charge, and draws out the several indictments that they were guilty of. Now', to add the greater weight to every one, he, in the fore-front of all his speech, shows what a God he is that they have done all this against.
He makes way to the declaiming against their sins, by the proclaiming the glory of God against whom they were committed, Deut. xxxii. 3 : ' I will pub- lish the name of God ; ascribe ye greatness to our God.' And very observ- able it is, what of God's name he publisheth, the more to aggravate their sins, and help them to conceive of their heinous nature, ver. 4 : ' He is thy rock, his work is perfect; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.' He chooseth to instance in the truth and sincerity of God's heart to them in all his dispensations, as that which might make them most ashamed of their doings. Now, because this one consideration may be of such use to hedge in the heart, and keep it close to God in sincei'ity, I shall shew wherein the truth and sincerity of God's love appears to his saints, everyone of which will furnish us with a strong argument to be sincere and upi-ight with God.
First, The sincerity of God's heart appears in the principle he acts from, and ends he aims at in all his dispensations. Love is the principle he constantly acts from, and their good the end he propounds: from these he never swerves; the fire of love never goes out of his heart, nor their good out of his eye. When he frowns with his brow, chides with his lips, and strikes with his hand, even thexi his heart binnis with love, and his thoughts meditate peace to them. Famous is that place for this purpose, Jer. xxiv. 5 : ' I will acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good ; I will set mine eyes on them for good;' and this was one of the sharpest judgments God ever brought upon his people, and yet in this he is designing mercy, and projecting how to do them good. So in the wilderness, when they cried out upon Moses for bringing them thither to kill them, they were more afraid than hurt ; God wished them better than they dreamed of; his intent was ' to humble them, that he might do them good in the latter end.' So sincere is God to his people, that he gives his own glory in hostage to them for their security ; his own robes of glory are locked up in their prosperity and salvation; he will not, indeed he cannot, pre- sent himself in all his magnificence and royalty, till he hath made up his in- tended thoughts of mercy to his people; he is pleased to prorogue the time of his appearing in all his gloiy to the world, till he hath actually accomplished their deliverance, that he and they may come forth together in their glory on the same day, Psa. cii. 16: ' When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.' The sun is ever glorious in the most cloudy day, but appears not so till it hath scattered the clouds that mutile it up from the sight of the lower world : God is glorious when the world sees him not ; but his declarative glory then appears, when the glory of his mercy, truth, and faitliM- ness, break forth in his people's salvation. Now, what shame must this cover thy face with, O Christian, if thou shouldst not sincerely aim at thy God's glory, who loves thee, yea, all his children, so dearly, as to ship his own glory and your happiness in one bottom, that he cannot now lose the one, and save the other!
Secondly, The truth and sincerity of God to his people appears in the open- ness and plainness of his heart to them. A friend that is close and reserved, deservedly comes under a cloud in the thoughts of his friend ; but he who carries, at it were, a window of crystal in his breast, through which his friend may read what thoughts are writ in his very heart, delivers himself from the least suspicion of unfaithfulness. Truly, thus open-hearted is God to his saints: ' The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him,' Psalm xxv. 14. He gives us his key, that will let us into his very heart, and acquaint us what his thoughts are, yea, were, towards us, before a stone was laid in the world's foundation ; and this is no other than his Spirit, 1 Cor. iii. ' One who knows the deep things of God;' for he was at the council-table in heaven, where all was transacted. This, his Spirit, he employed to put forth and publish in the Scripture, indited by him, the substance of those counsels of love which had passed between the Trinity of Persons for our salvation ; and that nothing may be wanting for our satisfaction, ho hath appointed the same Holy Spirit to abide in his saints, that as Christ in lioaven presents om- desires to him, so he
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