Thirdly, The privileges of being upright ; for it is here propounded as a motive.
1. Your defects will not hinder your acceptance with God. In the covenant of grace, God doth not look after measure so much as truth. Though what we do will not endure the balance, yet it is accepted if it will endure the touchstone. Every piece of gold that is of the right stamp and metal may not be full weight : Heb. x. 22, ' Let us draw near, with a true heart, in full assurance of faith.' We may come to God with confidence, if we come with a true heart, a sincere heart ; though not with a sinless heart, yet without guile. If we study to
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approve our hearts to God, God will accept our little, our two mites. A small pearl is worth a great deal of rubbish. All the pompous service of wicked men, when they come with their flocks and herds, they are not accepted of God : Hosea v. 6, ' They shall go with their flocks and with then- herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find liim.' All their pompous and glorious services are not accepted. It is a wonder to consider how many infirmities God will oversee when the heart is right. God valueth us not by perfection, not by glorious shows, but what we have in truth. He that desireth in all things to look to God, though he be often put besides his purpose, God will pardon him : 2 Chron. xxx. 19, 20, 'The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary. And the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.' Asa had many weak- nesses and failings, yet it is said, 'His heart was perfect with the Lord all his days,' 1 Kings xv. 14. God passed by other things. We read of Jehoshaphat, that he had many and great failings, he made a league of amity with Ahab, and went with him to battle against Eamoth- Gilead, though he had heard what Micaiah the prophet spake against it, 2 Chron. xviii. ; and though reproved by the prophet, 2 Chron. xix., yet doth he make a special league with Ahaziah, Ahab's sou, a most wicked man, 2 Chron. xx. 9 ; and he bestowed Jehoram, his son, in marriage with Ahab's daughter, 2 Cln-on. xxi. 6 ; yet for all this God accepted him as a good man : 2 Kings xxii. 13, ' He turned not aside from doing that which was- right in the eyes of the Lord.' And why did God so esteem of him ? Because his heart was upright with God : 2 Cliron. xix. 3, ' Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek the Lord ; ' Jer. v. 3, ' 0 Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth ? ' God doth not regard gifts, and parts, and outward ser- viceableness in the church, but truth of heart. It is not a pompous prayer or setting forth our parts, but a sincere prayer that God regards : Prov. XV. 8, ' The prayer of the upright is his delight;' or in any other duty the upright are his delight. A cup of cold water given in single- ness of heart shall not be forgotten.
2. The more upright we are then, the more we do, and the more we shall have grace to do what God requireth : ' The way of the Lord is strength to the upright,' Prov. x. 29. Wherever truth and sincerity are, there is a growing to perfection : ' To him that hath shall be given.' The more we labour to please God in all things, the more shall we have grace to do so. A true christian is always on the mending-hand, and bettering and improving himself by God's blessing. Where God giveth a little in truth, though it be but a grain of mustard-seed, he shall cherish it till it come to be a tree. God addeth grace to grace ; but an hypocrite groweth worse and worse, till he be altogether uncased, and then turned into hell. Frothy gifts are blasted and withered. A man loscth every day when his flower and vigour are gone ; but the upright shall wax stronger and stronger, as a living tree gets more root, and sendeth forth more branches, the longer it standeth. All things that have life increase by age : one drachm of grace, how will it increase I
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3. This will be a comfort and support to you while you live in all ihe clianges and circum rotations of the world, that you are upright with God : 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that, in simplicity and godly sincerity, we have had our conversation in the world.' A man can never have any sound peace of conscience till the bent of his heart be sincerely set towards God. Others may have the toil of religion, but they have not the comfort of religion. Their hearts may reproach them for their partial dealing, and so all is lost they do. Men may applaud us for many things for which conscience will not acquit us, for they are not acquainted with our temper and the ordinary strain of our hearts ; but when we have rejoicing in ourselves that it hath been our course to live in all good conscience to God and men, then we are glad indeed. Others are but like those that are honoured abroad, but mated with a shrew and cursed wife at home. No note so sweet like that of the bird in the bosom. A good conscience cheering us with the sense of what we have sincerely done, and have no great sin to make a breach upon our comfort.