TWO SERMONS. UPON THE ACT SUNDAY, BEING the 10th of july. 1625. Delivered at St mary's in Oxford.  PSAL. 133. 1. 
Behold how good, and how pleasant it is, for brethren to dwell together in unity.  
OXFORD, Printed by I. L. and W. T. for WILLIAM TURNER. Anno Dom. 1625.   


DAVID'S ENLARGEMENT. THE MORNING SERMON ON THE ACT SUNDAY.  
Preached by HENRY KING, Inceptor in Divinity, one of his MAJESTY'S Chaplains in Ordinary.  PSAL. 18. 36. 
Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.   

DAVID'S ENLARGEMENT.  PSAL. 32. VERS. 5. I said I will confess my sins [or transgressions] unto the Lord. And thou forgivest the iniquity of my sin. 
THis Text hath two general parts. The first records David's Repentance. The second, God's mercy to him.  
The former part contains these several circumstances: 1 A resolution, I said. 2 The Act resolved upon, Confession. I will confess. 3 The Subject, of that confession; Sins, or transgressions. 4 Their plurality, or the Extent of his confession; not sin, but sins. A term implying both their generality and number. For although the Septuagint read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Hebrew is, sins. 5 Their propriety, which he assumes to himself; Mea, my sins. 6 He specifies the Confessor, unto the Lord.  
In the latter part, I only observe two circumstances. 1 the Readiness, and Propension, and speed of God's mercy. He says he will confess, etc. and presently, Tu remisisti, Thou forgivest. 2 his Bounty set down in such terms, as may convey unto him the most liberal pardon: Iniquitatem peccati, the very formality of the Sin: not my sin, but the Iniquity of my sin too; both the Act, and the Obliquity; both the Gild of the sin, and the Punishment due unto it.  
The contemplation of a religious work, doth much affect a good man: 
I said.  and howsoever the Act only crownes him, yet the purpose delights him. I was glad (saith David) when men said unto me, we will go into the house of the Lord. See with what pious Alacrity he utters his intentions to an Act of Religion; it doth him good but to speak of it. And here you may discern as much Alacrity in his intended repentance, when he records the very determination, that which at first was either barely designed by his thoughts, or at most but said, I said.  
Words in God's Method are the Introduction to Deeds; His Fiat, was the Seminary of all being; for he said only, and it was done. That man who says well, is engaged to equal his words; else like a Bankrupt, he forfeits that good opinion, his pretences and speeches had won. 
Aug. Serm. 5. de verb D●●.  St. Augustine says, Verba sunt folia: Words are as leaves; and in good trees, leaves are the pledges of fruit that ensues. He that only speaks, and does not, is not a fruitful Christian; rather he is like a Sycomor, whose issue is nothing but a lease. This is not enough. 
Ibid.  Fructus quaeritur (saith the same Father) God expects from us what David here exhibites; fruit, not leaf, or not leaf without fruit. He says devoutly, and from those seeds, a repentance to a new life springs: I said, I will confess, etc.  
Istud di●ere nihil aliud est, 
Marlorat.  quam secum deliberare; It is a Deliberation, 
L●rin●●.  or it signifies as much as Decernere, Constituere, to purpose, or to resolve. Resolutions are the Moulds wherein Actions are cast; and no man can define a Deed better, then to call it the effect of what our purpose had contrived. And every purpose is a silent Dialogue, betwixt the Soul and her Faculties, by whose consent, that which we resolve, is established. For man is a Theatre, wherein are many subtle spectators, waiting upon every action; He is a short Model of a Commonwealth. Each Sense is an Agent, each Faculty an Officer; He hath his Common-Pleas in his Common sense; his Chancery in the Conscience; he hath his Projectors, and those as busy, as the State hath any; Thought and Fantasy, and the quick Imagination. The Memory is his Recorder; and lastly, the Tongue is the Speaker in this Assembly, who reports those Acts which which are designed: I said.  
But our Intents do not always come to publication, nay they do not always need it; and then the office of the tongue is not required. A resolution may sometimes speak without the Organs of utterance; 
Ambros. office lib. 1: cap. 3.  it may be intelligible, it may be audible, and yet not vocal: As Saint Ambrose speaks of Susanna, Conscientia loquebatur ubi vox non audiebatur. In religious purposes that determine in God; and in which there is no parties interested but God, and the soul; there is no necessity to use words. Words are but the Interpreters of our minds one to another, but as Midwives that deliver our thoughts; and however betwixt Man and Man this verbal traffic be necessary: yet betwixt us and God that sees our thoughts before the tongue hath form them into syllables, or set the stamp of language upon them, it is not so. He reads us in the power of speech, and not only in the Organs which actuate that power: He is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so well acquainted with the heart, that he dictates to it, as it doth to the tongue. And therefore he that understand our words whilst they are in Principijs, in their concepon and parentage; whilst they are yet Intra causas, lodged and couched within their causes, (as Saint Augustine expresseth it; Vox mea nondom in ore erat, & auris Dei iam in Cord erat. He, I say, that knows our thoughts, not only before we utter them in words, but before we ourselves know what we shall next think, cannot need a Dixi (I said) to inform him of our purposes: since his intelligence precedes our thoughts, he cannot but take his information from them, better than from our words; and so the sense of the Text will hold as well in a Cogitavi (as one Translation of ours reads it) I thought I will confess, as in a Dixi, I said. For in God's apprehension they are all one, and no way distinguished, save in a little Priority of time; for thoughts are words elder Brothers: and the Dialect they speak, is our Mother tongue, the original language of Mankind which never yet suffered confusion. When the tongues were dispersed at Babel, the thoughts were not; and howsoever each Nation be distinguished in his peculiar speech, we all think alike; even as anger and laughter have the same ways of expression in all parts of the world. So that this Dixi was not so much the language of David's Tongue, as of his Heart; 
Aug. in Psal. 32.  Cord pronunciare erat, He spoke unto God in his Thoughts, which are the most constant, most unalterable dialect, and therefore most proper to express the certainty of that Act, which follows upon this Resolution in the next part, His confession, I said I will confess, etc.  
2 Sin is the weightiest of all sorrows, the Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
I will confess.  The thing that presseth down. 
Heb. 12. 1.  'Tis the heaviest calamity man can suffer under: 
Psal. 33.  Iniquitates meae gravatae sunt super me, cries the Psalmist. Mine iniquities over-burden me; Our blessed Saviour was so sensible of this weight, that in his fearful conflict in the garden he professed. His soul was heavy unto death. They were our sins, which so depressed his invincible patience, that he sweats, and that unnaturally, in the bearing of them. And in his complaint, where he puts the sorrows of the whole world in balance against his own, 
Lament. 1. 12.  See all ye that pass by, if ever sorrow were like my sorrow; the reason of that Non sicut, which turned the balance on his side, was, because the sin of Mankind lay in his scale, which like a Mine of Lead (or as Zachary styles it, 
Zach. 5. 7.  Talentum plumbi) outweighed all the rest. Now as sometimes a sad story lightens the heart of him that told it, and sorrows find ease by the relation; so do sins.  Est aliquid, fatale malum per verba levare. 
He that hath opportunity to unfold his grief, hath made the first approach to comfort; and he that hath the Grace to acknowledge his fault, is in a ready way to pardon: There is no affliction so great as his, that wants a tongue to utter it; and there is no sin of such a desperate malignity, as the silent sin; when the Offender is dumb and speechless. A misery lodged in the heart, is like an Exhalation enclosed within the Earth, which shakes the foundation of Reason, and Patience; or like a damp, it overlayes the Spirits, Strangulat inclusus dolour: but when it hath found an issue by the Eye, to weep out at, or a vent by the tongue, straight it grows tamer. When once a window is opened to give it Air, that fume which would have stifled us, breathes out, & clears the room. Such a Meteore, such a boisterous Exhalation is sin. What strange convulsions doth it cause within the soul? How doth it contract our hopes of Mercy; and like an east-wind dry up, and wither our comforts? what storms, what guilty conflicts, what black clouds of despair doth it raise in the Conscience? but so soon as a sinner recollects himself, is brought to a remorse, how calmly is the storm allayed, by a religious contrition? how sweetly doth this cloud discharge itself, when it relents into a shower of penitent tears? For 'tis the most natural way for sin to evaporate by the eye, (as Elias Cretensis says) Ex peccati fumo ortae sunt la chrymae: Lastly, how gently doth this dangerous vapour breathe out by a devout confession? I said I will confess.  
Our Laws so far prejudicated silence in a malefactor, that waves the ordinary and open way of trial, that they account him a Felon against himself, a conspirator against his own life, and guilty of his own blood; holding him worthy of no death, but such an one, as like a monument of shame, serves to object his silent contumacy. As if it meant to crush out, and by weighty expressions force the confession of that fact, from the dead body; which no persuasion could win from the conscience, whilst the party yet lived.  
David himself professes, that whilst the remained speechless, he found a great abatement in his comforts, a general consumption, wasting both his body and mind too; when I held my tongue, my bones consumed. 
verse. 3.  Quoniam non protuli ore confessionem ad salutem, omnis ●●rmit as mea, 
Aug. in Psal. 32. 3.  in infirmitate consenuit (so Saint Augustine paraphrases him.) Thus you see his silence corrodes and inacerates him even to the bone; but so soon as he opens his mouth, and disguises not his sin, strait he finds a spacious enlargement, in the forgiveness of all his sins.  
One says rightly, that sin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the disease of the soul; an epedemical sickness whereof the whole world labours. 
Ambrose.  Magnus per totum mundun iacebat aegrotus. There is nothing so pernicious to this Malady (saith another Father) as silence, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Silence foments and cherishes the infirmity. Therefore by the rules of cure, 
Origen.  nothing can be more medicinable than Confession. Which (in Origens' phrase) is vomitus sordium, a clearing the Conscience of those vicious obstructions, which nourish the soul's diseases: distempering the Complexion of our Faith, so as we grow cold in Religion; and either want appetite, to serve God; or capacity to learn his Law; or heat of zeal, to concoct what we have learned; or palate to taste the comforts, which we should find in applying God's mercy unto us.  
So that there is not such a speedy redress of Sin, as a penitent confession. Yet not such a Confession as the Church of Rome would submit us to: which is (to use Cassander's words) Conscientiae Carnificina, 
Cassand. Consult. art. 11.  quam nemo moderatus approbat; a racking or torturing the Conscience, which no wise man would endure, no reasonable man approve. Indeed those on that side, have made this, which Christ intended the happy instrument of our peace with God, as the Master-key to open into all the secrets of Christendom: as a Picklock to possess them of those mysteries of State, whose knowledge hath troubled, nay endangered all parts of the World, where the Romish colours have been advanced. A tyrannical way of knowledge, to make the Practitioners feared, and hated at once. 'Tis justly theirs.  
— 
a juvenal.  Scire volunt secreta domus, atque inde timeri. A curious Engine, wherewith they wring out any small design, that may make against them, under pain of Damnation, if it be not declared: but take a liberty to seal up in secrecy any Deed, though never so horrid (be it Murder or Treason) so advantageous to their cause. And this, though the Confessor knows, being put to his Oath, he may lawfully swear he doth not; since he knows it only as a secret, but not to reveal, Intelligitur se nescire ad revelandum, aut taliter quod possit dicere. They are the very words of 
b Sed quid faciet Confess●r cum interrogatur de pe●cato, quod au dierit in confession, an possit dicere se nescire? Respond. Se●cundum omnes quod sic. Sed quid si cogat●r iurare? Dico quod potest & debet i●rare se ●●scire, quia intelligitur s● nesciro extra confessionem, & sic 〈…〉. Sed fac quod iudex vel prealatus ex ●●alitiâ exigat à me 〈…〉, an sciam in confession? Respond, quod coactus inret se nescire in confession, quia intelligitur se ●escire ad rev●l●ndum aut taliter quod ●ossit dicere. 〈◊〉: saeramen: Artic: 184 Pag 96. b.  Franciscus à Victoria, I do not here derogate from the use of Confession; for by the Church's appointment, we practise a form of public Confession in our Liturgy. Nay in this place we find a Private Confession, made by David unto the Lord, which is no less necessary for us then him. 'Tis against that Auricular Confession of Rome I here speak, which so clogs our Christian Liberty, that it lays a necessity upon us, to confess unto the Priest, or else denies us our salvation. And besides the necessity laid upon us, it ties us ●o an impossibility; exacting the particular enumeration of all the Sins & several sorts of Offences whereof we are guilty. A task which the Prophet David utterly declines, appealing from this unjust imposition, in the words of the Psalm, Who knows how oft he offends? 
