1. Answer. Labour for an inward conformity of thy heart to truth. Likeness is the ground of love. A carnal heart cannot like truth, because it is not like to truth. Such a one may love truth as one did Alexan der, regem non Alexandrum--the king, not the person that was king. Truth in its honour and dig \nity, when it can prefer him, but not naked truth itself. How is it possible an earthly soul should love truth that is heavenly?--an unholy heart, truth that is pure? O it is sad indeed, when men's tenets and principles in their understandings, do clash and fight with the principles of their hearts and affections --when men have orthodox judgments, and heterodox hearts! There must needs be little love to truth, because the judgment and will are so unequally yoked. Truth in the conscience reproving and threatening lust in the heart! and that again controlling truth in the conscience! Thus like a scolding couple, they may a while dwell together, but taking no con tent in one another, the wretch is easily persuaded to give truth a bill of divorce at last, and send her away, as Ahasuerus did Vashti, that he may espouse other principles, which will suit better with his corrupt heart, and not cross him in the way he is in. This, this I am persuaded hath parted many and truth in these licentious days. They could not sin peaceably while they kept their judgements sound. Truth ever and anon would be chiding them, and therefore to match their judgements with their hearts, they have taken up principles suitable to their lusts. But soul, if truth hath had such a power upon thee to transform thee, by the renewing of thy mind, into its own likeness, that as the scion turns the stock into its own nature, so truth hath assimilated thee, and made thee bear fruit like itself, thou art the person that will never part with truth. Before thou canst do this, thou must part with that new nature, which, by it, the Spirit of God hath begot in thee. There is now such a near union betwixt thee and truth, or rather thee and Christ, as can never be broken. We see what a mighty power there goes along with God's ordinance of marriage--that two persons, who possibly a month before never knew one another, yet--their affections once knit by love, and their persons made one by marriage--they can now leave friends and parents for to enjoy each other. Such a mighty power, and much greater, goes along with this mystical marriage be tween the soul and Christ, the soul and truth;--that the same person who, before conversion, would not have ventured the loss of a penny for Christ or his truth, yet now, knit to Christ and his truth by a secret work of the Spirit, new-forming him into the likeness thereof, can bid adieu to the world, life, and all, for these. As that martyr told him that asked whether he did not love his wife and children, and was not loath to part with them, 'Yes,' saith he, 'I love them so dearly, that I would not part with any of them for all that the Duke of Brunswick--whose subject he was --is worth; but for Christ's sake and his truth, farewell to them all.'
2. Answer. Labour to get thy heart more and more infired with the love of God, and this will work in thee a dear love to his truth. Love observes what is precious and dear to its beloved, and loves it for his sake. David's love to Jonathan made him inquire for some of his race, that he might show kindness to, for his sake. Love to God will make the soul inquisitive to find out what is near and dear to God--that by showing kindness to it, he may express his love to him. Now upon a little search, we shall find that the great God sets a very high price upon the head of truth. 'For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name,' Ps. 138:2. That is God's name, by which he is known. Every creature hath God's name upon it--by it God is known--even to the least pile of grass. But to his word, and truth therein written, he hath given pre-eminence above all other things that bear his name. Take a few considerations whereby we may a little conceive of the high value God sets of truth.
