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*This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, faith the "Lord; because thou haft forgotten me, and trufted in falfehood, therefore will I difcover thy fkirts upon thy face, that thy fhame may appear."

The turning up the skirt is a modeft expreffion of expofing a perfon to the greateft fhame in the day of trial: God, by dif covering hypocrify, thames the hypocrite; and, furely, many fuch difcoveries 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-cożening hypocrite hath the greateft 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 arrows 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 thefe 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 ftill 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 thefe, 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 fometimes to the world, to enamour them, and to the foul in whom it is, to fatisfy it that it doth not perfonate a Chriftian, but VOL. VII.

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I.

lives the very life of a Chriftian, and hath the very spirit and principles of a Christian in him.

3. Thirdly, By thefe trials, pride and self-confidence is deftroyed 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 defart, to prove them, and to humble "them." When we are proved, then we are humbled. Those 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 foever they be in grace!

4. Fourthly, By trials grace is kept in exercife, and the gra cious foul preferved from fecurity and fpiritual flothfulness. Trials are to grace what the eftuations 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 fhould quickly fettle upon the lees, and our duties would be (as God complains of Ephraim) like foure or dead drink, Hofea iv. 18. flat and spiritlefs. "Moab hath been at ease " from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not "been emptied from veffel to veffel; neither hath he gone "into captivity; therefore his taste remained in him, and his "fcent is not changed," Jer. xlviii. 11.

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 fhould be fo? No, no, the Lord knows it is not; but how shall their fpirits 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 should suffer 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 feriousness of their spirits is wanting in them? I will therefore "refine them as filver is " refined, and try them as gold is tried, and they shall 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 these sweet 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 loose 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 ease, and is loth to be disturbed, yet it is neceffary to the prefervation of our spirits.

5. Fifthly, By the trial of our graces Satan is defeated, and his accufation 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 fuggefts 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 serve thee whilft thou hast been fo bountiful a master to him; he hath been well rewarded for all the service he hath done thee; but if thou ftop the current of his profperity, thou fhalt fee how quickly he will ftop the courie of his duty: A few lashes from thy hand will make him curfe thee to thy face. But O what fhame and disappointment was

it to that envious fpirit? What a vindication of Job's integrity, when under the greatest trials of his faith and patience, he still held faft his integrity, and fhews himself as great a pattern of patience under the cross, as he had been of piety in the days of his greatest profperity! Satan gets nothing by bringing forth the faints upon the ftage, to be made a fpectacle 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 atheifm of the world. Thefe prove beyond all words or arguments that religion is no fancy, but the greatest 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 potion.

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 fubject with which the wanton wits of this atheistical world fport themselves. But behold the wifdom 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 affictions 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, meekness, and self-denial, fhining as gold in the fire; they have the real proofs of it before their eyes: inftead of cafting 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 eafier 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!

CHA P. X.

Shewing that that grace only is to be reckoned fincere and real which can endure those trials which God appoints, or permits, for the difcovery of it.

SECT. I.

EFORE I offer you the proofs and evidences of this

will necetlary to

may be occafioned by misunderstanding of it.

Caution 1. And, in the first 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 ftate 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 thall prove in future trials, though God hath kept us upright in former trials: No, no, this is none of my meaning; nor doth such a conclufion neceffarily follow this affertion: For a Chriftian that hath rightly clofed with Christ at firft, 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 fhall 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. 1o. “But he "knoweth the way that I takes 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 fhould not lofe one grain of 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 faithfulnefs of God, which are engaged for him in the covenant of grace, to keep him in the greatest dangers that befal him in this world.

He believes the power of God is able to make him stand, though he hath no power nor might in himself to overcome the least temptation, 1 Pet. i. 5." You are kept, Open (kept ff as a garrifon) by the power of God through faith unto fal

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