judgments are far above out of his sight : and as for all his
enemies, he pvffeth at ihem^."]
The very reverse of this is the influence, II. Of piety—
The man who forsakes the Law, praises the wicked; but the man who keeps the Law, contends with them. He does this,
1. By the silent testimony of his hfe —
[A godly man is like " a light shining in a dark place." However unobtrusive his conduct may be, it forms a contrast with that of all around him, and especially with that of those who move in his sphere of life. If he be young, his sobriety is a reproach to all the giddiness and folly of his youthful ac- quaintance. If he be of a more advanced age, his zeal for God reproves the worldliness and indifference even of his most re- spected neighbours. Whether we view his abstinence from sin, or his practice of holiness, he equally casts reflections on the great mass of mankind. " They are of the world, and speak of the world : he is of God, and both speaks and acts for God^" " He is not conformed to the world " in any of its vanities™ : " he comes out from the world, and is separate ; and will not so much as touch the unclean thing"." He endeavours so to walk in the v/orld, as to " keep his garments clean"," and un- defiled with any of its abominations. He is even " crucified to the world, and regards it as a man would who was suspended on a cross, and looking for a speedy dissolution p." At the same time he gives himself to holy exercises ; and determines, with God's help, to fulfil every duty, as in the presence of his God. He shews that he has other views, other desires, other pursuits, than the world has any conception of; that he belongs to another world ; that his conversation is in heaven i;" and that, "though in the world, he is not of the world, even as the Lord Jesus Christ was not of the worlds"
Now all this, of necessity, attracts notice, and constrains all who behold him to say, " If he is right, we must be wrong." The effect of his conduct is precisely like tliat of Noah's, when he built the ark. It is said of Noali, that " being moved with fear, he prepared an ark to the saving of his house ; by the which he condemned the world'" How did this act of his condemn the ivorld? He was, it is true, " a preacher of righteousness ;" but it was not so much his preaching, as his practice, which was here said to condemn the world. His faith condemned
^ Ps. X. 4,5. 11 John iv. 5, G. » Rom. xii. 2.
n 2 Cor. vi. 17. ° Rev. xvi. 15. p Gal. vi. 14.
1 Phil. iii. 20. ^ John xvii. IG. » Heb. xi. 7.