of it; if we can neither keep our hearts with God in duties, nor mourn for our wanderings from him; if a few scoffs from wicked tongues, or trials of persecution from the hands of men, will cause us to faint in the way, and turn back from following the Lord, what shall we do when he comes whose "fan is in his hand, and who will thoroughly purge his floor," who will try every man's work as by fire, search the secrets of all hearts? Surely we can take little comfort in that which is so unable to bear the severe trials of that day, that it cannot stand before the slighter trials of this day.

4. True grace is willing to be tried, and nothing is more desirable to an upright soul, than to know its own condition. If therefore we shun the trial, and are loth to search ourselves or be searched by the Lord, our condition is suspicious, and we can take little comfort in it. It was David's earnest desire that God would thoroughly search his heart and reins, and see if there were any way of wickedness in him, Psal. cxxxix. 23. False grace is shy of God's eye; it cares not to be examined; but this is the delight of sincere ones. "Every one that doeth evil hateth the light, lest his deeds should be reproved; but he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God," John iii. 20, 21. The reason is plain why hypocrisy cannot endure to come to the touchstone and test; for hypocrites, having a secret consciousness of their own guilt and unsoundness, know that by this means their vain confidence would quickly be confuted, and all their reputation for religion blasted. But O if men dare not stand before the word, as it is now opened and applied by ministers, how will they stand when it shall be opened and applied in another manner by Jesus Christ? O professor, if thy condition be good, thy heart right, thou wilt desire to know the very worst of thyself; and when thou hast made the deepest search thou canst, thou wilt still fear thou hast not been severe enough and impartial enough to thyself. Nothing will give thee more content than when thou feelest the word dividing thy soul and spirit, thy joints and marrow. Nothing so much comforts thee under or after an affliction, as the

discovery it has made of thy heart. Thou wilt seem to feel with what affection those words came from the prophet's lips, "But thou, O Lord, knowest me; thou hast seen me, and tried my heart towards thee," Jer. xii. 2. O what a refreshing sweetness will stream through thy heart, and all the powers of thy soul, when thou canst make the like appeal to God with like sincerity! And certainly without such a disposition of spirit towards the trial of our graces, we can have little evidence of the truth of them.

CHAPTER XI..

Practical Inferences, with a serious Exhortation to Self Trial and thorough Examination.

SECTION 1.

1. ARE there such variety of trials appointed to examine the sincerity of men's graces? How great a vanity then is hypocrisy, and to how little purpose do men endeavour to conceal and hide it! We say, Murder will out; and we may as confidently affirm, Hypocrisy will out. When Rebecca had laid the plot to disguise her son Jacob, and by personating his brother, to get the blessing, Jacob thus objects against it, "My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing," Gen. xxvii. 12; as if he should say, But what if my father detect the cheat? How then shall I look him in the face? How shall I escape a curse? After the same manner every upright soul scares itself from the way of hypocrisy. If I dissemble and pretend to be what I am not, my Father will find me out. There is no darkness nor shadow of death that can conceal the hypocrite, but out it will come at last, let him use all the art he can to hide it. Oftentimes God discovers him by the trials he appoints in this world; and men in that day shall “re

turn and discern betwixt the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not," Mal. iii. 18. But if he make a hard shift to get by a private way to hell, carrying this comfort with him to the last step, that no body knows or thinks he is gone thither; yet there will be a day when God will strip him naked before the great assembly of angels and men, and all shall point at him, and say, "Lo! this is the man that made not God his hope." This is he that wore a garment of profession to deceive, but God has now stript him out of it, and all men see what he is; for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not be known," Matth. x. 26. And the apostle assures us, in 1 Tim. v. 24, that "they that are otherwise, cannot be hid." If men's works be not good, it is impossible they should be hid long. A gilded piece of brass may pass from hand to hand a little while, but the touchstone will discover the base metal; and if that does not, the fire will.

O sinners, away with your hypocrisy! Be honest, sincere, plain, and hearty in religion. If not, confusion of face shall be your recompence from the Lord. That is what you will get by it.

