Chapter 30

Motives to, and means of sincerity.

The motives to incite us to sincerity, and singleness of heart are many, and powerful, throughout the whole book of God, some of which I will urge at this time.

1. Sincerity is the girdle, whereby all other graces are tied close to us — so the Apostle in the description of the spiritual armor, calls it the girdle of truth. And therefore here also is true that we say, ungirt, unblest. He is but a loose man, that wants this girdle. Let his gifts and graces be never so excellent, yet they sit but loose about him; when a storm comes they will easily be shaken off. From him that has not shall be taken away that he has. From him that has not the gift of sincere sanctification shall be taken away those common gifts of an overly, and superficiary illumination, indeed his shows also of true sanctification. Not only that he has shall be taken away, but that also which he seems to have. The fig tree that only made a show with leaves, having no fruit, in the end, being cursed, lost the leaves too, wherewith it deceived our Savior, and wholly withered. God's gifts in an unsound heart, contrary as it were to their own nature, being perverted to wrong ends, do even sigh under our abuse, and God hearing their groans gives them the wings of the Eagle, to fly away from such unjust possessors. How fearful are the examples of many unsound professors, who notwithstanding all their goodly flourishes, have yet vanished at last? They have been stripped stark naked of all, their right hand has forgot its skill, their right eye has been darkened, their arm withered, they have moldered away, and become mere nothings, unsavory salt fit for nothing but the dunghill. Christ having told the Church of Sardis that her graces were ready to die, gives this reason thereof: For I have not found your works perfect before God. Therefore they are ready to die, because tainted with the infection of hypocrisy. Had not Judas many excellent graces of prayer, preaching, miracles, etc.? Yet, forasmuch as they wanted the salt of sincerity to preserve them from putrefaction, both he and they miserably rotted, and came to fearful desolation. His heart became a sty, and stable for Satan to lodge in, and to beget that monstrous conception of barbarous and treacherous villainy. So that what the Psalmist speaks concerning the wicked man's temporal estate, may truly be spoken concerning the hypocrite's spiritual estate. I saw him like the fresh laurel, spreading himself, and flourishing: but the root being corrupt with hypocrisy, he could not hold out. Inquire for him, and for his many graces, his great knowledge, his burning zeal, his forward alacrity, etc. and their place cannot be found. The body when the soul is once gone, may not long stay above ground. It must needs be buried. So the hypocrite's graces wanting sincerity, which is the very soul, and life of all grace, they are but a stinking carrion, and what should an odious and ugly loathsome carcass do, but be thrown into the pit? Does it not stand us then in hand to look to ourselves that we be upright in heart, if we would enjoy the sweet comfort of our final perseverance? For, as excellently Bradford, the way of Christ is the straight way, and so strait, that as few can find it, and few walk in it, so none can halt in it, but must needs go upright. For as the straitness will suffer no reeling to this side or that side, so if any man halts, he is like to fall off the bridge into the pit of eternal destruction. An unsound horse that has some secret fault, may carry as good a show as the soundest, and at the first for a mile, or two will travel as freshly and cheerfully, as any, but at length he tires, and gives over. So is it with an unsound, and deceitful Christian. Notwithstanding all his fair beginnings, and hopeful entrances, yet he continues not. Let an apple seem never so beautiful if it be rotten at core, it will quickly putrefy. The house built on the sand cannot stand always. If a tempest arises, down it goes, it falls, and the fall thereof is great, like that of Jerusalem, which though it were a most glorious and godly city, yet it was wholly ruined, and leveled with the ground, not a stone left upon a stone. So great is the fall of these sandy Christians, that it even astonishes them that knew them before, when they stood flourishing in their pride, and beauty. So that here also we may translate those words of the Prophet from the outward goods, and apply them to the inward graces of the wicked. Oh how horrible