Psal. 19 12.  Lord cleanse me from my secret sins.  
Let the otherside then for the countenance of their way of Confession, urge that Embassy addressed to Charles the fifth, from the Governors of Norimberg, touching the reviving and re-establishing of Auricular Confession amongst them: upon a pretence, that since that custom was left off, their Commonwealth swarmed with sin much more than formerly. Which proposition of theirs the Emperor in effect did but scoff at, and deride, (even by the Confession of Lorinus the jesuit, 
Lorinus come. in Psal. 32.  who reports it,) Intimating unto them, that they would never have sought so much at his hands, but that, it seemed, they wanted a sufficient engine to examine Malefactors: supposing that the Ecclesiastical Rack, when the Priest should undertake them in an Auricular Confession, would make them discover more, than the politic Rack, or all the tortures, the public Executioner could give them.  
Let them object to us, as Eugenius the Fourth, in the Council at Florence, did to the greeks: ur vestri sacerdotes & Pontifices non confitentur? Why do not your Priests exact this Confession? As we refuse not private Confession made to God, nay sometimes, a private Confession to our ghostly Father, the Minister: who hath authority to divest us of any scruples, which may arise in our Consciences, and to pronounce an Absolution upon our hearty Repentance: Yet we will not lose, or betray our Freedom so much, as to do that Act by Constraint, which ought to be as free and voluntary, as David's resolution in this place. I said, I will confess. We have no reason to stand to the courtesy of Rome for that Pardon, which Christ hath freely given us; nor yet to suffer her Merchants to erect a new Staple, or put an Impost upon our salvation, which is exempt from all Custom, from any acknowledgement, save only to Christ, whose work it was. We have no cause but to be very well assured, that we may be saved without Auricular Coufession; since in that sacred Book, which, we believe, contains all that may conduce to our salvation, we find no track or mention of it.  
Bonaventure grants, 
Ad sentent. lib. 4. quest. 17. distinct. 3.  that however the Formal part of Confession, (i) the power of Absolution, were instituted by Christ; yet the Material part, which is the Detection of the sin, and the necessity of disclosing it, was not so. For at the most, it was only insinuated by Christ, 
ja. 5. 16.  but promulgated by St james. Confess your sins one to another. In which place, (as Bullinger well infers) they that understand aright, 
Bullinger Decad. 4. ser. 2. de ●●●●tent.  will find a reciprocal obligation laid upon the Priest, to confess to the People, as well as the People to the Priest. And for any better Evidence than this, to confirm their opinion, out of the Gospel, I am confident they have none. We find when our Saviour cleansed the Leper, he bade him go and show himself to the Priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded: 
Mat. 8. 4.  but he bade him not confess to the Priest. And to the adulterous woman, he gives a Vade. Go, but not to any Confessor: Nay, we find no Confession taken from her by himself: the whole Condition of her Absolution in that place is, Vade, & noli ampliùs peccare. Go, and sin no more. But Eckius and others answer, that the power of Absolution was not as yet assigned over by Christ; unto his Church; and therefore our Saviour neither practised it himself, nor sent them unto any Priest: which had it been, 'tis likely he would have done. Well then, grant him as much as he allegeth, that the Commission to Absolve, was not as yet given to the Apostles; and it shall appear, that in those very words, wherein Christ conveys this Authority to them, Auricular Confession receives its death's wound.  
In the Gospel of St. john, 
john 20. 21.  when he tells them, As my Father sent me, so send I you. He there gives them authority to remit, or to retain sins, but not to exact any Auricular Confession; He doth not there erect any Tribunal for the Priests; where they should sit as judges over men's Consciences, to acquit or condemn at their pleasure. This is not the meaning of, to Remit and to Retain. They do not import a judiciary power (as the Church of Rome unwarrantably assumes,) but a Ministerial power, to publish the mercies of God to repentant Sinners, and to denounce his vengeance against the obstinate and impenitent. 
Hieron in Mat. 16. 19  This is St. Ieromes Interpretation upon those words; Quicquid ligaveris in terris, etc. whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt lose, etc. Where he says, that as the levitical Priest is said to make the Leper clean, or unclean, because he pronounced him so; even thus, the Evangelicall Priests in the Gospel, Remit or Retain sins, because in their preachings they declare, which sins are remitted, and which retained by God. Pro offcio suo, cúm peccatorum audierit varietates, scit qui ligandus, quique solvendus. Even thus Peter Lombard, 
Pet. Lombard. lib. 4. Dist. 18.  distinguishing God's way of Binding and Losing, from the Churches, says, that God by himself remits sins, who cleanseth the Soul from all spots, and looseth it from the Debt of eternal Damnation: but he hath not granted this to his Priests; to whom notwithstanding, he hath given power of Binding and losing, that is, of showing men to be bound, or loosed.  
Thus you may see, by how unjust a Title the Church of Rome would usurp a Dominion over men's Consciences (as she pretends a Sovereignty over the world;) aiming at Supremacy in all: Either wilfully, or ignorantly, mistaking our Saviour's Commission for Binding and Losing▪ 
Loco citato.  (as Hierome complains,) Istum locum Episcopi & Presbyteri non intelligentes, aliquid si●i de Pharisaeoorum assumunt supercilio, etc.  
Let me but mention to you likewise, upon what slight pretences, they ground their necessity of Auricular Confession: cozening the ignorant people; with that smooth and plausible imposture, wherein they say the Priest cannot remit sins, unless he know them; and he cannot know them, unless men w●ll confess them unto him. Then which Proposition, nothing can be more false. For the Priest may Preach and Publish Remission, or Retention of sins to those, whose faults he knows not: And those men by a faithful application of what they hear, may receive the Remission of their sins, who never revealed them to the Minister, but confessed them unto God alone. Sola enim cordis confessio, 
Richardus â Sancto victore de Clavibus. Cap. 7.  poenitenti ad salutem animae sufficit veraciter: which way of Confession, is truly and only necessary unto Salvation: I said I will confess my sins unto the Lord.  
But I urge this point no farther: Cassander's temperate conclusion shall bring me off; I am of opinion (saith he) There had been no Controversy about this point of Confession, had not some ignorant and importunate Physicians corrupted this wholesome Medicine, 
Cassand. Consult: Act. 11:  with their drugs of Tradition. Est enim multis inutilibus traditiunculis infecta etc. quibus, conscientijs quas extricare & levare debebant, laqueos iniecerunt, & tanquam tormentis quibusdam excarnificârunt. By which means they have made it only a snare to entangle and involve the simple; and an Engine to torment, not to ease the Conscience of those that seek unto them. We, for our parts, hold Confession necessary, though we lay no necessity upon men to confess to the Priest; nor do we prohibit that in some cases. Nay, we account it an happy discharge of a troubled soul, to impart itself to the Minister of Christ, from whose lips he may receive such spiritual Comforts, as his Office can minister, and the Scripture allows. Ever provided, that this be left indifferent to the penitent, to do, or not to do, as he thinks good, that it be not a constrained, but a voluntary Act; as David's here, freely arising from his own inclination: I said I will confess.  
The Greek is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I will declare or confess against myself. 
●spsn  So that this Act is an Accusation rather than a Confession. 'Tis true, that every confession of a sin, is an Indictment of the Sinner; and yet is this such a kind of trial, as serves to acquire, 
Aug. Ser. 8. de Verb. Dom:  not to condemn. In Confession, sui accusatio, Deilaudatio est. In the course of our Law, the Malefactor's Confession is the strongest evidence, and casts him without any other verdict: but in God's Courts, to plead guilty, is the way to procure an Absolution. He that at the Bar of his own Conscience, arraigns' himself in this world, 
1 Cor. 11. 31.  shall never be arraigned at the Tribunal of the Great judge, in the next. If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. Dorotheus writes of a devout man, that being asked which was the best course to come unto God, replied, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Dor●t●●us Doctrin. 7.  ever to accuse one's self. Let me therefore use the Prophet Esayes words. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Do thou first declare thine iniquities, 
Esay 43. 26.  that thou mayst be justified. He bids thee be so early in the acknowledgement of thy faults, 
Origen. Homil. 3. in Levit.  Vt Ostendat tibi, quòd praevenire illum debeas, qui paratus est ad accusandum, (saith Origen:) 
Id.  that thou mayst prevent the Devil, who is ever ready to accuse thee: Praeventus enim Diabolus, ultra nos accusare non poterit, & si ipsi nostri simus accusatores, proficit nobis ad salutem: In doing thus, we disarm our old Enemy, and take away the sting of his malicious accusations, which have no power to hurt us: since by condemning ourselves, we have saved ourselves. I end in Saint Augustine's words, 
Aug. in Psal. 29.  Confitere quod tu fecisti in Deum, & confiteberis quid tibi fecerit Deus. Confess what thou hast done against God, and then thou shalt, to thy comfort, confess, what God hath done for thee. Thou shalt have cause with David, thankfully to commemorate God's favour, in a Turemisisti, in the forgiveness of thy sins. I said I will confess my sins.  
Sin is a loud argument: which if it want other tongues, 
Sins.  will relate itself. Should a man be silent, it would by guilty confessions, betray itself. Sin is the worst secret that can be. I know no bosom where it is safe. There is no creature, no element, no privation, night, nor silence, 
juvenal.  but is able to pursue, and detect a sinner:— Serui ut taceant, iument● loquentur. Beasts have a verdict to pass upon wicked men; 
Ecclesiast. 10. 20.  A bird of the air shall carry the voice, 
Gen. 4. 10.  and tell the matter. Earth will cry Cain guilty, 
jerem. 20. 27.  or if earth do not, Heaven will reveal the iniquity. 
Habac. 2. 10.  If both be silent, yet the very stones out of the wall (within which the sin was acted) shall cry against him, and the beam out of the Timber (like a double witness) shall answer it.  
Do not therefore flatter thyself, in the closeness of thy transgressions: What ever disguises night, complying with thy dark purposes, may put upon thee; there is nothing can disguise thee from thy Maker. Canst thou be so stupefied, so besotted in thy sin, as to suppose, when other eyes behold thee not, God doth not? Thinkest thou, by drawing a Curtain about thy Bed, or by putting out a candle in thy Chamber, to hide thine incontinency from God, or darken his knowledge? Fool thou canst not! Thou bearest a Lamp in thine own breast, 
Nil●● Martyr. Paraenes. 199.  thy conscience; that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (saith Nilus) a watching Candle, that burns at midnight: and will light the judge to descry thee. Or if that taper burn dimmely, if it have wasted into a snuff, so that thou hast no Conscience, or but a seared one, which lies smothering in the socket; and can only glimmer, not shine; why yet, God is (as Basil: 
Basil.  saith) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, all eye, to survey thee. Or if thy transgressions have made thee so loathed an Object, that he will not look upon thee; should he examine thy cabinet friends, upon whose secrecy thou relyest, the silence, and the darkness of the night; they would turn Traitors to thee, 
〈…〉 de Quadrag●s.  and discover thee to him. Cui obscura ●larent, muta respondent, silentium confitetur. Night would convert itself into a Noon, and Silence prove a speaking evidence against thee. Since therefore thou canst lurk under no concealment, why dost thou not confess that, which it is impossible for thee to hide? Why deferrest thou to resolve with David, I will confess my sins? If thou confess not thy sins, they will confess thee the greater sinner: And if thou wilt not own them here, in a religious acknowledgement; they will own thee hereafter, in a final Condemnation.  
This plural, sins or transgressions, as it implies our many alliances to sin, 
Their plurality; Sins.  and the multiplicity of our sins, Actual and Intentional: so it admonisheth us, to confess them all. God, as he is a frank pardone●, so he loves a liberal confession, wherein nothing should be kept back. Yet (not to perplex any man with the strict enumeration of every crime as the Papists require) I confess, 
Act. 5. 3.  the wilful keeping back of sins, may be as dangerous, as Ananias his detaining part of the price; But for all that, thy condition is not damnable, (as Rome persuades) though thou hast forgot some sins which thou hast done, if so be thou slightest none of those which thou remember'st.  
