nothing ; he had power to hurt Jacob, but God would not let him. Mordecai, one would have thought, took the readiest way to incur the king's wrath, by denying Hainan that reverence which all were, by royal command, to pay him: but the holy man's conscience would not sufter his knee to bow ; and yet we see when that proud favourite had done his worst to be revenged on him, he was forced himself to inherit the gallows intended for Mordecai, and leave Mordecai to succeed him in the prince's favour. Thus God, who hath a key to kings' breasts, on a sudden locked Ahasuerus's heart against that cursed Amalekite, and opened it to let this holy man into his room. O who would be afraid to be conscientious, when God can and doth so admirably provide for his people's safety, while they keep close to him !
Secondly, Suppose thy holy walking stirs up the wrath of imgodly ones against thee ; know, there may be more mercy in their hatred, than in their love. Commonly, the saints get good by the wrath of the wicked against them, not so oft by their favour and friendship ; their displeasure awakens their care, and makes them more accurate; thus David prayed God 'to make his way plain for him,' because of his observing enemies: whereas their friendship too oft lays it asleep, and proves a snare to drav/ them into some sinfid compliance with them. Jehoshaphat was wound in too far by his correspondence with Ahab : so hard is it to keep in with God, and wicked men also. Luther pro- fessed 'he would not have Erasmus's honour for a world;' indeed the friend- ship he had with, and respect he had from the great ones of the world, made him mealy-mouthed in the cause of God. The Moabites could not give Israel the fall at arms' length ; but when they closed in alliances with the children of Israel, then they were too hard for them ; not their curses, but their embraces did them the hurt. Again, we can never lose the love, or incur the wrath of men, upon better and more advantageous terms, than for keeping our ' breast- plate of righteousness' close to us. First, when we lose for this any love from men, we gain God's blessing instead of it : ' Blessed are ye when all men speak evil of you falsely for my name's sake,' Matt. v. 11. God's blessing is a good roof over our head, to defend us from the storm of man's wrath. O, it is sad, when a Christian opens the mouths of the wicked, by some imholy action, to speak evil of him ! no promise will open then its door to hide thee from the storm of their railing tongues ; man reviles, and God frov.'ns ; little welcome such a one has, when he returns home to look into his own conscience, or con- verse with his God. But when it is for thy holiness they hate thee, God is bound by promise to pay thee love for their hatred, blessing for their cursing ; and truly that courtier has little cause to complain, that for a little disrespect from others, that cannot hurt him, is advanced higher in his prince's favour. Secondly, while thy holy walking loseth t4iee some love from the world, it gains thee the more reverence and honour. They that will not love thee be- cause thou art holy, cannot choose but fear and reverence thee at the same time for what they hate thee. Let a saint comply with the wicked, and remit a little of his holiness to correspond with them, lie loses by the hand, as to his interest, I mean, in them ; for by gaining a little false love, he loses that true honour, which inwardly their consciences paid to his holiness. A Christian walking in the power of holiness, is like Samson in his strength, the wicked fear him ; but when he shews an impotent spirit by any indecency in his course to his holy profession, then presently he is taken prisoner by them, and falls under both the lash of their tongue, and scorn of their hearts. They can now dance about such a one, and make him their May game, whose holiness even now kept them in awe. It is not poverty, or the baseness of thy outward state in the world, will render thee contemptible, so long as thou keepest thy ' breastplate of righteousness' on. There sits majesty in the brow of holiness, though clad in rags. Righteous David commands reverence from wicked Saul. The king himself does this homage to his poor exiled subject, 1 Sam. xxiv. 17 : ' He wept, and said to David, Thou art more righteous than I.' Ay, this is as it should be, when carnal men are forced to acknowledge that they are outshot % the holy lives of Christians. O Christians, do some singular thing, what the best of your merely civil neighbours cannot do, and you sit sure in the throne of their consciences, even when they throw you out of their hearts and aflec- tions. So long as the magicians did something like the miracles Moses wrought,
THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 3^5