A supplement to the several discourses upon various divine subjects

3. Discovery of sincerity. Hereby God discovers who are his people, and who are not; who are in the highest form of Christianity, and who are not in the School, or at least but in the lowest form; he separates the good corn from the useless chaff. No question but there were some among the Israelites, that in this extremity, acted faith upon the remembrance of the wonders God had wrought for them in Egypt before their departure; certainly they did not all murmur against Moses; Were there no Calebs and Joshuas, that followed God fully in a way of faith and submission? Their faith & courage had not been conspicuous without this extremity. Thunderings and Lightnings, and terrible things in righteousness are to prove us, whether the fear of God be before our faces that we sin not, Exod. 20.18, 20. God separates the dross. You never know a new building without pulling down, to separate the rubbish, and rotten rafters from the sound materials. Abraham was put upon hard work, the imbruing his hands in the blood of his only Son, to prove his integrity; when God sees his sincerity, he divers the blow; not only delivers him from his grief, his Son from his danger, but renews the promise of the Messiah to him as a reward. Deliverance then comes when God hath separated the Corn from the stubble.

3. Discovery of sincerity. Hereby God discovers who are his people, and who are not; who are in the highest form of Christianity, and who are not in the School, or at least but in the lowest form; he separates the good corn from the useless chaff. No question but there were some among the Israelites, that in this extremity, acted faith upon the remembrance of the wonders God had wrought for them in Aegypt before their departure; certainly they did not all murmur against Moses; Were there no Calebs and Joshuahs, that followed God fully in a way of faith and submission? Their faith & courage had not been conspicuous without this extremity. Thundrings and Lightnings, and terrible things in righteousness are to prove us, whether the fear of God be before our faces that we sin not, Exod. 20.18, 20. God separates the dross. You never know a new building without pulling down, to separate the rubbish, and rotten rafters from the sound materials. Abraham was put upon hard work, the imbruing his hands in the blood of his only Son, to prove his integrity; when God sees his sincerity, he divers the blow; not only delivers him from his grief, his Son from his danger, but renews the promise of the Messiah to him as a reward. Deliverance then comes when God hath separated the Corn from the stubble.