350 CBÀISTIAN MORALITY, VIZ. (SERA. txr. to make us truly wise and holy, without the honesty and integrity of the heart. Truth demands a room and place there also : And this is the truth which my text recom- mends. The first thing I proposed, was to shew the latitude and extent of this duty and I have described it as con- sisting in these three things : 1. Veracity, which is, when ourwords are conformable to the sentiments ofour mind. 2. Faithfulness, when our actions agreewith our words. 3. Constancy, and that is when our practices are con- sistent with our pious principles, and thewhole course of our life is of a piece, governed by the same rules and dictates of morality and religion. Where these are want- ing, that person is false, faithless, fickle, and incon- stant, and acts neither agreeable to his nature as a man, nor to his character as a christian. The second thing I designed to shew, was that the light of nature dictates and requires the practice of this virtue : And it will appear, if we consider our relation either to God or man. I. If we consider our natural relation to God, both as our Creator or Father, and as our Lord or Go- vernor. Consider him as our Father, the Author of our being. Truth and faithfulness are the attributes of his nature, and the necessary characters of his conduct toward his creatures; and many of the heathens could tell us, that a likeness to God the Father of our spirits, in such moral perfections of his nature, is the duty and glory of man- kind. We are his offspring, saith Aratus, a heathen poet; Acts xvii. 8. and children should be like their divine Parent. The light of nature tells us, that he is not only our Creator, and our Father in this sense, but be is our Lord and Governor also. And he has knowledge, and he has power to answer and fulfil this high character and station. The great Godwho looks into our hearts, who sees our souls through and through, he knows what our inward sentiments are while the falsehood is on our lips; he remembers what our engagements and contracts are while we renounce and break them; he hates deceit, lying, and falsehood; and all the civilized nations have ever supposed that he will avenge it with peculiar judg- ments.
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