(1.) God, when he vouchsafeth his word and truth to a people, makes account that he gives them one of the greatest mercies they can receive or he give; he calls them 'the great things' of his 'law,' Hosea 8:12. A people that enjoy his truth, are by Christ's own judgment 'lift up to heaven.' Whatever a people have at God's hands, without this, bears no more comparison with it than Hagar's loaf of bread and bottle--which was Ishmael's portion--would with Isaac's inheritance. God, that knows how to prize and rate his own gifts, saith of his word which he showeth to Jacob, and testimonies he gives to Israel, that 'he hath not dealt so with any nation,' Ps. 147:20; that is, not so richly and graciously. (2.) Consider God's especial care to preserve his truth. Whatever is lost, God looks to his truth. In shipwrecks at sea, and scare-fires at land, when men can save but little, they use to choose not lumber, and things of no worth, but what they esteem most precious. In all the great revolutions, changes, and overturning of kingdoms, and churches also, God hath still pre served his truth. Thousands of saints' lives have been taken away, but that which the devil spites more than all the saints, yea, which alone he spites them for, is his truth. This lives and shall, to triumph over his malice. And sure, if truth were not very dear to God, he would not be at this cost to keep it with the blood of his saints; yea, which is more, the blood of his Son, whose errand into the world was by life and death 'to bear witness to the truth,' John 18:37. In a word, in that great and dismal conflagration of heaven and earth, when the elements shall melt for heat, and the world come to its fatal period, then truth shall not suffer the least loss, but 'the word of the Lord endureth for ever,' I Peter 1:24. (3.) Consider the severity of God to the enemies of truth. A dreadful curse is denounced against those that shall take away from it, or add to the least of it--that embase or clip this heavenly coin, Rev. 22:18. The one pulls upon him all the plagues that are written in the word of truth; from the other shall be taken away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things--that is, the good things of the promises --which are written in this book. All these speak at what a high rate God values truth; and no wonder, if we consider what truth is--that truth which shines forth from the written word. It is the extract of God's thoughts and counsels which from everlasting he took up, and had in his heart to effect. Nothing comes to pass but as an accomplishment of this his word. It is the most full and perfect representation that God himself could give of his own being and nature to the sons of men, that, by it, we might know him and love him. Great princes used to send their pictures by their ambassadors to those whom they woo for mar riage. God is such an infinite perfection, that no hand can draw him forth to life but his own, and this he hath done exactly in his word; from which all his saints have come to be enamoured with him. He that abandons the truth of God, renounceth the God of truth. Though men cannot come to pull God out of his throne, yet they come as near this as it is possible, when they let out their wrath against the truth. In this they do, as it were, execute God in effigy. There is reason we see why God should so highly prize his truth, and that we that love him should cleave to it.
3. Answer. Be much in the meditation of the transcendent excellency of truth. 'The eye affects the heart;' this is the window at which love enters. Never any that had a spiritual eye to see truth in her native beauty, but had a heart to love her. This was the way that David's heart was ravished with the love of the word of truth: 'O how love I thy law! it is my medita tion all the day,' Psalms 119:97. While his thoughts were on it, his love was drawn to it. David found a great difference betwixt meditating on the truth's of God's word, and other excellences which the world cries up so highly. When he goes to entertain himself with the thoughts of some perfection in the creature, he finds it but a jejune[11], dry subject compared with this. He soon tumbles over the book of the world's excellences, and can find no notion that deserves any long stay upon it; 'I have seen' saith he, 'an end of all perfections;' he is at the world's end presently, and in a few thoughts can see to the bottom of all the world's glory; but when he takes up the truths of God into his thoughts, now he meets with work enough for his admiration and sweet meditation--'Thy command ment is exceed ing broad.' Great ships cannot sail in narrow rivers and shallow waters, neither can minds truly great with the knowledge of God and heaven, find room enough in the creature to turn and expatiate[12] themselves in. A gra cious soul is soon aground and at a stand when upon these flats; but let it launch out into the meditation of God, his word, the mysterious truths of the gospel, and he finds a place of broad waters, sea-room enough to lose himself in. I might here show you the excellency of divine truths from many heads. As from the source and spring-head whence they flow, the God of truth; or from their opposite, that misshapen monster, er ror, &c. But I shall only direct your meditation to a few enamouring properties which you shall find in these truths. You may meet a heap of them together in Psalm 19:7, and so on.
Truth is 'pure;' this made David love it, Ps. 119:140. It is not only pure, but makes the soul pure and holy that embraceth it. 'Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth,' John 17:17. It is the pure water that God washeth foul souls clean with. 'I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean, from all your filthiness...will I cleanse you,' Eze. 36:25. Foul puddle-water will as soon make the face, as error make the soul, clean.
