unworthy ends; cloking our defigns of covetoufnefs, or ambition, or revenge, with pretences of confcience, and zeal for God: and let us endeavour after the reality of religion; always remembering, that a fincere piety doth not confift in fhew, but substance; not in appearance, but in effect: that the spirit of true religion is still and calm, charitable and peaceable; making as little. fhew and ftir as is poffible: that a truly and fincerely good man does not affect vain oftentation, and an unfeasonable discovery of his good qualities; but endeavours rather really to be, than to feem religious, and, of the two, rather feeks to conceal his piety, than to fet it out with pomp; gives his alms privately; prays to God in fecret; and makes no appearance of religion, but in fuch fruits and effects as cannot be hid; in the quiet and filent virtues of humility, and meeknefs, and patience, of peace and charity; in governing his paflions, and taking heed not to offend with his tongue, by flander and calumny, by envious detraction or rafh cenfure, or by any word or action that may be to the hurt and prejudice of his neighbour. But, on the contrary, it is a very ill fign, if a man affect to make a great noife and buftle about religion; if he blow a trumpet before his good works, and by extraordinary fhews of devotion fummon the eyes of men to behold him, and do as it were call aloud to them to take notice of his piety, and to come and fee his zeal for the Lord of hofts. It is not impoffible but fuch a man, with all his vanity and oftentation, may have fome real goodness in him: but he is as the hypocrites are, and does as like one as is poffible; and by the mighty fhew that he makes, to wife and confiderate men, greatly brings in queftion the fincerity of his religion.

And with the fincerity of our piety towards God, let us join the fimplicity and integrity of manners in our converfation with men. Let us ftrictly charge ourselves to use truth and plainnefs in all our words and doings;: let our tongue be ever the true interpreter of our mind, and our expreffions the lively image of our thoughts and: affections, and our outward actions exactly agreeable to our inward purposes and intentions.

Amongst too many other inftances of the

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ruption

ruption and degeneracy of the age wherein we live, the great and general want of fincerity in converfation is none of the least. The world is grown fo full of diffimulation and compliment, that mens words are hardly any fignification of their thoughts; and if any man meafure his words by his heart, and speak as he thinks, and do not express more kindness to every man, than men ufually have for any man, he can hardly escape the cenfure of rudeness, and want of breeding. The old Englifh plainness and fincerity, that generous integrity of nature, and honefty of difpofition, which always argues true greatness of mind, and is ufually accompanied with undaunted courage and resolution, is in a great measure loft among us; there hath been a long endeavour to transform us into foreign manners and fashions, and to bring us to a fervile imitation of none of the best of our neighbours, in fome of the worst of their qualities. The dialect of conversation is now-a-days fo fwelled with vánity and compliment, and fo furfeited (as I may fay) with expreffions of kindness and respect, that if a man that lived an age or two ago, fhould return into the world again, he would really want a dictionary to help him to understand his own language, and to know the true intrinfick value of the phrase in fashion; and would hardly, at first, believe at what a low rate the highest ftrains and expreffions of kindness imaginable do commonly pass in current payment: and when he should come to understand it, it would be a great while before he could bring himself, with a good countenance and a good conscience, to converse with men upon equal terms, and in their own way.

And, in truth, it is hard to fay, whether it fhould more provoke our contempt or our pity, to hear what folemn expreffions of refpect and kindnefs will pafs between men, almoft upon no occafion; how great honour and esteem they will declare for one whom perhaps they never heard of or faw before, and how entirely they. are all on the fudden devoted to his fervice and intereft, for no reafon; how infinitely and eternally obliged to him, for no benefit; and how extremely they will be concerned for him, yea and afflicted too, for no caufe. I know it is faid in juftification of this hollow kind of conversation,

converfation, that there is no harm, no real deceit in compliment, but the matter is well enough, fo long as we understand one another: Et verba valent ut nummi; "Words are like money ;" and when the current value of them is generally understood, no man is cheated by them. This is fomething, if fuch words were any thing; but being brought into the account, they are mere cyphers. However, it is ftill a juft matter of complaint, that fincerity and plainnefs are out of fashion, and that our language is running into a lie; that men have almost quite perverted the ufe of fpeech, and made words to fignify nothing; that the greatest part of the converfation of mankind, and of their intercourfe with one another, is little elfe but driving a trade of diffimulation; infomuch that it would make a man heartily fick and weary of the world, to fee the little fincerity that is in ufe and practice among men, and tempt him to break out into that melancholy complaint and wifh of the Prophet, Jer. ix. 2. 3. 4. 6.8. 9. Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of way-faring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them: for they are all adulterers, an affembly of treacherous men. And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies; but have no courage for the truth upon the earth. Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and truft ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly fupplant, and every neighbour will walk with flanders. Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit. One Speaketh peaceably to his neighbour, but in his heart be lieth in wait. Shall not I vifit for these things? faith the Lord; and fhall not my foul be avenged of fuch a nation as this?

