4. This producetb good effects ; it is a disposition of great use and profit to us.
[1.] It deterreth us from sinning ourselves, and so we are kept from being tainted with the contagion of evil examples ; for what we mourn for in others we will not commit ourselves. The heart is made more averse from sin every day b}'' this practice, whereas those that take pleasure in the sins of others do the same things, Eom. i. 32, consent with them to dishonour God, and so howl among the wolves, as the Latin proverb is ; but when this is a trouble to us, it maketh us avoid their example, notwithstanding terrors and allurements to the con- trary ; terrors from the angry world, who cannot endure that any should part company ; and allurements from our commodious living among the offenders. Thus Lot escaped in Sodom, because ' his righteous soul was vexed ;' and Noah ' was upright in his generation,' because he reproved the deeds of the wicked.
[2.] When we see their punishment in their sin, and fear a storm when the clouds are gathering, it puts us upon mourning and humili- ation, which is a necessary duty in evil times : Jer. xiii. 17, ' If you will not hear, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride.' None do so feelingly bewail the sins of the times as those who have a tender holy heart, affected with God's dishonour, and compassion over the souls of men. Others do personate a mourning, and act a part in a fast, as the mourning women among the Jews did at funerals, or as the boys in the streets would act their festivities and lamentations : Mat. xi. 16, 17, ' Whereunto shall I liken this generation ? It is like unto children sitting in the market, and calling to their fellows, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced ; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.' Therefore it is of great use to us to get this frame of spirit.
[3.] It maketh us more careful to reform others, so far as it lieth within our power. Certainly without this disposition a man will never seek the conversion of souls for which Christ died ; but have it once, and then you will take all occasions to do good to the souls of your children, and relations, and neighbours. When Paul was stirred in spirit, irapw^vveTo to irvev/xa, exasperated within himself, because he saw the whole city given to idolatry, ' He disputed with them daily in the market-place,' and took all occasions to reclaim them. So if you were affected with the evil of sin, horribleness of wrath, certainty of
YeR. 53.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 63
the word of God, and the bane that coraeth to any society by having the Avicked amongst them, would you let your children, and servants, or friends go on in a danming course ? Would you not have com- passion on them, and pluck them out of the fire ? Surely this should be the temper of every minister when he hath to do with sinners, that his ministry may not be a sleepy ministry ; of every parent and house- holder, that all under his roof may be found in the way of the Lord ; of every Christian towards his friends.
[4.] It justifieth our zeal in reproving. Surely reproof had need to be managed with great tenderness and compassion, that it may not seem to flow from hatred and ill-will to the persons reproved, nor from petulancy of spirit, nor a desire of venting reproaches, but from pure zeal to the glory of God, grief to see him dishonoured, souls in danger to be lost, or hardened through the deceitfulness of sin ; therefore holy men, in their sharpest invectives against sin, or oppositions of it, have always mingled compassion : Mark iii. 5, ' Our Lord looked about with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts. ' There was more of compassion than passion in our Lord Jesus Christ ; he was angry, but grieved. So Paul, when he disputed earnestly against the Jews, yet telleth us, Eom. ix. 2, ' I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart ;' as much love to the persons of his countrymen as zeal against their errors. So flens dico, ' I tell you weeping, they are enemies to the cross of Christ,' Phil. iii. 18. Though he discovereth them to be enemies to the cross of Christ, yet he wept for their sakes and the church's sake.
[5.] Those that are grieved and troubled even to some degree of horror and trembling of heart, for the prevailing of iniquity in those places and persons among whom they live, are delivered from the common judgment. So 2 Peter ii. 7, 'He delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked ; ' and ' those that mourned and sighed for all the abominations which were committed in the midst of the land,' were marked out for preservation. The Lord hath a special care of them in times of public calamity.
Use 1. Of reproof ; it condemneth —
1. Them that take pleasure in nothing so much as in the company of the ungodly, where they hear God dishonoured, his laws broken : if they were horribly afraid of the wicked which forsake God's law, how could this be ? AH conversation with the wicked is not forbidden, for then we must go out of the world ; and to some we are bound by the law of necessity, or some civil and religious or natural bond ; yet we are to eschew all unnecessary and voluntary fellowship and familiarity with them : Ps. xxvi. 4, ' I have not sat with vain persons, nor gone in with dissemblers.' So Prov. xxii. 24, 25, ' Make no friendship with an angry man ; and with a froward man thou shalt not go ; lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.' Certainly we are not to de- light in the openly wicked as the only company that is pleasant to us, for what can a tender Christian get among them but a wound to his soul ?