The upright mans character and crown. Preached in a sermon at Pauls before the…

An hypocrite may be affected with his own miseries, but an upright heart is affected with the Churches miseries. I confess an hypocrite may be sensible of the miseries of the public, so far as he himself is concerned, as a man may be troubled to hear of such a ship cast away, wherein were much Merchants goods, because he himself had a share in it, and his Cabin is lost; ⟨p. 29⟩But an upright Christian, though he be not touched in his own particular, he is out of the bill of mortality, yet because it goes ill with the Church, and Religion seems to lose ground. He counts the Churches loss his loss; he weeps in Sihon's tears, and bleeds in her wounds.

An hypocrite may be affected with his own miseries, but an upright heart is affected with the Churches miseries. I confesse an hypocrite may be sensible of the miseries of the publick, so far as he himselfe is concern'd, as a man may be troubled to heare of such a ship cast away, wherein were much Merchants goods, because he himself had a share in it, and his Cabbin is lost; ⟨p. 29⟩But an upright Christian, though he be not touched in his own particular, he is out of the bill of mortality, yet because it goes ill with the Church, and Religion seems to lose ground. He counts the Churches losse his losse; he weeps in Sihons teares, and bleeds in her wounds.

Jeremiah, that (weeping Prophet) makes the Churches miseries his own, Lam. 3. 1. I am the man that have seen affliction. He suffered least in his own person, for he had a protection granted; the King gave order that he should be well looked to, Jer. 39. 11, 12. but he felt most in regard of sympathy. Though they were Sihon's miseries, they were Jeremies lamentations; he felt Israels hard cords through his soft bed. Nehemiah lays to heart the miseries of the Church, his complexion begins to alter, and he looks sad,