prophet did, Jer. xii. 3. "But thou, O Lord, knoweft me; thou "haft feen me, and tried mine heart towards thee."

I fay, who can duly value fuch an advantage: who would exchange fuch a comfort for all the gold and filver in the world? How many trials foever God brings his people under, to be fure neither his own glory nor their intereft fhall fuffer any damage by them.

B

SECT. II.

UT more particularly, let us bring our thoughts close to the matter before us, and we fhall find many great advantages and benefits rifing out of these trials of fincerity: For,

1. First, Hereby hypocrify is unmasked and difcovered; the vizard is plucked off from the falfe profeffor, and his true natural face and complexion fhewn to the world; and in this there is a great deal of good.

Object. Good, you will fay, Where lies it? All the world fees the mifchief and fad effects of it; many are fumbled, many are hardened by it: "Woe to the world because of offences !" Matth. xvi. 7.

Sol. True, fome are prejudiced and hardened by it, fo as never to have good thoughts of the ways and people of God more: That is fad indeed; however, therein God accomplishes his word, and executeth his decree; and though these perish, yet,

First, Others are warned, awakened, and fet a searching their Lown hearts more narrowly than ever, and this is good, I Cor. x. II, 12. Now thefe were our examples; "wherefore let him that "thinketh he standeth, take heed left he fall."

Secondly, Hereby fin is ashamed; and it is good when fin that hath expofed men to fo much fhame, fhall be itself exposed to shame: This is the juft reward of fin, Jer. xiii. 25, 26. “This is thy lot, "the portion of thy measures from me, faith the Lord; be

caufe thou haft forgotten me, and trusted in falfehood, therefore "will I discover thy fkirts upon thy face, that thy fhame may ap❝pear."

The turning up the skirt is a modeft expreffion of expofing a perfon to the greatest fhame in the day of trial: God by discovering hypocrify, fhames the hypocrite; and, furely, many such discoveries are made of men at this day: We may fee fin, that lurked close in the heart before, now laid open before all Ifrael, and before the fun.

Thirdly, Hereby the poor felf-cozening hypocrite hath the greatest opportunity and advantage that ever was before him in all his life, to recover himself out of the fnare of the devil. Now all his pretences are gone; now that which like a fhield was advanced against the arlows of reproof and conviction is gone; now a poor creature ftands naked, and stripped out of all his pleas, as a fair and open mark to the world, and his own confcience; and happy will it be for him, if now the Lord make conviction to enter point blank into his foul. All these are bleffed effects of the difcovery of hypocrify.

Secondly, By thefe trials integrity is cleared up, and the doubts and fears of many upright and holy ones allayed and quieted, refolved and fatisfied.

O what would many a poor Chriftian give for fatisfaction in that great point of fincerity! How many tears have been shed to God in fecret upon that account? How many hours have been spent in examination of his own heart about it, and still jealoufies and fears hang upon his heart? He doubts what he may prove at laft. Well, faith God, let his fincerity then come to the teft, kindle the fire, and caft in my gold. Trials are the high way to affurance; let my child fee that he loves me more than these, that his heart is upright with me. I will try him by profperity and by adverfity, by perfecutions and temptations, and he fhall fee his heart is better than he fufpects it to be. This fhall be the day of refolution to his fears and doubts.

The apostle fpeaking of herefies, 1 Cor. xi. 7, 9. puts a neceffity upon them: There must be hereftes, faith he, that they which are approved may be made manifeft. The fame neceffity there is (and for the fame end) of all other trials of grace, that the lovely, beautiful, fweet face of fincerity may be opened sometimes to the world, to enamour them, and to the foul in whom it is, to fatisfy it that it doth not perfonate a Christian, but lives the very life of a Christian, and hath the very spirit and principles of a Christian in it.

3. Thirdly, By these trials, pride and self-confidence are destroyed and mortified in the faints, as much as by any thing in the world. We never fee what poor weak creatures we are, until we come to the trial. It is faid, Deut. viii. 2. "God led Ifrael through the defert, "to prove them, and to humble them." When we are proved, then we are humbled. Thofe that over-reckon their graces before the trial, fee they must come to another account, and take new measures of themselves after they have been upon trial.

