GOOD NEWS FROM CANAAN. Full of heavenly comfort and consolation, for all those that are afflicted either in body or mind. With a proof of true repentance for the same. By William Cowper, Minister of God's Word, and B. of Galloway. LONDON, Printed by W. Stansby for john Budge, and are to be sold at his shops, at the South door of Paul's, and at Britain's Burse. 1613. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL, JOHN MURRAY, one of his majesties Bedchamber. RIght Worshipful, being so far obliged to his majesties favour, as I confess I am never able to requite it, I can of duty do no less, then with David, show such kindness as I may to Mephiboseth, for jonathans' sake, that is, take me to the lowest, where I cannot reach to the highest, endeavouring to love and honour all such, as I can know are beloved of his Highness, specially whom God hath called to serve and attend his Majesty, and the more nearly by calling they stand in this service, the more entirely shall mine affection be toward them. Among these, as God hath honoured you to be one; so is there reason why these, who love you, should thank God for you, not so much for your place of preferment, as for your fidelity in it, these four and twenty years, by which you have deserved the commendation of a faithful servant, and increase of your Masters favourable affection towards you. It is a common speech, that familiarity breeds contempt, & most excellent things by consuetude become the less regarded, but this holds not always true, for of such as are wise, a known & tried good is liked, ever the longer, the better. And I do so verily think of all his highness loyal servants which attend his Majesty, that as they know better than others by long experience the rare qualities, wherewith his Highness is endued from above; so they esteem much more of his Majesty than others can: yet is it not amiss they should still be wakened with warnings, who have such an incomparable jewel in their keeping, as is called by the Prophet, The breath of our nostrils; and in whom, not only these famous kingdoms under his highness dominion, but all the Churches in Christendom have such interest. In the conserving of This one, in whom under God we are all conserved; no circumspection, no care, no vigilancy, no service can be sufficient. It was a just imputation of David to Abner, and his fellow Captains, that their Master, King Saul being sleeping, they were careless of him, and suffered Abishai, who both would and might have slain him, if David had not stayed him, to take away his spear, and pot from his head, Ye are worthy (said 1. Sam. 26. 16. he) to die, because ye have not kept your Master, the Lords anointed. But here, as there is no comparison between that cursed King, and our sacred Sovereign: so the superexcellency of his person makes the least omission of any dutiful attendance in such as are called unto it, a double offence. Alexander the Great being inquired of where his treasure was, pointed with his finger to his friends, and domestic servants; and indeed, where they are faithful, they are singular blessings of God: for as Solomon saith, The pleasure Prou. 14. 35 of a King is in a wise servant. And again, Righteous lips are the Prou. 16. 16 delight of Kings, and the King loves him that speaks right things. Amicus aut servus fidelis protectio fortis, munitum palatium, viws the saurus: A faithful friend or servant, is a strong protection, a fenced palace, a living treasure, said Nazianzen. Neither do I think that ever Alexander, Nazianzen. Orat. 22. or any Monarch, or King in the world, did countenance and credit such as serve them, more confidently and lovingly, than the King of Britain doth such as attend his Highness, which cannot but oblige every loyal heart the more carefully and willingly to serve his Highness again. And this, as in regard of your Christian profession is most seemly for you, it being a duty the Apostolic Canon requires of all Christian servants, That they should please their Masters in all things, showing all good faithfulness, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour; so is it also fitting for that place wherein ye stand in the world, that ye may be answerable to that fidelity in his highness service, for which your Honourable predecessors have been greatly praised before you. For it is known that the honourable house of Cokepoole, whereof ye are a son, being a principal family of that ancient, populous and flourishing tribe of Murray, notwithstanding their dwelling be in a part of the Kingdom, of old greatly given to misorder, troops of rebels compassing them on every side; yet did they still retain the honourable state and fashions of other honourable houses in the land, their house ever being a terror to the evil, a refuge to the good, a bar to the adversary, and a public example in most turbulent times, of loyalty to their Sovereign. Thus have they lived unstained in honour, feared of the worst sort, loved of the best, ever gracious to their King, never blotted with the remission of any offence done against his Crown, but always beautified with manifold proofs of their fidelity in his highness service; wherein sundry of them have borne honourable offices both in Court and out of it, unto this day. And all these, by their example provoke you to leave the name of that house as honourable for your part, as you have received it from them: which as hitherto you have done, so I hope for the time to come it may happily be enlarged, but shall never be impaired by any deed of yours. And hereunto (right worshipful) remember it is piety and the true fear of God must advance you. God hath conjoined these two precepts together; My son Pro. 24. 