2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEU. 12, 253
cerity, you may see here then that all the frame, all the passages of his life were good. This makes good that which I touched before, which hath its proper place here, that
Sincerity extends itself to all the frame of a mans life.
He that is sincere, is sincere in all places, and at all 'times ; in all the turnings and windings and passages of his life ; or else he is not sincere at all. His conversation must be sincere, wheresoever he lives, or whatsoever he doth, in prosperity or adversity, at home or abroad.
The veriest hypocrite in the world, hath he not pangs sometimes ? Take an oppressor, he thinks that he should not die so, he thinks, I must be called to an account if I do thus. Doth not Ahab lie upon his sick-bed sometimes ? Is not Herod sometimes troubled in conscience ? Hath not a wicked man sometimes twitches of conscience which the world sees not, secret checks of conscience ? Oh, yes ! There is not the vilest man living, but he hath his good fits, he hath pangs of goodness. But what is this to a conversation ? Our conversation must be in sincerity in all the turnings and passages of it,
God judgeth us by the tenor of our life, and not by single particular acts, A good man may be ill in a particular act ; and an evil man may be good in a particular act. But I say, God doth not judge us by a distinct severed passage, but by the tenor of our life. Uniformity, equability, and evenness of life, it is an undoubted evidence of a good man.
Because he is a new creature, and being a new creature, he hath a new nature ; and nature works uniformly. Art works diflerently, and enforcedly. Teach a creature somewhat that is against nature, it will do something, but a lion will have a lion's trick, and a wolf will have a wolf's trick. Teach them never so much, a lion will be a lion in all places ; a wolf will be a wolf, and an eagle will be an eagle. Every creature will observe its own nature, and be like itself.
A Christian, as far as he is good, as far as he is a Christian, is uniform. His conversation is good, he is like himself, in all places, in all times, upon all occasions, in prosperity, in adversity. The very word shews that the universality of a man's course must be in sincerity, wheresoever he is. God is everywhere, and sincerity hath an eye to God, It makes a man good everywhere ; or else it doth nothing to God. Doth not God see everywhere, abroad, and at home in our closets ? If we plot villany, there sees he it as well as abroad. Therefore if I do it anywhere, I regard not the eye of God.
Again, where he saith, ' our conversation,' it implies constancy, as well as uniformity. He was so in all places and in all times. But that I noted before, therefore I pass it, ' Our conversation in the world.'
That is, amongst other men, wheresoever I was, and have lived. Whence we see, that
Obs. Christianity may stand with conversinrf ahroad in the world.
Men need not be mued*up in a cloister, as the foolish monks in former times. They thought that religion was a thing confined to solitariness ; whereas ofttimes it requires greater strength of grace to be alone than to be in company. We know the proverb, ' Woe to him that is alone,' Eccles. iv. 10. A good Christian converses in the world, and that in simplicity and sincerity. We need not, I say, cloister ourselves up to be good men, to be sincere Christians. We may converse in the world in sincerity if we have St Paul's spirit,
* That is, ' mured, '= immured, — G,
251 COMMENTARY ON
But that which I will press more, is this, that '
Obs. True relirfion, irhere it is in strength, doth carry a man in the world, and yet he is not tai)tted vith the u-orld.
St Paul conversed in the world in sincerity. The world is an hypocrite, as he said of old. The whole world acts a part. It is an hypocrite, and a cruel opposer of sincerity and truth. St Paul lived abroad in the world, amongst men that had aims of their own, and fil)used themselves in the world, and yet he walked in ' simplicity and sincerity.' He was a good man for all that. A man that is not of the world, but begotten to be a member of a higher world, he may cany himself in the world without the corruptions of the world, he may carry himself so in the world that he may not be carried away of the world. We see St Paul did so.
Noah was a good man in evil times, ' a good man in his generation,' Gen. vi. 9. Enoch, in evil times ' walked with God,' Gen. v. 22. In Acts xiii. 22, ' David in his generation served the purpose of God ;' and his generation was none of the best. For you know there was Ahithophel, and Doeg, which were bad companions, yet in his generation he served the purpose of God. So every man in his time may live and converse in the world, and yet not be carried away with the corruptions of the times.