Ah! little did I think, faith one, that I had fo much love for the world, and fo little for God, until afflictions tried it. I could not have believed that ever the creature had got fo deep into my heart, until providence either threatened or made a feparation, and then I found it. I thought I had been rich in faith, until fuch a danger befel me, or fuch a want began to pinch hard; and then I faw how unable I was to truft God for protection, or provifion. O it is a good thing that our hearts be kept humble and lowly, how rich fo ever they be in grace!

4. Fourthly, By trials grace is kept in exercife, and the gracious! foul preferved from fecurity and fpiritual flothfulness. Trials are to grace what the estuations and continual agitations of the waters are to the fea, or what the racking of wines from the lees is to it: Were it not for our frequent trials and exercifes, we should quickly fettle upon the lees, and our duties would be (as God complains of Ephraim) like four or dead drink, Hofea iv. 18. flat and fpiritlefs." Moab "hath been at eafe from his youth, and he hath fettled on his lees,

181

" and hath not been emptied from veffel to veffel; neither hath he "gone into captivity; therefore his taste remained in hini, and his "fcent is not changed," Jer. xlviii. II.

Much after that rate it would be with our hearts, did not the Lord frequently try and exercise them. Let the best man be without fome trial or other but a few months, and you may find the want of it in his prayers and conferences quickly. O what a tang of formality will be found in them! And is it for the honour of God, or profit of his people, that it should be fo? No, the Lord knows it is not; but how fhall their spirits be reduced to their former zealous heavenly temper again? Why, faith the Lord, they muft into the furnace again: "I will melt them and try them; for how fhall I do for the "daughter of my people," Jer. ix. 7. I love them too well to lose them for want of a rod. Alas! If I fhould fuffer things to go on at this rate, what will become of them in a little time? What delight can I take in their duties, when the faith, fervour, humility, and holy seriousness of their spirits are wanting in them? I will therefore "refine them as filver is refined, and try them as gold is tried, and "they fhall call upon my name, and I will hear them, and I will "fay, It is my people, and they fhall fay, The Lord is my God," Zech. xiii. 9. and thus the Lord chides himself friend again with his people.

Thus he recovers them to their true temper, and thus his vifitations do preserve their spirits; and when the Lord fees thefe fweet effects of his trials upon them, it greatly pleaseth him. O now, faith God, I like it; this providence hath done them good; this rod was well beftowed; the letting loofe of this temptation, or that corruption upon them, hath made them find their knees again; now I hear the voice of my child again.

Beloved, this is a bleffed fruit and effect of our frequent trials; and how ungrateful foever they are to flesh and blood, that affects cafe, and is loth to be disturbed, yet it is neceffary to the preservation of our fpirits.

5. Fifthly, By the trial of our graces Satan is defeated, and his accufations of the faints found to be mere flanders. It is a very common thing with the devil and wicked men, to accuse the people of God of hypocrify, and to tell the world they are not the men and women they are taken to be; and that if their infide were but turned out by fome thorough trial, or deep fearch, it would appear that religion did not indeed live in their fouls, as they pretend, but that they only act a part, and perfonate heavenly and mortified perfons upon the public ftage of profeffion.

Thus the accufer of the brethren fuggests the hypocrify of Job, chap. ii. 5. Put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and "his flesh, and he will curfe thee to thy face;" q. d. Well might Job ferve thee whilft thou haft been fo bountiful a master to him; he hath been well rewarded for all the fervice he hath done thee;

but if thou stop the current of his profperity, thou fhalt fee how quickly he will stop the courfe of his duty; A few lathes from thy hand will make him curfe thee to thy face. But O what shame and difappointment was it to that envious spirit? What a vindication of Job's integrity, when under the greatest trials of his faith and patience, he ftill held faft his integrity, and fhewed himself as great a pattern of patience under the crofs, as he had been of piety in the days of his greatest prosperity! Satan gets nothing by bringing forth the faints upon the stage, to be made a spectacle to angels and men, as it is, 1 Cor. iv. 9.