It is the Doctrine of the Church of Rome, that some sins are such diminutives, such Peccadilloes, so small, so venial, they are not worth a mention, nor do they need a pardon; But do not thou believe so. This negligent extenuation of faults, is as pernicious a sin as any. A presumption unheard of amongst the Fathers of the 〈◊〉 Church: Who (if we will credit Dorothe●●) were wont to keep a reckoning, 
〈◊〉.  Tanquam ephemeriden Deo tradituri: & to ask God pardon, for the very least and slightest offences, of which they were at any time conscious, 
Dorotheus doctrine. 7.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. David in this Psalm, in the preceding words, frees himself of all suspicion of concealment, 
Vers. 5.  or palliation of his faults. Mine iniquity I have not hid. 
Psa. 61. 9  And Psalm the 61: he summons all in a general exhortation, to pour out, and empty their souls before God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, And because he would be sure not to be understood here short of his meaning, he puts sins in the plural, which enwraps all, greater, and lesser. For so Marlorat in his Ecclesiastical Exposition, renders the word Praevaricationes, Praevarications: which are not only facts of malice, but collusions too: and may contain our intended sins, as well as committed: For so he explicates himself; 
Marlorat.  David eoram Deo se sistens, sensus omnes suos effudit.  
Wilt not thou confess thy riots, as well as thy Murders? the pollution of thy thoughts, as well as of thy Actions? Christ thy Saviour suffered for both; he bled for both. Though thy great sins opened the wide River in his side, and the currents in his hands and feet: thy smallest sins scratched him in the thorns, which he wore upon his head, or at least opened a Poor in his sacred Body. For how knowest thou, 
Esa. 1. 18.  but that, as he bled for thy crimson sins (as Esay calls them) through those larger wounds: so he sweat blood for the sins of thy thoughts; that, as he suffered for thy great offences upon the Cross, so he suffered for thy lesser crimes in the Garden: that, as he did undergo a public passion for the one; so he had an antepassion for the other in his Agony: that, as for thy foulest transgressions he became a red Sea, a true jordan, a sanguine River the head of which stream began at Mount Caluary; So before his Ascent thither, in a lower place, 
joh. 18. 1.  not far from the Brook Cedron, he suffered his body to become a Marish, when for thy sake the blood wept out at every Poor. Take heed therefore, how thou underratest any sin, since in the Inventory of thy Saviour's passion, they were all rated; He died for all. And do not neglect those faults, which are the smallest in thy Catalogue. For even that sin which whispers now; and is only peccatum susurrans, carried about in a still report, and in the common fame, wounds and traduces thee but closely; will in a little time become Peccatum clamans a shrill and crying sin. That which is now a Grain in weight, may prove a Pound; and that which was but a single fault at first, by an unblessed faecundity may multiply into Sins. For culpa culpam excutit, one sin is struck out of another; like sparks they convey fire one to the other. Do not suffer therefore the Embers of sin, any loose thoughts, or vicious Imaginations, to lurk within thy bosom; lest at length those subterraneous fires break out like Aet●●, and burn thee in their hot Flames.  
Minutae guttae plwiae, 
Aug. citat. à Biel Lest. 72. de Missâ.  nun flumina implent & domos deijciunt? Thou seest the rain which causes the land flood, at first only distils in small drops, take heed then how thou lettest any vice drop in upon thy senses. If a temptation insinuate into thine ears, or only beat in at the casements of thy eyes; those little flaws, those crannies, if not stopped betimes, will make way for the ruin of the whole Fabric. 
Bibli●th. Parum Graccho Lat. To. 1.  Marcus Eremita excellently says, that Sin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, like a subtle net, consisting of many folds: which if not warily avoided, will entangle the whole body. Whensoever therefore that Fowler, whose task hath been to ensnare souls, offers his Net at thee, seeks to fasten a small sin upon thee; quit thyself betimes, by a Repentance, and in a true confession discharge thyself of all thou knowest; even to thy smallest trespass. Remembering that wise saying in Ecclesiasticus; 
Ecclesiastic. 19 1.  Qui spernit modica, paulatìm decidet; he that contemns small faults shall fall insensibly. And to make this confession of thine more perfect, as thou acknowledgest the Offence, so acknowledge the Offender. 
Senee.  Qui rem non tacuerit, non tacebit authorem. If thou confess the Fact, and yet deny the Author; say thou hast sinned, but blame some others, as an Occasion or Accessary to thy sin; thou dost not then accuse thyself, but indite another; thou dost not make a just confession, but by a Recrimination seek to excuse thyself. David here makes no such 〈◊〉 or faint confession; He doth not say only what was done, but who did it: confesses a Propriety, 
My sins.  & makes title to those sins, My sins.  
We are all naturally prone to transfer our sins upon others. Adam cries, The woman which thou gavest me. And Gabriel Biel mentions some, that used to blame the Planets which reigned at their Nativities, 
Gen. 3. 12. Lect. 72. de Missâ.  for the sins unto which they were inclined. If they had ill dispositions, Satarne was in fault; if they were thieves, Mercury made them so; if incontinent, and amorous Venus was to be blamed, not they. A folly worthy of no refutation, but laughter, did I not see it possessed some in that high nature; that they do not only accuse the Influences of Heaven, but pronounce God himself, who gave motion to those stars, as the Author of their sin. Most strange and fearful illusion! that any should imagine God a Plotter for Damnation; that he should combine with the Devil to supplant souls; that he should make a Prison, and then make Offenders for that prison; that he should build a Hell, and cause men to sin, that they might be condemned unto that place of Torment▪ O far be the thought of this from our hearts! Let God be glorified and all men reputed blasphemous Liars, that speak or imagine thus: Let us say with the Psalmist: I have sinned, and I alone; 
Psal. 51. 4.  and in these words acknowledge, I will confess against myself, those sins which I have committed against thee; resting upon that excellent conclusion of Fulgentius; Non potest esse illius Author, 
Fulg●●●.  cujas est 〈◊〉. It is impossible that God should be an Agent in sin, whose office is to avenge sin, and to punish the sinner. For if thou say, or think otherwise, thou wilt prove a devil to thy God; slander and accuse him to his face of sin, who is the Confessor to receive the acknowledgement of thy sin, The Lord. I said I will confess my sins unto the Lord.  
We take a liberty to tell God those things which for shame we dare not communicate unto men, Multi quod scire hominem nolunt, 
Unto the Lord.  De● mirrant (saith Seneca.) He spoke in the worst sense; 'tis true in the best. We need not be ashamed to discover our selves, our Actions, our Thoughts, to God; who, as he delights not in the death of a sinner, so neither glories he in the shame of a sinner. When we shrift ourselves to men, we adventure our credits upon their secrecy; and confess to our own disadvantage, since it is in their power to betray us.  
If the Conclave of Cardinals would have suffered S. Chrysostom's Cavear to have been entered amongst them, they never would in the Lateran Council have decreed a necessity of Auricular Confession: 
Concil. Trident. Sess. 4. ●●n. 5.  nor in the Trent Council have established that former Decree. Take heed how thou tellest thy defects to a man, (saith Chrysostom) lest he cast thee in the teeth with them: 
Homil. 4. de Lazaro.  and in the very next words he ●●atly prohibits the necessity of such private confession; leaving 〈…〉 upon the scope of this text.  
Thou art not to confess to thy fellow servant, lest he may divulge it, 
Chrysost●m. ib.  but to him that is thy Lord, that careth for thy soul; to him, that is most mild and courteous; to him, that is thy Physician. I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord.  
But doth God need an informer? Did he not know david's sin before his confession? or cannot he know mine, unless I tell him? Yes surely, he knew them before: But he knew them as my judge, not as my Confessor: He knew them, but not that way which most delighteth him, and is best for me, in a repentance: In a word he knew them before, but he knew them to my Condemnation: He knew them not to my Comfort, so as to forgive them; till he received them from mine own mouth; 
2 Part.  I said, I will confess my sins, and thou forgivest. 
Thou forgivest.   
Like the tidings of release unto a Captive, or a reprieve unto a condemned man: so is the sound of this word Tu remisisti, thou forgivest. It is the savour of life unto life; a reviving or recovery from the death of the soul, Sin; and an earnest of a new-life, both in the Body and the Soul, in the new jerusalem. 'Tis the voice of the Turtle, the true language of the Gospel derived from his lips, that left the blessing of his peace upon all, that love the Peace of his Church; that legend of mercy, which Christ commanded his Apostles to divulge in all parts of the world, for the remission of sins. This was the end of Christ's coming into the world, to save sinners, his own peculiar work, who alone as he hath the property to have mercy, so hath he the sole power to forgive, 
Mar●. 2. 7.  Quis potest peeca●ae dimittere nisi solus Deus?  
That the Church hath a power to remit sins also is true in a subordinate sense, that is a Ministerial, a Declaratory power, as our Liturgy fully expresses it; and hath given power and commandment to his Ministers, to Declare and Pronounce to his people being penitent, the Absolution and remission of their sins, etc. But he hath given them no judiciary or Authoritative power, to pardon absolutely of themselves. This is God's prerogative, he alone doth that act; the Church but reports it: he signs the deed; the Church as a witness testifies it: he hath the original power to absolve, the Church hath power, not to dispense, but to pronounce his absolution; he grants and seals the pardon; the Church conveys and publishes it: he hath the possession, the true inheritance as of the Throne, so of the keys of David; the Church hath but the use, and custody of those keys: by which she opens and shuts, yet not at her own pleasure, as if she could hang new locks where she listed, or make new doors for sinners to go out at, but with a limitation: She must not presume to go farther, than those Keys lead her: So many rooms as Christ hath opened by those keys, she may open, or she may shut. The Ministers who are his Dorekeepers should take too much upon them, if they should presume beyond this. Mistake me not, I do not in any sense of diminution call the Ministers Dorekeepers, as if I would infer their office determined at the Church-door: No, their keys open farther than so; and by virtue of them they may go as high, as God's Presence Chamber, the Church there; to receive▪ and to deliver his messages to his people; to signify his pleasure to them, either for the Remission, or Retaining of their sins▪ but beyond this their keys will not lead them. They cannot open Gods Privy Chamber, where all his secret Counsell●▪ ●his Acts of mercy or of judgement, of Pardon or Condemnation are concluded; this is accessible to none, but God himself. They are not able with any key in their bunch, to open that door. And if by violence they shall attempt to break it open▪ as the Successors of Peter have done for many years, sitting there as Counselors 〈◊〉 in Commission with God, nay sitting 〈◊〉 God●●aith ●aith▪ St. Paul▪ 
2 Thess. 2. 4.  to condemn or to absolve 〈◊〉 him; let them know, in this they have committed a Riot, not less than Lucifer's; and their aspiring insolence mu●t expect a Precipitation as violent and deep as his.  
I have almost lost myself in this Labyrinth of P●p●ll usurpation; I retreat to my te●t in S. Ambrose his words▪ who hath briefly stated and limited the Power of Priests Absolution. In the forgiveness of sins (saith he) men use their Ministry; but exercise no right of any Authority: men ask▪ an men pronounce; but the Deity grants, Tu remisisti, Thou forgivest.  
Which speech doth not only intimate his Power, but his readiness to forgive▪ See in what a forward term David expresses God's alacri●● and propension to mercy, setting it down in the Preterperfect tense, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast forgiven; as a thing passed in grant, before the suit was commenced Seneca spoke it of the Court, 〈…〉 praecip●●s, beneficia lenta sunt. They were prone and speedy to do injuries, but their benefits came slowly from them, and with difficulty: '●is otherwise with God, he is of no 〈◊〉 Power, nor doth he for slow his faucets 〈…〉 price upon them by delay▪ 
2 Pet. 3. 9  God is not slow or 〈◊〉 concerning his promise, saith S. Peter: Or if he be slow, 
Psal. 86. 15.  he is slow to nothing but to wrath only. In that Act, which was the swiftest exclusion of his vengeance, the Flood, howsoever the● that sudden Inundation surprised the World, came upon it unawares, whilst they were eating and drinking; (as our Saviour saith) yet when it was done, 
Mat. 24. 38.  He is sorry. Though he repented he had made man, and from that repentance put on a resolution to destroy him; Yet after his destruction he relents into mercy, he is sorry he had demolished and annihilated his creature by water, though most deservedly; and then makes a Promise and Covenant, 
Gen. 9 15.  never to destroy him so again. Did he not give Abraham leave to dispute, 
Gen. 18.  and argue Sodom's reprieve, to plead a Pardon for it, after his sentence was past▪ and the Executioner ready to give fire? Yet for all that, he heard him cut, till ha●● said all he could say; till he had made all his Abatements, from Fifty even to the last Ten. And when he sat down before Niniveh, and had beleaguered it with his judgements; yet you see he gives them fair Quarter, 
jon. 3. 4.  Forty Days to parley, and to make their Composition with Him. Nay he allowed Rebellious Israel Forty years; 
Psal. 95. 10.  Forty years long was I grieved with this generation: so slow is he to wrath, so loath to execute his vengeance.  