21. fear God and the King: he cannot keep the one who violates the other; therefore your love, fear, reverence, and fidelity toward the King, must be grounded on your love and fear of God. Keep always within you a humble heart; for beside that it is the way to honour, it will keep you from falling. Among many privileges, wherewith humility endues such as possess it, this is one, Humilis non habet unde cadat. Think frequently upon your end, make ready ere it come upon you; it is no wisdom to begin to prepare, when of necessity we must remove. The foolish men of the world, de mortalibus immortalia cogitant, dream of immortality in mortal things: but look you to others who have been great before you and now are not, and by them learn to be wise. Live at continual enmity with sin; this is the only enemy that is able to hurt you; subdue it and ye shall fear none other. Such sins as you have done, undo them by godly sorrow; such as of weakness you may do, prevent them with godly care. Keep so your Court on earth, that you still learn to be a Courtier in heaven, holy in life, fervent in prayer; by these hath a man fellowship with God, and access to the Throne of the heavenly King, to speak to his Majesty when he pleaseth. In this holy disposition, if this my little Treatise may serve any way to confirm you, I shall be abundantly contented. I have dedicated it unto you as a token of my love, for the good which is in you toward all that fear God, and your courteous favour showed to myself in particular. And so hoping that with as good an heart ye will accept it, as I do offer it. I rest, Your own in Christ jesus, William Cowper, B. of Galloway. ESA. 1. 18. 19 Come and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins were as crimson, they shall be made white as snow: though they were red like scarlet, they shall be as wool. If ye consent and obey, ye shall eat the good things of the land. GOOD NEWS From CANAAN. My help is in the Name of the LORD. To him that excelleth. A Psalm of DAVID, when the Prophet NATHAN came unto him, after that he had gone in unto Bath-sheba. THE inscription This Psalm is a Psalm of Repentance, and the use of it is threefold. of this Psalm being considered, will let us see that it is a Psalm of Repentance, made by David, after he had defiled the wife of Vriah, and murdered Vriah himself. It serves unto us for this threefold use. First, as a preservative to keep 1. A preservative to keep us that we sin not. us, that we fall not into the like sins; for why shall we commit that, which we see by example of others, will either commit us to eternal damnation, or at least breed us much grief, pain and dolour, before we can be quit of it? This sin of David through God's mercy, prevailed not against him to damnation, yet ye see what anguish of Spirit, what terror of mind, what sighing, what tears, what roaring night and day he sustained, before he could be delivered from it, and find himself restored to his former joy! thus shall all flesh find it, that the falls momentary, and perishing pleasures of sin, shall have sorrow in the end. For the motions thereof are like these Locusts of the bottomless pit, having faces of men, and their hair like the hair of Revel. 9 women, but a tail like a Scorpion, which stingeth unto the death. Next it serves as a corroborative 2. A coroborative, to keep such as have fallen in sin, from despair. to keep such as have fallen into the like sins, that they fall not further into the deep of desperation, so the Apostle Saint Paul saith, that the mercy of God showed unto 1. Tim. 1. 16 him after that he had been a blasphemer, persecutor and oppressor, was for an ensample unto all them, who shall in time to come believe in Christ unto eternal life. Thus the children of God, when they look to the sins of other God's Saints recorded in holy Scripture, do not hereby confirm themselves in sin, but comfort themselves against despair. It is true of them all, Basil de paeniten. which Basil spoke of Peter's threefold denial, they are Registered, tu quoque consolationem haberes, Let us meditate upon the sins of others, as Bernard Bernard. did; Omnino propter mansuetudinem quae in te est, domine jesu, currimus post te, audientes quod non spernas pauperem peccatorem, non horruisti confitentem latronem non lachrymantem peccatricem, non Cananaeam supplicantem, non deprehensam in adulterio, non supplicantem publicanum, non negantem discipulum, non persecutorem discipulorum: In odour horum currimus. Surely LORD JESUS for the meekness which is in thee, we run after thee hearing, that thou despisedst not the poor sinner, thou abhorredst not the penitent thief, the mourning sinful woman, nor the woman of Canaan when she requested thee, nor the woman apprehended in adultery, nor the Publican praying unto thee, nor the Disciple