Such were the manners of the people of Ifrael at that time, which were both the forerunner and the cause of thofe terrible calamities which befel them afterwards. And this character agrees but too well to the prefent age, which is fo wretchedly void of truth and fincerity: for which reafon there is the greater need to recommend this virtue to us, which feems to be fled from us, that truth and righteoufnefs may return, and glory may dwell in our land; and God may fhew his mercy upon us, and grani us his falvation; and righteousness and peace may kifs each To this end give me leave to offer these following confiderations.

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1. That fincerity is the highest commendation and the very best character that can be given of any man; it is the folid foundation of all virtue, the heart and foul of all piety and goodnefs: it is in fcripture called perfection, and frequently joined with it; and throughout the Bible there is the greatest ftrefs and weight laid upon it; it is spoken of as the fum and comprehenfion of all religion: Only fear the Lord, and ferve him in fincerity and truth, fays Joshua to the people of Ifrael, Jofh. xxiv. 14. God takes great pleasure in it; fo David affures us, 1 Chron. xxix. 17. I know, my God, that thou trieft the heart, and haft pleasure in uprightness: and again, Thou loveft truth in the inward parts.

To this difpofition of mind the promises of divine favour and bleffing are particularly made, Pfal. xv. 1. 2. Lord, who fhall abide in thy tabernacle? who fhall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteoufnefs, and fpeaketh the truth from his heart. Pfal. xxxii. 2. Bleed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whofe fpirit there is no guile.

And it is obfervable, that this character of our Saviour here given of Nathanael, is the only full and perfect commendation that we read was ever given by him of any particular perfon. He commends fome particular acts of piety and virtue in others, as St. Peter's confession of him, the faith of the Centurion, and of the woman that was healed by touching the hem of his garment, the charity of the woman that caft her two mites into the treafury, and the bounty of that other devout woman who poured upon him a box of precious ointment: but here he gives the particular character of a good man, when he fays of Nathanael, that he was an Ifraelite indeed, in whom was no guile. And the Apoftle mentions this quality, as the chief ingredient into the character of the best man that ever was, our bleffed Saviour, who did no fin, neither was guile found in his mouth.

2. The rarity of this virtue is a farther commendation of it. A fincerely pious and good man, without any guile or difguife, is not a fight to be feen every day. Our Saviour in the text fpeaks of it as a thing very extraordinary, and of fpecial remark and obfervation, and breaks out into fome kind of wonder upon the occafion,

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as if to fee a man of perfect integrity and fimplicity were an occurrence very rare and unufual, and fuch as calls for our more efpecial attention and regard: Behold (faith he) an Ifraelite indeed, in whom there is no guile.

3. The want of fincerity will quite fpoil the virtue and acceptance of all our piety and obedience, and certainly deprive us of the reward of it. All that we do in the fervice of God, all our external obedience to his laws, if not animated by fincerity, is like a facrifice without a heart, which is an abomination to the Lord.

4. Hypocrify and infincerity is a very vain and foolish thing; it is defigned to cheat others, but is in truth a deceiving of ourfelves. No man would flatter or diffemble, did he believe he were feen and discovered: an open knave is a great fool, who deftroys at once both his defign and reputation. And this is the cafe of every hypocrite; all the difagreement which is between his tongue and his thoughts, his actions and his heart, is

open to that eye from which nothing can be hid: for the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he feeth all his goings. There is no darkness nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themfelves.

5. Truth and reality have all the advantages of appearance, and many more. If the fhew of any thing be good for any thing, I am fure fincerity is better: for why does any man diffemble, or feem to be that which he is not, but because he thinks it good to have fuch a quality as he pretends to? for to counterfeit and diffemble, is to put on the appearance of fome real excellency. Now, the best way in the world for a man to feem to be any thing, is really to be what he would feem to be. Befides that it is many times as troublesome to make good the pretence of a good quality, as to have it; and if a man have it not, it is ten to one but he is difcovered to want it, and then all his pains and labour to feem to have it is loft. There is fomething unnatural in painting, which a skilful eye will easily difcern from na→ tive beauty and complexion.

It is hard to perfonate and act a part long; for where truth is not at the bottom, nature will always be endeavouring to return, and will peep out and betray herself one time or other. Therefore, if any man think it con

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