I may say in this case to you as the Lord spake to Jeremiah, chap, xii. 5. " If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied " thee, then how canst thou contend with horses ? and if in the " land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they have wearied thee, " then how wilt thou do in the swellins; of Jordan .?" This was spoken to encourage the prophet to constancy in his work : and as if the Lord had said, O Jeremy, do the strivings of the men of Ana- thoth, thine own town, dishearten thee ? Pluck up thy spirits, and faint not ; there are harder trials than these that thou must undergo at Jerusalem ; these are no more to what is coming, than the run- ning vfitti footmen is to the contending with horses, or the passing a small rivulet to the swelling-s of Jordan.
To allude to this ; if our graces and duties cannot bear these light- er trials ; if a little lift of prosperity, or lighter stroke of adversity dis- cover so much falseness, rottenness, pride, and selfishness in the heart; if we cannot resist the motions of corruptions, but yield ourselves to obey sin in the lusts of it ; if we can neither keep'our hearts with God in duties, nor mourn for our wanderings from him ; if a few scoffs from wicked tongues, or trials of persecution from the liands of men will cause us to faint in the way, and turn back from follow- ing the Lord, what shall we do when " He comes whose fan is in " his hand, and who will thoroughly purge his floor ;" Matth. iii.
»^S8 PARTICULAll INFER EXCES FROM THE TRIAL OF GRACE.
1 2. who will try every maivs work as b}^ fire, 1 Cor. iii. 1^. search the secrets of all hearts, Rom. ii. 16. zceigh ever?/ man tolas ounces and drachms ? Surely we can take little comfort in that which is so unable to bear the severe tials of that day, that it cannot stand be- fore the slighter trials of this day.
4. Fourthly^ True grace is willing to be tried, and nothing is more desirable to an upright soul, than to know his own condition : if therefore we shun the trial, and are loth to search ourselves, or be searched by the Lord, our condition is suspicious, and we can take little comfort in it. It was David's earnest desire, Psal. cxxxix. 23. that God would thoroughly search his heart and reins, and see if there were any way of wickedness in him. False grace is shy of God's eve, it cares not to be examined ; but this is the delight of sincere ones : " Every one that doth evil hateth the light, lest his " deeds should be reproved ; but he that doth truth, cometh to the " light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought " in God," John iii. 20, 21.
The reason is plain why hypocrisy cannot endure to come to the touchstone and test ; for hypocrites, having a secret consciousness of their own guilt and unsoundness, know, that by this means their vain confidence would quickly be confuted, and all their reputation for re- limon blasted. But oh ! if men dare not stand before the word, as it is now opened and applied by ministers, how will they stand when it shall be opened and applied in another manner by Jesus Christ.'*
O professor, if thy condition be good, thy heart right, thou wilt desire to know the very worst of thyself; and when thou hast made the deepest search, thou canst, thou wilt still fear thou hast not been severe enough, and in;ipartial enough to thyself; nothing will give thee more content than when thou feelest the word dividing thv soul and spirit, thy joints and marrrow ; nothing so much com- forts thee under, or after an affliction, as the discovery it hath made of my heart ; thou wilt seem to feel with what affection those words came from the prophet's lips, Jer. xii. 2. " But thou, O Lord, know- " est me, thou hast seen me, and tried my heart towards thee." O what a refreshing sweetness will stream through thy heart, and all the powers of thy soul, when thou canst make the like appeal to God with like sincerity ! And certainly, without such a disposition of spirit towards the trial of our graces, we can have little evidence of the truth of them.
Contaimng divers prctcticcd instruct'ive inferences from this doctrine ; with a serious exhortation to self trial and thorough examination.
Irifer. 1. i^RE there such variety of trials appointed to examine the sincerity of men's graces ; how great a vanity then is hypocrisy,
PARTICULAR INFEEEXCKS FllOM THE TKIAL OF GRACE. t)89
and to how little purpose do men endeavour to conceal and hide it ? We say, Murder will out ; and we may as confidently affirm, Hypo- crisy will out. When Rebecca had laid the plot to disguise her son Jacob, and by personating his brother, to get the blessing, Jacob thus objects against it, " My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall " seem to him as a deceiver ; and I shall bring a curse upon me, " and not a blessing," Gen. xxvii. 12. as if he should say, but what if my father detect the cheat, how then shall I look him in the face .'* How shall I escape a curse ? After the same manner every upright soul scares itself from the way of hypocrisy. If I dissemble, and pretend to be what I am not, my Father will find me out. Ah ! there is no darkness nor shadow of death that can conceal the hypo- crite, but out will come at last, let him use all the art he can to hide it. Oftentimes God discovers him by the trials he appoints in this ■world ; and men in that day shall " return and discern betwixt the *' righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God, and " him that serveth him not," Mai. iii. 18. But if he make an hard shift to get by a private way to hell, carrying this comfort with him to the last step, that no body knows or thinks he is gone thither ; yet there ^till be a day when God will strip him naked before the great assembly of angels and men, and all shall point at them, and say, Lo ! this is the man that made not God his hope.
This is he that wore a garment of profession to deceive, but God hath now stript him out of it, and all men see what he is : For, " There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that *' shall not be known," Matth. x. 26. And the apostle assures us, 1 Tim. V. 24, 25. " That they that are otiierwise, cannot be hid." If men^s works be not good, it is impossible they should be hid long : A gilded piece of brass may pas-s from hand to hand a little while, but the touchstone will discover the base metal : If that do not, the fire will.
O sinners ! away with your hypocrisy, be honest, sincere, plain, and hearty in religion : If not, confusion of face shall be your re- compence from the Lord ; that is what you shall get by it.