an act of self-denial, wherein, if thou wilt answer God's call, thou must trample upon some dear enjoyment or other, as credit, estate, may be a sweet child, a dear wife, yea may be thou canst not do the work God calls thee to, but with hazard to them all, these and more too. Well, friend, be not sick to think of thy great straight, or disquieted at the sight of this providence that now stands at thy door; didst thou know what errand it comes about, thou wouldest invite it in, and make it as welcome as Abraham did the three angels, whom he feasted in his tent so freely. I will tell thee what God sends it for; and that is, to bring thee to a sight of thy sincerity, aud acquaint thee with that grace of God in thee, whose face thou hast so long desired to see. This providence brings thee a chariot (to allude to Joseph's waggons sent for old Jacob) wherein thou mayest be carried to see that grace alive, whose funeral thou hast so long kept in thy mournful soul; and does not thy spirit revive at the thought of any means whereby thou mayest obtain this? Abraham was called to offer up his son, and went about it in earnest; such a piece of self-denial God could not let pass without some mark of honour, and what is it he gives him, but his testimony to his uprightness? “Lay not thy hand upon the lad, for now I know thou fearest me, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thy only son, from me." Gen. xx. 12. Why? God knew this before; yes: but he speaks it that Abraham may hear, and take it from God's mouth that he was sincere. May be thou art called to deny thy own education aud principles sucked in by it, thy own company, cross the judgment of those thou highly esteemest, yea thy own wisdom and reason, to entertain a truth or take up a practice merely upon the account of the Word; which if thou canst do, and that without affectation of singularity, or an humour of pride, blowing thee that way, is an act of deep self-denial, and goes most cross to the most ingenuous natures, who are afraid of drawing eyes after them, by leaving their company to walk in a path alone, yea very loth to oppose their judgments to others, more for number and parts than their own; in a word, who love peace so dearly, that they can be willing to pay any thing but a

sin to purchase it; in these it must needs be great selfdenial, and therefore such have the greater ground to expect God's evidencing their sincerity to them. He did it to Nathaniel, who had all these bars to keep him from coming to Christ, and believing on him; yet he did both, and Christ welcomes him with a high and loud testimony to his uprightness: "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile." John i. 47. May be again, the thing God would have thee deny thyself in is thy wrath and revenge, which to give thee a fair occasion to do with the greater demonstration of thy sincerity, he puts thy enemy into thy power, and lays him bound, as it were, under thy hand; yea so orders it in his providence, that thou mayest have thy will on him with little noise, or if it be known, yet the notorious wrongs he hath done thee, and some circumstances in the providence that hath brought him into thy hand, concur to give thee an advantage of putting so handsome a colour upon the business, as shall apologise for thee in the thoughts of those that hear of it, making them especially who look not narrowly into the matter, rather observe the justice of God on thy enemy's judgment befallen him, than thy injustice and sin, who wert the instrument to execute it. Now, when the way lies smooth and fair for thee to walk in and thy own corruption calls thee forth, yea useth God's name in the matter, to make thee more confident, saying to thee, as they to David: "Behold the day is come wherein God hath delivered thy enemy into thy hand, that thou mayest do to him as seemeth good in thine eyes." 1 Sam. xxiv. now, if thou canst withstand the temptation, and instead of avenging thyself upon the person, thy enemy, revenge thyself on thy revenge (thy greater enemy of the two), by paying good into thy adversary's bosom for the evil he hath done thee; and when thou hast done this, canst escape another enemy in thy return (I mean pride), so as to come out of the field an humble conqueror, and consecrate the memorial of this victory, not to thy own but praise of God's name, (as Goliah's sword, which was not kept by David at his own home to shew what he had done, but in the tabernacle, behind the ephod, as a memorial of what God had done by it in

David's hand. 1 Sam. xxi. 2. thou hast done that which speaks thee sincere, yea high graduate in this grace; and God will sooner or later let thee know so. David's fame sounds not louder for his victories got in the open field, over his slain enemies, than it doth for that he got in the cave, though an obscure hole, over his own revenge, in sparing the life of Saul (in which you have the case in hand every way fitted). By the renown of his bloody battles he got "a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth," 2 Sam. vii. 9. but by this noble act of his self-denial, he got a name, great like unto the name of those that are famed for their holiness in the Scripture; and rather than David shall not have the commendation of this piece of self-denial, God will send it to him in the mouth of his very enemy, who cannot hold, though by it he proclaims his own shame and wickedness, but he must justify him as a holy righteous man: "And he (that is Saul) saith unto David, thou art more righteous than I; for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil." 1 Sam. xxiv. 17.

