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SEAM.
XXI.]
TRATH, SINCERITY,
&C.
357'
God
our Judge,
God
who
shall
bring
to
light the
hidileìi
things
of
darkness, and shall
judge
the secrets
of
etry,
heart
one day
by
Jesus
Christ our Lord,
.1
Cor.
iv:
5':'
ort.
ii.
16.
If
we
did
but
always
place ourselves as in
the sight
of
the
great
and
dreadful God,
whose eye
¡be
-'
holds every falsehood
we
practise, and
all
the hidden
pocrisy, the
lurking deceit of
the
soul,
whose
ear attends.
to
every word
of
falsehood
we
speak, and
records
it 'all'
in
his
book
against
that great
and
terrible
day
of
ac
count;
surely we should
find
a more effectual influence
of
it upon
our
spirits, to
guard
us
from
such
words
and actions
as
are inconsistent with
the
sincerity
of
a
Christian.
And let
our hearts
be melted
into
repentance
for
our
past iniquities of
this kind,
and moulded into
the
love
of
truth
by
a
delightful
meditation of the
faithfulness
of
our
Lord
Jésus
Christ
to us, in
performing
his
kind
and
dreadful undertaking
to
suffer for
our
sins.
Let
us
dwell
upon
the thoughts
of
his
faithfulness
to all
his'
pro
-.
mises,
and think thus
with ourselves,
that
he has
engaged
us to
truth of
every kind
by
the strongest bonds of.duty
and
love,
:
And
if
we
are
false
and unfaithful
to
hire-
in
this
world;
how
justly
may he
cut
us off fióm
all
our
glorious hopes
and expectations
in
the
world which
is
to
come.
But
this leads
me
to
the
fourth general head
that
I
pro
posed;
which
was to
lay down some
directions
how
christians
may
be
preserved
in
the
ways
of truth,
how'
they
may
secure and
maintain
this blessed
character
of
integrity and uprightness
which
I
have
described. And
I
think this
may
be
better performed
by
.distinguishing
truth,
or integrity,
into
those
three distincts parts,
under
which
I treated
of it
before,
viz.
veracity,
faithful-
ness,
and constancy, and
by
giving some
rules for
the
preservation
of
each.
The
rules to
preserve
veracity,
or
to keep
our
words
conformable
to
our
hearts,
are
such
as
these
:
1.
Be
persuaded
in
your
own
minds,
that
no
circum-
stances whatsoever can make a
lie lawfúl.
Though
when
a
question
is
asked,
there are
many cases wherein
it
may
be
lawful to
turn
the
discourse'
aside, to wave
a direct
answer, to be
entirely
silent; or
in
some
circumstances
it
may be
both
lawful,
.prudent, and
proper,- to
conceal.
a
2A