2. They have a greater sense than others, their hearts being en- tendered by religion. None have so quick a feeling as the children of God. AVhy ? Because they have a clearer understanding, and more tender and delicate affections.
[1.] Because they have a clearer understanding, and see more into the nature of things than those that are drowned in present delights and contentments. The loss of God's favour carnal men know not how to value, but the saints prefer it above life : ' The favour of God is better than life,' Ps. Ixiii. 3. Therefore, if the Lord do but suspend the wonted manifestations of his grace and favour, how are their hearts troubled ! ' Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled,' Ps. xxx. 7. A child of God, that lives by his favour, cannot brook his absence ; therefore, when they lose the sweet sense of his favour and reconcilia- tion with him, oh, what a trouble is this to their souls ! Other men make no reckoning of it at all. And so for sin, common spirits value it only by the damage it doth to their worldly interests ; when it costs them dear, they may hang the head : Jer. ii. 9, ' Now know what an evil and bitter thing it is to forsake the Lord.' A worldly man may know something of the evil of sin in the effects of it, but a child of God seeth into the nature of it ; they value it by the wrong, by the offence that is done to God, and so are humbled more for the evil in sin, than for the evil after sin. So for the wrath of God ; carnal men have gross thoughts of it, and ma}^ howl upon their beds when their pleasant things are taken from them ; but God's children are humbled because their father is angry; they observe more the displeasure of God in afflicting providences than others do ; and one spark of God's wrath lighting into their consciences, oh, what sad eftects doth it work ! more than all other straits whatsoever. Thus they have a clearer understanding, they see more into the dreadfulness of God's wrath, into the evil of sin, and they know how to prize and value his favour more than others.
[2.] They have delicate and tender affections. Grace, that gives us a new heart, doth also give us a soft heart: Ezek. xxxvi. 26, ' I will put a new heart into them.' What kind of heart ? ' A heart of flesh,' as the old heart that is taken out is a heart of stone. A new soft heart doth sooner receive the impression of divine terror than another heart doth. A stamp is more easily left upon wax, or a soft thing, than upon a stone. Or thus, a slave hath a thicker skin than one nobly born, tenderly brought up ; therefore he is not so sensible of
VeR. 28.] SERMONS UPON PSALiI cxix. 2G7
stripes. A wicked man hath more cause to be troubled than a godly man ; but he is not a man of sense ; he hath a heart of stone, and therefore is not so aftected- either with God's dealings with him, or his dealings Avith God. Look, as the weight of the blows must not only be considered, but the delicateuess of the constitution, so, because their hearts are of a softer and more tender constitution, being hearts of iiesh, and receptive of a deeper impression, therefore their sorrows exceed the sorrows of other men.
3. The good that they expect is exceeding great, and their exercise is accordingly; for after the rate of our comforts so are our afflictions. Wicked men, that have nothing to expect in the world to come but horrors and pains, they wallow now in ease and plenty : Luke xvi. 25, ' Son, in thy lifetime thou receivedst thy good things.' God will be behindhand with none of his creatures ; those that do him common service have common blessings in a larger measure than his own peo- })le have ; they have their good things, that is, such as their hearts choose and affect. But now good men, that expect another happiness, they must be content to be harassed and exercised, that they may be litted and prepared for the enjoyment of this happiness. As the stones that were to be set in the temple were to be hewn and sqtiared, so are they to be hewn, squared, and exercised with bitter and sharp things, that they may be prepared for the more glory.
Use 1. Then carnal men are not fit to judge of the saints when they report their experiences, if it be with them above the rate of other men. When afiiicted consciences speak of their wounds, or revived hearts of their comforts, their joys are supernatural, and so are their sorrows ; and therefore a natural man thinks all to be but fancy, all those joys of the Spirit, that they are but fanatic delusions ; and he doth not understand the weight of their sorrows. When a man is well to see to, and hath health, strength, and wealth, they marvel what should make such a man heavy ; all their care is to eat, drink', and be merry ; and therefore because they are not acquainted with the exercises of a feeling conscience, they think all this trouble is but a little mopishncss and melancholy. Poor contrite sinners, who are ready to weep out their hearts at their eyes, can only understand such expressions as these, ' My soul melteth away for heaviness.' There is another manner of tiling in trouble of conscience than the carnal world doth imagine ; and many that have all well about them, great estates, much befriended and esteemed in the world, yea, for the best things, yet when God hides his face, poor souls, how are they troubled ! If he do but let a spark of his wrath into their conscience, and hide his face from them, it is a greater burden to them than all the miseries of the world.