Ana. 4. Fourthly, The godly tremble, and mourn and tremble. Their trembling hearts are broken hearts, and their broken hearts are trembling hearts ; they look upon sin and tremble, and they look upon sin and mourn, Isa. lxvi. 2 ; Jer. ix. 1, 2; Ps. cxix. 136 : Jer. xxv. 13, 17, ' But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears,' &c. The wicked tremble, but, under all their tremblings, their hearts are as dry and hard as rocks, yea, harder than the very rocks : Jer. v. 3, ' They made their faces harder than a rock ; they have refused to return,' Ezek. iii. 7-9 ; Jer. vii. 26. Pharaoh trembled, but yet was hardened ; the devils tremble, but yet are hardened. If one penitent tear could purchase heaven, hell could not afford that one tear. Repenting tears are precious ; the}' are, saith Gregory, ' the fat of the sacrifice ;' and, as Basil saith, ' the medicine of the soul ;' and, as Bernard, ' the wine of angels.' But these are only to be found among those choice souls who make conscience of trembling at God's word, and who enjoy that choice tenderness of heart that is in this little treatise drawn to the life. Verily we cannot meet on this side hell with a worse temper of spirit than that which inclines a sinner to drop counterfeit tears, and to despise the forbearance of God, and to kick against the bowels of his goodness, Rom. ii. 4, as that profane Arian did who was executed at Harwich, concerning whom Mr Greenham acquainteth us with this strange and prodigious narration. This hellish heretic, saith he — for so were the deniers of Christ's divinity accounted of in those days, whatever thoughts men have of them now — a little before he was executed, afforded a few whorish tears, asking whether he might be saved by Christ or no ? when one told him that if he truly repented, he should surely not perish, he breaks out into this speech, Nay, if
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your Christ be so easy to be entreated indeed as you say, then I defy him, and care not for him. Oh horrible blasphemy, and desperate wickedness ! for a man to draw himself back from repentance by that very cord of love whereby he should have been drawn to it.1 But,
Ans. 5. Fifthly and lastly, The hearts of wicked men and devils only tremble upon the account of punishment and the judgment to come, Acts xxiv. 25 * Mat. viii. 28, 29. As a malefactor trembleth before the judge, and under the sense of his doom ; but a child of God trembles under the sense of God's Good- ness and kindness to him : Hosea iii. 7, ' And shall fear the Lord and his good- ness ; ' or, as some sense it, ' they shall fear the Lord because of his goodness.' The Hebrew is, ■ they shall fear to the Lord pavebunt ad Dominum, that is, trembling they shall make haste to him as frighted doves do to their columbaries. See Hosea xi. 11. Look'J as holy tremblings and gladness are consistent to- gether, Ps. ii. 11 ; and as a holy fear and joy are consistent together, as you see in those good women who went from Christ's sepulchre with fear and great joy, Mat. xxviii. 8, a strange composition of two contrary passions, but fre- quently found in the best hearts ; so a holy love and trembling are consistent together.2 A child whose heart is full of love to his father, when he looks upon him as offended or grieved, he trembles-, like that poor woman, Mark v. 33, who, fearing that she had offended Christ in her approaching to him, came trembling, but yet with a heart full of love to Christ. So here, when a child of God fixes one eye upon the holiness and justice of God, he trembles ; and when, at the same time, he fixes his other eye upon the patience, the goodness, the graciousness, and readiness of God to forgive as a father, he loves and joys; but now all the tremblings of the wicked are from apprehensions of wrath to come, and from a hansel3 of hell in their consciences on this side hell. These five things I thought to hint at, that the reader may be the better able to grapple with the same objection when he meets with it in this little piece.
The dew of heaven hath richly fallen among many, and yet, like Gideon's fleece, they are dry when all the regions about them are wet, Judges vi. 37-40* and is it not so with many in these days, who sit under gospel droppings, and who have the labours of many famous men put every day into their hands ? and yet how are their souls like the mountains of Gilboa, upon which there fell neither dew nor rain ! This is and this must be for a lamentation, 2 Sam. i. 21. If the books of the law chance to fall upon the ground, the Jews' custom is presently to proclaim a fast. Ah, friends ! what cause have we to fast and mourn, when we see the word preached, printed, offered, to fall upon the oround, and to be trampled upon, as it is this day by atheists, papists, Socinians, and other vain persons ! &c. The Jews have a law which enjoins them to take up any paper which they see lying on the ground ; and the reason is, lest haply the word of God be written in the paper and ignorantly trodden under foot. Though Christians ought to be free from such superstitious curiosities, yet they ought to be very careful that the least tittle of the word, the least truth revealed in the word, be not trodden under foot either by themselves or others ■ con- sidering its excellency and usefulness as a guide, a light, to lead us through the wilderness of this world to the heavenly Canaan : Prov. vi. 22, ■ When thou goest, it shall lead thee ; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee ; when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.' That is, according to the gloss of the Kab- binical interpreters, when thou goest, it shall lead thee, viz. in thy passage through this world ; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee, viz. when thou liest down in the grave ; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee, viz. when thou art awakened at the glorious resurrection. But, that I may not
1 Mr Greenham in his treatise, entitled A sweet Comfort for an afflicted Conscience, on Prov. xviii. 14. 2 God loves at once familiarity and fear. 3 Earnest, foretaste. G.
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make the porch too large, I shall hasten to a close. There are three sorts of persorjs, above all others, that I would seriously recommend this treatise to.
(1.) First, Those that do tremble at the word, and those that have soft and tender hearts ; for these will find choice comforts, special encouragements, and singular supports to cheer and bear up their hearts in their greatest trials, in- ward or outward, or in the worst of times.