VeK. 119.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 223
dance about the brink of hell, have their secret gripes ; and will you envy them, as if your condition were not much better ? When God hath given you the feast, will you be troubled that they have the scraps and fragments of his bounty ?
2. In regard of the uncertainty of their condition: Ps. xxxvii. 1, 2, * Fret not thyself because of the evil-doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity ; for they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.' Though they seem to be in a very prosperous condition for the present, as grass while it is stand- ing is very green, yet they are soon cut down by the scythe of provi- dence, then presently fadeth, and is carried away from the place where it grew. You think providence doth not deal righteously, because the unworthy are exalted and the worthy depressed. Do but tarry a while, and you will have no cause to complain, or to grow weary of godliness, or to cry up a confederacy with evil men. They are never nearer their own ruin than when they come to the height of their exaltation, as the sun declineth presently when he cometh to the highest point of the zenith. Who would envy those that climb up a ladder for execution ? or are carried to the top of a rock, that they may be thrown down from thence to be broken in pieces ? Ps. Ixxiii. 18, ' Surely thou didst set them in slippery places ; thou castedst them down into destruction/
Secondly, That the wicked of the earth are as dross. They are so in these respects: —
1. As to external show, they seem to be a part of the substance or metal, but indeed they are but the filth of the metal, which is wont to be consumed with fire, that the metal may be purged. This is fitly applied to the degenerate members of the visible church, that have only a show of the purity of religion, but are corrupt in faith and manners, ungodly and unrighteous. There are disciples in show, and disciples indeed, John viii. 31 ; some that live, and some only that have a name to live, but indeed are dead, Kev. iii. 4. There is a Jew outwardly and inwardly, of the letter and of the spirit, Rom. ii. 28, 29. There are branches in Christ, by an external visible union, that bring forth no fruit, John xv. 2. Some are Christians in name, by external visible communion, others by real implantation into Christ. It con- cerneth us to see whether we be dross or metal, living members of Christ's mystical body, or only equivocally called Christians, because of some loose profession of Christ's name.
2. Dross is intermingled with purer metal, and maketh one mass with it. The wicked and the godly live together in the visible church ; they are never totally severed till the great day of separation or general judgment, when the sheep and the goats are put apart, some on Christ's right hand and some on his left. Here in the world, as in the finest metal, there is some dross, and in the same field there is chaff and corn. Mat. xiii. 29. We should not leave the flour for the chaff, but leave the chaff that we may be j)ure grain.
3. In God's esteem they are refuse, drossy, worthless things : Ezek. xxii. 19, ' Thus saith the Lord, Because ye are become dross,^ poor, unprofitable creatures. The church and people of God, because of their excellency, are compared to gold and silver ; so Rev. i. 20, ' The seven golden candlesticks.' As gold is the most precious metal, so is
224 SERMONS UPON PSALM f:XIX. [SeR. CXXX.
llie cliurch nnicli esteemed by God, called God's jewels, Mai. iii. 17 ; as a diamond among a lieap of ])ebbles; God's jewels, 'of whom the world is not worth)',' Heb. xi. 38 ; his ' peculiar people,' Titus ii. 14. God maketh no such reckoning of wicked men. Dross is cast away as good for nothing ; and all the wicked of the earth are but as dross to so much good metal. But all his saints arc much set by, as the filings of silver and gold are precious. What a difference is there between the judgment of God and the judgment of the world ! Tlie men of the world esteem the saints to be, 1 Cor. iv^ 13, ' the off- scouring and filth of all things,' as the sweeping of the city, to be cast forth to the dunghill. Whereas themselves are so indeed in God's account ; but ' reprobate silver,' Jer. vi. 30, or rather dross, which is the refuse of gold and silver. Therefore their contempt is not to be regarded, how great soever they be ; though ]iotentates, high in honour and place, yet if ungodly and wicked, God reckons them to be vile persons, Dan. xi. 21, dross, worthless souls. Men are not valued by God for their secular interests, but moral qualifications. The potentates of the earth are not valued as his princely, but holy ones : ' The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour,' Prov. xii. 26. God puts the highest price upon them, they are coin and medals who bear his own image.