3. Thirdly^ In that day all mere notions and speculations about religion vanish ; and nothing relieves and satisfies the suffering soul but what it really believes, and what it hath satisfying proof and ex- perience of in himself There are a great many pretty and pleasing notions which our minds are entertained with ; some delight in times of peace, which can do us no service at all in the day of trouble ! and for your speculative, unpractical knowledge of the greatest truths in religion, as little service is to be expected from them : Except we have better evidence and security about them, we shall be loth to venture all upon the credit of them.
That is a very considerable passage to that purpose in Heb. x. 34. *' Yetook joyfully the spoiling of your goods, (knowing in yourselves) *' that ye have in heaven a better and more enduring substance."" This knoiving in yourselves is by inward and sensible experience, taste and feeling, v.hich is abundantly satisfying to the soul ; and stands opposed to all that traditional knowledge we receive from others ; which, as it leaves the mind fluctuating, so the heart also dead and comfortless.
4. Fourthly, In that day the root and foundation of a man's faith and hope is tried, and then they that have built upon the sand must needs fail ; for every thing is as its foundation ; principles are to us what a root is to a tree, or a foundation to a house ; a flaw or grand defect there most assuredly ruins all. This we find to be the very scope of those two famous parables, Luke xiv. 25. and Matth. xiii. 21. Lesser troubles shake but the branches, but these try the very root; if nothing be found there but self-ends ; the force of education, and the influence of examples, surely when the winds rise high, and beat upon it, they will quickly lay the loftiest professor even with the ground.
And thus you see what a crisis an hour of temptation, the sufl^ering hour is, and what discoveries of hypocrisy it must needs make; for
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now the hypocrite, Uke Orpah, will forsake religion ; but sincerity will make the soul cleave to it, as Ruth did to Naomi.
3. Vv HAT advantages sincerity gives the soul for its establish- ment and perseverance in suffering times, I shall briefly account for in the following particulars.
1. Firsts Sincere godliness dethrones that idol, the love of this w^orld, in all true Christians ; and this is it that makes men shrink and flinch from Christ in a day of suffering. I do not deny but even believers themselves love the world too much ; but they love it not as their chief good : it is not their portion or happiness ; if any man so love the world, " the love of the Father is not in him,'' 1 John ii. 15. How much soever a sincere Christian loves the world, yet still it is in subordination to the love of God, John xxi. 15. Sincerity can consist v/ith no other love of the world ; it will not suffer such a cursed plant to grow under its shadow.
Now, what is it, but this inordinate, supreme love of the creature, that makes men forsake Christ in time of temptation ? This was the ruin of that young man. Mat. xix. 22. " He went away sorrowful, " for he had great possessions." This was the overthrow of Demas, 2 Tim. iv. 10. "He hath forsaken me, (saith the apostle) having " loved this present world." The love of this world, like sap in green v\'ood, will not suffer you to burn for Christ ; get but the heart mor- tified to the creature by a discovery of better things in heaven, and it will establish and fix your spirits, that it shall not be in the power of creatures to shake you off* from Christ your foundation.
2. Secondlij^ Sincerity knits the soul to Christ, and union with him secures us in the greatest trials ; jlimmur quatenus unimur. The hypocrite having no union with Christ, can have no communion with him, nor communications of grace from him ; and so that little stock of his own being quickly spent (I mean natural courage and resolu- tion) and no incomes from Christ, he must needs give up in a short time. But it is with a believer in a day of trouble, as it is with a garrison besieged by land, but free and open to the sea, whence fresh supplies are daily sent in to relieve it : See 2 Cor. i. 5. " As the " sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abound- " eth by Christ; fresh aids and daily supplies proportionable to our expences and decays of strength : So Col. i. 11. " Strengthened with " all might in the inner-man, according to his glorious power, unto '• all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness." And this is the believer's great advantage by his union with Christ in a day of trial.
3. Thirdly^ As sincerity unites the soul with Christ, so it sets the heart upon heaven, and things eternal; Col. iii. 1, S^-c. Surely nothing is more conducive to our stability than this, in the hour of temptation.
This is the most effectual preservative from temptations upon the right hand, and upon the left. Moses couid cast a kingdom at his
578 THE ADVANTAGES OF SINCERITY.
heels, despise the riches, pleasures, and honours of Egypt, whilst his eye was fixed upon him that is invisible, and had respect to the re- compence of reward, Heb. xi. 24, 25, 26. And it was a brave reply of the forty martyrs to Valence the emperor, tempting them with the preferments and honours of the world, ' Why offer ye these * trifles to us, when you know how the whole world is contemned ' by us ?' And for temptations on the left hand, how little can they move that soul, who realizes the glory of the approaching world, and sees the afflictions and sufferings of this world preparing him for, and hastening him to the enjoyment of it : temptations meet with but cold entertainment from such souls.
4. FourthI?/, Sincerity drives but one design, and that is to please and enjoy God : and what can more establish and fix the soul in the hour of temptation than this ? The reason why the hypocrite is unstable in all his ways, is given us by the apostle James, i. 8. He is a double-minded man, o/y jy^o; ayr,i, a man of two souls in one body ; as a profane wretch once boasted, that he had one soul for God, and another for any thing. But all the designs of a gracious heart are united in one ; and so the entire stream of his affections runs strong.
It is base by-ends and self-interests, that, like a great many ditches cut out of the bank of a river, draw away the stream out of its proper channel, and make its waters fail. But if the heart be united for God, as the expression is, Psalm Ixxxvi. 11. then we may say of such a Christian as was said of a young Roman, Quicquid vult, valde vult ; What he doth is done with all his might. And this was the ground of that saying, Liberet me Deus ah hom'me 7inius tantiim negotii : A man of one only design, puts to all his strength to carry it ; nothing can stand before him.