And yet He is not so slow to punish, but he is by many degrees swifter to show mercy, and to forgive: 
Ambros:  Nescit tarda molimi●a spiritus sancti gratia (saith S. Ambrose) He that knows all things, is ignorant only of ways to delay his Mercies; which are as instant as his work was in the first Creation, Said and Done at once. How do his winged blessings out-flie our suits? chiding our sluggishness▪ in that no diligence we can use is able to keep pace with him; nor our earliest importunity speedy enough to overtake his bounty: who gives oftener than we can ask, and more than we have capacity to apprehend. 'Tis not enough, that he tarry till we come unto him, unless he prevent us by coming unto us, ere we set out: that he suspends his blessings till we seek him, unless he first seek and call upon us, as he did upon Eliah. 
1 King. 19 9  What dost thou here Eliah? that he stay till our petitions woo him, unless his favours first solicit us, and give us cause to thank him, not to ask. He thinks his goodness hath no advantage, no victory over our necessities, if he should only hear us when we call; unless, as he prophesses by his Prophet Esay, 
Esa. 65. 24.  Antequam clametis ego exaudio, he begin to us, and make our answer before we speak. He thinks his mercy would prove tardy, if it expected our suit; unless he granted it before our motion. Therefore in the 2 Sam: 12. when Nathan admonishes David of two great sins; he no sooner in a religious humiliation dejects himself crying, He had offended; but the Prophet speedily raises him with the comfortable tidings of his Absolution; and in such a Phrase, as if God had antedated the pardon, 
2 Sam. 12. 13.  before the sin was committed. For he tells him the Lord hath also put away thy sin. Not he will, or does, but already he hath put away thy sin. You may perceive a gracious haste too in the remission of his sin in this place: he but confesses and God forgives him; nay (saith S. Austin) he makes no confession, but a promise only; Non iam pronunciat, sed promittit se pronunciaturum, & ille iam dimittit. He says he will confess, and upon that promise, God immediately grants him a large pardon. Turemisisti, Thou forgivest the iniquity of my sin.  
The extent of his grace is as large, 
The iniquiry of my sin.  as unlimited, as his mercy is sudden. God as he is no slow, dilatory God: so neither is he a sparing close-handed God; as he doth not suspend his favours, or hang long in the deliberation of his pardon to sinners: so neither doth he give them in a lame, imperfect fashion; but large, and full, and ample as is himself. In quo omnis plenit●do who is the spring of all bounty.  
He doth not veniam dimi●iare, distribute his mercy by halves, keep men betwixt life and death, panting betwixt hopes and fears, as if he should send a pardon, when the prisoner is half hanged; no, 
Marlorat.  Non de dimidiâ, sed perfectâ remissione hîc disserit Propheta.  
God doth not lease his pardons for life only, adiourning the short punishment in this world, with a purpose to inflict it eternally in the next. His hand is not so scant, 
Bernard.  non arctatur, non clauditur fine, nullas habet met●s Divina clementia (saith Bernard.) And Hierome in his translation, dates this remission with a semper to signify the duration, the continuance of it, which is as long, and lasting, as his goodness that hath none end.  
Nor yet doth he remit the Eternal punishment and retain a Temporal to be paid in this world, in an imposed pilgrimage, or a purgatory hereafter Non solum excluditur satisfactio sed Purgatori●m, boldly saith a writer. Therefore one of our English Translations reads, Thou forgivest the punishment of my sin.  
Let those then that list to be abused, commute or sine for their release at Rome, suffer the Pope to pair their salvation, and take fees out of God's Pardons, which he bestows freely; we will receive our Absolution nearer hand, and less wasted in the carriage: 
Psal. 130. 7.  Let our Israel trust in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous Redemption: Copiosa Redemptio a bounteous remission; for he shall wipe out all our sins, neither take vengeance on us in this life, nor in the life to come.  
If he do lay a cross, a calamity upon us in this life, as he did upon David, for the scandal he brought upon Israel by Vriahs' death, 
2 Sam. 12. 14.  and the adulterating of his wife; afflict us, as he did him in the loss of a child; or send a Pestilence to scour the land, as he did his; In which sense Euthymius says of him, 
Euthymius in Psal. 32.  Mors remissa est, sed noxa vel damnum exigebatur per subsecutas calamitates: Yet for all this, God doth not inflict this, Sub ratione poenae, as a vengeance, but a chastisement; not as a punishment, but a fatherly Correction; not as a Minister of his wrath, but an evidence of his love. For he chasteneth the Children, whom he best loves. And so you see he corrects the bitterness of his judgements, with intermingling mercy amongst them; Pellit pestem àpeste, (saith one) he takes out all malignity from his judgements; (as S, Paul saith) he plucked out the sting of death. 
1 Cor. 15. 55.  O mors ubi aculeus tuus?  
Last of all, he doth not only remit the punishment of the sin, and retain the Gild, treasuring up that in diem irae, to press against us in the last day: but he forgives that too; he doth not quench the flame, and leave a spark behind to kindle his wrath, or to incense him hereafter; no, Tu remisisti iniquitatem peccati mei, Thou forgivest the very iniquity of my sin, the enormity, the Obliquity (as Aquinas calls it:) So that Intempestiu● est hîc Poenae & Culpae distinctio, that distinction of the punishment and of the guilt is frivolous and out of season here: God forgives the sin at the very root. And as Elisha, when he cured the waters, 
2 King. 2. ●1.  cast salt into the springs: so God to make a perfect cure by his Absolution, heals us at the heart; because that is the root of sin. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith the Septuagint; thou forgivest the iniquity, the impurity of my heart.  
Thus you may perceive, there are no Arrearages left in God's Audit; he forgives both the Gild of the sin, & the punishment; both the suit & the damages. for he requires nothing but a true confession: If we confess, 
1 joh. 1. 9  he is faithful and just to forgive us. This makes a full expiation and atonement for all our sins. Therefore he that confesses and reputes, as it were Levies a fine with God, to cut off all punishment in the present, or in the world to come. For this Remisisti, 
Chald●● Paraphras.  is ● remisisti in aeternum, our everlasting quietus est; a general acquittancc, for the breadth and extent of it like his mercy, which is exceeding broad, exceeding large; and again like unto his mercy for the duration and date of it which endureth for ever.  
I am at my farthest, even lost and confounded in the vast subject of God's mercy; which like a deep sea, through which I cannot wade, stops my passage; so that here I can only stand upon the bank, and cry with S. Paul, O altitudo, O the depth of his mercy.  
In which devout ecstasy I will end; only borrowing a short Gloria Patri, and some sounds, like those which environ the mercy Seat, from the Prophet David's song of thanksgiving. 
Psal. 103. 2. 3. 4.  My soul praise thou the Lord, and forget not all his benefits: which forgiveth all thy sins, and healeth all thine infirmties; which redeemeth thy life from the grave, 
V. ●.  and crowneth thee with mercy and compassion. To this glorious God, full of compassion, who crowneth us here with mercy, & will crown us hereafter with glory, be ascribed all honour and thanksgiving for ever. Amen.    


DAVID'S STRAIGHT. THE AFTERNOON'S SERMON UPON THE ACT SUNDAY.  
Delivered by JOHN KING, Inceptor in Divinity, one of the Praebendaries of Christ-church. in Oxford.  PSAL. 71. 20. 
Thou which hast showed me great, and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, etc.   

DAVID'S STRAIGHT.  2 Sam▪ 24. 14. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord (for his mercies are great) and let me not fall into the hand of man. 
THat Caution given heretofore by the Crier, to those that were to speak at Athens, that they should presently fall to their matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, without Preface or Passion; shall serve me for a Preface to to my ensuing discourse. My subject being so full of straitness, if I would hold proportion with it, will not give me the liberty of a larger introduction. Yet before I take the words asunder, you must take along with you, some Praecognita, some presuppositions, by which you may look back from my Text, to the beginning of this Chapter, and have therein a brief Epitome of the History here contained. Israel had again provoked the Lord to anger, 
Connexion.  notwithstanding his former chastisements for their sins. Now sin seldom goes without some punishment attending on it. God was in their debt, and again his anger was kindled against them. 
V. 1.  In this anger, he permits David their King to add his sin to theirs; and so to fill up the measure and number of their transgressions, by his own, in numbering the people unnecessarily and unlawfully. David commands and prevails against joab and the Princes, that gainesayed it at the first; but afterwards, lest they should lose his favour, they execute his commands. His sin was 9 months and odd days old, before he saw it: and the Lord let him see the deformity of it, at this growth, by some visitation different from the great pestilence he afterwards offered him; as some collect out of 1 Chron. 27. 24. whereupon he recalled joab, (he finished not the numbering, because there fell wrath for it against Israel.) His own heart hereupon smote him first, & he acknowledged his folly: & presently Gad his Seer was sent to let him know, that God would also smite him for this folly: yet with such a merciful hand, David might conceive, it was rather for discipline, than destruction, and upon as easy terms as might stand with his justice. Strike he would; yet so, that David should prescribe in what kind: whether by famine, sword, or pestilence. And although these conditions seem hard on man's part, who is the delinquent, because they are all rather to be avoided, then chosen: yet they are easy and moderate, on God the judge's part: who needed not to have given any at all. Nay any one of them, or all at once, and thousands more, he might without injustice have inflicted. Therefore David thought himself mercifully dealt with, and upon his second wiser thoughts, professeth as much in my text. Dixit autem David ad Gad: Coarctor, etc.  
The Text you see is responsory; and the Speakers David and Gad. Gad had delivered his message; and it was now david's turn, being instantly urged to it, to give him an answer. Here it is specified, to whom, and by whom, and what it was. So that you may consider here the Words of the Historian. 
Division.  And David said unto Gad. and the Words of the History, in the rest. The words of him that compiled this book, and his words that are here recorded, the words of King David. The former show the connexion, and the distinction of persons, and the Form only: these latter prefent unto us the Substance and matter of the Annals.  
In the words of the Historian, 
Subdivision.  though they are only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I shall make some short observations about the Persons of David and Gad, and some other circumstances. In the words of the History, which make up david's answer, there is 1. His Deliberation, I am in a great strait. 2 His Resolution, and this twofold: Positive, Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord: with a Reason, for His mercies are great. Negative or Exclusive, and let me not fall into the hand of man. According to this order, your patience and attention is desired: First to the words of the Historian, 
1. General part.  the Penman of the holy Ghost: 
The words of the Historian.  Dixit autem Dauid ad Gad.  
David is here the Delinquent, arraigned a little before, v. 12. but by none of his glorious titles: as they are given him in the precedent chap. v. 1. The anointed of the God of jacob: the sweet Psalmist of Israel, etc. But as the Lord instructed Gad, Go and say unto David: plain David. It was the King when he commanded joab, to go and number the people: but it is now David, when he is convented and under discipline. But whether we have him by the title of the King, we are sure it is the Person of the King. And when Great ones sin, they commonly do it, according to the eminency of their place, with authority, with a high hand. In this particular the King would satisfy his curiosity, & that merely, in having the sum of the people taken; Vt sciam, 
V. 2.  that I may know the number of the people. A knowledge unfruitful at the best, and savouring of infidelity also; being he had a promise from the Lord, that his people should be as the stars for number, or the sands on the sea shore. Yet he was so transported with this humour, that say what joab and all the Captains would, the King's word prevailed. Quod libet, licet. There needs no other warrant to justify great Potentates bad actions, but their will. Bar them of this liberty, or rather licentiousness, this were to straighten their Dominions. For greatness for the most part sweyes more with them then goodness. Therefore when at any time this goes to curb or oppose that, they will presently shake hands with virtue, and banish out of their actions Optimus, so they may but retain Maximus in their titles. Let a suit be never so unjust, yet if it be commenced in a great man's name, it were his disgrace to take the foil in it. 
Sen. l. 3. de irâ, c. 4.  In magnis magnae fortunae bonis ponunt ultionem. No Court of justice but shall ring of his injustice; and whatsoever his reputation be with God, what cares he, so he may but keep his reputation amongst men. The ground of all is this. Those Mighties of the earth, that harbour an unmastered Appetite, an unruly will in their bosoms, and are wedded to it, unless they have from above, a special restraining and directing Grace, shall ever find it suggesting to them as jezebel to her husband Ahab (when he was sad because he might not have Naboth's vineyard) Dost thou now govern Israel? 