and suddenly are they consumed? You have set them, and their graces too, in slippery ground; as a dream they vanish, etc. And as they in the Prophet lament Tyre and Sidon, with the like lamentation may we bewail the pitiful ruins of the unsound Christian. You have been in Eden, the garden of God, as one of the fairest trees thereof; every precious stone was in your garment, the ruby, the topaz, the diamond, etc. But alas alas these great ones that were clothed with purple and silk. For in one hour are all these riches come to desolation. Yesterday flourishing like one of the gallant lilies, putting down Solomon in all his glory, and alas today cast into the fiery oven of hell. The many gourds of excellent graces sprouted up suddenly, and grew mightily, and under their shadow, you sat rejoicing: but alas with Jonah's joy. For the worm of a deceitful heart in one night has as suddenly consumed them all. So that now you are worse than ever before; as Jonah, after the perishing of his gourd, troubled not only with the sun, but also with the East-wind. The winds of the Devil's temptations shall be let loose more fiercely to enrage the scorching sun of your own concupiscence, and corruption; free liberty shall be given to your formerly restrained corruption; and forasmuch as you were always a sow, power of reentrance shall be granted to the impure spirit with the company of seven worse, that as once he did those Gadarene swine, he may carry you headlong into the filthy, and miry sea of your own fleshiness there to wallow and tumble as before your cleansing. God has threatened, and he will be as good as his word, to spew out the lukewarm out of his mouth. Think not now that God will be like you, that as you eat up your vomit, so he will his, and suffer you, after you are once vomited, to come into his stomach again. In fact, because he saw, you were such a dog that you would return to your sin, which you had vomited, therefore has he spewed you out for ever; to teach you by his example in spewing you out, how you should have spewed your sin out, namely without a desire of ever returning to it again, as the Israelites to their forsaken Egypt. Such Israelites, that after their departure from Egypt, carry yet a disposition of returning, in the wilderness must they die, into God's rest never must they enter. O miserable case of the hypocrite, which is so desperate, and irremediable! The fall of the sandy house, says our Savior, is great. Here great, because so dashed in shivers, that it cannot be reared up again, and the curse of God is such upon it, being fallen that like Jericho, and Jerusalem it is irreedifiable. With my whole heart have I sought you, says David, suffer me not to wander from your commandments. Insinuating thereby, that such as do not seek God with their whole hearts, that is in singleness of heart, unfeignedly, God will suffer them to wander in crooked blind ways, and that fearfully, and irreturnably. To the like purpose is that in the same Psalm, Let my heart be upright in your statutes, that I may never be ashamed. Those then that are not upright in heart God owes them a shame, and will assuredly pay it to them. Is it not a shame for a man in good trade to prove bankrupt, and turn beggar? Will he not be ashamed to look anybody in the face, that knew him before? So surely is it with the deceitful Christian when he is thus fallen away; being now made a miserable spectacle, and as it were a monster to be pointed at with the finger, that as the true Israelite is noted out with a Behold, for imitation, Behold a true Israelite in whom no guile, so he with a Behold, for detestation, behold the man that took not God for his strength. What a shame this, when it will be said, was not this the great professor, the earnest preacher? And now with Demas he has embraced the present world. Did not Adam's apostasy fill his face with shame? However sometimes this kind of men have faces of wainscot, and foreheads of brass, yet their conscience, I dare say, is ashamed, to see God discover their filthy nakedness, by taking away their very shows of grace, and bringing their secret wickedness to light. I conclude then this first motive with the words of our Savior whose it is. Take heed of hypocrisy. For there is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed, nor covered, that shall not be known. How righteous, O Lord, is this your judgment upon hypocrites? They are not that, they seem, and are thought to be: therefore at last they shall seem, and be thought to be that, they are.

