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SERMON VII.

PREFACE.

WHEREFORE do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfies not? says the Prophet. Isa. Iv. 2. All men agree in this, that they would willingly meet with some satisfying good; and yet, if you look aright upon the projects and labours of the greatest part, you shall find them flying from it, and taking much pains to be miserable. And truly, considering the darkness that is upon the soul of man, it is no great wonder to see those miss their way, and continue wandering, who hear not the voice of the Gospel to recal them, and see not its light to direct them. But this is somewhat strange, that where true happiness, and the true way to it, are propounded and set before men, so few hould follow it in good earnest. If the excellency of that good did not allure them, yet, one would think that their many disappointments in all other things, should drive them home to it. How often do we run ourselves out of breath after shadows! And when we think we have overtaken them, and would lay hold of them, we find nothing. And yet, still we love to befool ourselves, even against our own experience, which, we say, uses to make fools wiser. Still we choose rather to shift from one vanity to another, than to return to that Sovereign Good, that alone can fill the vastest desires of our souls; rather to run from one broken cistern to another, as the Prophet calls them, yea, and to take pains to hew them out, than have recourse to that Fountain of living waters. One main thing that makes men thus rove and wander, is, that they do not reflect upon their own course, nor upon themselves, what is the main end they aim at, and then see whether their way be suitable to that end. If they would be happy, (as who would not?) then surely, things that are empty, and uncertain, and certainly perishing, will not serve the turn. And

truly, as this thought would be seasonable at any time, so especially to us in these times, wherein, besides the common uncertainty of outward things, there is an apparent visible hazard that men's lives and fortunes are likely to be put to. Will you make advantage and gain of your trouble? Thus. The looser you find other things tied to you, and as it were upon a running knot, secure that one thing, and your portion in it, which is worth all the rest; yea, far above them all, and that alone which can be secured, and made certain. Wanting this, what though you had peace, and health, and all imaginable prosperity, you would still be miserable, being liable to the wrath of God, and eternal destruction. But if once united to Christ, and in him reconciled to God, and entitled to Heaven, what can fall amiss to you? You shall have joy in the midst of sorrow and affliction, and peace in the midst of war, yea, and life in death. But think not to attain this assurance, while you continue profane and God-less, not seeking it in the way of holiness, for there alone it is to be found. And withal beg it of God by humble prayer.

PSALM CXIX. 136.

Rivers of waters run down mine eyes: because they keep not Thy law. LOVE is the leading passion of the soul: all the rest follow the measure and motion of it, as the lower heavens are said to be wheeled about with the first.

We have here a clear instance of it in the Psalmist, who is testifying his love to God, by his esteem and love of the law or word of God. What is each of the several verses of this Psalm, but a several breathing and vent of this love, either in itself, or in the causes, or in the effects of it? Where he sets forth the excellencies and utilities of God's law, there you have the causes of his love. His observing and studying of it, his desire to know it more and observe it better, these are the effects of his affection to it. The love itself, he often expresseth, ver. 47, 48, 113, and ver. 140. Thy word is pure; therefore Thy servant loveth it. And ver. 127. I love Thy commandments above gold, yed, above fine gold. But as scarcely accounting that love which can be uttered, how much it is, ver. 97, he expresseth it most, by intimating that he cannot express it: O, how I love Thy law! Hence are his desires (which are love in pursuit) so earnest after it. Amongst many, that is pathetical, ver. 20. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto Thy judgment at all times. Hence, likewise, his joy and delight, (which are love in possession,) ver. 14. I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies as much as in all riches; and ver. 16, I will delight myself in Thy statutes: I will not forget Thy word. We have his hatred of things opposite, (which is love's antipathy,) ver. 118, I hate vain thoughts, but Thy law do I love; ver. 163, I hate and abhor lying, but Thy law do I love. And in the 139th verse you shall find his zeal, (which is no other than the fire of love stirred up or blown into a flame,) My zeal hath consumed me; because mine enemies have forgotten Thy words. And (to omit the rest) in the 158th verse, his love to the law, shows its sympathy in sorrow for the violation of the law: I beheld the transgressors and vaš grieved; because they kept not Thy word. And here you find this grief swelling to such a height, that it runs over into abundant tears. Rivers of waters run down mine eyes; because they keep not Thy law.

