The
words being thus opened, the observations are easily drawn from
them. But the copulative ‘and,’ with which this
piece of armour is so closely buckled to the former, bids us make a little
stand, to take notice how lovingly truth and holiness are here conjoined, like
the sister-curtains of the tabernacle, Ex. 26:13,
so called in the Hebrew; and it is a pity any should unclasp them which God
hath so fitted to each other. Let this then be the note from
hence: Note. That truth
and holiness must go together.
First. Take
truth, for truth of doctrine. An orthodox judgment, with
an unholy heart and an ungodly life, is as uncomely as a man’s head would be on
a beast’s shoulders. That man hath little cause to brag that what he
holds is truth, if he doth be wicked. Poor wretch, if thou beest a
slave to the devil, it matters not to what part thy chain be fastened, whether
to the head or foot. He holds thee as sure to him by thy foot in thy
practice as he would by thy head, if heretical and blasphemous; yea, thou art
worse on it in some respects than they who are like themselves all
over. Thy wickedness is greater, because committed in the face of
truth. Many—the mistakes of their erroneous judgments, betray them
unto the unholiness of their practice. Their wicked lives are the
conclusion which follows necessarily upon the premises of their
errors. But thy judgment lights thee another way, except thou
meanest further to accumulate thy sin by fathering thy unholiness on truth
itself. They only miss their way to heaven in the dark, or are
mislead by a false light of erroneous judgment, which possibly, rectified,
would bring them back into the path of holiness; but thou sinnest by the broad
light of truth, and goest on boldly to hell at noon-day; like the devil
himself, who knows truth from error well enough but hates to be ruled by
it. Should a minstrel sing to a sweet tune with her voice and play
to another with her hand that is harsh and displeasing, such music would more
grate the judicious ear than if she had sung to what she had
played. Thus, to sing to truth with our judgment, and play
wickedness with our heart and hand in our life, is more abhorring to God and
all good men, than where the judgment is erroneous as well as the life
ungodly. Nahash had not enraged David so much, if he had come with
an army of twenty thousand men into the field against him, as he did by abusing
his ambassadors so basely. The open hostility which many express by
their ungodly lives, does not so much provoke God as the base usage they give
to his truth, which he sends to treat with them, yea, in them. This
kindles the fire of his wrath into a flame of purpose, when he sees men put
scorn upon his truth, by walking contrary to the light of it, and imprisoning
it from having any command over them in their lives, and yet own it to be the
truth of God.
Second. Take
it for truth of heart; and so truth and holiness must go together. In
vain do men pretend to sincerity, if they be unholy in their
lives. God owns no unholy sincerity. The terms do clash
one with another. Sincerity teacheth the soul to point at the right
end of all its actions—the glory of God. Now it is not enough to set
the right end before us, but to walk in the right way to it. We
shall never come at God’s glory out of God’s way. Holiness and
righteousness is the sincere man's path, set by God as a causeway on which he
is to walk, both to the glorifying of God and to being glorified by
God. Now he that thinks to find a shorter cut and a nearer way than
this, to obtain this end, he takes but pains to undo himself. As he
finds a new way of glorifying God, which God hath not chalked, so he must find
a new heaven which God hath not prepared, or else he must go without one to
reward him for his pains. O friends! look to find this stamp of
righteousness and holiness on your sincerity. The proverb saith,
‘Hell is full of good wishes,’—of such, who now, when it is too late, wish they
had acted their part otherwise when on earth than they did. And do
you not think there are there more than a good store of good
meanings also? such who pretended, when on earth, they meant well, and their
hearts were honest; however, it happened that their lives were
otherwise. What a strange delusion is this? If one should
say, ‘Though all the water the bucket brings up be naught and stinking, yet
that which is in the well is all sweet,’ who would believe him? Thy
heart upright, and thy meanings good, when all that proceeds from thy heart in
thy life is wicked! How can it be? Who will believe thee?
surely thou dost not thyself