that denied thee, nor yet the Disciple who persecuted thy Disciples, in the smell of these thine ointments, we run after thee. Thirdly, it serveth as a restorative to raise up such as A restorative to raise up such as have fallen. Augu. have fallen in the same manner, for here, Non cadendi exemplum, sed si cecideris, resurgendi propositum est. There are many who delight to hear or read the sins of God his Saints, as if they were unto them patrocinia peccati, defences of their sins. But alas, what folly is this, to love that in David, which he hated in himself? Hoc non est defensionem parare animae tuae, sed comites inquirere ad gehennam: This is not to prepare a defence for thy own Soul, but to seek companions to go with thee into hell, flattering thyself that thou art in state good enough, because thou art not mateless: but rememberest not that albeit thou hadst never so many involved with thee in the guiltiness of thy sins, what comfort can that be unto thee, Non enim propterea minus ardebis, quia cum multis ardebis, Shall thy fire in hell be the less, because many will there burn with thee? Nay, by the contrary the more matter, the bolder fire. It were great wisdom to Great wisdom, to make other men's sins a medicine for us. Chrysost. in Matth. Hom. 27. embrace that counsel of chrysostom, that we should not so much look to David his fall, as to his rising. Consider what he did after his fall, how he put on sackcloth, how he watered his bed with tears; how he roared night and day, sighing and crying continually till he found the forgiveness of his sins, Sic medicamenta nobis Augu. de alienis vulneribus faciemus, So shall we make medicaments to ourselves of the wounds of others, and not be like unto phranticke persons, who slay themselves with the irons of the Chirurgeon, by which they have seen him cut the flesh of others, he did it of skill for curing, and they of their madness for killing. In this inscription of the Three things considered in the inscription of this Psalm. Psalm, we consider three things: First, how David goes into Bethsheba and commits Adultery with her. Next how Nathan comes to David sleeping in his sin, wakens him and raiseth him up by Repentance: And thirdly, how he makes this Psalm, and gives it to be sung publicly in the Church as the first fruits of his Repentance. In the first of these again, there 1. The consideration of David his person, who sinned should make us fear our own weakness. are three circumstances to be considered. The person, the sins which he commits, and the time. The person that falls is David, a man endued with most notable graces of the spirit, a man highly commended of God. A man who before had endured strong temptations, and prevailed victor in them all. Now is overcome, and falls most fearfully, this should waken us, to take heed unto that warning of the Apostle, He that 1. Cor. 10. stands, let him take heed that he fall not. In him let us consider ourselves, shall we presume of our strength, when we see a stronger than we overcome? Nay, rather let us fear our weakness, and work out our own salvation in fear and trembling, Sit lapsus maiorum, tremor minorum, Let the fall of Aug. the greater ones make the weaker afraid, Ille hody & ego cras: Bern. He hath sinned this day, and we may sin to morrow, let others as they list draw on sin by examples; But let us learn, it is a great point of wisdom, to become wise by example of others, rather then by experience in ourselves, Gregor. moral. lib. 2. thus Si maiorum casus ad humilitatem nos accingat, we shall not readily fall in the like snare of the devil. As for the sins he commits, 2. David's sins are adultery, murder careless security. they are very heinous: first Adultery, next Murder, by the one thinking to cover the other: And thirdly, with them both he falls into no small contempt of GOD, that for the space of nine months he keeps close his sin, frequenting the external sacrifices of God's worship, but not touched in his conscience, with a sense or remorse for his sin, for he was so far from being troubled for it, that when he wrote to joab to expose Vriah to the sword of the enemy, he willed him not to be troubled for the matter. Thus we see from one sin he goes to another, Erranti enim nullus terminus, and so for any thing we can perceive in him, had still walked on in his sins, till he had fallen in the bottom of hell, if the Lord by grace had not recalled, and recovered him. There is such a fellowship Of the fellowship and combination that is among sins among sinful affections, they are so combined together, that if we give place to any one of them, many more perforce shall enter upon us, they are like the servants of a Tyrant, who finding one that hath been fugitive from their Lord, do join themselves together to bring him back again: And every one of them helps an other, to keep him under bondage, having once subdued him, Sic ope vicaria fugitiwm suum vitia Gregor. moral. lib. 7. retinent, & ubi semel amissum sub dominij sui iure recipiunt, sibi vicissim ad vindictam tradunt. Thus is it a great work of God's mercy and power, when any of his Saints are delivered from their servitude. As to the third, the time 3. The time when David sinned warns us, how perilous is prosperity. when