44 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. LVII.
self he cannot save : if he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him : he trusted in God ; let him deliver him now, if he will have him ; for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth.' So Acts xvii. 32, ' Some mocked, and said, What will this babbler say ? ' Well, then, since it is a usual evil which God's children have suffered, it should be the less to us. Little can the wicked say if they cannot scoff, and little can we endure if we cannot abide a bad word. There needs no great deal ado to advance a maa into the chair of the scorner ; if they have wickedness and boldness enough, they may soon let fly.
2. This, as well as other afflictions, are not excepted out of our resignation to God. We must be content to be mocked and scorned, as well as to be persecuted and molested. It is mentioned in the beati- tudes. Mat. V. 11, ' Blessed are you when men shall revile you, and per- secute you, and say all manner of evil falsely against you for my sake.'
3. Railing and calumniating will never prevail with rational and conscientious men to cause them to change their opinions. To leave the truth because others rail at it, is to consult with our affections, not out judgments. Solid reasoning convinceth our judgments, but raillery is to our affections ; and a rational conscientious man is governed by an enlightened mind, not perverse and preposterous affections : Eph. v. 17, ' Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.' Therefore an honest man will not quit truth because others rail ; no, he looketh to his rule and warrant. A man will not be railed out of errors; nay, often they are the more rooted because ill-confuted.
4. It is the duty of God's children to justify wisdom : Mat. xi. 19, ' Wisdom is justified of her children.' What is it to justify wisdom ? Justification is a relative word, opposed to crimination, so to justify is the work of an advocate ; or to condemnation, so it is the work of a judge. The children of wisdom discharge both parts ; they plead for the ways of God, and exalt them : so much as others deny them, they value them, esteem them, hold them for good and right. When they are never so much condemned and despised, the more zealous the saints will be for them : ' I will yet be more vile.'
5. Carnal men at the same time approve what they seem to con- demn ; they hate and fear strictness : Mark vi. 20, ' Herod feared John, because he was a just man and an holy, and observed him.' They scoff at it with their tongues, but have a fear of it in their con- sciences ; they revile it while they live, but what mind are they of when they come to die ? Then all speak well of a holy life, and the strictest obedience to the laws of God : Num. xxiii. 10, ' Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his ;' Mat. xxv. 8, ' Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out.' Oh, that they had a little of that holiness and strictnes.s which they scoffed at whilst they were pursuing their lusts ! How will men desire to die ? as carnal and careless sinners, or as mortified saints ? Once more, they approve it in thesi, and condemn it in hypothesi. All the scoffers at godliness with- in the pale of the visible church have the same Bible, baptism, creed, X^retend to believe in the same God and Christ, which they own with
VeR. 51.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 45
those Avliora they oppose. All the difiference is, the one are real Chris- tians, the other are nominal; some profess at large, the others practise what they profess ; the one have a religion to talk of, the others to live by. Once more, they approve it in the form, but hate it in the power. A picture of Christ that is drawn by a painter they like, and the for- bidden image of God made by a carver, they will reverence and honour and be zealous for ; but the image of God framed by the Spirit in the hearts of the faithful, and described in the lives of the heavenly and the sanctified, this they scorn and scofT at.
6. Their judgment is perverse, not to be stood upon. They count the children of God foolish and crack-brained. The crimination may be justly retorted ; their way is folly and madness, for they go dancing to their destruction. Though there be a God by whom and for whom they were made, and from whom they are fillen, and that they cannot be happy but in returning to him again, yet they carry it so as if there were no misery but in bodily and worldly things, no happiness but in pleasing the senses. The beginning, progress, and end of their course is from themselves, in themselves, and to themselves. They pour out their hearts to inconsiderable toys and trifles, and will neither admit information of their error, nor reformation of their practice till death destroy them. They neglect their main business, and leave it undone, and run up and down, they know not why, like children that fol- low a bubble blown out of a shell of soap, till it break and dissolve. Now should those that are flying from vrrath to come, and seeking after God and their happiness, be discouraged because these mad and merry worldlings scofi" at them for their diligent seriousness ? Surely we should deride their derisions and contemn their contempt, who de- spise God and Christ and their salvation. Should a wise man be troubled because madmen rail at him ? If they ' glory in their shame,' Phil. iii. 19, we must not be ashamed of our glory, nor ashamed to be found praying rather than sinning. If they think you fools for pre- ferring heaven before inconsiderable vanities, remember they can no more judge of these things than a blind man of colours.