2 Sincerity is the highest perfection attainable in this life. That which is wanting in the measure of obedience and holiness is made up in the truth and soundness thereof. Therefore Peter, being asked of the measure of his love to Christ, "Do you love me more than these?" answers only concerning the truth; being asked of the quantity, answers only concerning the quality, "Lord, you know that I love you." For the quantity, it matters not so much with you: none loves you so much as he ought: but for the sincere quality, which is all in all with you, as for that, I appeal to yourself. Hence it is that where the scripture speaks of perfection it is to be understood of sincerity, in the feeling of imperfection, and in an earnest desiring and aspiring after perfection. Those that in one place are said to be perfect, in another, by way of exposition, are said to be upright.

3. Where sincerity is, there God both covers and cures all other infirmities. As hypocrisy drowns many excellent graces and causes God to take no notice of them; so contrarily sincerity covers many gross infirmities, and by drawing the eye of God to itself, causes it to wink at them. How many infirmities escaped from the good Prophet David? His numbering the people, his counterfeiting madness, his collusion with Achish, his rash anger and furious swearing, and vowing the death of Nabal, and his unjust dealing with good poor Mephibosheth. These things were sins, yet sincerity was a veil to them. Because sincerity was not so shaken in his other sins as in his murder and adultery, God that took some special notice of this last, would take none at all of the other. The heart of David, says the scripture, was upright in all things except in the matter of Uriah. When at Hezekiah's passover there had been some want in some of the people in their preparation, yet Hezekiah charitably presuming of the sincerity and honesty of their hearts, prays thus for them, "The good Lord be merciful to him that prepares his whole heart to seek the Lord God, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary." Lo, how sincerity prevailed against the defect of legal purification, being more powerful to draw God's blessing than the other his curse. Some of Asa's infirmities having been mentioned by the Holy Ghost, as that the high places were not taken away, yet the conclusion is, "Yet his heart was upright toward the Lord all his days." Lo, how all other his infirmities are covered with the mantle of sincerity. Contrarily in Jehu, we may observe how the Holy Ghost after a large description of many excellent things done by him, does at last as it were draw a cross line, and blot out all spoken before with this conclusion; "But Jehu regarded not to walk in the law of the Lord with all his heart." Lo, how all other his graces are buried in the grave of an unsound heart. Great virtues, not sweetened with sincerity, are no ornament to us: and great infirmities, not soured with hypocrisy, are no great deformities. Those God acknowledges not: these God imputes not.

4 Neither does God cover only, but in time cure also sincerity's imperfections; giving it strength and daily increase of grace to prevail against them. For the eyes of the Lord behold all the earth to show himself strong with them that are of upright heart (2 Chronicles 16:9). However they may be weak in themselves, yet they shall feel God's strength perfecting itself in their weakness. For as it is in the Psalms, with the upright you will be upright; you will not fail him in his need (Psalm 18:25). No, The Lord is near to them that call upon him, that call upon him in truth, he is near with the powerful presence of his Spirit, to help them in all their needs, to relieve and succor them against all their infirmities and temptations (Psalm 145:18). Whereupon the Psalmist prays, Do good, O Lord, to them that are true in heart (Psalm 125:4); yes, and assures us out of his own experience that God is good to Israel, even in the midst of affliction and temptation, but to what Israel? To the pure in heart (Psalm 73:1). And Paul promises such as are simple to evil, that is sincere-hearted, that they shall not always be held captive under their infirmities, but at length Satan shall be trod under their feet (Romans 16:19-20). It is the wont of the Lord to reward the sincerity of a little grace with abundance of greater graces. Nathaniel, before his coming to Christ, could have no great knowledge, yet being a true Israelite, void of guile, Christ further enlightens him, gives him the sight of the true Messiah, not only bodily but spiritual, endues him with true faith, and promises him still greater matters (John 1:49-50). Alas, the weak and dim knowledge that the poor Eunuch and Cornelius had in the mystery of godliness: yet because according to that poor measure of knowledge they had, they worshipped God sincerely, an Evangelist was sent to the one, and both an Angel and an Apostle to the other, bringing the reward of their sincerity in their hands, the clearer light of the Gospel, and a fuller largesse of spiritual gifts (Acts 8 and 10). For as the curse of God is upon hypocrisy to decrease and destroy a great deal, a great stock of grace, so the blessing of God is upon sincerity to increase the little stock, the two mites, the grain of mustard seed of sincerity. So that as in the outward estate, so also in the inward it is true which the Prophet speaks of the true child of God: A little to the righteous is better than great riches to the wicked (Psalm 37:16). For as God's curse blows upon the great revenues of wicked men, so that they often fall into decay, and are forced, as the Psalmist says, to come and borrow even of the godly man, who is poorer, that is, has not so much as they (Psalm 37:21), so also is it in the spiritual riches of the hypocrites' graces compared with the upright Christian's. Their great gifts they have prosper not, in the time of their trouble they are glad to borrow as it were of poorer men, to crave comfort and relief of meaner Christians, not so richly gifted as themselves, like as the foolish virgins in the parable for all the great blaze of their lamps were fain to beg oil of the wise (Matthew 25:8). Hence it is that the upright man's little portion of grace is better than the greater share of the hypocrite; because it thrives in his hands, and by his good husbandry quickly rises, the secret curse of God, as a moth, eating up and wasting the other. Is not a little spring better than a great pond? Yes. For in summer, when the great pond is dried up, the little spring still holds out, and does us service. So is it with the graces of sincerity. Though they are but little as the oil in the cruse and the meal in the barrel of the widow of Zarephath, yet they have such a spring, that as she held out in the famine, when many of better estate, in all likelihood, perished, so when the proud hypocrite that had ten talents is broken and has brought his ten talents to none, yet the humble sincere Christian, that had but two talents, continues still, and has brought his two to four, his five talents to ten. And what's the reason of this increase? Even his sincerity. Because you have been faithful, says our Savior, in a little, I will make you ruler over much (Luke 19:17). Surely David, as all other Christians, had no great stock to begin withal: for the kingdom of heaven, in the first beginnings is but as a grain of mustard seed (Matthew 13): yet, in short space of time, that his little, faithfully employed and wisely husbanded, brought so admirable an increase, that the poor apprentice got before the richest merchants in this kind, even the teachers themselves, and the grave sages and ancient fathers, that had of a long time known him that was from the beginning, were of his old acquaintance, and were in Christ long before him (John 2:14; Romans 16:7; Psalm 119:99-100). I the other day a poor newcomer, a freshman, have now got more understanding than all my teachers for all their great reading, yes than all my ancients, for all their long experience. But how might this come to pass? Because I kept your precepts, namely in sincerity (Psalm 119:56). This I had, says he, namely the grace to remember the name of God in the night, to make his statutes my songs in the house of my pilgrimage, because I kept your precepts.

