Division Second.—Sincerity strengthens the Christian’s Spirit.
‘Girt about with truth.’
Having despatched the first reason, why sincerity is compared to the soldier’s girdle or belt, and discoursed of this grace under that notion, we proceed to the second ground or reason of the metaphor, taken from the other use of the soldier’s girdle, which is, to strengthen his loins, and fasten his armour, over which it goes, close to him; whereby he is more able to march, and strong to fight. Girdling, in Scripture phrase, imports strength. ‘Thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle,’ Ps. 18:39. He ‘weakeneth the strength of the mighty,’ Job 12:21; in the Hebrew it is, he looseth their girdle, sincerity doth bear a fit analogy. It is a grace that establisheth and strengthens the Christian in his whole course; as, on the contrary, hypocrisy weakens and unsettles the heart. ‘A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.’ As it is in bodies, so in souls. Earthly bodies, because mixed, are corruptible; whereas the heavenly bodies, being simple and unmixed, are not subject to corruption. So much a soul hath of heaven’s purity and incorruptibleness as it hath of sincerity. ‘Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity,’ ¦< –N2”DF\‘, with incorruption, Eph. 6:24. The strength of every grace lies in the sincerity of it. So that without any more ado, the point which offers itself to our consideration from this second notion of the girdle, is this,
Doctrine. That sincerity doth not only cover all our infirmities, but is excellent, yea necessary, to establish the soul in, and strengthen it for, its whole Christian warfare. ‘The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them,’ Prov. 11:3. The hypocrite falls shamefully, and comes to naught, with all his shifts and stratagems to save himself; whereas sincerity carries that soul, that dares follow its conduct, safe above all dangers, though in the midst of them. But open the point. There is a threefold strength sincerity brings with it, which the false hypocritical heart wants. First. A preserving strength. Second. A recovering strength. Third. A comforting strength.
[The preserving strength of sincerity.]
First. Sincerity hath a preserving strength to keep the soul from the defilement of sin. When temptation comes on furiously, and chargeth the soul home, a false heart is put to the run, it cannot possibly stand. We are told of Israel’s hypocrisy, they were ‘a generation that set not their heart aright’ —and what follows?—‘and whose spirit was not stedfast with God,’ Ps. 78:8. Stones that are not set right on the foundation, cannot stand strong or long. You may see more of this bitter fruit growing on the hypocrite’s branches, in the same Psalm, ver. 56,57. They ‘turned back, and dealt unfaithfully; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.’ When the bow is unbent, the rift it hath may be undiscerned, but go to use it by drawing the arrow to the head, and it flies a pieces. Thus doth a false heart when put to the trial. As the ape in the fable, dressed like a man, when nuts are thrown before her, cannot then dissemble her nature any longer, but shows herself an ape indeed; so does a false heart bewray itself before it is aware, when a fair occasion is presented for its lust. Sincerity however keeps the soul pure in the face of temptation. ‘He that walketh uprightly walketh surely,’ Prov. 10:9—that is, he treads strong on their ground, like one whose feet are sound—and though stones lie in his way, he goes over them safely; ‘but he that perverteth his ways shall be known.’ He is like one that hath some corn or other ailment about his feet. Though he may make a shift to go in a green smooth way, yet when he meets with a hobbling stony way, he presently comes down, and falters. Now that this preserving strength, which sincerity girds the soul with, may better appear, it will be requisite to instance in some of those seasons wherein sincerity keeps the soul from the power of temptation, as also some of those seasons wherein, on the contrary, hypocrisy cowardly and tamely yields the soul up into temptations’ hands.