of a man, but in the disguise of a saint, carry a beastly filthy heart within him.

Use 4. Let this encourage thee who art sincere against. the fears of final apostacy. Though sincerity doth not privilege thee from falling, yet thy covenant-state which thou art in, if sincere, secures thee from final apostacy. Because thy stock of grace in hand is small, thou questionest thy persevering; can these weak legs, thinkest thou, bring me to my journey's end, these few pence in my purse, little grace in my heart, bear my charges all the way to Heaven, through so many expences of trials and temptations? Truly no, if thou wert to receive no more than thou hast at present. The bread thou hast in the cupboard will not maintain thee all thy life; but, soul, thou hast a covenant will help thee to more when that grows low; hath not God taught thee to pray for " "thy daily bread," and dost thou not find that the blessing of God, in thy calling diligently followed, supplies thee from day to day? And hast thou not the same bond to sue for thy spiritual daily bread? Hast thou not a Father in Heaven that knows what thou needest for thy soul as well as body? Hast thou not a dear brother, yea husband, that is gone to Heaven, where plenty of all grace is to be had, and that on purpose on his children's errand, that he might keep their soul's graces and comforts alive in this necessitous world? All power is in his hands; he may go to the heap, and send what he please for your succour, and can you starve while he hath fullness of grace by him that hath undertaken to provide for you? Luke x. 35. The two pence which the Samaritan left, were not enough to pay for cure and board of the wounded man; therefore he passeth his word "for all that he should need besides:" Christ doth not only give a little grace in hand, but his bond for more to sincere souls, even as much as will bring them to Heaven: "grace and glory he will give, and no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly." Psalm lxxxiv. 11.

Use 5. Take heed of resting on or glorying in thy sincerity. It is true it will enable thee to resist temptations, and recover out, when in temptation; but who enables that? where grows the root that feeds thy grace?

Not in thy own ground, but in Heaven; it is God alone that holds thee and it in life; he that gave it is at cost to keep it. "The Lord is thy strength, let him be thy song. What can the axe, though sharp, do without the workman? shall the axe say I have cut down, or the chisel I have carved? Is it not the skill and art of the workman rather? When able to resist temptation, say, “The Lord was on my side, or else I had fallen;" set up an Ebenezer, and write on it, "Hitherto the Lord hath helped me.'

Though God promiseth in the Psalm just now cited to give grace and glory to the upright, yet he will not give the glory of his grace to uprightness. In 2 Sam. xxii. 24, we have David asserting his uprightness, and how he was preserved by it: "I was also upright before him, and have kept me from mine iniquity." Verse 25. he declares the fruit of his uprightness, how God bare testimony to it, by rewarding him for it, and giving him victory over his enemies: "Therefore the Lord hath recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his eye-sight." Now, lest he should set up himself, or applaud his own uprightness to the prejudice of God's grace, he sweetly corrects and bounds these passages, ver. 33. "God is my strength and power, and he maketh my way perfect." As if the holy man had said, "I pray mistake me not; I do not ascribe the victory over my enemies within me or without to myself and my uprightness; no, God did all, he is my strength and power, yea it is he that makes my way perfect; if I be sincere more than others in my way, I must thank him for it, for he makes my way perfect. He found me at first as crooked a piece, and walking in as crooked ways, as any other; but he made me and my way perfect and straight. Had God pleased, he could have made Saul as perfect as David; had God left David, he would have been as crooked and false-hearted as Saul.

The last branch of the point was, sincerity hath a comforting strength in all sorts of affliction. The applicatory improvement of which shall be only this.