5 Sincerity, as it lessens something our evil, so it amplifies and adds to the glory of our good actions, even such as are but of the lower sort. There is not the meanest action whatever, which sincerity will not set a fair gloss upon, and procure it that grace in the eyes of God, that in some respects it shall be matchable even to works far greater in their own nature. A poor laboring man that lives by his hands, having been faithful in that place and performing sincere obedience therein to God, may have as much comfort on his deathbed as the best minister and magistrate, whose service yet is in itself far more honorable. Indeed, if his sincerity in his calling be greater than theirs is in theirs, his comfort also shall be greater. For God regards not so much the matter as the form of our obedience, not so much the thing that we do, as the affection with which we do it. Where sincerity is, there, in the meanest works that are, together with them, the heart is given to God. And the more a man gives of his heart to God, the more acceptable is his work. The widow's mite could weigh but light: but her heart weighed heavy. And so her heart being put to her mite gave it weight above the greater, but far more heartless, largesse of the Pharisee. Sincerity is to our works as spirit is to our bodies, making it far better than a greater work where there is more flesh but less spirit. O rare and excellent virtue of sincerity, which can make light drams and barley corns as massive and ponderous as the huge talents. Whereas contrarily the want of sincerity makes talents as light as feathers. Hypocrisy — such is the filth of it — debases the purest metals and turns very gold, indeed precious stones, into rusty iron. Contrarily, sincerity in an excellent kind of alchemy turns iron into gold, and as once our Savior turned water into wine. Hypocrisy causes the most glorious works of alms, prayer, and preaching with great indignation to be rejected; sincerity causes the poorest works — of keeping sheep, sweeping the house, and so on — with great favor to be accepted. Sincerity then is all in all. A sincere Rahab is better than an unsound Judas. As in the natural body, to use Saint Augustine's comparison, the case of the sound finger is safer than that of the bleary eye. The finger indeed is but a little small thing and cannot do such service as the eye; it is not of that admirable nimbleness and quickness, nor can it guide and direct the whole body as the eye does. And yet it is better to be a finger and to be sound, than to be an eye and to be dim and dark, ready to fall out of the head. Better in God's family to be a faithful doorkeeper, and so to be sure to hold our place, than to be an unfaithful steward, and so, with him in the Gospel, to be thrust out and come to the danger of begging. When we come to die, it is not the greatness or the multitude of those good works which we have done, but the good disposition of an honest and sincere heart in the doing of them, that must then stand us in stead. The Psalmist pronounces them blessed that are upright in their way (Psalm 119:1). He makes no choice of the way; he does not say, Blessed are they that are upright in the way of the ministry or the magistracy, but speaking indifferently of any way allowable by the word, be it never so simple or mean, he says blessed are the upright in their way, whatever it be — be it but to be a drudge in a kitchen, yet he that is upright in this way is blessed, as contrarily he that is not upright in a fairer and more glorious way, as the way of apostleship, is cursed. God looks not so much to the way as to your foot in walking in the way. Let the way be never so mean, yet no discomfort if you walk in it uprightly; let it be never so glorious, yet no comfort if you walk in it haltingly. Therefore Hezekiah, being struck with that thunderbolt of the sentence of death, what was his comfort (Isaiah 38:3)? Even this: the conscience of his sincerity. O Lord, you know I have walked with an upright heart. This was his only refuge. Though those good works he had done were in regard of his calling of the highest note — the restoring of the true worship of God, the purging of the defiled temple and priesthood — yet he does not comfort himself with these so worthy works: O Lord, you know I have cleansed your sanctuary, erected your worship, repaired the decayed walls of Jerusalem, renewed the glory and beauty of your Zion. No; but without instancing in any particulars he had done, he mentions only the manner of doing, his sincerity of affection in all his doings: I have walked before you with a perfect heart. So, how many and glorious were the works of Paul — his miracles, his preaching, the planting of churches, the conversion of sinners, the suffering of persecutions. Yet reviewing his life, what was his chiefest comfort? Let us hear him speak: This is our rejoicing (2 Corinthians 1:12) — not that we have cast out the devils, healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, by the thunder of my preaching caused Satan to fall down from heaven like lightning (no, none of all these were his comfort) — but that in simplicity and godly pureness we have had our conversation in the world. Hence it was that the Apostles, when they returned to Christ rejoicing in their victory over the devil, were checked and bidden to rejoice not in any other thing than in that which every sincere Christian, though never so mean and contemptible, may rejoice in as well as they — namely, that their names were written in heaven.

