may interpret his mind out of his word to us ; which word answers the heart of God, as face answers face in the glass. There is nothing desirable in a true friend as to this openness of heart, but God performs in a transcendent manner to his people, If any danger hangs over their heads, he cannot conceal it : 'By them,' saith David, * is thy servant warned,' sjieaking of the word of God ; one messenger or other God will send to give his saints the alarm, whether their danger be from sin within or enemies without. Hezekiah was in danger of inward pride ; God sends a temptation ' to let him know what was in his heart,' that he might, by falling once, be kept from falling again. Satan had a project against Peter; Christ gives him notice of it, Luke xxii. If any of his children by sin deceive him, he doth not, as false friends use, dissemble the dis- pleasure he conceives, and carry it fair outwardly with them, while he keeps a secret grudge against them inwardly ; no, he tells them roundly of it, and cor- rects them soimdly for it, but entertains no ill-will against them ; and when he leads his people into an afflicted state, he loves them so, that he cannot leave them altogether in the dark concerning the thoughts of love he hath to them in delivering them ; but to comfort them in the prison, doth open his heart before- hand to them, as we see in the greatest calamities that have befallen the Jewish church in Egypt and Babylon, as also the gospel church under Anti- christ. The promises for the deliverance out of all these were expressed before the sufferings came. When Christ was on earth, how free and open was he to his disciples, both in telling them what calamities should befall them, and the blessed issue of them all when he should come again to them ; and why, but to confirm them in the persuasion of the sincerity of his heart towards them, as those words import, John xiv. : ' If it were not so, I would have told yo\i ;' as if he had said, it woidd not have consisted with the sincere love I bear to you, to hide anything, that is fit for you to know, from you, or make them other- wise than they are ; and when he doth conceal any truths from them for the present, see his candour and sincei-ity, opening the reason of his veiling them to be, not that he grudged them the commimication of them, but because they could not at present bear them. Now, Christian, improve all this to make thee more plain-hearted with God. Is he so free and open to thee, and wilt thou be so reserved to him ? Doth thy God unbosom his mind to thee, and wilt not thou pour out all thy soul to him ? Darest thou not trust him with thy secrets, that makes thee privy to his counsels of love and mercy ? In a word, darest thou for shame go about to harbour and hide from him any traitorous lust in thy soul, whose love will not suffer him to conceal any danger from thee ? God, who is so exact and true to the law of friendship with his people, expects the like ingenuity from them.
Thirdly, The sincerity of God's heart and affection to his people appears in the unmovableness of his love. As there is no shadow of turning in the being of God, so not in the love of God to his people ; there is no vertical point ; his love stands still ; like the sun in Gibeon, it goes not down nor declines, but continues in its full strength, Isa. liv. 7 : ' With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.' Sorry man repents of his love ; the hottest affection cools in his bosom ; love in the creature is like fire on the hearth, now blazing, anon blinking, and going out ; but in God, like fire in the element, that never fails. In the creature, it is like water in a river, that falls and riseth ; but in God, like water in the sea, that is always full, and knows no ebbing or flowing. Nothing can take off his love where he hath placed it ; it can neither be corrupted nor conquered ; attempts are made both ways, but in vain.
First, his love cannot be corrupted. There have been such that have dared to tempt God, and court, yea bribe the Holy One of Israel to desert and come off from his people. Thus Balaam went to win God over to Balak's side against Israel ; which to obtain, he spared no cost, but built altar after altar, and heaped sacrifice upon sacrifice ; yea, what woidd they not have done to have gained but a word or two out of God's mouth against his people .' But he kept true to them; yea,' left a brand of his displeasure upon that nation for hiring Balaam, and sending him on such an errand to God, Deut. xxxiii. 4. This passage we find of God minding his people, to continue in them a per- suasion of his sincere, stedfast love to them, Micah vi. .O : ' O my people,
270 HAVING YOUR LOINS