The truly blessed man, or, The way to be happy here, and forever being…

1. What is to be understood by one in whose Spirit there is no Guile?

A. This manner of expression is used in the Scriptures more than once, as a Periphrasis of a Godly man: So, Joh. 1. 47. Rev. 14. 5. The word [Guile] signifies Fraud or Deceit; but is used equivocally, Sometimes in a good, sometimes in a bad sense. There is an honest Craft, 2 Cor. 12. 16. and there is a dishonest one, which is pointed at in our Text: and there are many things in which this Guile is practised; there is Guile in mens words, such is Flattery, Psal 12. 2, 3. and Lying to deceive, Mic. 6. 12. And there is Guile in mens carriages, when they pretend Friendship, and yet lye in wait, Psal. 55. 21. And there is Guile in a Profession of Religion, 2 Tim. 3. 5. But the root of all this lies at the heart, the falseness whereof puts men upon these Guileful practises: Hence Guile is in the word of God used for Hypocrisy; and to be without Guile for Sincerity: And when this is referred to the Spirit or Soul, it intends that there is an inward principle of it in the man which influenceth into his ⟨p. 102⟩Life and Conversation; and this points us to that Sanctification that is wrought in the man at Conversion. But for a more particular opening of this, observe these things.