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religioni vanish; and nothing relieves and fatisfies the fuffering foul but what it really believes, and what it hath fatisfying proof and experience of in himself. There are a great many pretty and pleafing notions which out minds are entertained with; fome delight in times of peace, which can do ns no fervice at all in the day of trouble! and for our speculative, unpracticable knowledge of the greatest truths in religion, as little fervice is to be expected from them; Except we have better evidence and security about them, we fhall be loth to venture all upon the crédit of them.

That is a very confiderable paffage to this purpofe in Heb. *.34. "Ye took joyfully the fpoiling of your goods, (krowing ❝ in yourselves) that ye have in heaven a better and more en.

during fubftance." This knowing in yourselves is by inward and fenfible experience, taste and feeling, which is abundantly fatisfying to the foul; and ftands oppofed to all that traditional knowledge we receive from others; which, as it leaves the mind fluctuating, fo the heart alfo dead and comfortless.

4. Fourthly, In that day the root and foundation of a man's faith and hope is tried, and then they that have built upon the fand must needs fail; for every thing is as its foundation; principles are to us what a root is to a tree, or a foundation to a houfe; a flaw or grand defect there most affuredly ruins all. This we find to be the very feope of thofe two famous parables, Luke xiv. 25. and Matth xiii. 21. Leffer troubles fhake but the branches, but these try the very root: if nothing be found there but felf-ends; the force of education, and the influence of examples, furely when the winds rife high, and beat upon it, they will quickly lay the loftieft profeffor even with the ground.

And thus you fee what a crifis an hour of temptation, the fuffering hour is, and what discoveries of hypocrify it must needs make; for now the hypocrite, like Orpha, will forfake religion; but fincerity will make the foul cleave to it, as Ruth did to Naomi.

SECT. IV.

3. W stablishment and perfeverance in fuffering times, I

HAT advantages fincerity gives the foul for its e

hall briefly account for in the following particulars.

1. First, Sincere godlinefs dethrones that idol, the love of this world, in all true Chriftians; and this is it that makes Men thrink and flinch from Chrift in a day of fuffering. I do not deny but even believers themselves love the world too

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much; but they love it not as their chief good: it is not their portion or happiness; if any man fo love the world, "the love of the Father is not in him," John ii. 15. How much foever a fincere Chriftian loves the world, yet ftill it is in fubordination to the love of God, John xxi. 15. Sincerity can confift with no other love of the world; it will not fuffer fuch a curfed plant to grow under its fhadow.

Now, what is it, but this inordinate, fupreme love of the creature, that makes men forsake Chrift in time of temptation? This was the ruin of that young man, Matth. xix. 22. “He "went away forrowful, for he had great poffeffions." This was the overthrow of Demas, 2 Tim. iv. 10. "He hath for❝ saken me (faith the apostle) having loved this present world." The love of this world, like fap in green wood, will not fuffer you to burn for Chrift; get but the heart mortified to the creafure by a discovery of better things in heaven, and it will efta. blish and fix your fpirits, that it fhall not be in the power of creatures to shake you off from Chrift your foundation.

2. Secondly, Sincerity knits the foul to Chrift, and union with him fecures us in the greatest trials; Munimur quatenus unimur. The hypocrite having no union with Christ, can have no communion with him, nor communications of grace from him; and fo that little ftock of his own being quickly fpent (I mean natural courage and resolution) and no incomes from Christ, he must needs give up in a fhort time. But it is with a believer in a day of trouble, as it is with a garrifon befieged by land, but free and open to the fea, whence fresh supplies are daily fent in to relieve it: See 2 Cor. i 5. "As the fuffer❝ings of Christ abound in us, so our confolation also abound. "eth by Chrift;" fresh aids and daily fupplies proportionable to our expences and decays of ftrength: So Col. i. 11. "Strengthned with all might in the inner-man, according to "his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with "joyfulness." And this is the believers great advantage by his union with Chrift in a day of trial.

3. Thirdly, As fincerity unites the foul with Chrift, fo it fets the heart upon heaven, and things eternal; Col. iii. 1. &c. Surely nothing is more conducive to our stability than this, in the hour of temptation.

This is the most effectual preservative from temptations upon the right hand, and upon the left. Mofes could caft a kingdom at his heels; defpife the riches, pleasures, and honours of Egypt, whilft his eye was fixed upon him that is invifible, and had respect to the recompence of reward, Heb. xi. 24, 25,

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26. And it was a brave reply of the forty martyrs to Valence the emperor, tempting them with the preferments and honours of the world, Why offer ye these trifles to us, wher you know ⚫ how the whole world is contemned by us?" And for temptations on the left hand, how little can they move that foul, who reafizes the glory of the approaching world, and fees the afflictions and fufferings of this world preparing him for, and haftening him to the enjoyment of it: temptations meet with but cold entertainment from fuch fouls.

