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opportunity of being eminently serviceable to God in the preservation of his church, which was at that time contained in his father's family: "God hath sent me hither (saith he) before you, to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance." Gen. xlv. 7. This holy man made his place give place to the work he was called to do in it for God, counting the honour of his honour to lie in the opportunity he had by it of serving God and his church. It must therefore needs be a sad affliction to a saint, when such opportunities are taken from him that at any time he hath enjoyed. But sincerity can make good work of this also, if God will have it so. It is sad to the Christian to be laid aside, but it is comfortable to him to remember that when he was not he did not melt his talents away in sloth, or waste them away in riot, but was faithful in improving them for God; he counts it his affliction, that God employs him not as he hath done, but he is not sorry that God can do his work without him; yea it is a sweet comfort to him, as he lies at the grave's mouth, to think that the glory of God shall not go down to the grave with him; though he dies, yet God lives to take care of his own work, and it is not the cracking of one string, or all, that can mar the music of God's providence, who can perform his pleasure without using any creature for his instrument. In a word, it is sad to him to be taken from any work wherein he might more eminently glorify God; yet this again comforts him that God counts that done which the Christian sincerely desires to do. David's goodwill in desiring to build the temple, was as much in God's account as if he had done it; many shall be at the last day rewarded by Christ, for clothing and feeding the poor, who when on earth had neither clothes nor bread to give; yet having had a heart to give, shall be reckoned amongst the greatest benefactors to the poor. This appears from Matt. xxv. 34. where Christ is represented speaking not to some few saints that had great estates to bestow on charitable uses, but to all his saints, poor as well as rich: "Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom

prepared for you, &c. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat," &c. Mark, not ye that were rich, but ye, that is, all, such as had bread, you gave that out; you that had not bread or money to give (when you could not draw out your purse), you yet drew out your souls to the hungry. Hear this, O ye precious souls that God hath made sincere, and take comfort. May be you stand low in the world, your calling is mean, your estate next to nothing, which makes you little regarded by your neighbours that over-top you. Canst thou say, though thou art but a servant to some poor cobler, that thou desirest to walk in the truth of thy heart, approving thyself to God in thy whole course? this bird will sing as sweet a note in thy breast, as if thou wert the greatest monarch in the world. That which brings comfort to the greatest saint in a time of distress is the ame which comforts the meanest in the family, and that is the love and favour of God, interest in Christ, and the precious promises, which "in him are yea and amen. Now sincerity is the best evidence for our title to those. It will not be so much insisted on whether much or little has been done by us, as whether that much or little were in sincerity. "Well done, good and faithful servant;" not, Well done, thou hast done great things, ruled states and kingdoms, been a famous preacher in thy time, &c. but thou hast been faithful; and that thou mayest be that standest in the obscurest corner of the world. Good Hezekiah knew this, and therefore on his sick-bed he doth not tell God of his great services he had done, though none had done more, but only desires God to take notice of the truth and sincerity of his heart: "Remember that I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight." Isaiah xxxviii. 3.

CHAP. XIX.

A BRIEF APPLICATORY IMPROVEMENT OF THE POINT, BOTH IN GENERAL AND PARTICULAR BRANCHES ALSO.

IT remains that the point be applied in its several branches, which were three: sincerity hath a preserving strength, a restoring strength, and a comforting strength. But for quick dispatch, we shall do it under two heads, clapping the two former into one.

Use 1. Therefore hath sincerity a strengthening virtue, whereby it either preserves the soul from falling into sin, or helps the Christian fallen, up again.

First, This affords thee, Christian, a further discovery of thy heart, whether sincere or not; put it here upon the trial. Dost thou find a power imparted to thee, whereby thou art enabled to repel a temptation to sin, when thou hast no weapon left thee to defend thee against it but the command forbidding it, or some arrow taken out of the quiver of the gospel, such as the love of Christ to thee, thy love to him, and the like? May be the temptation is laid so cunningly, that thou mayest sin and save thy credit too, having a back-door opened to let thee in to it secretly. Thou shalt hazard nothing apparently of thy temporal concernment, yea rather greatly advantage it, if thou wilt hearken to the motion: only God stands up to oppose it, his Spirit tells thee it is against his glory, inconsistent with the duty thou owest and love thou professest to him. Now, speak what thou thinkest of sinning, the case thus stated; canst thou yet stand it out valiantly, and tell Satan, sin is no match for thee, till thou canst have God's consent, and reconcile sinning against him, and loving of him together? If so, bless God that hath given thee a sincere heart, and also for opening such a window as this in thy soul, through which thou mayest see that grace to be there, which seen, is the best evidence that God can give thee for thy interest in him and life everlasting with him.