Truth is 'sure,' and hath a firm bottom, Ps. 19:7. We may lay the whole weight of our souls upon it and yet it will not crack under us. Cleave to truth and it will stick to thee. It will go with thee to prison, banishment, yea, stake itself and bear thy charges wherever thou goest upon her errand. 'Not one thing,' saith Joshua, 'hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof,' Joshua 23:14. Whatever you find there promised count it money in your purse. 'Fourscore years,' said Polycarp, 'I have served God, and found him to be a good master.' But when men think by forsaking the truth to provide well for themselves, they are sure to meet with disappointments. Many have been flattered from truth with goodly promises, and then served no better than Judas was by the Jews, after he had betrayed his Master into their bloody hands, 'look thou to that.' Though persecutors love the treason, yet they hate the traitor. Yea, oft--to show their devilish malice--they, when some have got to wound their consciences by denying the truth, have most cruelly butchered them, and gloried in it, as a full revenge to destroy the soul and body together. Again,
Truth is 'free,' and makes the soul 'free' that cleaves to it. 'The truth shall make you free,' John 8:32. Christ tells the Jews of a bondage they were in, which that brag people never dreamed on. 'Ye are of your father the devil, and his lusts you will do,' ver. 44. Such slaves are all sinners. They must do what the devil will have them, and dare no more displease him, than a child his father with a rod in his hand. Some witches have confessed that they have been forced to send out their imps to do mischief to others that they might have ease themselves; for till they did send them abroad upon such an errand they were them selves tormented by them. And he who hath a lust sucking on him, finds as little rest if he be not always serving of it, and making provision for it. Can the world, think you, show such another slave as this poor wretch is? Well, though all the bolts that the devil hath--lusts I mean--were locked upon one sinner, and he shut up in the closet dungeon of all his prison, yet let but this poor slave begin to be acquainted with the truth of Christ, so as to open his heart to it, and close with it, and you shall soon hear that the founda tions of the prison are shaken, its doors thrown open, and the chains fallen off the poor creature's legs. Truth cannot itself be bound, nor will it dwell in a soul that lies bound in sin's prison; and therefore when once truth and the soul are agreed, or rather Christ and the soul, who are brought together by 'truth,' then the poor creature may lift up his head with joy, for his redemption and jail-delivery from this spiritual bondage draws nigh; yea, the day is come, the key is in the lock already to let him out. It is impossible we should be acquainted with 'truth as it is in Jesus' and be mere strangers to this liberty that attends it, Eph. 4:19-21.
In a word, truth is victorious. It is great, and shall prevail at last. It is the great counsel of God, and though many fine plots and devices are found in the hearts of men--which show what they would do --yet the counsel of the Lord shall stand. All their eggs are addled when they have set longest on them. Alas! they want power to hatch what their malice sits brooding on. Sometimes, I confess, the enemies to 'truth' get the militia of this lower world into their hands, and then truth seems to go to the ground, and those that witness to it are even slain; yet then it is more than their persecutors can do to get them laid underground in their grave, Rev. 11:9. Some that were never thought on, shall strike in on truth's side, and forbid the burial. Persecutors need not be at cost for marble to write the memorial of their victories in, dust will serve well enough, for they are not like to last so long. 'Three days and a half' the witnesses may lie dead in the streets, and truth sit disconsolate by them; but within a while they are walking, and truth triumphing again. If persecutors could kill their successors, then their work might be thought to stand strong, needing not to fear another to pull down what they set up, and yet then their work would lie as open to heaven, and might be as easily hindered, as theirs at Babel. Who loves not to be on the winning side? Choose truth for thy side, and thou hast it. News may come that truth is sick, but never that it is dead. No, it is error is short lived. 'A lying tongue is but for a moment;' but truth's age runs parallel with God's eternity. It shall live to see their heads laid in the dust, and to walk over their graves, that were so busy to make one for her. Live, did I say? yea, reign in peace with those who now are willing to suffer with and for it. And wouldst thou not, Christian, be one among that goodly train of victors, who shall attend on Christ's triumphant chariot into the heavenly city, there to take the crown, and sit down in thy throne with those that have kept the field, when Christ and his truth were militant here on earth? Thus, wouldst thou but in thy thoughts wipe away the tears and blood which now cover the face of suffering truth, and present it to thy eye as it shall look in glory, thou couldst not but cleave to it with a love 'stronger than death.'
Direction Second. If yet there remains any qualm of fear on thy heart, from the wrath of bloody men threatening thee for thy profession of the truth, then to a heart inflamed with the love of truth, labour to add a heart filled with the fear of that wrath which God hath in store for all that apostatize from the truth. When you chance to burn your finger, you hold it to the fire, which being a greater fire draws out the other. Thus when thy thoughts are scorched and thy heart seared with the fire of man's wrath, hold them awhile to hell-fire, which God hath prepared for the fearful, Rev. 21:8, and all that run away from truth's colours, Heb. 10:39, and thou wilt lose the sense of the one for fear of the other. Ignosce imperator, said the holy man, in carcerem Deus gehennam minatur--pardon me, O emperor, if I obey not thy command; thou threatenest a prison, but God a hell. Observable is that of David, 'Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word,' Ps. 119:161. He had no cause to fear them that had no cause to persecute him. One threatening out of the word--that sets the point of God's wrath to his heart--scares him more than the worst that the greatest on earth can do to him. Man's wrath, alas, when hottest, is but a temperate climate to the wrath of the living God. They who have felt both have testified as much. Man's wrath cannot hinder the access of God's love to the creature, which hath made the saints sing in the fire in spite of their enemies' teeth. But the creature under God's wrath, is like one shut up in a close oven--no crevice open to let any of the heat out, or any refreshing in to him.
Excerpt from The Christian in Complete Armour, by William Gurnall (pp. 312-316)