The Hypocrite Discovered and Cured, Book 2 · Chapter 15
CHAP. XV. The ſtrengthening of the fourth Medicament by putting in another Ingredient. The thoughts of our great account before God.
I Remember a rule of the Phyſitians, The remembrance of our account, a cure of hypocriſie Fernel de Meth. cur. l. 4 c. 7.that if a Medicament be ſlow and ſluggiſh in working, the vertue of it is to be ſtirred by putting in ſomewhat elſe. Now though this that I have laſt named be ſtrong of it ſelfe, yet becauſe I would be ſure to have it worke, I will adde unto it, The remembrance of that account that is to be made unto God. Sure this wil have its operation in the moſt rebelling diſeaſes. Will they loyter that muſt ſhew their worke to their Maſter at night, when he will not faile to require their taske? God will be ſure to call to a reckoning. He did ſo at the beginning. Adam, Gen. 3.9, 11.where art thou? Haſt thou eaten of the Tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou ſhouldſt not eate? He did ſo with Ahab. 1 Kin. 21.19.when he was ſecure; he ſent his Prophet as his ſteward to him, Thus ſaith the Lord, Hast thou killed and alſo taken poſſeſſion? And what ſaid the Lord to Moſes, I have ſeene, Act. 7 34.I have ſeene the affliction of my people, which is in Aegypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come downe to deliver them; And now come, I will ſend thee into Egypt. O let them that forget God, Pſai. 50.21, 22.conſider what he ſaith, Theſe things haſt thou done and I kept ſilence; but I will reprove thee and ſet them in order before thy eyes. Eccl. 3.16.Salomon ſhewed himſelfe a wiſe-man, that he conſidered this; I ſaw under the Sunne the place of Judgement, that wickedneſſe was there; and the place of righteouſneſſe that iniquity was there; I ſaid in my heart that God ſhall judge the righteous and the wicked. Oh let us ſay in our hearts ſo alſo; or let us commune with our hearts upon our beds, as David ſpeaketh. Let us review our works, that they may be ready for Gods view. The Ancients us'd to take this ſtomack-pill of ſelfe-examination every night. Climac. grad 4 apud Bibl patr. To. 6. par. 1.Some of them as Climacas reports, uſed little-bookes, which they tied at their girdles, in which they kept a memoriall of what they did againſt their night reckoning. There are ſome I ſuppoſe, though but few I doubt, that keepe up ſuch a like practiſe now a dayes. I have ſeene a Memoriall in M S. to that purpoſe of Sr Peter Carews, a man active in Religion about the beginning of Qu. Elizabeths time. Hugh Pet. Rel…t. of Sir Ed. Har.We find it in a late printed Relation of that worthy man Colonell Harwood, that he kept a Dyary of Slips, infirmities and paſſages of Providence. But ſuch things come not uſually to light, nor are they very fit they ſhould. Yet a Germane ſome few yeares ſince, Seb. Heintico Otium delittoſum in quo objecta vel in actione, vel in lectione, vel in viſione ad ſingulos d…es anni 1029. ebſervata repreſentantur E farit in 12. Athan. Orat. 1. contr. Arr.one Sebaſtian Heinric was bold to publiſh for the courſe of one yeare, whatſoever he did reade or ſaw every day in that yeare. But theſe are for our cloſet, and ſhould be private helps 'tweene God and our conſcience. And ſure he that is moſt buſie with his conſcience, keeps his conſcience cleanest. The remembrance of the great Audit eſpecially, the great day of account, me thinkes ſhould be very effectuall to recover thoſe that are fartheſt gone in the ſickneſſe of Diſſimulation. The Emperour Conſtantine thought ſo of it, who when he doubted whether Arrius ſpake true or not, he put it to this iſſue with him. If thy opinion be right (ſaid he) thou haſt done well to ſweare, but if it be hereticall, and yet thou haſt dared to ſweare, Sozom Hiſt. l. 2 c. 8.know that God will revenge thy perjuries, and ſhew his judgement from Heaven upon thee. He thought that might prevaile to make him ſincere. It did ſo in one Patient, whom I will inſtance in, for the approbation of this Ingredient in the medicament which we are miniſtring. When Sapores the King of Perſia raiſed a violent perſecution againſt the Chriſtians, Ʋſthazanes an old Noble-man a Courtier, that had been Sapores Governour in his Minority, being a Chriſtian was ſo terrified that he left off the Profeſſion: But he ſitting at the Court-gate, when Simeon an aged holy Biſhop was led to priſon, and riſing up to ſalute him, the good Biſhop frowned upon him and turned away his face from him with indignation, as being loath to looke upon a man that had denied the faith. Ʋſthazanes fell a weeping, went into his Chamber, put off his Courtly garments, and brake out into theſe like words, Ah how ſhall I appeare before God, whom I have denied, when Simeon a man will not endure to looke upon me. If he frowne, how will God behold me, when I come before his Tribunall. This phyſicke ſo wrought with him, that he recovered not only health, but ſpirituall ſtrength, went and boldly profeſſed himſelfe a Chriſtian, and dyed a Martyr gloriouſly. O let us all conſider it, that we muſt ſtand before that barre, and if we have been unſound, we ſhall be made a ſhame before God and the holy Angels, and infinite multitudes of men. He whoſe hatred is covered by deceit, Prov. 26.26. Iſa. 29.15, 16.his wickedneſſe ſhall be ſhewed before the whole Congregation. Woe to them that ſeeke deep to hide their counſell