1 King. 21. 7.  Arise and be merry, I will give thee the vineyard. And she carried it with the King's letter and seal, though the lines were, like Draco's Laws, written in Naboth's blood.  
But do the sins of Princes keep within their own private threshold's? It were well, i● so: Nay, they are of a diffusive, and spreading nature; to the hurt of others also: either by Imitation, or Imputation. How by Imitation is evident enough. Quo grandius nomen, 
Be●●.  eo grandius scandalum. The vices of Rulers are made the rules of vices to inferiors. And as they are soon discerned in eminent persons; so are they soon followed from their examples. Plato's crum●-shoulder, and Aristotle's lisping, and Portius●Latro's sallow complexion, made sects of their imperfections, as well as their opinions. And never was there a wider gate set open to all villainy, then when jupiter, Mercury, and Venus, and the rest of that rabble of Heathen Gods, were made the Authors and Actors of wickedness.  
The Romanists are but little behind the Heathens, in some of their Canonised Saints. And if stabbing, massacring, blowing up, and the like virtues, for which they are deified, bring to Heaven; the Lord keep us all from that Heaven, which these deserve. Did not these Politicians perceive, that many times, the persons of men have a greater attractive virtue to their superstition, than their strongest persuasions: they would not so often attempt to raise up children to their Father the Pope, out of our deceased Orthodox Prelates & Professors of best note. They would certainly ere this have recalled that Lying Legacy; Legatum Peregrè missum mentiendi causâ: which of late the envious man sowed upon stall's and shop-boardes in this place, and elsewhere in gardens and orchards, whilst men slept. But the Author hath long since bequeathed himself with his Legacy, to notable Imposture, and frontless Impudence; In which I leave him; who I presume made that the Motive to set forth his Motives, in an assumed person and name: as well knowing that the greatness of jeroboam's place, makes his name draw a long train after it, when he is mentioned in the holy Scripture. 
1 King. 14. 16.  jeroboam who did sin, and who made Israel to sin.  
Neither doth this observation hold only in the highest Offices, but also in the highest Graces. A Pagan life may suit well with a Pagan profession; but sub nomine Christiano vitam agere Gentilem. 
Hieron.  If the life and actions of a Pagan lurk under the mask and visor of a Christian name, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Apol. 2. pro Christian.  the bad example may possess very many. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith justine Martyr, from the Heathens own mouths: and therefore goodness was expected from the very name. Let them look to answer for it, that answer not that name.  
Among Christians also, the sins of the Clergy do far sooner and more dangerously infect then the same in the Laity. And their offences are reckoned according to the measure of the Sanctuary, double to the ordinary account; so shall their punishments be too. Only in paying Tithes, that double honour due to them, which the Apostle speaks of, men are content to reduce to single pay. To both I say only this: majus peccatum habent. And I would we did not give the occasion. I would it were not too justly taken up by way of complaint, that Holy Orders of the Church, and Degrees of the Schools, do too often invest many; who are more guilty of being Corrupters than Leaders (unless it be in the worst sense, such as the Pharisees were, blind Leaders of the blind, and both fall into the pit, a Tavern or a Taphouse.) May we not fear, that these are the last and worst times, when some that should be the Heads of the people, are become the worst Members? We have lost the distinction of Degrees, since there hath been brought in a Confusion of ill Manners. And the highest Graduats are scarcely to be discerned by any other Habit, than a Habit of vice; that dares obtrude and justify to the face of Authority, the most malapert misdemeanour, because it is— facinus maioris Abollae. 
juu.   
Mistake me not. I defile not my own nest: but would let strangers know (for I am not ignorant how we are taxed abroad) if any such rowst amongst us, they are not of us. But I have stooped to those, that are far inferior to King David; yet to such as have sinned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Ro. 5. 14.  after the similitude of his trangression; not for the matter of it, but the danger. Though some may ask what danger here from this particular sin of King David? who was moved by it to do the like?  
But say nothing were to be feared from the Imitation of this his offence, there was eminent peril from the Imputation of it, to no less than 70000. men: 
V. 15.  that partly for this were cut off by the sword of the Lord, even the Pestilence. So true is that of the Poets oftentimes.— Delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi. It is not the least punishment to a commonwealth, when Princes and Rulers transgress the Royal Law. They neither stand nor fall to themselves alone. I will give children to be their Princes, 
Isa. 3. 4.  saith the Lord, by way of commination upon judah & jerusalem. Such a child was David here, who in his old age did childishly, and the people smarted for it. Facit regnare hominem Hypocritam propter peccata populi. 
job 34. 30.  So the Vulgar read it. Our last English with a little difference: That the Hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared. Both look one way, that the subjects have the worst it, when the governor's are bad which the Lord sets over them.  
Neither are the ways of the Lord herein unaequall, to inflict any thing upon the members of a Politic body, though the Head were in fault; more than if the judge should do wrong, in making the back pay for the theft which the hand committed: It is Just: 
Resp. 138. add Orthodox.  Martyrs comparison: such a union there is between the Prince and the people.  
What evil the people of Israel had here done, it will not much profit us to know: but in the general, this we may be assured of. 
Ezek. 18.  The Soul that sinneth, it shall dye. God strikes not an innocent party: and therefore we must be persuaded with St Aug: whensoever and how soever he visits, occulta esse Possunt iudicia dei, iniusta nunquam. As for King David did he not think ye, bear his own burden; Did not the hand of the Lord find him out, as well as the people? If we believe Greg: and Iust. Martyr, he had his share of punishment, though in another kind. 
Greg. 〈◊〉. li. 25. cap. 14.  Ira saeviens, quae corporaliter populum perculit, rectorem quoque populi intimo cordis dolore prostravit. The people were stricken outwardly with the Pestilence; the King inwardly with sorrow, that his transgression should draw, after it, the loss of so many subjects, 
Iust. Mar. ibid.  * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. That Kingdom must needs be much shaken, where the number of the subjects is shortened: and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Else King David would never have wished somuch hurt to those to near him. 
Ver. 17.  Let thine hand be against me, & against my Father's house.  
But this diminution of the people, might be more tolerable to King David, because it came not upon him as a thief in the night, suddenly, without any praemonition. The Lord sent one of his Prophets rising up early to give him notice of his purpose. And David was early up also, either to go to hear the word of the Lord, or to have it come home to him. 
Ver. 11.  For when David was up in the morning, instructions came from the Lord to Gad to repair to him.  
A thing it seems not so rare in those days, as now, for great Personages to rise early; especially upon such an occasion, to hear a Prophet or a Preacher. This were fit for meaner souls: but Great ones will keep their state towards God himself. 
Amos. 6. 4.  They lie upon beds of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches, and that even till No one day many times: not with fewer sins than David, but with smaller sense of them, with greater security; and therefore the greater danger. The gentle voice of a prophet will not be sufficient to rouse or star●●e such from their ease, but it must be the voice of thunder; and then perhaps they would be glad, with Caligula, to leave their beds, and creep under them, for affrightment.  
It is likely David slept but little that night. For he had within him the alarm of a troubled conscience still beating. 
Ver. 10.  Percussit cor David eum. He punished himself with numbering the hours, or rather the four watches of the night, for his numbering the people. And we may believe, that this night among the rest, 
Ps▪ 6. 6.  he watered his couch with tears, and spent the better part of it, in meditations and confessions of his folly. Then (and not till then) when he had his eyes thus open upon his own transgressions, was his Seer, the Prophet Gad, sent in the morning. which is an argument of the Lords singular benignity, who useth not to send his Prophets, but either to invite sinners to repentance, or to confirm them that have begun it (as David here did) in so good and acceptable a work.  
And for what are his denunciations and threatenings added to his messages, but to set an edge as it were upon our turning to him; to be as pricks and goads, to make us the more eager to desire that we may decline them. 
Isa. 3. 8.  Thus was Isaiah sent to King Hezekiah; 
jon. 3. 4,  to bid him set his house in order. Thus also was jonah sent to Nineveh. Yet 40 days and Niniveh shall be overthrown. And in my Text (that I may not multiply examples) Gad unto David. That Avenger bears no hostile mind, who gives warning to his Adversary, where and how he intends to wound him. And that party must be very negligent of his own safety, who labours not either to guard, or to prevent the blow he sees coming. The Lord therefore herein dealt with David (and David made that good use of a praemonition) as sometime he did with Abraham, when he intended to destroy Sodom, 
Gen. 18. 17.  shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? to the end that Abraham might make intercession for Sodom, and David for himself and his people, as we read both of them did; and we may go and do the like. For this farther favour holy David found in the sight of the Lord, that he sent the same prophet the second time, who at the first was a messenger of death, to be a director and a counsellor to him, and the penitent Elders, 
1. Chron. 21. 16.  who were clad in sackcloth, and fell upon their faces, what course they should take, to stay the hand of the Angel from striking, and to stop the jaws of death. It was Gad which came to him both times. To show, that he who is the minister of the Law, should be the minister of the Gospel also: as he breaks, so he should bind up again. An observation which I make the rather, against those indiscrete Teachers, that speak still from mount Sinai, in thunder & lightning: not at all from mount Zion, in the mild tones of mercy. They are like those Boanerges, 
Mar. 3. 17.  sons of thunder calling down fire from heaven, and calling it up from hell too, to affright distressed consciences; but they have no portion of the spirit of Barnabas, 
Act. 4. 36.  to be the sons of consolation. Thus are they far more terrible Instructers, than the Law itself. For Lex paedagogus, 
Gal. 3, 24.  ad Christum: But these bring not their Auditors so far on their way. They only show the Law holding out the rod unto them, as their adversary; but they show not how they must agree with this adversary in the way, (that is) in Chrst, who hath styled himself the way, the mediating way between God and men, who hath taken away the curse of the Law.  
But there is another extreme, as much to be avoided by those that will take the prophet Gad for their pattern. As they may not pour into wounded consciences altogether vinegar: so ought they not to use nothing but oil to smooth and supple. That same, 
Ps. 141. 5.  oleum impinguans caput, precious oil that breaks the head, is far more dangerous than the friendly smiting of the righteous by reproof. And that precious oil of palpable flattery, or silent connivance, is too often used, to the hurt of those that are the heads of the people. But Gad was armed from above with boldness; and feared o● the face of the best man, to acquaint him with the worst of his message. He durst come home to the King's bedchamber, and tell him that which might make his ears tingle. And happy are those Princes and Nobles, before whom such Prophets dare discharge that part of their thankless office.  
Gad was said to be David's Seer; because he saw that which was hidden from David, till he revealed it to him. Kings in their affairs of state, are forced to see many things through other men's eyes; but in their spiritual state, they have more need of their Seers eyes, by which they may look upon both their sins and punishments. Now David's Seer was no other than David's Chaplain, saith Pet. Martyr; but of a far different strain from those Trencher Chaplains of Great men in our times; whose office consists chiefly in reading prayers and saying grace▪ As for their preaching, unless they speak placentia, they were better ●eepe in their words. 
jam. 3. 2.  Their Patroness have a curb for their mouths, by which they are able 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to rule both their tongues, and their whole bodies. And as Balaam said to Balak, 
Num. 14. 13.  They can not go beyond the commandment of their Lords, to do either good or evil after their own minds, but must only speak, what they have put into their mouths. If they exceed this commission, they must expect no other than to be degraded from the honour of sitting at the lower end of the Table. But there are enough of jeroboam's Preist's, 
1 King 13. 33.  of the lowest of the people; that will be ready enough to take their rooms. Many a Micah gets him such a Levite (but I am sorry so many such Levites to the disgrace of our Ministry, and Universities, are to be found) for ten shekels of silver by the year, a suit of apparel and his victuals; and then vaunts, as Micah did. 
