- selves, in a great degree, of secular interest, they were
likely often to want that vigilance and suspicion which is forced, even upon honest minds, by much converse with the world, and frequent transactions with various characters; and which our divine Master teaches us to practise, when he commands us to join the wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove. The first Christians must have been, in the highest degree, zealous to strengthen their faith in themselves, and propagate it in others; and zeal easily spreads the arms, and opens the bosom to an adherent, or a proselyte, as to one, that adds another suffrage to truth, and strengthens the support of a good cause. Men of this disposition, and in this state of life, would easily be enamoured of the form of godliness, and not soon discover that the power was wanting. Men naturally think others like themselves, and, therefore, a good man is easily persuaded to credit the appearance of virtue.
Hypocrisy, however, was not confined to the apostolick ages. All times, and all places, have produced men, that have endeavoured to gain credit by false pretensions to excellence, and have recommended themselves to kindness or esteem, by specious professions, and ostentatious displays of counterfeited virtues.—It is, however, less necessary now to obviate this kind of fraud, by exhortations to caution; for that simplicity, which lay open to its operation, is not now very frequently to be found. The hypocrite, in these times, seldom boasts of much success. He is for the most part soon discovered; and when he is once known, the world will not wait for counsel to avoid him, for the good detest, and the bad despise him. He is hated for his attempts, and scorned for his miscarriage.
It may, therefore, be proper to consider the danger of a form of righteousness without the power, in a different and secondary sense, and to examine whether, as there are some who, by this form, deceive others, there are not some, likewise, that deceive themselves; who pacify their
