Section I. — First, Therefore, if thou wouldest walk in the exercise of thy sincerity, walk in the view of God. That of Luther is most true, Omnia prcc- cepta sunt in prima tanquam capite ; all the commands are wrapt up in the first; for, saith he, all sin is a contempt of God ; and so we cannot break any other commands but we break the first. 'We think amiss of Ciod, before we do amiss against (Jod :' this God commended to Abraham ( Instar omnium) as of sovereign use to preserve his sincerity : ' Walk before me, and be thou upright,' Gen. xvii. 1. This kept Moses's girdle sti-aight, and close to his loins, that he was neither bribed with the treasures of Egypt, nor browbeaten out of his sincerity, with the anger of so great a king, Heb. xi. 27 : ' For he endured, as seeing him who was invisible.' He had a greater than Pharaoh in his eye, and this kept him right.
First, Walk, Christian, in the view of God's omniscience ; this is a girding consideration ; say to thy soul, Caoe, videt Dens ; take heed, God seeth : it is under the rose, as the conmion phrase is, that treason is spoken, when subjects think they are far enough from their king's hearing ; but did such know the
Erince to be under the window, or behind the hangings, their discourse would e more loyal. This made David so upright in his walking, Psal. cxix. 168 : ' I have kept thy precepts, for all my ways are before thee.' If Alexander's empty chair, which his captains when they met in counsel, set before them, did awe them so as to keep them in good order ; what would it, for to set God looking on us in our eye? The Jews covered Christ's face, and then buffeted him, Mark xiv. 65. So does the hypocrite ; he first says in his heart, God sees not, or at least he forgets that he sees, and then makes bold to sin against him ; like that foolish bird, which runs her head among the reeds, and thinks herself safe from the fowler, as if because she did not see him, therefore he could not see her. Te miln ahscondam, non me tibi, (Aug.) I may hide thee from my eye, but not myself from thine. Thou mayest, poor creature, hide God by thy ignorance and atheism, so that thou shalt not see him, but thou canst not so as he shall not see thee. ' All things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.' O remember thou hast to do with God in all thou dost, whether thou art in shop or closet, church or market; and he will have to do with thee, for he sees thee round, and can tell from whence thou comest ; when, like Gehazi before his mastei-, thou enterest into his presence, andstandest demurely before him in his worship, as if thou hadst been nowhere, then he can tell thee thy thoughts, and without any labour of pumping them out by thy confession, set them in order before thee ; yea, thy thoughts that are gone from thee (like Nebuchadnezzar's dream from him) and thou hast foi-got what they were at such a time, and in such a place, forty, fifty years ago. (iod hath them all in the light of his countenance, as atoms are in the beams of the sun ; and he can, yea, will give thee a sight of them, that they shall walk in thy con- science to thy horror, as .John Baptist's ghost did in Herod's.
Secondly, Walk in the view of his providence and care over thee. When God bids Abraham be upright, he strengthens his faith on him : ' I am God Almighty, walk before me, and be perfect ;' as if he had said. Act thou for me, and I will take care for thee. When once we begin to call his care in question towards us, then will our sincerity falter in our walking before him ; hypocrisy lies hid in distrust and jealousy as in its cause ; if the soul dare not rely on God, it cannot be long true to God. Abraham was jealous of Abimeloch, there- fore he dissembled with him; thus do we with God; we doubt CJod's care, and then live by om- wit, and carve for ourselves : ' Up, make us gods,' say they, 'we know not what is become of Moses.' The imbelieving Jews, flat against the conunand of God, kee]) manna \mtil the morrow, Exod. xvi. 1!) ; and why? but because they had not faith to trust him for another meal : this is the old weapon the devil hath ever used to beat the Christian out of his sincerity with :
26Q HAVING YOUR LOINS