desires, faint wishes, like Balaams wish, to die the death of the Righteous. The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing; God never made Promise, that lazy wishes should be satisfied: if you pray against sin with your whole heart, he will hear you. The great fault is the want of this thorough hatred of Sin.
Use. Take heed of two things.
1. A secret Love to your Sins.
2. A remiss Hatred against them.
1. A secret Love to Sin: Iob speaketh of some, that hid sin as a sweet Morsel under their Tongues; Iob 20. 12. loth to let a Lust go. And David of regarding iniquity in our heart, Psal. 66. 18. First there is a secret liking of sin, which in time will prove baneful to the Soul; some Lust is spared, and continueth unmortified: It doth not remain so much, as it is reserved, and there keepeth Possession for Satan. This will, in time, eat out all our other Vertues, and bring a stain upon those good properties, wherewith God hath indowed us. Sin was never heartily cast out, therefore they are in time insnared again, and drawn away by some sensitive Lure.
2. A remiss Hatred of sin; no, there must be a Total and full Aversion. Hatred and Indignation is the souls expulsive Faculty, it cannot be kept in good plight without it. 'Tis the lively and active principle which sets the soul awork, in avoiding what is hurtful to the spiritual Life; it concerneth us to keep it up in strength and vigour. The Reason why even Believers do so often sin through weakness is, because the Will doth not so strongly dissent as it should: though we do not deliberately give our assent, it should more potently awaken our displeasure; but certainly, the reason of wilful sin, is want of a strong hatred: Though Convinced of Evil, yet we go on like a fool to the Correction of the Stocks. Prov. 7. 22.
Doctrine. III. That among other sins, we must hate falshood and lying, and all kind of frauds and deceits.
I. I shall open the particular Notion of Lying in the Text.
II. Shew you the Reasons against it.
I. To open the particular Notion of Lying.
1. In the Vulgar Accceptation and sense of it, we take it to be speaking an Untruth, or that which is False, with an intention to Deceive. Now this is a sin contrary to the New Nature; Col. 3. 9. Lye not one to another, since ye have put off the old man with his deeds. 'Tis not only contrary to that natural Order, which God hath appointed between the Mind and the Tongue; but to that Sincerity and true Holiness, which is our great Qualification, and the fruit of Regeneration. Therefore God saith, Isa. 63. 8. Surely they are my people, children that will not lye. God presumeth that his People will not deal falsely, but speak as they think, and think of what they speak, as it really is: and that Christians will not deceive, and circumvent others, since they are members of the same Mystical Body, and should seek one anothers welfare, as much as they do their own. Eph. 4. 25. Wherefore put away lying, speak every one truth with his neighbour; seeing ye are members one of another. No 'tis more unseemly in a Christian, more inconsistent with Grace. In short, no sin maketh a Man more like the Devil. Iohn 8. 44. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do: he was a Murtherer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lye, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it.
2. Concealing the Truth which should be Confessed; God would not have his People hide themselves in necessary Truths; he would have them believe with the Heart, and Confess with the Mouth; Rom. 10. 9, 10. And Christianity is called a Confession, Heb. 3. 1. and all Christians are saved either as Martyrs, or as Confessors.
But how far we are to Confess lesser Truth, is a great Case of Conscience. Certainly we must do nothing against a Truth, not appear in the garb of a Contrary party, nor must we lye hid, when God in his Providence cryeth out, Who is of my side, who? We read of some, Iohn 12. 42. who believed in Christ, yet they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the Synagogue; for they loved the praise of Men more then the praise of God. Faith is in a very weak Condition, when Confession is not joined with it; when men will not own Christ in troublous Times, and appear in their own shape. Men that have much to lose, have many Worldly Considerations; they think these lose more than they can gain; and lose by the Praise of God rather than the Praise of Men. Now the sincere Christian saith in these Cases, I hate and abhor lying.
3. 'Tis contrary to that Obedience to God which we do profess; there is a practical Lye, as well as a vertual Lye, when our practices do not Correspond with our Profession: there is a lye acted, as well as a lye told: So Ephraim is said to compass God about with Lyes, Hosea 11. 12. To say we have fellowship with God, and walk in darkness, is a Lye; 1 Ioh. 1. 6. A Lye that tendeth to the disgrace of Religion, in opprobrium Christi, 1 Ioh. 2. 4. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a Liar, and the truth is not in him; So he that speaketh much of the Spirit, and walketh after the Flesh.
Reasons.
1. God is a God of Truth; God cannot, nor will not Lye, and his People must be like him.
2. His Word is the Word of Truth, his Law requireth Truth, and all falsehoods and deceits are contrary to that Justice, and Charity, which it establisheth. His Gospel is a Gospel of Truth, Eph. 1. 13. After ye heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your Salvation.
3. He requireth, and worketh Truth in the Reins and inward parts, Psal. 51. 7. Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts.
Use. Oh then hate and abhor Lying! you cannot be accepted of God else; Ier. 5. 3. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? You cannot have Grace in your own hearts, 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoycing, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, we have had our conversations in the world; nor long continue undiscovered before men, Prov. 26. 26. His wickedness shall be shewed before the Congregation. Let us not Lye to God, in our Promises we make to him; Psal. 78. 34, 35, 36. When he slew them, then they sought him; and they returned and enquired early after God; and they remembred that God was their rock, and the most high their redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter him their mouth, and they lyed unto him with their tongues. In your Worship, do not compass him about with Lyes, complain of burdens, which you feel not, express desires which you have not. In your Profession, do not make it a Vail and Cover for your Lusts. A wicked or carnal design is inconsistent with uprightness of heart: As to men, abhor all false and deceitful practices and speeches. When the Apostle biddeth us abhor that which is evil, he first saith, let love be without dissimulation, Rom. 12. 9. You are not to live by Interest, but by Conscience. Therefore abhor all Hypocrisie, Falsehood, Treachery, which are unworthy any ingenious Man, much more a Christian.