We see a snake or serpent, it doubles, and winds, and turns when it is alive, till it be killed, and then it is stretched forth at length. As one said, seeing a snake dead, and stretched out, so, saith he, it behoved you to have lived. So the devil, that great serpent, that ancient ' old serpent,' Eev. xii. 9, he gets into the snake, into the wily wit, and makes it wind and turn, and shift and shuffle in the world. But then some great cross comes, or death comes, and then a man is stretched out at length to the view of the world, and then he confesseth all, and perhaps that confession is sincere when it is wrung out by terror of conscience, then he confesseth that he hath deceived the world, and deceived himself, and laboured to deceive God also.
If we would have comfort in the hour of death, labour we to deal plainly and directly ; and of all other sins, as I said before, remember this is that which will iie the heaviest on us, as coming nearest the sin against the Holy Ghost. For what is the sin against the Holy Ghost ? When men rush against their knowledge in malice to the truth known. Where there is most knowledge, and most will, there is the greatest sin. Now in lying and dissembling, and double-dealing, a man comes near to the sin against the Holy Ghost ; for he knows that he doth ill, he plots the ill that he knows ; and when there is plotting, there is time to deliberate ; a man is not carried away by passion.
Consider, the time will come when you Avill be uncased, when you will be laid open and naked ; and then at that time, of all sins, this will he heavy on thee, thy dissembhng in the world. Therefore every one in his calling, take heed of the sins of his calling, among the rest, of this one of double-dealing.
2. And therefore that we may avoid it the better, labour for faith, to live by faith. What is the reason that men live by shifts, and by doubling in the world ? They have not faith to depend upon God, in good and plain downright courses. Men are ready to say. If I should not dissemble and double, and carry things after that manner, how should I live ? Why, where is thy faith ? The righteous man lives by his faith, and not by his shifts, not by his wits. God will provide for us. Are we not in covenant
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 239
with God ? Do we not profess to be God's children ? Do children use to shift ? No ; a child goes about to do his father's will and pleasure, and he knows that he will maintain him. It is against the nature of the child of God, as far as he knows himself to be a child of God, to use any indirect course, any windings and turnings in his calling. Let us depend upon God as a child depends on his father ; and of all others God will provide most for them that in simple honesty, in plain downright dealing, depend on him in doing good.
For God accounts it a prerogative to defend and maintain them that cast themselves on him. He will be their wisdom that can deny their own wisdom, and their own shifts by nature, and in conscience labour to deal directly. He will be wise for them and provide for them. It is his pre- rogative to do so, and not to suffer his chikben to be deserted. A little faith therefore would help all this, and would make us walk in simplicity. If we could make God our all-sufficiency once, then we should walk up- rightly before God and men.
For what makes men to double ?
This certainly makes men to double. They think they shall be undone if they be direct ; for if they deal directly, they shall lose their liberty, or their lives, or their opportunity of gaining, &c. Well ; come what will, deal thou directly, and know this for a rule, thou shalt have more good in God's favour, if thou be a Christian, than thou canst lose in the world, if upon grounds of conscience thou deal dh'ectly in what estate soever thou art.
If thou be a judge, if thou be a witness, deal directly, speak the truth. If thou be a divine, speak directly in God's cause, deal out the word of God as in God's presence, come what will, whatsoever thou losest in thy wealth, or liberty, &c., thou shalt gain in God. Is not all good in him ? What is all the good we have, is it not from him ? And the nearer you come to him, the more your happiness is increased ; the more you are stripped of earthly things, the more you have in God. Hath not he men's hearts in his hands ? When you think you shall endanger yourselves thus and thus by plain direct dealing without doubling, if you be called to the profession of the truth, &c. ; hath not he the hearts of men in his hands to make them favour you when he pleaseth ? In Prov. x. 9, ' He that walketh uprightly, walketh boldly.' He that walketh uprightly, not doubling in his courses, he walketh safely. God will procure his safety. God that hath ' the hearts of men in his hand as the rivers of water,' Prov. xxi. 1, he can turn them to favour such a man.