3. Continue thou to wait upon God in all the ways of his ordinances, every one in their season; whenever thou comest to get the comfortable sight of thy sincerity, it is the Spirit of God that must befriend thee in it, or else, like Hagar, thou mayest sit by the well and not find it; thou mayest go round thy field again and again, but find not the treasure hid in it. It is the Spirit of God by which "we know the things that are freely given us of God," 1 Cor. ii. 12. Now the Spirit sits in the ordinances, as a minister of state in his office, whither we must resort if we will have the truth of our graces, that are our evidences for Heaven, sealed to our consciences; thither go therefore, yea there wait, for thou knowest not, as the wise man saith of sowing seed, Eccles. xi. 6. whether thy waiting on this or that, now or then, shall prosper and be successful to thee for this end. It is enough to confirm, yea quiet and comfort thee in thy attendance, that thou art at the right door, and though thou knockest long and hearest no news of his coming, yet thou canst not stay so long, like Eglon's servants, Judg. iii. 25. that thou needest be ashamed. They indeed waited on a

dead man, and might have stood long enough before he had heard them, but thou on a living God, that hears every knock thou givest at Heaven-gate with thy prayers and tears, yea a loving God, that all this while he acts the part of a stranger, like Joseph to his brethren, yet is so big with mercy, that he will at last fall on thy neck and ease his heart, by owning of thee and his grace in thee. Lift up thy head then, poor drooping soul, and go with expectation of the thing; but remember thou settest not God the time: the sun riseth at his own hour, whatever time we set it. And when God shall meet thee in an ordinance, as sometimes no doubt, Christian, thou findest a heavenly light irradiating and influence quickening thy soul while hearing the Word, or may be on thy knees wrestling with God, this is a sweet advantage and season thou shouldest improve for the satisfying thy soul: as when the sun breaks out, then we run to the dial to know how the day goes, or when, as we are sitting in the dark, one brings a candle into the room, then we bestir ourselves to look for the thing we miss, and soon find what we in vain groped for in the dark; so mayest thou poor soul, as many of thy dear brethren and sisters before thee have done, know more of thy spiritual state in a few moments at such a time, than in many a day when God withdraws. Carefully therefore watch for such seasons and improve them; but if God will hide thy treasure from thy sight, comfort thyself with this, God knows thy uprightness though wrapped up from thine own eye: say as David, "when my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path." Psulm cxlii. 2. And God will do with thee, not by the false accusations thou bringest in against thyself, as it is to be feared some have suffered at men's hands, but by the testimony which his all-seeing eye can give to thy grace.

CHAP. XVI.

WHEREIN THE SECOND REASON OF THE METAPHOR IS OPENED; WHY SINCERITY IS SET OUT BY THE SOLDIER'S BELT, VIZ. FROM THE ESTABLISHING AND STRENGTHENING NATURE OF THIS GRACE; PARTICULARLY, OF A PRESERVING STRENGTH IT HATH; WITH SOME SPECIAL SEASONS WHEREIN THE HYPOCRITE FALLS OFF.

HAVING dispatched the first reason, why sincerity is compared to the soldier's girdle or belt, and discoursed of this grace under that notion; we proceed to the second ground or reason of the metaphor, taken from the other use of the soldier's girdle, which is to strengthen his loins, and fasten his armour (over which it goes) close to him, whereby he is more able to march, and strong to fight. Girding in Scripture-phrase imports strength, Psal. xviii. 39. "thou hast girded me with strength unto battle." Job xii. 21. "hẹ weakeneth the strength of the mighty;" in the Hebrew it is, he looseth their girdle; to which use of the girdle sincerity doth bear a fit analogy. It is a grace that establisheth and strengthens the Christian in his whole course; as on the contrary, hypocrisy weakens and unsettles the heart: " a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.". As it is in bodies, so in souls. Earthly bodies, because mixed, are corruptible; whereas the heavenly bodies, being simple and unmixed, they are not subject to corruption; so much a soul hath of Heaven's purity and incorruptibleness as it hath of sincerity. "Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity," with incorruption, Ephes. vi. 24. The strength of every grace lies in the sincerity of it; so that without any more ado, the point which offers itself to our consideration from this second notion of the girdle, is this,

Note. That sincerity doth not only cover all our other