jud. 17.  Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Lev●te in my house. But such a Seer as Gad, that knows the dignity of his office, and discharges the duty of it, boldly and freely, shall stay for praeferment, till he hath learned better manners, then to tell his betters any thing they would be loath to hea●e. Yet King David here kept a better temper towards his Seer. It was but a harsh message that Gad brought him; you have your choice, of sword, pestilence or famine: all so full of horror, that they might seem not only to perplex, but withal to exasperate David against his person, that was to convey such an vnwel●come option: (as we use to malign a Bay●iue, that serves us with a sub paenâ, or other citation to the bar.) But the King laid his own guiltiness against the Prophet's words: and his godly sorrow for his error, 
2 Cor. 7. 11.  wrought in him St Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, indignation and revenge against himself, not against the Prophet. Therefore he neither excuses, nor exten●ates, nor justifies his fault, nor falls fowl upon Gad, 
1 King 18. 17.  as Ahab did upon Eliah. Art thou he that troublest Israel? nor puts him in durance to try whether his words would come to pass; 
1 King 22. 72.  as the same Ahab used the Prophet Michaiah. But contrary to the ordinary deportment of those that are faulty, who are commonly Monitoribus asperi; the Mountains and high ones especially, that will smoke and rea●e and fret, & fume, when they are touched near the quick, 
Ps. 144. 5.  Tange montes & fumigabunt. It is only, Dixit David ad Gad. David said, and he said mildly, he did not storm, nor swear, nor rave: and he said to the purpose, to the matter that was in hand, punctually and precisely, in answer to that which Gad proposed before, Coarctor etc. jam in a great strait. And so are we fallen upon my 2d General▪ The words of the History i● self: 
2 General 〈…〉  and therein, First David's Deliberation, jam in a great strait.  
This straitning proceeded from Gad's prop●sa●● in the precedent verse. One of the 3. must come, but it was in David's choice. Either 7. years' famine, or 3. months flight in persecution, or 3. days the fury of the Pestilence. These are the 3. chained judgements of the Lord, that go for the most part linked together in the holy Scripture. They are his 3. arrows, which he usually draws out of his quiver, to shoot at the children of men; like those 3. which jonathan shot, to be Hieroglyphikes to David, 
1. Sam. 20.  of his safety or danger. But we will take no warning, neither by those, he hath shot beyond us in the times past: nor by those that fall short of us in neighbouring countries: nay scarcely now, when they even hit us, and stick in our own borders and bosoms. Thus you shall find them joined like inseparable companions in a league of vengeance as it were. 
jer. 34. 17.  Ye would not proclaim a liberty every one to his brother, saith the Lord. Therefore behold I proclaim a liberty for you, to the Sword, to the Pestilence and to the Famine. So also jer. 29. 17. and many places of that Prophecy. and Ezech: 14. 21. These are 3. of those which the Lord calls there Quatuor iudicia pessima, 
L. de anim●●. 4.  his 4. sore judgements. and Tertull: calls them Tonsuras insolescentis generis humani, lopping, & pruning of proud mankind, that it grow not too rank.  
Had David been confined in his choice only to one of these, it had been no election. They are but mock-elections, or rather approbations only, when Titius is absolutely designed to such, or such a place: yet under colour, the choice is devolued upon Sempronius and his associates, in whose power it is not left to refuse. There must be somewhat taken and somewhat left, which cannot be in unity but necessarily requires variety of 2. at the least. Yet such was the variety here presented to David: all evils of punishment, all harbingers for death, but under divers shapes: all distasteful to flesh and blood, that it wonderfully poses and puzzles him upon which he should determine. And variety of objects distracts even in good things. We have St Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Phil. 1. 23.  straight between two, and which to choose, he knew not. He saw it was so happy for his own good to be with Christ, yet so needful for the good of others to have his dissolution differed. We may commonly observe there are the worst stomaches at the best furnished tables. When it is Coena dubia, the Guests know not what to taste first, and so omit all, having full eyes, but empty paunches. Thus also are many Students more posed with the multitude of books, than the difficulty of their matter. The Authors of Method are so numerous, that they become to some the Authors of Confusion, who cannot discern amongst so many paths, what tract is best to follow. It was therefore a judicious observation of a grave professor, (though it may seem a Paradox in our Universities,) that our rich Libraries, made but mean Scholars. Upon this ground: because either out of their greediness of knowledge, and inconstant curiosity, they will taste of all Authors, and digest none, 
Sen.  for varia lectio delectat, 
Eccles. 12. 12.  certa prodest: or oppressed with such variety (because much reading is weariness to the flesh) and they think it too long a task for so short a life, to turn over so much as the Indices of all, they grow oscitant, & will peruse none. This is like the turning off a Greyhound at the whole Herd: where his game is so plentiful, and he hath so many in chase, that he pinches none.  
Now where there is variety, but all are mala culpae, the divers ways on the right hand and the left, that lead to destruction, the number may admit of election, but not the matter. Though all sins be not equal, yet all are equally to be avoided and declined. For there are some things of that nature, that a man must not yield to, though the Rack, or other most exquisite torments should be used, to extort his consent. Therefore it was a noble resolution of one of the Princes of Condee, to whom the French King Charles the 9th made this offer, and bid him make his choice; whether he would hear a Mass, or suffer present death, or perpetual Imprisonment. He was as sudden, as religious and zealous in his answer, Primum Deo jwante nunquam eligam. As to the first, I detest the Idolatrous Mass: and for the other 2. I leave them and myself to the will of the King; yet hope the Lord will order and dispose these also to the best. With such courage did that mother, happy in the number and constancy of her 7. children, choose rather to undergo all torments, 
Macc: 7.  then to prolong their lives by eating swine's flesh. And the fervent zeal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, for the true and living Lord, burnt within them, so much hotter than the fiery furnace, Nabuchadnezzar threatened them with; that his golden image wanted worship from them, and himself wanted their obedience in his unlawful commands: 
Dan. 3: 16.  Non oportet nos hâc de re respondere: We are not careful to answer thee in this matter. For in all such cases, we are to hold that principle, out of which Peter and john framed their answer to the jews. 
Act. 4. 19  Whether it be right in the sight of God, to hearken unto you, more than unto God, judge ye. We may not hearken to men nor Angels; nor suffer friends to have any interest in us, but with subordination to the Laws of God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Nay we must not hearken to ourselves, when our own lusts would tempt us, and draw us away from the Lord, though they whisper in our ears, never so many apparent goods, that may accrue unto us, for our private ends and commodities. But in these, what straight can there be, where it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: the broad way, 
Matt. 7. 13.  into which we should not so much as enter our foot, our affections, our sensitive appetite, which are the feet, as it were, and the inferior part of our souls?  
There are some, that put themselves upon straits, where there are none: 
Gal. 3.  such as with those foolish Galatians, are bewitched to make question of the well settled truth, and to perplex themselves, whether they are in the truth or no, and to call Father Lessius into consultation with them; quae sides capessenda, whether they should more safely live still Protestants, or be reconciled to the Church of Rome, and die Papists. I may use to them the words of Eliah, upon the like occasion, 
1. King. 8. 21.  Vsque quò claudicatis? How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; and follow him there, where he is worshipped as God, in spirit and truth, without that will worship of carnal, delightful, pompous ceremonies; which through the eyes of the simpler sort steal away their hearts, to believe any thing which is imposed upon them. Follow him there, where he is still a God, and nothing detracted or derogated from him. Where true Faith, and good works as the fruits of faith are preached, yet no merit pleaded in either. Where thou art taught, that thou dost but thy duty, and receivest above thy reward. Where Christ's satisfaction is thought to be so full, for the co●ering of all thy sins, that it needs not to be pieced out with any of thi●e own, to help the scantines of it. But on the other side, if Baal be God, or God be in that part of the Baalitish religion, that teaches me to fall down before stocks and stones, that are so much my inferiors, because insensible, and myself in doing so, degenerate, and become as insensible as they: or that teaches me to adore my aequals and fellow servants, Angels or Saints: or that teaches me to nullify him that is so much above me, to eat my God, (nay to give this privilege to a mouse, that shall nibble at the Sacramental bread) to deface his Image there, with my Cannibal like teeth, crucifying him as it were afresh: again to deface his Image in the King, with a murderous Assasinate's hand, or bu● a bloody and treacherous heart I say, if God be in such superstition, or rather sacrilege, or such a seditious sect, follow him there.  
There is also another strain of straitlaced brethren, that think the comely garments of our Church, are too full and flaring, and come too near the meretricious attire of the Whore of Babylon: & therefore they are in a straight, whether they should reach their consciences so far, as to a conformity and subscription; or suffer a proscription, or suspension, or deprivation to pass upon them. But David did not unnecessarily put himself upon any such straits as these. In things absolutely evil, or in things indifferent, he might soon have quitted himself of all distraction and anxiety of mind. But here, there was an inevitable necessity, of choosing one of the three, which were all mala poenae. As the Angel took Bala●m in a narrow place, 
Num. 23. 26.  where he could not turn to the right hand or the left.  
But you will ask me, what choice can be of those things, of which there can be no desire? And who ever hated himself so much, that he should have any inclination to undergo his punishment? Here then must that Vulgar Maxim take place; Emalis minimum. If I must needs smart, that which is least painful, is most welcome. I would rather be chastised with whips, than (as Rehoboam threatened) with scorpions. 
1. King. 12. 11.  And our great Master Aristotle, could answer, that the lighter and more tolerable evils compared with the greater, have the semblance and appearance of good, and therefore may he the objects of election. 
Greg. L. 8. ep. cap: 41.  Plerumque genus mortis, in alterius mortis consideratione, levamen est. So did David in his resolution, cast himself into the hands of the Lord, rather than into the hands of men; As thinking it his best and safest way: For the Vulgar translation reads it comparatively. Melius est ut incidam, etc. it is better for me to fall into the hand of the Lord, etc. Although he would by his good will have escaped the hands of both.  
Secondly, these three punishments, proposed to King David, howsoever no way pleasing to flesh & blood (for no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, saith the Apostle) yet because they belonged to the discipline, 
Hebr. 12. 11.  which the Lord useth over men, and were works of his justice, therefore in themselves good; and good for us also, whensoever the Lord inflicts any such upon us, had we that good consideration of them, which this Kingly Prophet elsewhere professeth. Bonum mihi quia humiliatus: 
Ps: 119. 71.  It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes: amongst which, this is one: Statutum omnibus semel mori. 
Hebr. 9 27.  It is a poenall statute, enacted by that high court of Parliament, which made man, that death & the accomitants thereof, should be the wages of sin which man made.  
And I pray observe here the deceitfulness of sin. 
Ro: 6. 23.  It promises freedom and liberty, but concludes us in a prison, in little ●ase. David's heart was pricked at first, & puffed up with a desire of vain knowledge, but in the end his him●onit ●onit▪ Thus hath sin, before it be committed, a comely visage to allure unto it, 
Reu. 9 8.  like those Locusts, with men's faces & women's hair, but a tail like a Scorpion & a sting in it; that is, in the end, anguish and anxiety. And Abaddon the King of the Locusts there, is ready to suggest unto us with his temptations, that God is merciful and long suffering, so to make us run into presumption: but afterwards he is as ready to drive us upon the rock of despair. He labours to keep from us the still voice, wherein God is a God of mercy, with the loud noise of blustering winds and earthquakes, and fire; still sounding in our ears terror and judgement, 
Ro. 2. 9  Tribulation and anguish upon every Soul that doth evil. These are dangerous straits, when, as in a piece of prospective, the nearer the eye, the broader do things appear, but the farther off they are represented, the more contracted: so when the longer we look upon our sins, the greater strait, the greater perplexity shows itself. When we cannot see the end of those fears, that draw all our hopes of pardon narrower and narrower, till they leaveus in the end, in the disconsolate thoughts of blackness and utter darkness, where there is no glimpse of of light to be seen. But on the contrary, if it be, as we see in a calm water, when a stone, or the like, is cast in to move it, it makes a small and narrow entrance, but from that impression, the circles are multiplied bigger and bigger, till they come to the banks: so, if amongst all those contractions of heart, and distractions too, unto which our sins have brought us; when the waters come up even unto our souls— Et unda supervenit undae: and hem us in on every side, we can but perceive a dilatation and extension of mercy, one mercy overtaking another, and our hearts enlarged in the apprehension of those mercies: If when we pass here, through the red sea of many tribulations, where the path is narrow and dangerous, we can but see the land of Promise, abroad and spacious and pleasant place to entertain us, at our journeys' end; we may be assured that this is the way of salvation. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth to eternal life: 
Mat. 7. 14.  straight and narrow in the beginning, but fair and capacious the farther we project our sight. Straitnes for a short time, for a moment: but the largeness and uncircumscribed freedom of joy, shall know no limits of time, 
Ps: 90. 15.  but endure for all eternity. Not only, as the sweet singer of Israel prays, Make us glad according to the days, wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil: but without and beyond all comparison with former times, 
Rev. 21. 4.  gladness for ever. No sorrow, no crying, no pain, no straitness, God shall wipe away all tears from all eyes. Who sees not that it is a far more blessed thing, to go on our way weeping here, which, 
Ps. 126. 6.  although we tread upon thorns, and with much difficulty get through, brings us to a celestial Paradise; then to walk in a broadway, strewed with roses and other delicacies, to destruction and the place of torment: like the fool in the Prou. that goes laughing to the stocks.  