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Wert thou a hypocrite, hypocrite, thou couldest no more resist a sin so offered, than powder, fire, or chaff, the wind.

Again, When thou art run down by the violence of temptation, what is the behaviour of thy soul in this case? Dost thou so rally thy routed forces, and again make head against thy enemy, so much the more eagerly because foiled so shamefully? Or art thou content to sit down quietly by thy loss, and chuse rather to be a tame slave to thy lust, than to be at any further trouble to continue the war? The false heart indeed is soon cowed, and quickly yields subjection to the conqueror; but the sincere Christian gets heart, even when he loseth ground; uprightness makes the soul rebound higher in holy purposes against sin, by its very falls into sin. "Once have I spoken (he means foolishly, sinfully) but I will not answer yea twice, but I will proceed no further." Job xl. 5. This made holy David beg of God to be "spared a little, that he might" have time to "recover his strength before he went hence;" loth he was to go beaten out of the field; might he but live to recover his losses by repentance of, and some victory over those sins that had weakened and worsted him, then death should be welcome; like that brave captain, who, wounded in fight, desired some to hold him up, that he might but see the enemy run before he died, and he should close his eyes in peace. Deal therefore impartially with thy own soul, which way do thy falls and failings work? If they wear off the edge from thy conscience, that it is not so keen and sharp in its reproofs for sin; if they bribe thy affectious, that thou beginnest to comply with those sins with which formerly thy contest was, and likest pretty well their acquaintance, thy heart is not right; but if still thy heart meditates a revenge on thy sin that hath overpowered thee, and it lies on thy spirit (like undigested meat on a sick stomach) thou canst have no ease and content to thy troubled soul till thou hast cleared thyself of it, as to the reigning power of it, truly then thou discoverest a sincere heart.

Use 2. This shews of what importance it is to labour for sincerity: without it we can neither stand against, nor rise when we fall into temptation; whatever thou beggest

VOL. II.

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of God, forget not a sincere heart. David saw need of more of this grace than he had: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew in me a right spirit;" Psal. li. 10. and happy was it for him he had so much as to make him desire more of it? What folly is it to build a house with beams on fire: the hypocrite's building must needs come to naught, there is a fire unquenched, the power of hypocrisy unmortified, that will consuine all his goodly profession; he carries into the field a heart that will deliver him up into his enemy's hands. And he is sure to be overcome to whom his own side is not true.

Use 3. Bless God, O sincere Christian, for this grace; it is a blessing invaluable, crowns and diadems are not to be compared with it. In this thou hast "a heart after God's own heart;" a heart to his liking; yea a heart to his likeness. Nothing makes thee more like God in the simplicity and purity of his nature, than sincerity. Truth is that God glories in; he is a God of truth. When Haman was bid to say what should be done to the man that the king delighted to honour, he, thinking the king meant no other than himself, would fly as high as his ambition could carry him; and what doth he chuse but to be clothed with the king's own apparel royal? When God gives thee sincerity, he clothes thy soul with that which he wears himself: "who clothes himself with truth and righteousness as a garment." By this thou art made a conqueror greater than ever Alexander was; he overcame a world of men, but thou a world of lusts and devils. Did one bless God at the sight of a toad, that God made him a man and not a toad? how much more thankful oughtest thou to be, who hath made thee, that wert a hypocrite by nature, which is far worse, an upright Christian? It is a notable saying of Lactantius, Si nemo est, quin emori malit, quàm converti in aliquam Bestiæ figuram, quamvis hominis mentem sit habiturus, quanto miserius est in hominis figurá animo esse efferato? If a man would chuse death, rather than to have the face and shape of a beast, though he might withal keep the soul of man, how much more miserable is it under the shape of a man to carry the heart of a beast? Yet such a one is the hypocrite, yea worse; he doth not only under the shape

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