6. The special hatred and antipathy that is in God against deceitfulness should be a strong motive to sincerity. There can be no union between God and the hypocrite, in regard of the great dissimilitude of dispositions. God is single; and he is double: having a heart and a heart, and therefore cannot be as David: a man according to God's heart. The hypocrite is crooked, and God is straight: and how will you compact together, and make even straight and crooked? How can there be friendship between them that are every way of contrary dispositions? But where there is likeness of manners there easily will hearts be glued and riveted together. Now the upright in heart are according to God's own heart, and therefore, as Solomon says, they are his delight. The Lord so loves the truth in the inward parts, that he himself with his own mouth will commend, indeed and admire the true Israelite. Behold a true Israelite, said our Lord of Nathaniel. Though sincerity lurk with Saul, and care not for being beheld, yet God brings it forth to light, and bids others behold it. So true is that of the Apostle, that the true Jew's praise is of God. Was it thought such a matter for Achilles to have the poet Homer as describer of his virtues? O the glory then of the sincere Christian that shall have God himself the trumpeter of his praises! But he loathes and abhors the hypocrite, even as the stomach does lukewarm water; he distastes him as much as he does the gross and open offenders. Therefore it is that he [reconstructed: yokes] them with such in their punishment. Do good, O Lord, to the true in heart. But these that turn aside by their crooked ways, them (that is, hypocrites) the Lord shall lead away with the workers of iniquity; indeed and reproaches them with their name, when he inflicts the punishment: Depart, you workers of iniquity. Therefore it is also, that when he would threaten a man a grievous punishment indeed, he says he will give him his portion with hypocrites. And indeed the hypocrite's punishment must needs be very grievous, since he must be spewed out of God's mouth. Now the basest places that are, we think good enough to cast up our gorge in. So odious is the lukewarm hypocrite in the eyes of God, that in some regards he can better away with the stark cold Atheist, and openly profane and scandalous Epicurean, as who would not rather have an open than a secret and friend-like enemy. Chrysostom says well, that she is a worse woman that in hypocrisy blurs her face with tears, that she might be judged a humbled penitent, than she that beautifies it with painted colors, that she might be reputed a fair and lovely creature. And in the same proportion of reason we may say that God more hates the popish pharisaical pining of the body by counterfeit fasting, than the Epicurean pampering of the body with gluttony and feasting. So out of conceit is God with hypocrisy. And this he shows most apparently, in that he will not endure he should come near him in any service, or sacrifice of prayer, or praise. For his sharp nose easily discerns, and is offended with the stinking breath of his rotten lungs, though his words be never so scented and perfumed with shows of holiness.

7. And as in other regards God thinks him unfit to come near him, so specially in the function of the ministry. Some such indeed have come near him, as Judas among the Apostles. But often has he cast them out with reproach, as unsavory salt into the dunghill. Whatever their other sufficiencies and enablements may be, yet their want of a sound heart makes God hold them unworthy of this honorable calling. For this is the special thing required of the disposers of God's secrets, that every man be found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:2). Therefore when Simon Magus would have been meddling here, Simon Peter thrust him away, and told him plainly, you have no part, or fellowship in this ministry. And mark the reason, why: for your heart is not right in the sight of God. But though all, with this Simon, are not thus kept out, yet God shows his dislike of them some other ways, either cashiering them with great disgrace, or else making both them and their ministry vile and contemptible. For the Lord will be sanctified in them that come near him, if not in the sincerity of their sanctification, yet certainly in the severity of their condemnation (Leviticus 10:3).