from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they ſay, who ſecth us? and, who knoweth us? Surely your turning of things upſide down, ſhall be eſteemed as the Potters clay; for ſhall the work ſay of him that made it, he made me not; or ſhall the thing framed, ſay of him that framed it, he had no understanding? Thinke not but God underſtands all your deviſes; if ye turne your ſelves downward to be hid, he can and will turne the down-ſide upward, the inſide outward. This is the ſhame whereby Hypocrites ſhall bepuniſh'd, which was Plutarchs conceit where he brings in The speſius returning from hell and relating the ſeverall kinds of puniſhments there, Plut. de his qui ſero pun p 203. mihi.he makes him tell that Hypocrites are plagued by turning up and down, and ſome that they had their skins drawn off. Yea this ſhame is not alwaies reſerved to the judgment of the great day, but ſometimes God layes it upon hypocrites, even here in this life; Euſeb. Hiſt. l. 5. c. 1. mihi. p. 118. e f g.as Euſebius notes it, ſpeaking of the perſecutions under Verus: Thoſe that being apprehended denied the faith, were not only led to priſon with the reſt (for their poor deniall would not ſerve their turn) but forced alſo to ſuffer the ſame torments: and as they who freely profeſſed what they were, were laid in priſon with no other crime objected againſt them, but only that they were Chriſtians; but thoſe denyers were put in as homicides and flagitious perſons; and ſuſtain'd a double puniſhment. Thoſe upright ones were full of joy; but theſe cruſhed down with the great and heavy weight of conſcience, ſo that as they were led through the ſtreets, men might diſcerne them by their countenances, demiſſe, abject, deformed with the foule blot of their baſeneſſe, contemned and ſcorned even of the Gentiles as baſe and effeminate cowards. But eſpecialy I ſay, at the great day, Hypocrites ſhall be made a ſpectacle of ſhame, though poſſibly they may have waies here to keep themſelves undiſcovered and hide their blemiſhes, as men that weare white Gloves upon foule hands, or as the crookedneſſe of the body may be hid under a ſtuffe and bolſtred Gowne; but what will they doe when the Glove muſt be pluckt-off, and the body ſhewed naked, for all things are naked in the eyes of him with whom we have to doe, as one ſaid to an old-man with gray-hairs, who dyed his head and his beard of a youthfull colour, Though thou couldſt deceive the world with thy falſe haire, Scit te Proſerpina canum, Death knows well enough that thou art gray. Thou keepeſt thy booke ſhut, claſped, tyed up; but what wilt thou doe when it ſhall be untied and opened, then the hereſies that are in it that thou ſtudieſt, the wanton lives that thou ſpendeſt thy time to reade, the laſcivious and filthy pictures that thou uſeſt to ſeed thine eyes with, ſhall all be knowne. Thou maiſt deceive all the world like that counterfeit Alexander in Joſephus his Story, but Auguſtus will not be deceived, he hath quicker and more piercing eyes. God will not be mocked, and ye ſhall find, that the hidden things of diſhoneſty will be the hidden things of ſhame: one and the ſame Greek ſignifies and expreſſeth both: both diſhoneſty and ſhame. 2 Cor. 4.2. foreign Rom. 6.21.Diſhoneſty is ſhame in the Act, and will be ſhame in the event. What fruit (ſaid the Apoſtle) had ye of thoſe things, wherof ye are now aſhamed. At leaſt if they be paſt ſhame here, they ſhall be forced at laſt to confeſſe their ſhame; and as the ancient Authour of the book of Wiſdom ſpeaketh, Wiſd. 3.1, 2.The ſouls of the righteous are in the hand of God, though in the ſight of the unwiſe they ſeeme to die, and thoſe unwiſe ones ſhall be forced to confeſſe themſelves fools, when they ſhall ſay concerning the upright man; Wiſd. 5.4, 6.We fools accounted his life madneſſe; but we are they that have erred from the way of truth. Let me therefore renew unto theſe men the words of our bleſſed Saviour, Beware yee of the leaven of the Phariſees which is hypocriſie; Luk. 12.1, 2, 3.for there is nothing covered that ſhall not be revealed, neither hid that ſhall not be known; Whatſoever ye have spoken in the darkneſſe, ſhall be heard in the light; and that which ye have ſpoken in the eare in cloſets, ſhall be proclaimed upon the houſe tops. This conſideration may be effectuall to purge unſoundneſſe, as it hath been powerfull to preſerve others in their uprightneſſe; as in St Auguſtine, Behold all mine iniquities ſhall be laid naked before thouſands of people, before many troupes of Angels ſhall all my faults appeare. For this was the opinion of many Ancients, Aug l. medit. c. 4. L. de extr. Jud. c. 1. Ambr in Pſ. 43 Jer in Dan. 7. Olimpiod in Eccl. 12. Thom. in 4. Sect. diſt. …3. Bonav. art. 2. q. 2. Dom. Sote. diſt. 47. q. 12.beſides St Augustine, that even all that the godly hath done, ſhall alſo be layed open, as of Ephraem, Ambroſe, Jerome, Olimpiodours; and of the Schoole-men, Aquinas, Bonaventure and Soto: And for my part I ſubſcribe to them, but with that diſtinction that paſſeth among them, That all the actions of the godly ſhall be opened to be under the judgement of approbation; but thoſe of hypocrites as of all other wicked men, under the ſtrict ſcrutinie and judgement of condemnation. Thus having heightned this 4th Medicament by putting in this other ingredient, leaſt it ſhould yet miſſe it's effect, I proceed to prepare and make ready ſome more.