Certainly King David was in a better estate, when his way was thus hedged up with thorns, 
Host 2. 6.  that he could not readily find his paths, then when he walked at liberty upon his terrace; from whence he had so pleasant & free a prospect upon a fair woman, that it gave occasion of that foul sin with the wife of Vriah. 
2. Sam. 11.  (Mulier longè, libido propè▪) a sin so soul, 
Aug. in Ps. 50.  that it clouds and overshadowes all the rest he committed; as if he had been innocent in other transgressions. 
1. King. 15. 5.  He turned not a side save only in the matter of Vriah the Hittite. When Nathan was sent to him for that, and God for this, he called himself to a strict account, and imitated that part of the Serpent's wisdom: who draws herself through a narrow place, that she may put off her old skin. Such wisdom was David brought unto by these straits, to strip himself of his former folly, to put off the old man by repentance, which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, & Resipiscentia, an after wisdom. And from him may we take a pattern, though we cannot be innocent as doves, yet in this manner, to be wise as serpents. Nevertheless in his straits he found the Liberty of the sons of God▪ 
2. Cor. 4. 8.  That I may use the Apostles words. He was troubled on every side, but not distressed, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perplexed but not in despair. For his Resolution in the next words was clear, and free from perturbation. 
David's RESOLUTION.  Let us fall now into the hands of the Lord etc. 
1 Positive.  Therein first consider the positive Part & the Reason annexed, and you shall find in it that same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, his singular dexterity in advising and counselling himself for the best, in so difficult a case, which is the infallible child of eminent wisdom.  
For first, knowing himself to be guilty of the punishments proposed to him, he declines them not; nor complains of the severity of them; nor prays to have them differed, or diverted from him; but readily accepts of that which he accounted the mildest of the three, Incidam in manus Domini. Whereas otherwise wisdom dictates to the innocent, not to draw so much suspicion upon themselves, as voluntarily to undergo what they deserve not.  
Secondly observe, how in his election he makes the circumstances of the punishment, fitly answer to the circumstances of the transgression, like Elisha upon the Shunammites child, he applies mouth to mouth, 
2. King. 4.  eyes to eyes, & hands to hands, & stretches the one upon the other.  
Pride was the mother of his sin; and in my Text their is a fall for that, Incidamus, a posture of humiliation, he desires to be humbled under the mighty hand of God.  
Again this pride and glorying of his, was in the number of his subjects: Therefore he thought it but just & agreeable to the law of Retaliation which the Lord holds: Per quae quis peccat, per ●apunitur; that he should suffer by number; not by the increase but the diminution of that number, he so much vaunted of. 
Prou. 13. 28.  According to that: In the multitude of people is the King's honour; but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince. For Pagnine, Arias Montanus, junius, & Tremellius read it plurally, as we in our last English tranflate it, Incidamus. Let us fall.  
And this intimates with all, his impartiality even to himself and his own house. He would not lay a grievous burden of punishment upon his people's shoulders (as our Saviour taxes the Lawyers) and himself not touchit with one of his fingers; 
Lu. 11. 46.  but submits himself to hold equal proportion with the lowest of his people, who partly drew it all upon their heads. And josephus is of opinion, that for this reason he chose the Pestilence (howsoever we have another expressed in the Text, from the Lords mercies) Because had it been a Famine, he might have made provision before hand against that. Had it been the Enemy's invasion, he might hauh secured himself in his Forts & strong holds. But the Plague is the Lords bosom of destruction, which may sweep away the King as soon as the Peasant; and therefore Incidamus, Let us fall, I with the rest. I exempt not myself from the common calamity.  
Yet their is a particle more, which I may not omit. It is good to see the bottom of a danger at the first, and to know the continuance of it. A long and lingering expectation of the worst that may befall, perplexes more oftentimes, then if it came upon us presently. The shape of death represented to our fantasies, is more terrible, than the experience of it to the sense. But when we know the heat of an affliction will be soon passed over, it adds comfort and courage and resolution to the patients, who hope for release, at the expiration of that short time. It was King David's discretion here, since he could not resolve, which was the most grievous, to choose that which was least tedious. He cast with himself, that he had but three days to reckon upon, for the fury of the pestilence: whereas he must have told many long and irksome hours in the seven years' famine; or but the three monet'hs' pursuit of his enemies; and therefore he makes it his request to the Lord, as the son of David hastens judas in his treacherous design, that he might instantly enter upon his passion, 
joh. 13. 27.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord. Now presently, without further delay.  
And he had his wish: for immediately the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, 
Ver. 15.  from the morning (that very morning in which Gad & he had this conference) even to the time appointed. Which appointed time; whither it were only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from the morning till dinner time, as the Septuagint render it, 
Qu. 37. in 2 Reg.  and Theodoret and St. Ambrose follow that opinion: 
In Psal. 37.  or till the time of the continual evening sacrifice: (so the Chaldee Paraphrase explains it, and St. Hierome and other modern interpreters:) or till the time that David sacrificed upon Araunahs' threshing flower; or till the whole three days in the letter of the Scripture, were expired; I may not stand to discuss. But it is very probable, that David was in hope, by the reason he gives of his choice, (Multae misericordiae Domini;) that the Lord in his great mercy, might contract and shorten, even that short time of three days.  
But before I come to recount those consolations and advantages which David forecast, by falling into the hand of the Lord; I must explicate the term, what is meant here by the hand of the Lord. Some think that David excepted only against the Sword of the Enemy, the hand of man, and left it to the disposition of the Almighty, to inflict either the Pestilence, or Famine: which come both more immediately from the hand of the Lord. Or that he did determinately make choice of the Pestilence, but in some other words, which are not expressed in the text; as if it could not be evinced sufficiently out of the text: yet, that he must fix upon; because the Prophet Gad, urged him still to a definite answer. 
V. 12. & 13.  Choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. So Tostatus infers. But some later Commentators, could see a determinate choice of the Pestilence, in the very Phrase of the hand of the Lord, here used. For in many other places of holy writ, this is more peculiarly called the hand of the Lord. As Exod. 9 3. Behold the Hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle etc. and v. 15. I will stretch forth my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with Pestilence. So also we find it jer. 21. 5. 6. I myself will fight against you, manu extentâ, with an out stretched hand, and smite the inhabitants, they shall die of a great Pestilence. 
Hab: 3. 4.  And thus doth the Prophet Habb: describe the awful Ma.tie of God. He had horns coming out of his hand what were those? Before him went the Pestilence, and burning coals (or burning diseases) went forth at his feet. Nay. 1 Chron. 21. 12. there is a sword put into the hand of the Lord. Gladius Domini & Pestilentia; the Sword of the Lord even the Pestilence. For albeit all the creatures are as arms and instruments of vengeance in the hand of the Lord (the stars in their courses fought against Sisera: 
jud. 5. 20.  Fire came down from heaven at Eliah's prayers: the Earth swallowed up Core and his complices: Bears devoured the 42 children, in Bethel, that mocked Elisha) yet where we cannot discern the hand of nature, nor the hand of man, as in the Pestilence; of which we cannot give any natural cause, neither can humane counsels or remedies prevent, or remove it (and such was this here, which after so strange a manner, and in so short a space, swept away so many thousands, 
7ᵒ Antiq: c. 10  as josephus excellently describes it,) there we attribute it to a supreme & spiritual and invisible cause, to the hand, or sword of the Lord. As those Magicians before Pharaoh, when their Art failed them in producing lice, 
Exod. 8. 19  were forced to acknowledge, Digitus Dei est hic. Thus did David make his choice of the Pestilence, ageeable to that denunciation of the Lord; 
Exod. 30. 12.  where it is intimated, that if they did not pay the half shekel there commanded, at the taking the sum of the people, there should come a plague upon them. And the Rabbins (though it be but a fond, and too subtle a conceit of theirs) affirm that Gad prompted David to this particular choice: and according to his ministerial function, helped to extricate him out of his perplexity; in that, at the end of the praecedent verse, where Gad bids him, advice and see what answer I shall return: In the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dabar, quod verbum: from whence cometh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deber, which signifies the Pestilence, and is the word used both before and after my text. But without the help of such vain curiosities, David's refusal of the Famine, and the Sword, may be both implied in the negative part of his resolution: non in manus hominum. Because many times there may be a Famine caused by the help of man; when neither the Heavens are made iron, nor the Earth brass unto us. As when the enemies set fire on the fruits of the land, which was Sampsons' stratagem with foxes & firebrands to burn the Philistimes corn. Or when they cut off the convoys & block up a beleaguered town, so that it cannot take in, new provisions: (which is the new military discipline of these times, when by breaking the staff of bread, and causing cleanness of teeth, the enemies prevail more, then by their own courage and force of arms.) Or else, when in times of peace and plenty, our great Corne-masters will make a dearth, by hoarding up their grain, that they may the better enhance the price of it. Suffering the bowels of the poor to be empty, while their storehouses are full; and with a pitiless eye beholding their needy brethren, whilst they cannot but know, that mice and rats and other vermin revel in their garners. There are other ways, in which the hand of man may concur to a famine. Therefore David refusing those two, under that phrase, submits himself here to the Pestilence, by submitting himself to the hand of the Lord. And of the Lord alone; that he would visit immediately, without deputing or substituting any unmerciful creatures to that work of vengeance. For he is facile and exorable, slow to conceive a wrath, and loath to execute it, when it is conceived, 
Reason of Dau. choice.  in rigour and strictness. For his mercies are great. Which is the strong Inducement and Reason of David's choice, to cast himself upon the Lord. And observe his emphatical expressions. He doth not say mercy, but mercies in the plural, more than one. Not few mercies but many mercies; nor many little, but many and great mercies: nor there a stop; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, very many in their number, very great in their dimensions. Nay they are not only many and great, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, very many, great, and tender mercies; as the Septuagint well render the Original; (Not by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉;) The very bowels of motherly compassion; for which the Evangelist's oftimes use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
His mercies are extended according to the extension of all our miseries; and elevated according to the elevation of our sins. 
Ps. 145. 9  Be they never so many, never so weighty, yet the mercies of the Lord are over all his works, and over all those which we may most properly call our works. It is a high degree of mercy, that although I have offended in many things, yet I might have fallen into more, and more foul transgressions, had not his mercy restrained me. It is an addition of mercy, that the Lord, who spared not the Angels which kept not their first estate, but presently cast them down from Heaven, is long suffering towards me, and expects my return to him, 
Ber●. de 7. Pani●. s●r. 2.  almost at mine own leisure. Non continebam à sceleribus, & tu á verberibus abstinebas. He farther enlargeth his mercy, when this long expectation and forbearance brings me to repentance, 
Rom. 2. 4.  and that he toucheth my heart with compunction and remorse. Again when his mercy leaves me not in an unfruitful repentance, in the bitterness of my soul; bu● accepts of it, and seals unto me, the comfort of the remission of my sins. Yet he follows this with another; giving me the power to amend my life, and hereafter to walk more cautelously. Nether are his mercies yet shortened, 
Lam. 3. 23.  but new every morning, nay every moment & minute in that he gives me constancy and perseverance, that I fall not into a recidivation, a relapse. Lastly, there is the height of mercy, when he gives me, a miserable sinner, who am not worthy so much as to lift up mine eyes to heaven, an assured hope of obtaining heaven.  
Here are seven degrees of mercy, like those seven loaves, 
Mat. 15. 32.  wherewith thousands were refreshed. 
Loco cital.  And I might with St Bernard gather up many baskets full of the fragments of each of them. But what heart can comprehend, what discourse can contain those many, very great and tender mercies, that know no other bounds but eternity. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting: 
Psal. 103. 17.  ab aeterno per praedestinationem, in aeternum per glorificationem.  
Great are the mercies of the Lord even in his executions of justice 1 That he will at all show us so great a testimony of his love, as to correct us. Quos amo, 
Reu. 3. 19  arguo. That, Ezech. 16. 42. I will be no more angry, is an evident token of the Lords greatest anger. 
Bern in Cant.  Tunc magis irascitur, cum no● irascitur. 
