4. The fourth word of advice and counsel is this. Labour to he Tnore inwardly sincere than outwardly glorious. ' The king's daughter is all glorious within,' Ps. xlv. 13. Oh labour rather to be good than to be thought to be good, to live than to have a name to live, Kev. iii. 1, 15-17- Whatever you let go, be sure you hold fast your integrity. A man were better to let friends go, relations go, estate go, liberty go, and all go, than let his integrity go. ' God forbid that I should justify you ; till I die I will not remove my integrity from me ; my righteous- ness I will hold fast, and I will not let it go : my heart shall not re- proach me so long as I live,' Job xxvii. 5, 6. Job is highly and fully resolved to keep his integrity close against all assaults of enemies or suspicions of friends. Job's integrity was the best jewel he had in all the world, and this jewel he was resolved to keep to his dying day. It was neither good men, nor bad men, nor devils that should baffle Job out of his integrity ; and though they all pulled, and pulled hard, at his integrity, yet he would not let it go, he would hold fast this pearl of price whatever it cost him. The sincere Christian, like John Bap- tist, will hold his integrity though he lose his head for it, Mark vi. The very heathens loved a candid and sincere spirit, as he that wished that there was a glass in his breast, that all the world might see what was in his heart. Integrity will be a sword to defend you, a staff to support you, a star to guide you, and a cordial to cheer you ; and there- fore, above all gettings get sincerity, and above all keepings keep sin- cerity, as your crown, your comfort, your life. But,
1 Cicero had rather have no companion than a bad one.
* Clarke, as before, p. 187.— G. =* As before. — G.
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5. The fifth word of comfort and counsel is this, Be true to the light of your consciences, and maintain and keep up a constant tenderness in your consciences. A tender conscience is a mercy more worth than a world. Conscience is God's spy in om' bosoms : keep this clear and tender, and then all is well, Acts xxiv. 16 ; 2 Cor. i. 12. Act nothing against the dictates of conscience, rebel not against the light of con- science. You were better that all the world should upbraid you and reproach you, than that your consciences should upbraid you and re- proach you. Job xxvii. 5, 6. Beware of stifling conscience, and of suppressing the warnings of conscience, lest a warning conscience prove a gnawing conscience, a tormenting conscience. The blind man in the Gospel, Mark viii., newly recovering his sight, imagined trees to be men: and the Burgundians, as Comines reports, expecting a battle, supposed long thistles to be lances. Thus men under guilt are apt to conceit every thistle a tree, and every tree a man, and every man a devU. Take heed of tongue-tied consciences ; for when God shall untie these strings, and unmuzzle your consciences, conscience will then be heard, and ten concerts of music shall not drown her clamorous cries. Hearken to the voice of conscience, obey the voice of conscience, and when conscience shall whisper you in the ear, and tell you there is this and that amiss in the house, in the habit, in the heart, in the life, in the closet ; don't say to conscience, Conscience be quiet, be still, make no noise now, I will hear thee in a more con- venient season. Acts xxiv. 24, 25. The heathen orator could say, A recta conscientia ne latum quidem unguem discedendum, A man may not depart a hair's-breadth all his life long from the dictates of a good conscience.! Will not this heathen one day rise in judgment against those who daily crucify the light of their own consciences ? But,
6. The sixth word of advice and counsel is this, 3Iake it the great business of your lives to make sure such things as will go with you be- yond the grave} Eiches and honours and offices, and all worldly grandeur, won't go with us beyond the grave. Saladin, a Turkish em- peror— he was the first of that nation that conquered Jerusalem — lying at the point of death, after many glorious victories, commanded that a white sheet should be borne before him to his grave, upon the point of a spear, with this proclamation : ' These are the rich spoils which Saladin carrieth away with him, of all his triumphs and vic- tories, of all his riches and realms that he had ; now nothing at all is left for him to carry with him but this sheet.' It is with us in this world as it was in the Jewish fields and vineyards, pluck and eat they might what they would while they were there, but they might not pocket nor put up aught to carry with them, Deut. xxiii. 24, 25. Death, as a porter, stands at the gate, and strips men of all their worldly wealth and glory. Atheneeus speaks of one that, at the hour of death^ devoured many pieces of gold, and sewed the rest in his coat, com- manding that they should be buried with him. Hermocrates, being loath that any man should enjoy his goods after him, made himself by will heir of his own goods. These muck-worms would fain live
* See my Treatise on Assurance, and there you will find how you may secure something that will go with you beyond the grave.— [Vol. ii., p. 301, se^. — G.]
282 THE EPISTLE DEDICATOKY.