2. As to try our faith, so our patience. We should prevent reproach as much as we can ; but then we must bear it when we cannot avoid it. They reproach, but I pray, Ps. cix. 4 ; that was David's exercise
VeR. 22.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 211
and revenge ; he took that advantage, to pray for them. God will try- how we can bear the injuries of men. The grace of patience must be tried as well as other graces. We read that Shimei went railing upon David to the peril of his life ; saith David, ' It may be God hath bid him curse/ A mad dog that bites another makes him as mad as himself; so usually the injuries and reproaches of others foster up our revenge, and then there is no difference between us and them : they sin, and we sin. Kevenge and injury differ only in order ; injury is first, and revenge is next. Saith Lactantius, If it be evil in another, for thee to imitate him, to be as mad as they, break out in passion and virulency, it is more evil in thyself, because thou sinnest twice, against a rule and against an example ; therefore God tries whether we will be passionate or patient. The patience of his servants is mightily dis- covered by reproaches : 1 Cor, iv. 12, ' Being reviled, we bless ; being persecuted, we suffer it ; being defamed, we entreat.' There must be a season to try every grace ; and therefore now God trieth us, whether we can with a meek humble submission yield up ourselves ; or whether we are exasperated and drawn into bitterness of passion, yea or nay.
3. God tries our uprightness. Many are turned out of the way by reproaches ; the devil works much upon stomach and spleen. Ter- tullian being reproached by the priests of Eome, in revenge turns Montanist. Now God tries us to see whether we will hold on our course. The moon shines and holds on its course though the dogs bark ; so a child of God should hold on his way though men talk their fill. In the text, though proud men reproached and contemned David, yet all this did not unsettle him. Some men can be religious no longer than when they are counted to be religious ; but when their secular interest is in danger, they fall off. Thus when men injure them, they do as it were take a revenge upon God himself. Those carnal men that fall off from God are like pettish servants that run away from their master when he strikes them ; a good servant will take a buffet patiently, and go about his master's work ; and if we were seasoned as we should be for Gocf, we would pass ' through evil report and good report,' 2 Cor. vi. 8, and still keep our integrity.
Thirdly, God ordereth this grievous and sharp affliction to do you good or to better you. Eeproach is like soap, which seems to defile clothes, but it cleanseth them. There is nothing so bad but we may make some good use of it, a Christian may gain some advantage by it. Dung seems to stain the grass, but it makes the ground fruit- ful, and to rise up at spring with a fresh verdure. Eeproaches are a necessary help to a godly conversation, to make us walk with more care ; and therefore there is another piece of holy revenge we should take upon them, to make us walk more strictly and more watchfully, the more they slander us and speak of us as evil-doers ; the way is not to contend for esteem, so much as to stop their mouths by a good apology. Passionate returns will but increase sin, but a holy conversation will silence them.
Use 2. To them that either devise or receive reproaches ; both are very sinful.
First, To you that devise them, that speak reproachfully of others. Consider —
212 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XXIII.
1. You hazard the repute of your own sincerity : James i. 26, ' Whosoever seemeth religious, and hridleth not his tongue, but de- ceiveth his o\Yn heart, this man's religion is vain.' Hypocrites, and men that put themselves into a garb of religion, and are all for cen- suring, take a mighty freedom this way ; these men bewray the rot- tenness of their hearts. Those that are so much abroad are seldom at home ; they do not inquire and look into their own hearts. Alas ! in our own sight we should be the worst of men. The children of God do ever thus speak of themselves as ' the least of saints,' the ' greatest of sinners,' ' more brutish than any men,' of ' sinners whereof I am chief.' Why ? Because we can know others only by guess and imagi- nation, but they can speak of themselves out of inward feeling ; there- fore Ave should have a deeper sense of our own condition. But now a man that is much in judging and reproving others is seldom within ; for if he did but consider himself, if he had but an account of his own failings, he would not be so apt to blemish others. It is a cheap zeal to let fly at the miscarriages and sins of others, and to allow our own. Consider, thou hast enough to observe already in thyself.