The words have briefly, these rivers in their channel and course, They run down mine eyes; and then, in their spring and cause, to wit, the Psalmist's sympathy with God's law broken by men, in the latter clause of the verse, because they keep Thy law. But both together clearly teach us, That godly men are affected with deep sorrow for the sins of the ungodly.

More particularly consider, I. The object of this affection. II. The nature of it. III. The degree or measure of it. IV. Its subject.

I. The object is, the Transgression of the Law, or, to take it (as in the text) in concreto, Men transgressors of the law : They keep not thy law. It is true, the whole creation groaneth under the burden of sin, in the effects of it, as the Apostle speaks, Rom. viii. 32; but sin itself, is man's enemy, he being that reasonable creature to whom the law was given. Now in the general, it is a matter of grief to a godly mind, to consider the universal depravedness of man's nature; that he is a transgressor from the womb; that the carnal mind is enmity against God, not subject to His law, neither, while it remains such, can it be. Rom. viii. 6. And this grief will go the deeper, by remembering from whence he is fallen. When he was new come forth of the hands of his Maker, that image of God which He stamped upon him, shined bright in his soul: the whole frame of it was regular and comely, the inferior faculties obeying the higher, and all of them subject unto God. But how soon was he seduced, and then what a great change ensued!: Quantum mutatus ab illo! There is ever since, such a tumult and confusion in the soul, that it cannot hear the voice of God's law, much less obey and keep it. Hence is that complaint of the Psalmist oftener than once, They are all gone out of the way, and become abominable: there is none that doth good, no, not one. Mundus immundus, ἐν ἀδικίᾳ κεῖται, lies buried in it, as the word is used in the inscription of tombs, ἔνθαδε κεῖται. Look abroad in the world, and what shall ye see, but a sea of wickedness over the face of the whole, which draws from a godly, discerning eye that beholds it, these rivers of tears? The greatest part not knowing the true God, nor the true religion and the true way of His worship. And for those that do, yet, how unlike are they to it in their lives! The reformed churches this way, how unreformed are they in a great part !

But more particularly to branch this out a little in respect to several sorts of men, this godly grief is a very large sphere; it will extend to remote people, remote every way, not only in place, but in manners and religion, even to heathens and gross idolators. Yea, the very sins of enemies, and of such as are professed enemies to God, yet move the tender-hearted Christian to sorrow and compassion. Of whom I now tell you weeping, says St. Paul, that they are enemies to the cross of Christ. Phil. iii. 18. Enemies, and yet he speaks of them weeping. What he writes concerning them, he would have written in tears, if that had been legible. Thus you see the extension of this grief. But yet, out of all question, it will be more intense in particulars of nearer concernment. It is the burden of the pious man's heart, that His law who made the world and gives being to all things, should be so little regarded, and so much broken through all the world; but yet more especially, that in His own Church, amongst His own people, transgression should abound. Sins within the Church are most properly scandals. God manifests Himself (so to speak) most sensible of those, and therefore the godly man is so too. Whether they be the continual enormities of licentious and profane persons, which are by external profession in the face of the visible Church; (though indeed they be in it but as spots and blemishes, as the Apostle speaks; 2 Pet. ii. 13,) or whether it be the apostacy of hypocrites; or (which sometimes falls out) the gross falls of true converts; all these are the great grief of the godly. The relations of men, either natural or civil, will add something too; this sorrow will in such cases be greater than ordinary in a Christian: he will melt it in a particular tenderness for the sins of his kindred, parents or children, husband, or wife; and most of all, ministers will grieve for the sins of their people. How pathetically does this appear in St. Paul! And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness, and fornication, and lasciviousness, which they have committed, 2 Cor. xii. 21. A man cannot but be more particularly touched with the sins of that nation, and of that city, and congregation, and family, whereof he is a member. So we read of Lot, 2 Pet. ii. 8: For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul, from day to day, with their unlawful deeds. The sins of more eminent persons, either

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