8. And as the hypocrite is thus unfit for God, so also for all good men, to have anything to do with; such blemishes are they, and indeed the very botches of any Christian society. Lydia desired Paul and Silas upon no other condition to enter into her house, than this, if they had judged her faithful (Acts 16:15). And David, having prayed for the sweet company and communion of the godly, Let such as fear you turn to me, and such as know your testimonies, immediately adds another prayer, Let my heart be upright in your statutes, that I may never be ashamed (Psalm 119:79-80). Insinuating thereby that he should be unfit for the company of God's children, unless his heart were upright. As therefore in the former speech he prayed for the company of the godly, so in the latter for that which might make him meet for their company, so that he might hold out in that blessed fellowship, without being ashamed, when in the end for want of sincerity he should be shaken off by his companions. And again the same prophet describing what kind of court he would have when he came to the kingdom, banishes from it the deceitful person, and makes choice only of the faithful (Psalm 101:6-7). My eyes shall be to the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me. He that walks in a perfect way, he shall serve me. There shall no deceitful person dwell within my house.

9. Again, hypocrisy is so loathed by God, that he grudges it the least success in anything it goes about. Jacob's sons, having treacherously sold their brother, would yet cover their sin — as with a lie, so with a feigned, hypocritical consolation of their mournful old father. But with all their words could they not in the least sort cheer him up. They were but miserable comforters, because feigned. Hence it is that the blessing of God is not so usual, nor so large upon the labors of hypocrites, though never so well qualified, as of sincere preachers, though otherwise of meaner gifts. If you will turn to me you shall convert, said God to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 15:19; Luke 1:16). And this is given as the reason of John the Baptist's so great success in conversion of souls, because he should have the sound and powerful spirit of Elijah. He shall convert, says the angel to Zechariah, many of the children of Israel to their Lord God. Why so? For he shall go before him, not in the spirit of hypocrisy, but in the spirit and power of Elijah. So where the good hand of God is noted in the success of Ezra's journey, this reason is given thereof, even Ezra's faithful and honest heart toward God. He came to Jerusalem according to the good hand of his God that was upon him (Ezra 7:9-10). For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, etc.

10. Well, but this sometimes befalls sincerity — for its further trial — to be denied success. God forbid yet that anyone should be judged a hypocrite for want of success. This would argue want of charity and judgment. But lo, see the misery of a hypocrite in the want of success, and the happiness of the sincere professor in the same case. For the one has comfort in the conscience of his sincerity; the other is vexed and tormented with the guilt of his unsoundness, and takes this punishment as a just rebuke thereof. The unsound minister — let his pains be never so great, his preaching never so profitable — yet, if it takes not, has just cause to lay the blame not upon his hearers, but himself. For well may he think with himself: How should I look that God should grace words coming from a corrupt and impure heart with the attendance of his Holy Spirit? But such ministers as, in the want of success, are privy to themselves of their own sincerity, they may say with Saint Paul (2 Corinthians 3:4-5): If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that perish. Why so? For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. Mark how the apostle alleges his sincerity in the discharge of his ministry as a reason of comfort when it prevailed not, assuring himself upon this ground that the fault was in the hearers themselves, and not in him, or in his preaching. The hypocrite's success then is either none at all, or comfortless, and so as good as none. For all the joy of his success is dashed with the conscience of his own hypocrisy. Whereas the sincere Christian, as he is under the promise of success and so often has it, so when for just causes God sees it not fit to accomplish this his promise — being only conditional — yet then has he more comfort in his successless sincerity than the hypocrite for his life can have in his most successful and happiest hypocrisy. Indeed, the sincere Christian being a beholder of his success often carries away all the comfort thereof, when the miserable hypocrite himself is left dry and destitute. The success of a good work done in sincerity is specially comfortable to the worker himself, above that it is to others. Contrarily, that comfort which is in the success of a hypocritical good work is wholly others'; the workman himself has not the least jot. Hence Saint Paul, though the false apostles were his adversaries and preached out of envy to vex him, and thought little of providing matter of comfort for him, yet he rejoiced in their preaching and the fruit thereof. Whereas yet they themselves, preaching only of vainglory and contention, could not have the least comfort thereby.

