to carry me ft-om this duty to that, whither thou pleasest : may be when tiie sincere soul is aljout a duty, he dotli it weakly, yet tliis very willingness of the heart is wonderful pleasing to God. How doth it affect and take the father when he bids his little child go and bring him such a thing, that may be as much as he can well lift, to see him not stand and shrug at the command as hard, but runs to it, and puts forth his whole strength about it, thoxigh at last may be he cannot do it ; yet the willingness of the child plcaseth him so, that his weakness rather stirs up the father to pity and help him, than to provoke him to chide him. Christ throws this covering over his disciples' infirmities, ' The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.' O ! it is obedience, that, like the dropping honey, comes without squeezing, though but little of it, tastes sweetly on God's palate ; and such is sincere obedience.
Secondly, Sincerity makes the soul very open and free to God : though the sincere soul hath manj' infirmities, yet it desires to cloak and hide none of this from God ; no, if it could, it woidd not ; and this is that which delights God exceedingly. To be sure, he will cover what such a soul uncovers, 1 John i. 12 : 'If we confess our sins, he is just and faithful to forgive.'
It was a high piece of ingenuity and clemency in Augustus, that having promised by a proclamation a great sum of money to any that should bring him the head of a famous pirate, did yet, when the pirate^ who had heard of this, brought it himself to him, and laid it at his foot, not only j^ardon him for his former offences against him, but reward him for his great confidence in his mercy. Truly thus doth God, though his wrath be revealed against all sin and unrighteousness, yet when the soul itself comes freely and humbles itself before liim, he cannot stretch forth his arm to strike that soul which gives such glory to his mercy ; and this the sincere heart doth. Indeed the hypocrite, when he has sinned, hides it, as Achan his wedge of gold ; he sits brooding on his lust, as Rachel on her father's idols. It is as hard getting a hen off her nest, as such a one to come off his lusts, and disclose them freely to God. If God himself find him not out, he will not bewray himself. I cannot set out the difterent disposition of the sincere and false heart in this matter better than by the like in a mercenary servant and a child ; when a servant, except it be one of a thousand, breaks a glass, or spoils any of his master's goods, all his care is to hide it from his master, and therefore ' throws the pieces of it away into some dark hole or other, where he thinks they shall never be found ; and now he is not troubled for the wrong he hath done his master, but glad that he hath handled the matter so as not to be discovered. Thus the hypocrite would count himself a happy man, could he but lay his sin out of God's sight ; it is not the treason he dislikes, but fears to be known that he is a traitor : and there- fore, though it be as unfeasible to blind the eye of the Almighty, as with our hand to cover the face of the sun, that it should not shine, yet the hypocrite will attempt it. AVe find a woe pronounced against such, Isa. xxix. 15 : ' Woe unto them that dig deep to hide their counsel from the Lord.' This is a sort of sinners whose care is not to make their peace when they have offended, but to hold their peace, and stand demui'ely before God, as Gehazi before his master, as if they had been nowhere but where they should be. These are the)'^ whom God will put to shame to purpose. The Jews were far gone in this hypocrisy when they justified themselves as a holy people, and put God so hard to it as to make him prove his charge, rather than confess what was too true and apparent ; which God upbraids them for, Jer. ii. 23 : ' How canst thou say, I am not pollute ? I have not gone after Balaam ? see thy way in the valley, and know what thou hast done.' Hast thou such a shameless forehead to justify thyself, and a hypocritical heart to draw afair cover over so foul practices ? Would you yet pass for saints, and be thought a people impolluted ? Now mark, it is not long, till this hypocritical people, that thus hid their sin, hath shame enough ; 'As the thief is ashamed wlien he is fomid,' sailh the j)rophet, ver. 20, 'so is the house of Israel ashamed ;' tliat is, as the thief, who at first is so insolent, as to deny the fact he is accused of, yet wlien upon search the stolen goods are found about him, and he brought to justice for it, then he is put to double shame for his theft, and impudence also in justifying himself; so is it with this people and with all hypocrites, though while in peace, and at ease, they be brag, an, bold, yea, seem to scorn to be thought what they indeed ai'e ; yet there is a
240 HAVING YOUR LOINS