SERMON XIV.

The Grief of the Righteous for the Misconduct of the

Wicked.

PSALM CXIX. 136.

Rivers of waters run down mine eyes; because they keep not thy law.

FEW people are such novices in religion as not to

know, that sinners ought to be troubled for their own sins: but it is but here and there a man, who enters so much into the spirit of religion as to understand how far the sins of others ought to trouble us. David was a model of both these kinds of penitential grief.

Repentance for his own sins is immortalized in his penitential psalms: and would to God, instead of that fatal security, and that unmeaning levity, which most of us discover, even after we have grossly offended God, would to God we had the sentiments of this penitent! His sin was always before him, and imbittered all the pleasures of life. You know the language of his grief. "Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak, my bones are vexed. Mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. have I cried unto thee, O Lord.

Out of the depths I acknowledge my

transgression, and my sin is ever before me. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice."

But as David gives us such proper models of penitential expressions of grief for our own sins, so he furnisheth us with others as just for lamenting the sins of others. You have heard the text, rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law. Read the psalm from which the text is taken, and you will find that our prophet shed three sorts of tears for the sins of others. The first were tears of zeal the second flowed from love: the third from self-interest. This is the kind of penitence, which I propose to-day to your emulation.

In the first place, I will describe the insults which a sinner offers to God, and will endeavour to shew you, that it is impossible for a good man to see his God affronted in this manner without being extremely grieved, and shedding tears of zeal.

In the second place, I will enumerate the miseries, into which a sinner plunges himself by his obstinate perseverance in sin, and I will endeavour to convince you, that it is impossible for a good man to see this without shedding tears of pity and love.

In the third place, I shall shew you, if I perceive your attention continue, the disorders which sinners cause in society, in our cities and families, and you will perceive, that it is impossible for a good man to see the prosperity of society every day endangered

and damaged by its enemies, without shedding tears of self-interest.

Almighty God, whose tender mercies are over all thy works, but whose adorable providence condemns us to wander in a valley of tears, O condescend, to put our tears into thy bottle, and to gather us in due time to that happy society in which conformity to thy laws is the highest happiness and glory! Amen!

I. David shed over sinners of his time, tears of zeal. Thus he expresses himself in the psalm from which we have taken the text, My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words. But what is zeal? How many people, to exculpate themselves for not feeling this sacred flame, ridicule it as a phantom, the mark of an enthusiast? However, there is no disposition more real and sensible. The word zeal is vague and metaphorical, it signifies fire, heat, warmth, and applied to intelligent beings, it means the activity and vehemence of their desires, hence, in common style, it is attributed to all the passions indifferently, good and bad: but it is most commonly applied to religion, and there it hath two meanings, the one vague, the other precise.

In a vague sense, zeal is put less for a particular virtue, than for a general vigour and vivacity pervading all the powers of the soul of a zealous man. Zeal is opposed to lukewarmness, and lukewarmness is not a particular vice, but a dullness, an indolence that accompanies and enfeebles all the exercises of the religion of a lukewarm man. On the contrary, zeal is a fire animating all the emotions of the

piety of the man who hath it, and giving them all the worth and weight of vehemence.

But as the most noble exercises of religion are such as have God for their object, and as the virtue of virtues, or, as Jesus Christ expresseth it, the first and great commandment is that of divine love, zeal is particularly taken (and this is the precise meaning of the word) for loving God, not for a love limited and moderate, such as that which we ought to have for creatures, even creatures the most worthy of esteem, but a love boundless and beyond moderation, so to speak, like that of glorified spirits to the Supreme Intelligence, whose perfections have no limits, whose beauties are infinite.

The idea thus fixed, it is easy to comprehend, that a soul animated with zeal, cannot see without the deepest sorrow, the insults offered by sinners to his God. What object is it that kindles flames of zeal in an ingenuous soul? It is the union of three attributes: an attribute of magnificence, an attribute of holiness, and an attribute of communication. This union can be found only in God, and for this reason God only is worthy of supreme love. Every being in whom any one of these three attributes is wanting, yea any being in whom any degree is wanting, is not, cannot be an object of supreme love.

In vain would God possess attributes of charitable communication, if he did not possess attributes of magnificence. His attributes of communication would indeed inspire me with sentiments of gratitude: but what benefit should I derive from his inclination to make me happy, if he had not power

sufficient to do so, and if he were not himself the happy God, that is the origin, the source of all felicity, or, as an inspired writer speaks, the parent of every good and every perfect gift? James i. 17. In this case he would reach a feeble hand to help me, he would shed unavailing tears over my miseries, and I could not say to him, my supreme "good is to draw near to thee; whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee," Psal. lxxiii. 28, 25.

In vain would God possess attributes of holiness, if he did not possess attributes of communication. In this case he would indeed be an object of my admiration, but he could not be the ground of my hope, I should be struck with the contemplation of a virtue always pure, always firm, and always alike: but in regard to me, it would be only an abstract and metaphysical virtue, which could have no influence over my happiness. Follow this reasoning in regard to the other attributes, and you will perceive that nothing but an union of these three can render an object supremely lovely; and as this union can be found only in God, it is God only who can be the object of zeal, or, what is the same thing, expressed in other words, God alone is worthy of supreme love..

As we make a progress in our meditation, and in proportion as we acquire a just notion of true zeal, we shall enter into the spirit and meaning of the words of our psalmist, Do you love God as he did? Does your heart burn like his, with flames of divine zeal? Then you can finish the first part of my discourse, for you know by experience this disposition.