3. That tears are not absolutely necessary for the expression of this •grief and tenderness. David saith, ' Rivers of tears.' Why ? For grief doth not always keep the road and highway ; and many times when water goes out, wind comes in. Many are puffed up with sensi- tive trouble, and put more upon tears than they do upon the frame of the heart which should engage us to this. All constitutions are not alike moist ; a tender heart may be matched with a dry brain. When men are careful to get things reformed, and are affected with the calamity of the church more than their own private loss, this is that •which God requires. However, let me tell you, if we find tears for other things, we should find tears for these duties, when we come to remember our own sins, and the sins of others. God did not make the affections in vain. A man that hath a thorough sanctified soul will have affections exercised in some measure proportionable ; and therefore, if we can shed tears abundantly upon other occasions, we should remember this water should be reserved for sanctuary uses. David when he is spoken of, is represented as one having a moist eye upon all occasions ; yet Lot had a tender heart, being offended with public disorders. It is said, 2 Peter ii. 8, 'His righteous soul was vexed.' Great devotionists are usually very tender. Good men are much given to tears, and these sensitive stirrings of affection are a great help to religion ; and therefore should not wholly be neglected. But if there be a serious displacency against sin, a deep laying to heart God's dishonour, though they cannot command tears, the duty is dis- charged. Humiliation lieth more in heart grief and trouble, than the
424 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeK. CLI..
sensitive and passionate expression of it. And yet upon religious occasions we should express ourselves as passionately as we can, and not content ourselves with a few cold words and dull thoughts ; but our liveliest allections should he exercised about the weightiest things: James iv. 9, ' Be afllicted and mourn, and weep ; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to heaviness.' When we are de- precating the wrath of God, humbling ourselves under the offences, done to his infinite majesty by ourselves or others, there should be more tenderness, and we should do it in the most lively afFeetionate manner that possibly we can.
4. The greatest sinners, when they are once converted to Grod, have the greatest compassion afterwards towards other sinners. Why ?' They know the heart of a sinning man, they have had most experience of the power and prejudice of corruption, and also sensibly tasted of the love of God, and his goodness in Christ Jesus; and so their hearts are entendered thereby to pity others, and they more earnestly desire others should })artake with them of the same grace. As Israel were pressed to pity strangers, because they themselves were once strangers in Egypt, they knew what it was to be neglected and despised in a strange land; so they that are acquainted with the temptations of Satan, with the bitter fruits of sin, with the prejudices that men lie under before they come to take to the ways of God, they have greater compassion towards the souls of others than others have. This is observed to be fulfilled in the apostle Paul, whose zeal lay otherwise more in the active than in the contemplative way ; for in his writings- \ve find him mostly doctrinal and rational, yet when he speaketh of sinners, he doth it always with grief and bowels : Phil. iii. 18, ' I tell you weeping.^ And still he presseth Christians to a greater tender- ness, to be more in grief for than censure of their biother's faults: Gal. vi. 1, ' If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be temi)ted ; ' and Titus ii. 3, when he presseth to gentleness}; to all men, ' For we ourselves,' saith he, ' were sometimes foolish and disobedient, deceived and deceiving, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another; but after the love and kindness of God appeared,' &c. This melted his heart, to consider what he was, and what God had made him by grace. Whereas sullen men, of a severe temper, of a constant, rigid inno- cency, are wont to be more harsh and carried out with greater indigna- tion than sorrow. Sin and they have not been so much acquainted. Others, that know how cunning this strumpet is to insinuate and en- tice the soul, pity those that are deceived with its enticing blandisli- ments. Certainly men that profess religion, and do not observe their own hearts, or else have lived in a more equitable course of honesty, without any sensible change, are not touched with such tenderness. But they that once come to remember how obstinate they were in pre- judices against the ways of God, how securely they walked in a way of sin, without any sense of God's displeasure, or serious thoughts of the bitter fruit of it, now God hath plucked them as brands out of the burning, they would fain save others also that are heirs of the same promise. The high priests under the law were taken from among;