Now, if the heart be false, though a woman have many virtues, yet if she want the main, if she have a false heart to her husband, what is all the rest ? So the soul that is married to God, that hath sweet communion with God, if the heart and soul be naught, what are all the shows in the world ? They are nothing. Let us take it to heart, therefore, and labour to approve our hearts and souls to God in all that we do, more than our lives and outward conversations to the world. Let them think what they will, so God approve of our hearts, and intentions, and purposes ; we are not to ' pass what the world judgeth,' as St Paul saith of himself, 1 Cor. iv. 3.
3. Again, this should encourage us to labour for sincerity and truth, be- cause wheresoever that is, there is a (jvoiviiuf to perfection. ' To him that hath shall be given,' Mat. xiii. 12. ' If we order our conversation aright,' as the psalmist saith, Ps. 1. 23, and labour to please God in all things, the more we do, the more we shall have grace to do ; and the more we have, the more we shall have. ' To him that hath shall be given ; ' that is, he that truly hath, and doth not seem to have, but [he that] hath not indeed, that seemeth to have goodness, and hath none indeed, that which he hath shall be taken from him.
A true Christian is alway on the mending hand. It is a blessed prero- gative. He is alway mending and bettering by God's blessing. For where God gives in truth, if it be but a little, if it be but a grain of mustard- seed, if it be true, he will cherish it till it come to be a tree. He will add grace to grace, one degree of grace to another. Where there is truth, it is alway honoured with growth. It is not only a sign of truth, but where truth is there will be an endeavour of growth. It is a prerogative. Where God be- stows truth, he will always add the grace of growth, though not at all times alike. Yet if Christians sometimes do not grow, their not growing and their failings shame them, and makes them grow more afterward, and recover their former backwardness. A true Christian is alway on the mending hand. An hypocrite grows worse and worse alway, till he be uncased alto- gether, and turned into hell. These and such like considerations may stir us up to labour to have a conversation in simplicity and godly sincerity.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 12. 247
Use 2. Now, how shall we come to carry ourselves in sincerity, that we may have comfort in all estates ?
That we may carry ourselves in sincerity,
1. First, ve must get a cJunifje of heart. Our nature must be changed. For by nature a man aims at himself in all thinj:;s, and not at God. A man makes himself his last end. Ho makes something in the world, either pro- tits, or pleasures, &c., the term that he looks unto. Therefore, there must be a change of heart. A man must be a good man, or else he cannot be a sincere man. Such as we are, such our actions will be. Therefore, we cannot be sincere till we have our hearts changed.
2. No man can aim at God's glory, but he lliat hat] l felt God's love in himself. Therefore as a particular branch of that, labour to get assui'ance of the love of God in Jesus Christ ; for how can we endeavour to please him unless we love him ? And how can we love him unless we be per- suaded that he loves us in Christ ? Therefore let us stablish our hearts more and more in the evidences of his love to us ; and then knowing that he loves us, we shall love him, <and labour to please him in all things. These are grounds that must be laid before we can be sincere ; to get as- surance of God's love to us in the pardon of our sins. ' Our conscience must be purged from dead works, to serve the living God,' as the apostle saith, Heb. ix. 14; that is, we cannot serve God to our comfort till our consciences are sprinkled with the blood of Christ, which assures us of the pardon of our sins. Therefore saith Zacharias, ' We are redeemed, that we might serve him in righteousness and holiness before him all the days of our life,' Luke i. 75. So that unless a man be redeemed, he cannot serve him in righteousness and holiness ' before him ' all the days of his life ; that is, he cannot serve God in sincerity.
For who will labour to please his enemy ? Therefore the papists main- tain hypocrisy when they say we ought not to be persuaded of the love of God, for then we ought to be hv^^ocrites. For how shall we seek him with the loss of favour, and of credit, and of life itself, if we know not that his favour will stand us in stead, if we lose these things for him ?