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Of fincerity towards God and man.

Preached at Kingston, July 29. 1694.
The last his Grace preached.

JOHN i. 47.

Jefus faw Nathanael coming to him, and faith of him, Behold an Ifraelite indeed, in whom is no guile.

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HO this Nathanael was, upon whom our Saviour bestows this extraordinary character, doth not certainly appear, his name being but once more mentioned in the whole hiftory of the gofpel. For certain, he was a good man, who deferved this extraordinary commendation; and none but our Saviour, who knew what was in man, and needed not that any should tell him, could have given it, efpecially of one whom he had never feen before that time for when Jefus faw him coming to him, he faith of him, Behold an Ifraelite indeed.

The whole nation of the Jews were Ifraelites by natural defcent, being the feed of Jacob or Ifrael; but in a fpecial and more excellent fenfe, none are esteemed the true pofterity of Ifrael, but thofe who refembled this father of their nation in true piety and goodness: for, as the Apostle reasons, they are not all Ifrael who are of Ifrael. They only are Ifraelites indeed who refemble good old Jacob, in the fincerity of his piety, and the fimplicity of his temper and difpofition: for our Saviour feems here to allude to that character which is given of Jacob, Gen. xxv. 27. that he was a plain man; or, as the Hebrew word fignifies, a perfect and fincere man; in oppofition to his brother Efau, who is faid to be cunning. So that to be an Ifraelite indeed, is to be a downright honeft man, without fraud and guile, without any arts of hypocrify and deceit.

In fpeaking of this virtue of fincerity, which is the VOL. IV. highest

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highest character and commendation of a good man, I fhall confider it as it refpects God and man. As it refpects God, fo it imports the truth and fincerity of our piety and devotion towards him. As it regards men, fo it fignifies a fimplicity of mind and manners, in our carriage and conversation one towards another. Both these are included, and very probably were intended, in the character which our Saviour here gives of Nathanael.

I. I fhall confider this grace or virtue of fincerity as it refpects God. And fo it imports the truth and fincerity of our piety towards him; that we heartily believe, and fear, and honour him; and that the outward expreffions of our piety and obedience to him, are the genuine issue of our inward apprehenfions of him, and affections towards him. And this no doubt our Saviour intended, in the first place, in the character of this good man, that he was a man of a real, and substantial, and unaffected piety, and in truth what he appeared to be; that he did fincerely love God and his truth, and was ready to embrace it, whenever it was fairly proposed to him; as did plainly appear in his carriage towards our Saviour: for when Philip invited him to come and fee him, he did notconceal the prejudice and objection he had against him, grounded upon a common, but uncharitable proverb, that cut of Nazareth arifeth no prophet; but having an honeft and fincere mind, he was not fo carried away by a popular prejudice, as not to have patience to be better informed; and therefore was eafily perfuaded to go and fee our Saviour, and to difcourfe with him himself; and being fatisfied that he was the Meffias, he prefently owns him for fuch, calling him the Son of God, and the Kingof Ifrael. And becaufe fincerity is the very heart and fubftance of religion, it concerns us not only to endeavour after this temper and difpofition, but to inquire into the nature and properties of it, that we may know when we have it, and may have the comfort of it. I fhall mention five or fix properties of a fincere piety, by which men may fufficiently know the integrity of their hearts towards God.

1. Our piety is then fincere, when the chief reafons and predominant motives of it are religious. And I call that a religious or rational motive, which regards God and

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another world, in oppofition to men, and to our prefent temporal advantages; when the principal and fwaying motives of our piety are, a fenfe of God's authority over us, and of our duty and obligation to him; a fear of his difpleafure and threatenings, and the hopes of the glorious reward which he hath promifed to obedience. Thefe motives are properly religious, because they respect God, and are the arguments to obedience which he himfelf offers to us, to perfuade us to our duty; and that is a fincere piety which is wrought in us by these confiderations, how unequally foever mixed: for even in the most of men, fear does many times prevail more than love, and, in cafe of great temptation, may preferve men from fin, when perhaps no other confideration will do it. On the contrary, that is an unfincere piety to which we are moved merely by the regard of men, and the confideration of fome temporal advantages. And when thefe have the chief influence upon us, it is eafy for any man to difcern in himself; for he that will carefully obferve himfelf, can hardly be ignorant of the true fpring and motive of his own actions. But there is one fign whereby a man may certainly know that his heart is not right towards God; and that is, if when these motives are abfent, our piety and zeal for the true religion doth either ceafe, or is fenfibly cooled and abated: As, if impiety, or Popery, or any thing else that is bad, begin to be in fafhion, and to have the countenance of great examples; if those whom we fear, and upon whom we depend, da discover any inclination that way; if the garb of religion cease to be for our intereft, or, in the revolution of things, happen to be contrary to it: if in any of these cafes we let fall the profeffion of our religion, or neglect the practice of it, this is a plain and undeniable demonstration of the infincerity of our former piety.

