Sincerity and hypocricy. Or, the sincere Christian, and hypocrite in their lively colours, standing one by the other.: Very profitable for this religion professing time. / By W.S. Serjeant at Law. Together with a tract annexed to prove; that true grace doth not lye so much in the degree as in the nature of it.

SECT. XIX.

In their growth in Grace, and the working and appearance thereof.

The true Grace of the true Christian doth not use to decay, but to grow, 2 Pet. 3. 18. 2 Thes. 1. 3. Revel. 219. And the seeming grace of the Hy∣pocrite (as we have elswhere hinted) doth seem∣ingly grow also. But there are these differences herein.

1 The true Grace hath root and life, & grow∣eth indeed. John 15. 4, 5. I am the Vine ye are the branches, &c. He thut abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Psal. 84. 7. They goe from strength to strength. Rom. 7. 3. 4. Mat. 13. 23. It floweth from the eternal Spirit of God in the

soul of a Beleever, as water from a lively spring, John 4. 14. But the counterfeit Grace of the Hypocrite hath neither root nor life in it, and grow••th but in appearance onely, and it is like to a standing poole of dead and corrupt water, which will fail in the summer time when there is most need of it. Job 10. 16. Mat. 13. 21, 22.

2 It is a lively and working Grace, 3 Thes. 1. 3. Your work of faith and labour of love. Heb. 6. 10. Your work and labour of love. 2 Cor. 5. 14. The love of Christ constraineth us, &c. and 7. 10. Godly sorrow worketh, &c. and 8. 24. The proof of your love. James 1 4. and 2. 8 2 Thes. 1. 11. Gal. 5. 6. But the com∣mon Grace of the Hypocrite is dead, and with∣out fruit, Mat. 13. 22. He becometh unfruitful. Jam. 2. 17. 20.

3 The true Grace is a pure and incorruptible Grace, and therefore an enduring, increasing, and immortal Grace, 2 Thes. 1. 3. Your faith groweth exceedingly. 2 Pet. 1. 118. Psal. 119. 33. 1 Io. 3 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not sin; for his seed remaineth in him, &c. But the common worke of Grace that is wrought in the Hypocrite is but a wordly, carnall, and corrupt work, and there∣fore it decaieth, withereth, and never comes to perfection, 1 Iohn 2. 19. They went out from us, &c. But ye have an unction, &c. Mat. 13. 20, 21, &c. But he that received the seed in the stony places, the same is he that heareth the Word, and anon with

joy receiveth it, yet bath he no root in himself but du∣reth for a while, &c. Heb. 6. 7, 8. For the earth, &c. But that which bringeth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh to cursing, &c. 1 Cor. 15. 19. 2 Cor. 7. 10.