132 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.
of God's public visitation, Isa. xxvi. 20. When the house is on fire, the father hath a special care to provide for the safety and security of his children ; when the lumber is on fire, a man will be sure first to secure his box of jewels. In times of common calamity, God will be sure to look after his jewels, his mourning ones. Though the lumber, the wicked, be burnt up on every hand in the day of God's wrath, yet he will be sure to preserve his jewels in the midst of the flames. ^ Augustine, coming to visit a sick man, found the room full of mourners ; he found the wife sobbing, the children sighing, and the kindred lamenting ; whereupon he suddenly breathed forth this short, but sweet ejaculatory prayer, ' Lord,' saith he, ' what prayers dost thou hear, if not these?' So in times of common calamity, holy hearts may look up and say. Ah, Lord, whose sighs, whose groans, whose tears wilt thou hear, if not ours ? Who are mourners in Sion, and who wilt thou save and secure, in this day of thy fierce indignation, if not we, who have laboured to drown both our own and other men's sins in penitential tears ?
[6.] A holy heart looks upon sinners' sins to contribute very much towards the bringing in of sore and sad changes upon a land and nation, Ps. cvii. 33, 34. He knows that sinners' sins may turn rivers into a wilderness, a^d water-springs into dry ground, and a fruitful land into a barren wilderness ; he knows that sinners' sins may have a deep hand in provoking God to rain hell out of heaven upon a sinful nation, as he did of old upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and this sets him a-mourning. If one sinner destroys much good, as Solomon speaks, Eccles. ix. 18, Ah, saith he, what a world of good will a world of sin- ners destroy then ! The serious thoughts of this makes him sigh. 2
[7.] A holy heart looks upon other men's sins as their bonds and chains. Acts viii. 23, and this makes him mourn. When Marcellus, the Koman general, saw the multitude of captives that were taken in the city of Syracuse, the tears trickled down his cheeks. Ah, how can tears but trickle down a Christian's cheeks when he sees multitudes, fast bound with the cords of their iniquity, trooping to hell ? Who can look upon a sinner as a close prisoner to the prince oi darkness, and not bemoan him ? Now if holy persons thus mourn for the wickedness of others, then certainly they are far from being holy who take pleasure in the wickedness of others, who laugh and joy, who can make a sport, a pastime of other men's sins. These are rather monsters than men. There are none so nearly allied to Satan as these, nor none resemble Satan to the life so much as these. The devil always joys most when sinners sin most.^ Neither doubtless are they holy who tempt and entice others to be unholy ; nor are they holy who only cry out of other men's sins, but never sigh for other men's sins ; nor are they holy who insult over the iniquities of others, but never mourn for the iniqui- ties of others ; nor are they holy who can rail, reproach, and revile others for their sins, but have neither skill nor will to lament over others' sins : and yet this age is full of such wretches. Certainly that man's
^ Isa. xliii. 2, 3; Dan. iii. 17-28.
^ Witness Achan, Manasseh, Jeroboam, Saul, Herod, Ahab, &c.
^ To applaud to them, and take pleasure in them wlio take pleasure in sin, is the highest degree of ungodliness.
HeB. XII. 14] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 133
holiness will be found to be of the right stamp at last, who can evan- gelically mourn for other men's sins as well as his own. But,
13. Thirteenthly, He that is truly holy, he loves the loord, and is affected and taken with the loord for its holiness and purity: Ps. cxix. 140, ' Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it.' A pure heart embraces the word for its purity, 1 Pet. ii. 2 ; Ps. xii. 6, 7, and xviii. 30.^ So holy Paul in Kom. vii. 12, ' Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.' Well, and what then ? Why, saith he, ver. 22, * I delight in the law of God after the inward man.' But is this all ? No, saith he, ver. 25, ' With the mind I myself serve the law of God.' Holy Paul delights in the law as holy, and serves the law as holy, just, and good. A holy heart is taken with the word for its spirituality, divinity, and purity. So in Ps. xix. 8-10, ' The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart : the commandment of the Lord is pure^ enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,' (that is, the doctrine that teacheth the true fear of God,) ' enduring for ever : the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether ; more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb:' or, as the Hebrew hath it, sweeter than the dropping of honeycombs.^ The whole word of God, as it is a pure word, a clean word, so it rejoices a holy heart ; and so it is sweeter than the very droppings of honeycombs. It is more sweet than those drops which drop imme- diately and naturally, without any force or art, which is counted the purest and the sweetest honey. There is no profit nor pleasure to that which the purity of the word yields to a holy heart. But now unholy hearts they are affected with the word as it is dressed up with fine high notions, which are but mysterious nothings : they are taken with the word, as it is clothed with arts, parts, and elegancy of phrase ; they are pleased with the word, as it is appareUed with a spruce wit, or with silken expressions, or with some delicate elocution. Augustine confesseth that the delight which he took before his conversion in St Ambrose's sermons, was more for the eloquence of the words than the substance of the matter •,^ so many are taken more with the wit, elocu- tion, action, high notions, and far-fetched expressions that be in a sermon, than they are taken with the spirituality, divinity, weight, and holy worth that is in a sermon ; these are like those children who are more taken with the fine flowers that are strewed about the dish, than they are with the meat that is in the dish ; and that are more taken with the red weeds and blue-bottles that grow in the field, than they are with the good corn that grows there.* But now, as the prudent farmer is taken more with a few handfuls of sound corn, than he is with all the gay weeds that be in the field ; so a holy heart is more taken with a few sound truths in a sermon, than he is taken with all
' Sacrse ScriptursD tuse sunt sanctse deliciae mese. — Augiistine.
" These several titles — law, statutes, testimonj', commandments, judgments — are used promiscuously for the whole word of God, commonly distinguished into law and gospel.
'' Cf. Sibbes, s. n. : and Confessions.— G.