For the opening of the point, I shall premise these three things : —
First, I shall premise something concerning upright hearts.
Secondly, I shall premise something concerning the ways of God. And,
Thirdly, The reasons why upright hearts will hold on in the ways of God, in the ways of well-doing, notwithstanding all the afflictions, troubles, and discouragements they meet withal.
Concerning upright hearts, I shall only premise these four things : —
1. First, An upright heart hates all sins, even those ivhich he cannot conquer ; and he loves all divine truths, even those ivhich he cannot joractise. An upright heart, he hates all sin. All sin strikes at God, at his holiness, as well as at an ujjright man's happiness. It strikes at God's glory, as well as at the soul's comfoi't ; therefore the soul strikes at all. All sins, in the eye of an upright heart, are traitors to the crown and dignity of the Lord Jesus ; therefore the soul riseth in arms against all. An upright heart, he looks upon sin to be malum catJiolicnm — A catholic evil. An upright heart, he looks upon sin as that which hath thrown down the most righteous man in the world, as Noah ; as that which hath thrown down the best believer in the world, as Abraliam ; as that which hath thrown down the best king in the world, as David ; as that which hath thrown down the best apostle in the workl, as Paul. It looks upon sin as that which hath thrown down the strongest, as Samson ; and the wisest, as Solomon ; and the meekest, as Moses ; and the paticntest, as Job ; and so his soul riseth against it. In Ps. cxix. 104, ' Tlirough thy precepts I get understanding : therefore I hate every false way.' ' Therefore I hate every false way: ' sanethi, from sane. The original word, ^y<D, signifies to hate with a deadly and irreconcilable hatred ; to hate so as that nothing will satisfy but the destruction of the thing hated. It is the same Hebrew word that is used to express Absalom's hatred of Amnon for defiling of his sister Thamar, ' ]\Iy soul hates him.'
Ps. XLIV. 18.] PROGRESS OF THE UPRIGHT. 341
An unsound heart, a rotten heart, strikes at some sins, and yet falls in with others ; he cries down pride and ignorance, and yet falls in with oppression and cruelty; he cries down tyranny and injustice in others, and yet plays the tyrant and unjust one himself. There are men who are blinded by Satan, and he hath them by the hand, and the Lord knows whither he will lead them.
And as an upright heart hates all sins, even those he cannot conquer, so an upright soul loves all truths, even those that he cannot practise. Every word of the Lord is just and righteous in the eye of an upright soul ; he loves all truth strongly, though he can practise no truth but very weakly. Every word of grace is glorious, every line of grace is very glorious. Truth is homogeneal ; where one truth is sweet, there every truth is sweet to an upiight soul. In Ps. cxix. 127, 128, paith David there, ' I have loved thy commandments above gold ; yea, above fine gold : I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right.' That is the first thing.
2. Secondly, Concerning upright hearts, I shall premise this : Upright hearts, they serve God, and seek God more for that internal luortli and that eternal good that is in him, than for any external good they receive from him. So it was with upright Job. The devil, in Job i., would fain charge Job that his heart was not right with God, that God had made a hedge about him, and therefore Job served him. The Lord therefore gives Satan liberty to break down that hedge, that Job's uprightness might appear, and that it might appear to all the world, that Job served God for that internal and eternal worth that was in him — viz., holiness, wisdom, and goodness. Therefore, when that hedge was down, and Job was stripped of all, yet in ver. 21, ' The Lord hath given,' saith he, ' and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord.' Oh, upright Job served God for that internal and eternal worth that is in him ; and therefore, though all his outward goods were lost, his soul could bless God.
But an unsound heart, a rotten heart, serves God and seeks good merely for some external good it hath from him, or expects to receive by him. That is a true saying, Fauci qucerunt Deum pro^^ter se, sed propter aliud, Eew men seek God for himself, but for some other thing. Like those in Hosea vii. 14, ' When they howled,' saith God, ' upon their beds, it was for corn, and wine, and oil, and they rebelled against me.' It was not for any internal or eternal worth in me, it was not for that holiness, wisdom, faithfulness, purity, and glory that is in me ; but they seek me for loaves, for corn, and wine, and oil, and they re- belled against me,
3. A third thing I shall premise is this, Upright hearts are most exercised and most busied and taken up about the inward man, about the inside, observing that, reforming that, examining that, icatching that. An upright heart knows that his soul is Christ's throne, his chamber of presence ; and therefore, above all, the upright heart is most diligent to observe that none sit upon that throne but Christ, and that none come into that chamber of presence but Christ, that no sceptre be advanced there but the sceptre of Christ ; he is most care- ful of the inside. In Ps. Ixxxvi. 11, ' Incline my heait to fear thy
342 god's delight in the [Ps. XLIV. 18.
name ; ' Ps. cxix. 36, * Let my heart be sound in thy statutes ; ' and so in ver. 80 and vcr. 112 of the same psalm.
Now an unsound heart, a rotten heart, is most taken up about the outside, — inform! nf^ that, and reforming that, and watching of that; but as for tlie inside, there is no eye cast to see how all stands there. The devil mny bear rule ; any may come into the soul and domineer and oppose the sceptre of Christ. So an unsound soul is taken up merely about the outside. That same exhortation of Solomon is strong upon an upright heart : Prov. iv. 23, ' Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.' The original hath it more elegantly, ' Before all, or above all keeping, keep thy heart ; for out of it is the goings forth of lives.' l This duty that Solomon press- eth, is a duty that an upright heart above all endeavours to practise. Above all and before all, he guards his soul ; he looks to his inward parts, how he thrives and grows, how he stands God-ward, Christ- ward, heaven-ward, and holiness-ward.