2. Are there such trials appointed and permitted by the Lord for the discovery of his people's sincerity in this world? Then let none of God's people expect a quiet station in this world. Certainly you will meet with no rest here. You must pass out of one fire into another. And it is a merciful condescension of the Lord to poor creatures thus to concern himself for their safety and benefit. "What is man that thou shouldst magnify him, and that thou shouldst set thine heart upon him? that thou shouldst visit him every morning, and try him every moment?" Job vii. 17, 18. O it is a great deal of honor put upon a poor worm, when God will every moment try him and visit him. It argues the great esteem the goldsmith has of his gold, when he will sit by the furnace himself, and order the fire with his own hand; when he pries so often and so curiously into the finingpot, to see that none of his precious metal, upon which he has set his heart, be lost. No. XIX.

Div.

U

Think it not then debasing to you to be so often exposed to trials. If God did not value you highly, he would not try you so frequently. What would become of you, if your condition here should be more settled and quiet than now it is? I believe you find dross enough in your hearts after all the fires into which God has cast you. Surely there is filth enough in the best of God's people to require all the trouble they have yet met with, and perhaps a great deal more. We fancy it a brave life to live at ease; and if we meet with longer respites and intervals of trial than usual, we are apt to say, "We shall never be moved," as David did, in Psalm xxx. 6; or, "We shall die in our nest," as it is in Job xxix. 18; our hard and difficult days are over;" but woe to us, if God should give us the desire of our hearts in this! See what is the temper of those men's spirits who meet with no changes, in Psal. lv. 19; "Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God." O it is better to be preserved sweet in brine, than to rot in honey!

3. Let none boast in a carnal confidence of their own strength and stability. You are in a state of trial. Hitherto God has kept you upright in all your trials. Bless God, but boast not. You are but feathers in the wind of temptation, if God leave you to yourselves. Peter told Christ, and doubtless he spoke no more than he honestly meant, "Though all men forsake thee, yet will not I;" and you know what he did when the hour of his trial came, Matth. xxvi. 35. Angels left to themselves have fallen. It is better to be an humble worm than a proud angel.

Ah! how many hypocrites will this professing age show, if once God bring us to the fiery trial! "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." "Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." None stand upon firmer ground than those who see nothing in themselves to stand upon. He who leans upon his own arm usually benumbs it, and makes it useless.

4. Does God kindle so many fires in Sion, and set his furnaces in Jerusalem, to discover and separate the dross from the gold? How contrary are those men to God that allow, yea, and prize the dross of hypocrisy which God

hates, and stick not to make the holy God a patronizer and countenancer of it in the hearts and lives of men!

It is amazing to read what popish pens have impudently written about this matter. Sylvester puts the question, Whether it be a sin to make a false show of sanctity?" And answers it thus, "If it be for the honor of God and profit of others, it is no sin." Nay, they have a reverence for hypocrisy, as a holy art. Vicentius spends a whole chapter in commendation of the hypocrisy of St. Dominio, and entitles it, " Of the holy hypocrisy of that saint;" reckoning it among his commendations, that he had the art of dissembling. And another goes still farther. “A religious person," says he, "who feigns himself to have more holiness than he has, that others may be edified, sins not, but rather merits." Blush, O heavens, that ever such factors for hell should open and vend such ware as this in the public market, and invite the world to hypocrisy, as that which makes for the glory of God, the edification of men, and a work meritorious in the hypocrite himself. This is the doctrine of devils indeed!

5. If it be so that all grace must come to the test, and be tried as gold in the fire, even in this world, how are all men concerned to lay a solid foundation at first, and thoroughly deliberate the terms upon which they close with Christ, and engage in the profession of his name!

"Which of you," says Christ, "intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost?" Luke xiv. 28. If some men had sat down at first, and pondered the conditions and terms of Christ, they had not sat down now discouraged, and tired in the way. The apostle Paul went to work at another rate. He accounted all but dung and dross for Christ, Phil. iii. 8; and was of the same mind when the actual trial came; for then he tells us, that "he counted not his life dear unto him," Acts xx. 24. And the apostle Peter admonishes believers" not to think it strange concerning the fiery trial which was to try them," 1 Pet. iv. 12. Let none of these things be surprisals to you; you are told before-hand what ye must trust to; every Christian must be a martyr, at least in the disposition and resolution of his heart.