2. Secondly, To those that receive them. He is a slanderer that wrongs his neighbour's credit, by upholding an evil report against a man. It is hard to say which is worse, railing or receiving : Ps. xv. 3, a citizen of Sion is described to be one ' that taketh not up a reproach against his neighbour ; ' and you shall see, on the contrary, Prov. xvii. 4, ' A wucked doer giveth heed to false lips, and a liar giveth heed to a naughty tongue.' He is a liar that receives a lie when brought to him, as well as he that brought it ; if you love the lie, though you do not devise it. The Lord will curse all them that love lies, as if you did imagine them. All that are acquainted with the matter are accountable to God ; you are responsible for your ear, as they for their tongue. It is good to have a healing tongue, to heal that which others wound : Prov. xii. 18, ' The tongue of the wise is health,' it is healing ;
422 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XLIV.
and therefore we should labour to show forth this Christian meekness ; as not to devise slanders against others, so not to cherish them, and uphold them against others.
Use 3. If this be a usual and grievous evil, it puts us upon seeking comforts against reproaches. Now, what are the comforts we should seek against reproaches ?
1. The witness of a good conscience, for then this will be matter of great joy and great peace to you: 2 Cor. i. 12, 'This is my rejoicing, the testimony of my conscience,' &c. If men reproach you, yet let not your hearts rei^roach you, Job xxvii, 6. The heart hath a reproaching, condemning power. Conscience is register, witness, and judge; and that which troubles our quiet are these heart-smitings and heart-re- proaches. Let any other man in the world be your enemy rather than your own conscience be an enemy. Certainly, where conscience is a friend, if you be innocent, you need not care for the reproaches of others. If they speak against you as faulty, they do but speak against another, whom the slanderer takes to be thee, and in time you will out-wrestle the reproach. Look, as the hair will grow again as long as the roots remain, so though the razor of censure and reproach brings on baldness, the hair will o-row again.
2. Another comfort against reproaches is the approbation of God ; that should satisfy against all the censures of the world. You have the greatest, best, and wisest on your side, if you have G-od on your side. The world decries those that profess strictness to God's ways as hypocrites ; but you are hypocrites indeed that are troubled at this, if you value man's approbation rather than God's. No ; you should be of that temper : Eom. viii. 33, 34, ' Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth.' If the Lord will acquit you, no matter what men say. The world's filth may be God's jewels. Many times a contempt doth but manifest God's esteem, and give us a further sense of it. They cannot impose upon God ; they cannot burden their cause before the Lord ; and therefore, if the Lord hath covered your filth, it is no matter though they rake in it : Ps. xxxii. 1, 'Blessed is the man whose sin is covered,' &c. The Lord will not ask their opinion, their vote and suffrage, whether he shall con- demn or acquit you ; but he will go according to the laws of his own covenant, and therefore the approbation of God should be enough to you.
3. The consideration of those promises that concern the vindicating our name from contempt. God is wont to scatter the reproaches of his servants as the sun gets from within the cloud, to bring forth their righteousness as the noon-day.
4. Heaven will make amends for all the dishonour that men put upon you. Though the proud scorn you, yet if you keep God's statutes, and go on waiting upon him for eternal life, great will be your glory in heaven.
VeR. 40.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 423
SERMON XLV.
Behold, I have longed after thy jjrecepts ; quicken me in thy right- eousness.— Ver. 40.
In the close of the former verse David had given this commendation of the statutes of God, that they were good. Now, to show that he did indeed accoimt them so, he allegeth his desires after them, ' Behold I have longed,' &c. In the words you have — (1.) A narrative ; (2.) A request. The one is used as the reason of the other.
First, In the narrative he expresseth his sincere desire of conforming his heart and ways to the laws of God. Where — (1.) Tlie matter of his plea, ' I have longed after thy precepts.' Not to know them only, but to do them ; not to satisfy curiosity, but to understand and obey the will of God, and to make it the rule of his life and actions. Then (2.) The sincerity of it ; that is intimated in the word behold. There is ecce admirantis, the behold of admiration, and ecce demonstrantis, the behold of demonstration. This last is here to be understood. We must look upon David as appealing to God, as offering himself unto his trial and approbation, who is the best witness and judge of the hearts of men, who knows all things, and cannot be put off with shows,