2. A fincere piety must be rooted in the heart, and be a living principle within us: for, as the Apostle reasons in another cafe, he is not a Few who is one outwardly; but he who is one inwardly, and in the heart and without this, all outward acts of piety and devotion are hypocrify, a picture of religion, and a form of godliness, without the life and power of it.

3. A third evidence of a fincere piety is, when men are religious

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religious in private and in fecret, as well as in publick, and in the open view of men. He is truly devout, who is fo in his family, and in his closet, where he hath no witnefs but God and his own foul, as well as in the church. He is a downright honest man, who will make good his word, and perform his promife, when no proof can be made of it, and no law compel him to it, as readily as if there had been an hundred witneffes of it. He is fincerely juft, who will not detain from another his right, though he be ignorant of it; nor wrong any man, though he could do it with all the fecrecy and fafety in the world; who will not impofe upon another's ignorance or unfkilfulness, though never fo much to his own benefit and advantage. He is truly charitable, who would not only as foon, but rather fooner, give his alms in fecret, than in the fight of men: and he is truly grateful, who, when there is occafion and opportunity, will acknowledge a kindness and requite a benefit to the relations of his deceased friend, though he be sure that all memory of the obligation died with him, and that none are confcious of it but God and his own confcience. And indeed there is fcarce any act of piety and virtue, the fincerity of which may not by this evidence be known by us: as, on the contrary, a man may for certain conclude himself a hypocrite, if he be not the fame in the prefence of God and his own confcience, that he is in the fight of

men.

4. Another evidence of a fincere piety is, a constant tenor of goodness in the general courfe of our lives. I do not now speak of the first beginnings of piety in new Converts; which are many times very imperfect, and fuch as afford little or no evidence of a man's fincerity; but in those who have made any confiderable progrefs in goodness. The habits of any known fin, and the wilful and deliberate neglect of our duties, and even the fingle acts of more heinous crimes, will bring in queftion our fincerity; and are by no means to be fheltered under the name of infirmity: for thefe the grace of God, if we be not wanting to ourselves, will enable us to fubdue; and he is not fincerely good who doth not seriously endeavour to be as good as he can, and does not make use of that grace which God is ready to afford, to all the purposes,

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though not of a perfect, yet of a fincere obedience to the laws of God.

5. Another evidence of a fincere piety is, that our obedience to God be uniform and univerfal, equally respecting all the laws of God, and every part of our duty; that it do not content itfelf with an especial regard to fome precepts of the law, though never fo confiderable, and allow itself in the breach or neglect of the reft; no nor with obferving the duties of one table of the law, if it overlook the other; no nor with obedience to all the commandments of God, one only excepted. St. James puts this case; and determines, that he that keeps the whole law, faving that he offends in one point, is guilty of all; that is, is not fincere in his obedience to the reft. And therefore we must take great heed, that we do not fet the commandments of God at odds, and dafh the two tables of the law against one another, left, as St. James fays, we break the whole law. And yet I fear this is too common a fault, even amongst those who make a great profeffion of piety, that they are not fufficiently fenfible of the obligation and neceffity of the duties of the fecond table, and of the excellency of thofe graces and virtues which refpect our carriage and converfation with one another. Men do not feem to confider, that God did not give laws to us for his own fake, but ours; and therefore that he did not only defign that we fhould honour him, but that we should be happy in one another: for which reafon he joins with our humble and dutiful deportment towards himself, the offices of juftice and charity towards others : He hath fhewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah vi. 8.; And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother alfo, 1 John iv. 21. And yet it is too vifible, that many who make a great profeffion of piety towards God, are very defective in moral duties; very unpeaceable and turbulent in their fpirits, very peevish and paffionate, very conceited and cenforious, as if their profeffion of godlinefs did exempt them from the care and practice of Chriftian virtues." But we must not fo fix our eye upon heaven, as to forget that we walk upon the earth, and to neglect the ordering of our steps

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and

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