The Godly Man's Picture

7. A godly man lays to heart the miseries of the Church, Psal. 137. 1. We wept when we remembered Zion. I have read of certain Trees, whose leaves if cut or touched, the other leaves begin to contract, and shrink up themselves, and for a space hang down their heads: Such a spiritual sympathy is there among Christians, when other parts of Gods Church suffer, they feel themselves as it were touched in their own persons. Ambrose reports, that when Theodosius was sick unto death, he was more troubled about the Church of God, than about his own sickness. When Aeneas would have saved Anchises his life, saith he, ⟨p. 247⟩Absit ut excisa possim supervivere Troiâ.¹ Far be it from me that I should desire to live when Troy is buried in its ruins; there are in Music two Unisons, if you strike one, you shall perceive the other to stir, as if it were affected: When the Lord strikes others, a godly heart is deeply affected, Isa. 16. 11. My bowels shall sound like an Harp. Though it be well with a Child of God in his own particular, he dwells in an house of Cedar, yet he grieves to see it go ill with the public. Queen Esther enjoyed the Kings favour, and all the delights of the Court, yet when a bloody Warrant was signed for the death of the Jews, she mourns and fasts, and ventures her own life to save theirs.

7. A godly man lays to heart the miseries of the Church, Psal. 137. 1. We wept when we remembred Sion. I have read of certain Trees, whose leaves if cut or touched, the other leaves begin to contract, and shrink up themselves, and for a space hang down their heads: Such a spiritual sympathy is there among Christians, when other parts of Gods Church suffer, they feel themselves as it were touched in their own persons. Ambrose reports, that when Theodosius was sick unto death, he was more troubled about the Church of God, than about his own sickness. When Aeneas would have saved Anchises his life, saith he, ⟨p. 247⟩Absit ut excisa possim supervivere Troiâ.