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However cleave fast to God and to his promises, Acts xi. 23; Job xiii. 15, 16; frequently renew your acts of faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, and continue to persevere in the ways of godliness as you are able, and you shall not be long, before you shall know that you are upright: or if you attain not to this, yet be sure the Lord will know you to be his, 2 Tim. ii. 19, though you do not so certainly know that he is yours. But more of this when I shall speak of peace of conscience.

But in trying my uprightness, I find many of the signs of hypocrisy in me. I do not find myself to be so universal in my respect to all God's commandments as I should; I do not hate all sins alike; I find myself inclined to one sin more than another, and I am readier to neglect some duty than other; I cannot so thoroughly seek God's kingdom as I should; I am readier to find fault with others, than to amend my own conduct, &c. I find that I am not so constant as I ought to be in holy duties, and I have too much respect to myself in all that I do, and too little to God's glory. In reading all the notes of hypocrisy, except the last, I find hypocrisy, nay, much hypocrisy to be in me; must I not therefore judge myself to be a hypocrite?

No. For truth of uprightness may be in the same person, in whom there is sense of much hypocrisy; nay this, to feel hypocrisy with dislike, is the certain evidence of truth of uprightness. Indeed, if you felt not thus much, you might fear you were not upright. All that you have said, if it be true, only proves that you have hypocrisy remaining in you, and that you feel it. You must remember I told you, that not the having, but the reigning of hypocrisy, makes an hypocrite. Besides, a man may have an universal respect to all God's commandments, and yet not an equal respect to all. If you see and bewail your sin, and fight against your hypocrisy when you feel it, assure yourself you are no hypocrite.

(4.) What if a man finds indeed by these notes of hypocrisy, that it does reign in him?