Serm. 42.  Let favour be showed to the wicked he will not learn righteousness, saith the Prophet Isa. 26. 10. The presumption of impunity will breed impudence, in sinning: and that not stay, till it have brought in most fearful impenitency. Super omnem irammiseratio ista, as St. Bernard exclaims; such forbearance, such connivance, is beyond all vengeance. Let then this mercy of the Lord first show itself, that he will be pleased to disciplinate and correct us: and not leave us to our own corrupt imaginations: not give us over to the inventions of our own hearts: and in the second place he will not forget to be a Father of mercies towards us, 
Heb. 10. 31.  in the measure of his corrections. It is a fearful thing indeed to fall into the hand of the Lord: but it is then only, when his left hand of Clemency doth not know, what his right hand of justice and severity purposeth to inflict. But such justice without mercy, only attends those, that have rejected and contemned both. Otherwise, there is ever a hand of mercy, either ready, to stay the hand of the Lords severity towards the penitent, as the Angel held Abraham's hand, when he was striking; or at the least to break the force of the blows; to moderate and temper them according to our patience. As the Prophet Habbakuk makes it his petition. 
Habb. 3. 2.  In wrath remember mercy (so our last translation hath it) but the vulgar makes it a confident persuasion. Cum iratus fueris, misericordiae recordaberis. Indeed we have Gods own word, nay his oath for it, as David had: Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. 
Psal. 89. 32.  If his children forsake my law, I will visit their iniquity, with the rod & with stripes. (but it shall be In Plag●s filiorum hominum, with no more cruel stripes then humane infirmity can bear; 
2 Sam. 7. 14.  as we read the same promise repeated.) Misericordiam autem non auferam. Nevertheless my mercy & loving kindness shall not depart from them.  
Behold then what consolations David had in the many mercies of the Lord: & the same are still stretched out over us; if as he was a man after God's heart, we be after David's. What ever calamity or pressure be upon us, we must keep holy jobs aequanimitie and good temper, to receive evil, as well as good from the hand of the Lord. But when the visitation is particularly discerned to be the Plague, as David here desired: when we see that the hand of the Lord is upon those houses, where Domine miserere is set to keep the door: Nevertheless as in Samsons riddle, 
jud. 14.  Out of the eater came meat, out of the strong came sweetness: so from the greatest terrors of this devouring disease, much honey and sweetness and comfort may be extracted; if we first know the causes of the Pestilence. The Physicians of the body seek the causes in nature, and assign two. An outward, from the contagion of the air; An inward, from the constitution of our bodies. But the Physicians of the Soul, make their search beyond nature: and for the true outward cause, look above nature, to the will and Providence of almighty God; for the inward cause, look below nature, upon the corrupt will & Sin of man. Both these David here acknowledged: within him, Peccavivalde; without him and above him, it was Manus Domini. Both which he comprehends Ps. 38. 2. 3. Thine arrows stick fast in me, & thy hand presseth me sore: there is no soundness in my flesh, nor rest in my bones. Why? because of my sin. And from both these, we may take many sovereign Praeseruatives. 1 Whatsoever befalls us in the time of Pestilence, comes from the hand of the Lord, by his will and permission. Let us not therefore, like angry dogs, which run after the stone that is thrown at them, behold with impatience and murmur, 
Ps. 91.  the prints of God's arrow which ●lyes by day: but look to that hand, that sent it, and be humbled under God's hand. And in the 2d. place, let us persuade ourselves, that whatsoever comes from the Lord, shall tend to our good and salvation. All things work together for the good of them that fear him. 
Rom. 8.  Peccata quoque saith St. Aug. Our sins wrought that unspeakable good, 
Ro: 8.  when they occasioned the coming of a Redeemer, who wrought the good of our salvation 30 and odd years here upon earth. And they still work for our good, in calling for chastisements, which are good for us. But in the 3d. place. The deserts of our sins do far go beyond all our most insupportable sufferings. How much more than are we to magnify the Father of mercies; that never deals with his children according to the proportion of their transgressions: And if that God of pure eyes did not behold iniquity in us, his hand would never be heavy upon us. Therefore 4thly. If we desire to prevent the infection of the Pestilence, we mnst fly the nfection of our own concupiscence, and purify our hearts by faith and unfeigned repentance. For it is the first degree of madness: 
Greg. ep: Lib. 8. c. 41.  Nolle quempiam à malis suis iustè quiescere, & Deu● iniustè a suâ velle ultione cessare. To expect that the Lord should rest from his most just work of punishing us, if we will not rest from our own unjust works of provoking him. Thus perhaps we may divert the Pestilence from our persons. And as our Kingly Prophet comforts himself, and all the godly. 
Ps. 91.  A thousand may fall at our side, & ten thousand at our right hand, yet it shall not come near us. But if it be approached so near, that we are not nearer to ourselves; that it is even upon us: there is nevertheless balm in Gilead, there are remedies at hand. job prescribes a cordial: Hope even above hope. 
job 13. 15.  Though he slay me, yet I will trust in him. St Luke, (himself being a Physician, but from the mouth of a greater,) prescribes an excellent diet, 
Luc. 21: 17.  which is Patience. In your patience possess ye your Souls. St james, Prayer, which is a medicine both purgative and praeseruative. 
jam. 5. 13.  Is any among you afflicted, let him pray; Is any sick, let him call others to pray with him. This will either remove the Plague from us, or us from the Plague.  
What then dost thou fear, O man of little faith? Doth solitariness affright thee, because thou art an unwilling Eremite in a peopled city: shut up from the society of friends & acquaintance? Thou fool! Angel's will be thy Guardians, and the Lord himself thy Keeper, to make thy bed in all thy sickness. Doth Death appall thee? Aristotle's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and Bildad's, 
job 18. 14  King of Terrors. Why this is thy Debt to Nature, & thy Passage to Glory. And what though the Pestilence be appointed one of Death's Collectors, and Tolegatherers, to gather thee to the rest of thy Fathers? This may separate thy soul from thy body; 
Ro. 8. 34.  but in S. Paul's confidence, What shall be able to separate thee from the love of God in Christ jesus? Let us therefore willingly & cheerfully, with holy David, submit our bodies to fall into the hand of the Lord, & to fall by his hand, into the mouth of the grave: so long as we may securely with David, commend our spirits into the hands of the same Lord. 
Ps. 31. 4.  But let me not fall into the hand of man.  
I shall give you this Negative part of his Resolution in few words. 
Negative part of Resolution.  The hand of man is his power; and his power becomes formidable by his Malice. Why boastest thou in mischief, 
Ps. 52. 1.  O mighty man? David had oftentimes the experience of this malicious power of men as in that Psalm he complains of Doeg's ealumnies: and elsewhere of Saul's fury, and Sheba's treachery, nay his own son Absalom's conspiracy, Shimei's cursing and railing, and the like. No wonder then, if he so feelingly except against the hand of man. For in the Original it is set down by way of petition with vehemence and importunity. Incidamus obsecro. Let us I pray. It shall be a great courtesy, and happiness, to fall into the hand of the Lord, but by no means into man's hand. Albeit he puts them into the balance, and this be but the hand of Adam (which is the word in the Original) weak, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  frail, corruptible, contemptible, vain man, nay, vanity itself: that, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  the hand of jehova, the Lord of power and strength. But the goodness of the Lord endures continually, as it followeth in that before-alleaged 52. Ps. This goes hand in hand, as an inseparable companion with his power: whereas man's power is seldom seen in so good company. And did not the Lord set limits to the malice of man, like to the raging sea: thus far shalt thou go, and no farther: did not he shorten and direct the power of man, better than he intends it; No flesh could be saved. Do not we hear S. Paul speak of one man biting and devouring another? 
Gal. 5. 15.  Doth there not stand upon record, an encounter of his with beasts at Ephesus? 
1. Cor. 15. 32.  Homo homini lupus. Man is a Wolf, a Panther, a Tiger, most unnatural to his own kind: 
Plutarch:  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. When he is once fleshed with blood, he becomes as insatiable as the Horseleech. He was at the first created mild and gentle, but afterwards he took this ill quality from him, who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. a manslayer from the beginning.  
There is manus Linguae, 
Prou. 18. 21.  the hand, or power of the tongue. Let me not fall into the power of man's tongue. It is a shop, an armoury of hurtful instruments. There are swords, and arrows, and razors, and poison of Asps. He that detracts or backbites, kills three at once; himself, his auditors that credit his false calumnies, and their good names, who are traduced. Libels, and that late new way of reducing the most serious matters to ridiculous Ballads, and Rhymes, are the issues of the power of man's tongue. 
Bern:  Facilè volant, non facile violant. Their words are light of wing, but deeply wounding.  
And if the power of man's tongue be so pernicious, much more than shall I desire not to fall into the hand or power of man, in his executions. His hatred is immortal, his revenge barbarous, and not only cruel, but full of opprobrious insultations. As I have read of an Italian, whose malice was like the Elephant, 
Bichteri Axi●●. Polit:  ten years in bringing forth; and see the monstrous birth. He feigned a reconciliation with that party that had offended him: Takes advantage of his credulous simplicity, and when he had him at his mercy, promiseth to spare his life, if he would renounce his Faith, and deny his God. This was no sooner yielded to, but lest that word might be recalled, he makes it his last word: and glories of the sweetness of this revenge, that he had taken it both upon body and soul.  
Neither doth the hand of m●n extend itself only to the persons of men: but proceeds farther, to lay waste whole countries, to pervert whole sates and commonwealths, to demolish amongst other houses, the houses of God, to deface Religion. And this was it which David here feared, lest the enemies might take the Ark of the Lord, as formerly they had often done, and so interrupt the service, and worship due unto his holy Name: therefore, not into the hand of man.  
Simeon and Levi brethren and instruments of cruelty; 
Gen. 49. 5.  In their anger they slew a man, and digged down a wall: (that is) the Scribes and Priests being of both those Tribes, slew the Man Christ jesus: and digged down the walls of that Temple, 
john: 2. 19  which he promised to build up in three days. And again, Simeon and Levi; jesuited Laymen, and jesuitical Priests, sworn brethren in that devilish conspiracy of the Powder-plot: They slew a man, 2 Christ, an anointed of the Lord, (in their design and attempt at least) and not only the head, but the representative body of this whole land. They digged down a wall too, 
Isa. 19 15.  and digged deep to hide their counsels from the Lord. Cursed be their anger for it was fierce: But blessed be the God of jacob that defeated their anger. L●●vs never fall into the barbarous hands of such men: such unfortunate gentlemen, (as they are termed by some of their adherents;) Unfortunate in nothing, but that they gave not the blow. Nor into the more merciless hands of such men, who can slay a man after he is dead; and kill him in his Faith: Make him a 〈…〉 Reneg ado, an Apostate, a miraculous Proselyte, a Convert in the grave. So that, it is not without reason, that the Preacher, after long search and diligent enquiry, returns this verdict. 
Eccles. 7. 28.  One man amongst a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found. There is then neither man, nor woman, not any of all mankind, of either sex, in whose hands I may ●●cnrely trust myself, but in the hands of that One man, who knew no sin: yet was made man, nay sin for me, nay for us all. His hands were stretched out upon the cross, to receive us: his hands are still open, to receive our prayers, and to offer them up to his Father on our behalves: and himself ready at the right hand of his Father, to make intercession for us, that his hand may be stayed, which is against us.  
We are already in Araunahs' threshing floor, under the flail, under the rod, and heavy visitation of the Lord. Here then erect an Altar, and praepare a Sacrifice. If they be not ready, we need not be at any greater expense to purchase them, than our Prayers. Deus providebit, God must, and will provide himself a sacrifice. Nay Providit; I presume he hath provided both. And that, not Araunah as a King, but the King of Kings, hath furnished us with that, which cost us nothing, of our own; Hearts for Altars, and (I doubt not) contrite hearts for Sacrifices. Sacrificia Domini Spiritus contribulatus: 
Ps. 51. 17.  which he will not, nay which he cannot despise. We have the Place, the Altar, the Sacrifice, the Priest. What remains then? but that we should, 
V. 25.  with our Kingly Prophet David, First offer up our burnt offerings, the incense of our prayers and supplications, with fervent devotion; and pray, that they may be accepted in that propitiatory sacrifice Christ jesus: and next, our Peace offerings, our praises and thanksgiuings, when we shall perceive, that the Lord is entreated for the Land, by our Prayers and Fast: and the Plague, with all other his visitations, stayed in our Israel. He hear us, in that name above all names, of his blessed son jesus Christ, in whom he is well pleased. To which Father, and Son, with the holy Spirit, God eternal, be ascribed all honour, and power, by the whole Choir of Angels, and Men, now and ever; Amen.  
FINIS.