6. Sixthly, and lastly, The frequent trials of grace exhibit a full and living teftimony against the atheism of the world. These prove beyond all words or arguments that religion is no fancy, but the greateft reality in the world: Men would make religion but a fancy, and the zeal of its profeffors, but the intemperate heat of fome crazy brains, over-heated with a fond notion.

They that never felt the real influences of religion upon their own fouls, will not believe that others do feel them. Serious piety is become the ludicrous subject with which the wanton wits of this atheiftical world fport themselves. But behold the wisdom and goodness of God exhibiting to the world the undeniable teftimonies of the truth of religion, as often as the fincere profeffors thereof are brought to the teft by afflictions from the hand of God, or perfecution from the hands of men: Lo! here is the faith and patience of the faints; here is their courage, meeknefs, and felf-denial, fhining as gold in the fire; they have the real proofs of it before their eyes; inftead of casting them into hell, and convincing them by eternal fire, he is pleafed to caft his own people into the fire of affliction, that they who fcoff at them may be convinced at an easier and cheaper rate. It is no new thing to fee the enemies of religion brought over to embrace it, by the conftancy and faithfulness of the faints in their trials and fufferings for it. God grant that the atheism of this prefent generation do not occafion a more fiery trial to the people of God in it, than they have yet fuffered!

CHAP. X.

Shewing that that grace only is to be reckoned fincere and real, which can endure thofe trials which God appoints, or permits, for the discovery

of it.

B

SECT. I.

EFORE I offer you the proofs and evidences of this truth, it will be neceffary to prevent fome mistakes that may be occafioned by mifunderstanding it.

Caution 1. And in the firft place, we are not to think affurance of

our fincerity impoffible to be had in this life, because as long as we live here, we are in a state of trial; and how many trials foever have been made upon us already, yet ftill there are more to come; and we know not what we fhall prove in future trials, though God hath kept us upright in former trials: No, this is none of my meaning; nor doth fuch a conclufion neceffarily follow this affertion: For a Chriftian that hath rightly closed with Chrift at first, and been faithful in the duties of active and paffive obedience hitherto, may be affured, upon good grounds, of a victory before he come to the fire of his remaining trials. So was the apoftle, Rom. viii. 35, &c. "Who shall feparate us from the love of Chrift? Shall tribulation, "or diftrefs, or perfecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or «fword? Nay, in all these we are more than conquerors, thro' him "that hath loved us." Here is an affured triumph before the combat. So Job xxiii. 10. "But he knoweth the way that I take; "when he hath tried me, I fhall come forth as gold." He appeals to God for the fincerity of his heart fo far as he had hitherto gone in the way of religion, and thence concludes, that whatever trials God fhould bring him to for time to come, he fhould come forth as gold, i.e. he should not lose one grain by the fire. And this confidence of a gracious foul is built not only upon experience gained in former trials, but upon faith in the power, promifes, and faithfulness of God, which are engaged for him in the covenant of grace, to keep him in the greateft dangers that befal him in this world.

He believes the power of God is able to make him ftand, though he hath no power nor might in himself to overcome the least temptation, 1 Pet. i. 5. "You are kept, paper (kept as in a garrifon) by "the power of God through faith unto falvation." When Chrift hath once taken poffeffion of the foul by his fpirit, he fortifies it by his power, as in a garrison: that ufing the means, it be furprized or betrayed no more into the enemy's hand, fo as finally to be loft.

He builds this confirlence alfo upon the promises of God, which are his fecurity in future dangers: And how are all the pages of the Bible befpangled with fuch promifes, as the firmament is with bright and glorious ftare? Such are thefe of the firft magnitude, 1 Cor. i. 8,

9.

"Chrift shall confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jefus Chrift. God is faithful, by whom ye "are called unto the fellowship of his Son Jefus Chrift our Lord." And no lefs fatisfying and fweet is that, Jer. xxxii. 40. “And I "will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn "away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their "hearts, that they shall not depart from me." And of the fame nature is that alfo, John x. 27, 28. "My fheep hear my voice, and I "know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life; "and they fhall never perifh, neither fhall any man pluck them out "of my hand."

If there be any hypocrite in sheeps-clothing, he hath no part or