Use. Let it teach us, not to fear affliction, but hypo

crisy. Believe it, friends, affliction is a harmless thing to a sincere soul, it cannot be so great as to make it inconsistent with his joy and comfort; a gracious soul in the most sharp affliction can spare his tears and pity, to bestow them on the hypocrite when in all his pomp and glory; he hath that in his bosom that gives him more comfortable apprehensions of his own affliction than standers-by have, or can have of them; which made once a holy man, when the pangs of death were on him, to ask a servant of his, weeping by his bed-side for him, what she meant by her fears; saying, Never fear that my heavenly Father will do me any hurt. Indeed affliction is not joyous to the flesh, which hath made some of God's dear children awhile to shrink; but after they have been acquainted with the work, and the comforts which God bestows on his poor prisoners through the grate, they have learnt another tune, like the bird that at first putting into the cage flutters, and shews her dislike of her retraint, but afterwards comes to sing more sweetly than when at liberty to fly where she pleased. Be not therefore so thoughtful about affliction, but careful against hypocrisy; if the bed of affliction proves hard and uneasy to thee, it is thyself that brings with thee what makes it so. Approve thyself to God, and trust him who hath promised to be his saint's bed-maker in affliction, to make it soft and easy for thee. O what a cutting word will it be in a dying hour, when thou art crying, Lord, Lord, mercy on a poor creature! to hear the Lord say, I know thee not; it is not the voice of a sincere soul, but a hypocrite that howls on his bed of sorrow? What then wilt thou do when fallen into the hands of God, with whom thou hast but juggled in thy profession, and never sincerely didst love? If that speech was so confounding to the Patriarchs, "I am Joseph, whom you sold," that they could not endure his presence, knowing their own guilt; how intolerable will it be to hear from God's own mouth such language in a time of distress. I am God whom you have mocked, abused, and sold away for the enjoyment of your lusts; and do you now come to me? Have I any thing for you but a Hell to torment you in to all eternity.

VERSE 14.

And having on the breast-plate of righteousness.

THESE words present us with a second piece of armour, commended to, and charged upon all Christ's soldiers: "a breast-plate," and the metal it is to be made of, "righteousness." Concerning which, a double enquiry would be made. First, What righteousness is here intended. Secondly, Why compared to this piece of the soldier's armour, the "breast-plate."

CHAP. I.

CONTAINS THE EXPLICATION OF THE WORDS.

FIRST, What is the "righteousness" here meant? The scripture speaks of a two-fold "righteousness," the one legal, the other evangelical.

First, A "legal righteousness," that which God required of man in the covenant of works: "Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the Law, that the man which doth those things shall live." Rom. x. 5. Three things concur to make up this law-righteousness.

First, An obedience absolutely perfect to the law of God, that is perfect extensive in regard of the object; intensive, in regard of the subject: the whole law must be kept with the whole heart, the least defect either of part or degree in the obedience spoils all.

Secondly, This perfect obedience to the law of God must be personally performed by him that is thus righteous: "The man that doth these things shall live." In that covenant God had but man's single bond for performance (no surety engaged with him), so that God having none else to come upon for the default, it was

necessary, except God will lose his debt, to exact it personally on every man.

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Thirdly, This perfect personal obedience must be petual. This law allows no after-gain; if the law be once broken, though but in one wry thought, there is no place for repentance in that covenant, though it were attended with a life afterward never so exact and spotless. After-obedience, which is but due, cannot make amends for former disobedience; he doth not satisfy the law for killing a man once, that doth so no more. How desperate were our condition, if we could not be listed in Christ's muster-roll till we were provided of such a breast-plate as this is? Adam indeed had such a righteousness made to his hand; his heart and the law were in unison, it answered it as face answers face in a glass; it was as natural to him to be righteous, as now it is to his posterity to be unrighteous. God was the engraver of his own image upon man, which consisted in righteousness and holiness, and he who made all so perfect that, upon a review of the whole creation, he neither added nor altered any thing, but saw all very good, was not less curious in the master-piece of all his work: "he made man perfect." But Adam sinned, and defiled our nature, and now our nature defiles us; so that never since could Adam's plate, righteousness I mean, fit the breast of any mere man. If God would save all the world for one such righteous man, as once he offered to do Sodom for ten, he could not be found. The apostle divides all the world into Jew and Gentile, Rom. iii. 9. he is not afraid to lay them all in the dirt, they are all under sin : "there is none righteous, no, not one." Not the braggest philosopher among the Gentiles, nor the precisest Pharisee among the Jews; we may go yet further, not the holiest saint that ever lived, can stand righteous before that bar. "Enter not into judgment with thy servant (saith David), for in thy sight shall no man living be justified." Psal. cxliii. 2. God hath nailed that door up, that none can for ever enter by a law-righteousness into life and happiness. This way to Heaven is like the northern passage to the Indies, whoever attempts it is sure to be frozen up before he gets half-way thither.