4. Fourthly, Sincerity drives but one defign, and that is to please and enjoy God: and what can more establish and fix the foul in the hour of temptation than this? The reason why the hypocrite is unftable in all his ways, is given us by the apo Ale James, i. 8. He is a double-minded man, duos rap, a man of two fouls in one body; as a profane wretch once boafted, that he had one foul for God, and another for any thing. But all the defigns of a gracious heart are united in one; and fo the entire fiream of his affections runs ftrong.

II.

It is bafe by-ends and felf-interefts, that, like a great many ditches cut out of the bank of a river, draw away the ftream out of its proper channel, and make its waters fail. But if the heart be united for God, as the expreffion is, Pfal. lxxxvi. then, we may fay of fueh a Christian, as was said of a young Roman, Quicquid vult, valde vult; What he doth, is done with all his might. And this was the ground of that faying, Liberet me Deus ab homine unius tantum negotii: A man of one only defigu, puts to all his ftrength to carry it ; nothing can ftand before him.

5. Fifthly, Sincerity brings a man's will into fubjection to the will of God; and this being done, the greatest danger and difficulty is over with fuch a man. This is that holy oil which makes the wheels of the foul run nimbly, even in difficult paths of obedience; Non tardat uncta rota. Let but a man be

once brought to that, "The will of the Lord be done," as it is Acts xxi. 13. to fee the highest reason of chearful obedience in the holy, juft, and good will of God, and then all the difficulty is over; he can fuffer quietly what men inflict unjustly.

6. Sixthly, Sincerity takes its measures of prefent things by the rules of faith and eternity; it goes not by the fame reckoning and account that others do, who judge of things by sense, and the refpects they have to the prefent world, 2 Cor. iv. 18. "We look not at the things that are seen, but at the things "that are not feen ;" and this is there given as the reafon of his not fainting under prefent difficulties: So, Rom. viii. &

"I reckon that the fufferings of the present times are not wor"thy to be compared with the glory which thall be revealed "in us." He will not allow himfelf to undervalue eternal glory, by once mentioning prefent sufferings, in a way of bemoaning himself for them: A steady eye upon the other world makes us more than conquerors over the troubles of this world.

7. Seventhly, To conclude; fincerity alone hath all the heavenly aids and affiftances to stability, and perfeverance in fuffering times: upright ones (and fuch only) have Chrift's interceffion in heaven for them, Rom. viii. 34. The Spirit's confolation in all their troubles, Pet. iv. 14. The Spirit of glory and of God refteth on them: the beneficial ministry of angels, who are fent forth upon their account, Heb. i. 14. A flock of prayers, going for them all the world over, Eph. vi. 18. Multitudes of precious promifes in the Scriptures; for every line, word, and fyllable of which the faithfulness of God ftands engaged: fo that it is impoffible fuch gold can perish in the fire.

And thus of the feveral ways by which grace is here tried.

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Opening the designs and ends of God, in bringing of the profeffors of religion into fuch various trials of their graces in this world.

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SECT. I.

HESE are fome of the ways and methods in which God brings his gold to the touchftone, and to the fire, even in this world, before the awful and folemn trial they must come to in the final judgment: and if we defire to be fatisfied what the design and end of God in making such probations of his people is,

We must conclude, in the general, he certainly defigns his own glory, and his peoples advantage and profit in them. If he fuffer them to be tried by reproaches, happy are they, the Spirit of God and glory refteth on them; there is their profit; and though his name be evil spoken of, yet in the meeknefs of their fpirits he is glorified, as it is, 1 Pet. iv. 14. "If the scourge flay fuddenly, he laugheth at the trial of the innocent," Job ix. 23. Not at their afflictions, but at the effects and bleffed iffues and refults of them: Not that it gives them pain, but that it gives them glory. Upon this account the apoftle bids

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us count it all joy when we fall into diverse temptations or trials: and still the more trials the more joy; for thereby God will produce fuch effects as are more precious than gold that perifheth, 1 Pet. i. 7. O who can value the comfort that is tafted by the foul, upon the trial and discovery of its fincerity, when after some fore temptation wherein God hath helped us to maintain our integrity, or after fome close pinching affliction, wherein we have discovered in ourselves a fweet refignation to, and contentment in the will of God, an heart cleaving to the Lord, purged and made more spiritual under the rod! we can turn to the Lord, and appeal to him, as the prophet did, Jer. xii. 3. "But thou, O Lord, knoweft me; thou hast seen 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 interest, shall suffer any damage by them.

BUT

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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 discovered; the vizand is plucked off from the false 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 mischief and fad effects of it; many are stumbled, 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 perifb, yet,

First, Others are warned, awakened, and fet a fearching their own hearts more narrowly than ever, and this is good, I Cor. x. 11, 12. Now thefe were our examples; "wherefore "let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed left he fall.”

Secondly, Hereby fin is afhamed; and it is good when fin that hath expofed men to fo much fhame, fhall be itself expofed to fhame: This is the juft reward of fin, Jer. xiii. 25, 26.

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