11. Lastly; in all dangers, trials, temptations, sincerity makes us valiant and courageous, begetting in us the true manly, generous and heroical spirits, even that lion-like boldness spoken of in the Proverbs (Proverbs 28:1). It is not put out of countenance with the false accusations of slanderous tongues. It throws them off as Paul did the viper unhurt, indeed in a holy scorning, it laughs at them; as the wild ass in Job does at the horse and the rider. No, no. The breastplate of righteousness, the brazen wall of a good conscience fears no such arrows. It says with Paul, I pass not for man's judgment (1 Corinthians 4:3). Though my adversary should write a book against me, would I not take it upon my shoulder and bind it as a crown to me? says Job (Job 31:35-39). Indeed further says that holy man, I will tell him the number of my goings, I will acquaint him with my whole life, and let him pick what he can thereout, so little do I know by myself. O the confidence of sincerity! Indeed yet further, I will come to him, not as a guilty trembling slave, but as a prince, that being strongly guarded both with armed men and his subjects' love; and emboldened with the might and right of his own power, walks securely, and without fear. O the noble spirits of sincerity! And indeed every true Christian, being a spiritual Prince, has the spirits of the best Prince, as having that princely privilege of a double guard, the guard of the Angels without, and of a good conscience within, the peace whereof, as the Apostle speaks, is in stead of a guard against adversary power (Philippians 4:8). Shall now such a Prince, so guarded, regard the enmity of any? Fear the threatenings of any, though never so mighty? No. Well may others fear him, as Herod and Saul, proud tyrants, did — the one fearing John, his poor minister, knowing, says the Scripture, he was a just man and holy (Mark 6:20), the other fearing David, his poor subject for the same cause (1 Samuel 18:14-15); but he fears none but God; neither yet him slavishly. God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and love, and of a sound mind, says the Apostle; opposing the spirit of fear to the spirit of soundness and sincerity (2 Timothy 1:7). And indeed as there is nothing more bold than a sound conscience: so nothing more base, or sooner abashed, than an unsound conscience, destitute of this sincerity. Elijah in his rags had the heart to go meet Ahab in his robes, and David in the midst of all his reproaches, had the face to profess the name of God before Kings and Princes, without ever being blanked at their presence (Psalm 119). For, let a man be never so much dejected — this sincerity will revive, and refresh his spirit, and put new life into him. Contrarily Peter, when he rushed, in the presumption of his deceitful heart, into danger, without this fence and fortification, how dastardly a coward showed he himself? See how small a thing daunted him; even the words of a poor silly wench. Who yet afterward, clothed with this armor, was so stout and manly, that not the high Priest himself, nor all his prisons, nor punishments whatever, could anything appall him. So in the afflictions sent by God, O the relief that then sincerity yields within, when all other things fail us! This causes us to lift up our heads with joy; when others are at their very wits' end for fear. The hypocrite in peace, and security may seem strong and valorous; but let God by some affliction drag him out as it were by the ears from his lurking hole, and convene him before his tribunal, and you shall not see anything more abject or heartless. Then is that of the Prophet verified: The sinners in Zion are afraid, a fear is come among the hypocrites (Isaiah 33:14). Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings? But the sincere heart even in this case holds out confident and comfortable. When Christ seemed to set himself against Peter, and to call the truth of his profession into question, with that threefold pinching demand, Simon, do you love me? — Peter's faithful heart still held its own, and overcame in that wrestling: Lord, you know I love you (John 21:15-16). O the boldness of sincerity, that dares make God the Judge, when he makes himself the accuser! When Job had against him not only the devil his enemy, pushing at him with his poisoned weapons, but even his own friends, scourging him with their tongues, indeed his own wife a thorn pricking him in the eye, indeed his own God, miserably lashing his naked soul with scorpions, what was it that relieved him against all these, but the remembrance of his own uprightness in the course of his past life (Job 27:5-6)? And therefore he said, Until I die I will never take away my innocence from myself. My heart shall not reprove me for my days. Who now would want such a companion, such a friend as sincerity is, that sticks so close to us, and yields such sweet comfort, even in our sorest trials, and hardest straits?

Here then happily some, feeling the want of this so necessary a grace, will inquire concerning the means to attain thereto.

The first means is for a man always to possess his heart with the apprehension of God's presence, and so to keep it in his fear continually, to walk as Enoch did, with God, as being in his eye, and with Moses seeing him that is invisible (Genesis 5; Hebrews 11; Genesis 17:1). Walk before me, says God to Abraham, and be upright. First, Walk before me, set yourself in my presence, behold my all-seeing eye, that sees in the dark, even in the darkest corners of the heart, and then be upright. This apprehension of God's presence will quash and crush even the very first risings of hypocritical thoughts. What? God sees me, and shall I dare to dally with him? If but a man, or rather if but a child could look into my heart, I dared not deal doubly and deceitfully. How then may I dare to do so, when the God of heaven is present, and beholds me? Hypocrisy arises from the secret atheism of the heart, whereby he says, Tush, none sees. And in this regard Ananias and Sapphira, a pair of noble hypocrites, are said to tempt God in their hypocrisy, that is, to make trial of him, whether he were present everywhere or no, and so knowing all things were able to reveal their hypocrisy (Acts 5:9). And for the same cause did Peter tell them, that they lied not to men, but to the Holy Ghost, because they thought they were out of God's hearing, and only Peter, and they with him, heard them. Therefore the Church in the Psalms shows how they were kept in their sincerity, from dealing falsely in their covenant with God; because they remembered that God would search it, as being the searcher of the heart (Psalm 44). And Saint Paul notably joins these two together, We make not merchandise of the word of God, we play not the hucksters with it: but as of sincerity, as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ (2 Corinthians 2:17). It is impossible for a man to speak as in God's presence, and not to speak sincerely.

A second means is diligently to review all our works of obedience, as one God did his of creation, and to observe the peace and comfort of conscience which we find, when we do good things with good hearts, as on the contrary the trouble and disquiet of mind, when we do otherwise. And withal, when we take ourselves thus tardy, in a holy indignation to take revenge of ourselves, judging and condemning ourselves before the Lord. The very thinking of the after-reckonings we must come to, when we have done our work, will make us take heed how we do it. For who is there that uses for all his actions, at the day's end to call himself to a severe examination, as the hard master does his servants, that must not needs, in the very midst of his actions reason thus with himself? Anon all this which now I do, must very narrowly be looked over; if it be not done faithfully and sincerely, I shall smart for it then; O the wrings and secret pinches which my own guilty heart will give me; indeed the lashes which by my own covenant, I am tied to give myself, in case my work be found blurred with hypocrisy? It stands me in hand therefore to look to it, that though my work by reason of my weak skill, be but mean, yet it may be clean; though it be not fine, yet it may not be foul, being soiled and slathered with the smear of a rotten heart.

A third means is true humiliation of spirit. For where this is, there must needs be the denial of ourselves. And where there is true denial of ourselves, there is no hypocrisy; which testifies a man even in seeking God to seek himself, and in preaching Christ to preach himself. And therefore the Apostle opposing his own sincere, to others' deceitful preaching, says, We preach not ourselves, but the Lord Jesus. This is the ground of all unsoundness in religion, this want of humbling and denying ourselves. For hence it comes to pass, that we are so carried and swayed, even in our best actions, with the respects of our own praise and profit. Therefore Saint Luke notes that the wise builder, that is the sincere Christian, digs deep, namely in a deep humiliation of his own soul (Luke 6:48), whereas the foolish builder, that is the hypocrite, builds without a foundation, that is, enters upon the profession of religion without ever being truly humbled, and cast down for his sins. And hence the building comes to be unsound, because unfounded. That the heart then may stand upright before God, it must first as it were make itself crooked in stooping and bowing itself under his mighty hand in the exercises of humiliation. That the heart may be whole, it must first be rent and broken. Corrupt and impure gold cannot be defecated and rid of the dross, till it be molten and dissolved. Unsound bodies full of vicious humors cannot come to any good estate, till they be well emptied by purgation. Crooked things cannot be made straight without the wringing of the hand. Humiliation is that which melts us, purges us, wrings us, and so makes us of drossy pure, of foggy sound, of crooked straight Christians. Do you then desire to be a sincere Christian indeed, a true disciple of Jesus Christ, to be freed of all unsound mixtures? You must first be broken and battered in pieces, by the humbling hand of God; you must remember your Master's rule, If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself.

Lastly, sincerity being opposed to mixture, as the notation of the word teaches, that which cleanses our hearts from the defilement of such mixtures, must needs make us sincere. Now it is faith which purges and purifies the heart. Faith then apprehending the sincerity of God's love in Christ's death to us, and beholding there how Christ gave his heart to be pierced for us, cannot but make us return the like sincerity of heart and affection to God. Your loving kindness, says David, is ever before me — namely by the apprehension of my faith — therefore have I walked in your truth. So Paul shows that it was this love of Christ towards him, which by his faith he apprehended and applied to himself, that made him deal so sincerely, and seek only God's glory, even then, when to the world, he might seem to be mad of pride and vainglory in preferring himself before the false Apostles. Whether we be mad, says he, we are mad to God. That is, when I thus commend myself, and boast of my own ministry against others, and in so doing seem mad to you, yet then I respect not myself in so doing, but only God and his glory; or whether we are in our right mind, that is, use such courses as to you seem wiser, we are it to you. We do it faithfully for your good. Now mark what it was which made him to do so. For the love of Christ constrains us, because we thus judge, that if one be dead for all, then were all dead. And he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves, but to him that died for them.