David falls into these sins, it is noted 2. Sam. 11. being at peace, and quietness at home himself, new arisen from his afternoon's sleep, walking upon the roof of his Palace, he sees Bathsheba washing herself in the Garden, and by unsanctified looking unto her is snared. His people are fight against Ammon, himself is sleeping at home & pampering his body, and Bathsheha forgetting her husband in the battle, falls too her pleasure and baths herself, and that not secretly at home, but even in prospect of the King's palace. In all the persecutions which David suffered by Saul, in all his troubles by Absalon, he received not such a wound; As a man, the stronger the Wind bloweth, holds his garments the faster about him, whereas the beating heat of the Sun, makes him to lay them aside: so David under temptation was the more fervent in prayer; the more he was troubled by men, the faster did he cleave to the Lord his God: but now being freed from trouble and living in prosperity, what a great advantage doth Satan get over him? Sure it is, a man hath never A man hath most cause of fear when he is least crossed. more cause to fear, then when he finds his estate most quiet. It is a most dangerous thing to live without some cross, or temptation, that may chase a man to God. As an idle man readily falls asleep, and being asleep, any jewel he hath in his hand, doth easily fall from him: so carnal prosperity casts men in careless security, whereby spiritual graces are greatly weakened into them, Facilior cautio, ubi manifesta formido, Cyprian. de simplicitate praelat. & ad certamen animus ante praestruitur, quando se adversarius confitetur, When our adversary shows himself most plainly, then is it most easy for us to beware of him, Plus metuendus est inimicus cum latenter obrepit, cum per pacis imaginem fallens occultis accessibus serpit, unde etiam illi nomen serpentis. But then have we most cause to fear him, when beguiling us by the show, and Image of peace, he creeps in by secret ways, insinuating himself craftily to get vantage over us, for the which cause also the name of a Serpent is attributed unto him. The second thing to be considered Nathan visits David like a whole Physician coming to cure a sick Physician. in the inscription, is how Nathan comes to David, and raiseth him up, Astat post peccatum propheta prophetae, veluti medicus medico agrotanti; Here one Prophet comes unto an other, like one Physician visiting an other Physician in his disease. This is the duty of Christians, since they are of one communion, to edify one another in the most holy faith, to exhort one another. He that is stronger in the faith, aught to confirm the weaker, and he that stands should raise up with the spirit of meekness him that hath fallen, considering Every Christian should edify another. also himself. It was the voice of Cain, am I my brother's keeper, and it should be far from Christians. That Law pertains to us all, Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine Levi. 19 17 heart, but thou shalt plainly rebuke him, and suffer him not to sin; for it is no love but hatred, to know thy brother in a sin, and not to rebuke him. And truly it is no small blessing of GOD, when among Christians, such instruments of grace as Nathan was, do a bound, who being endued with grace from above, are able by grace to comfort the feeble minded, to strengthen the weak, and to raise them up that have fallen. Again, that David having Man sins by nature, but cannot rise without grace. sinned, riseth not till the Lord sent Nathan to raise him, learns us a lesson, which should humble us all, and bind us to acknowledge the great mercy of God toward us, he falls by himself, he riseth not by himself. Nine months lies he as it were dead in that grave of sin, till the Lord who called upon Lazarus, called upon him also, and made him come out of it. It is easy for any man to fall into a pit, but not so easy for him to come out of it. Si stare Bern. non potuit humana natura adhuc integra, quanto minus poterit per seipsam resurgere iam corrupta, as it was with him, so is it with us all, perditio tua ex te, o Israel: thy destruction is of thyself, O Israel; but our salvation is of the Lord, and from the Lamb that sits with him upon the throne. Thirdly, we see this difference Reprobate men sin and repent not, not so the godly. between the godly and the wicked, the one falls and riseth not. judas betrayed Christ; Peter forswore him, the one goes on in his sins, and perisheth, the other is renewed by repentance. The difference than is not in sin, wherein we are also as deep as they, but in this that the Lord hath had mercy upon us. O how are we obliged to bless him, who hath put a difference by grace between us and them, where there was no difference by nature. And this is to be marked for them who have an eye to see, how David sinned even as they have sinned, and therefore account the less of their sins, but have not an eye to see that they have repent, as David repent, and that therefore being far unlike him in Repentance, they can have no comfort, that he was like them in sin. The third point of the inscription The order of singing Levites under the law Levitical. is in these words, To him that excelleth: A Psalm of David. Wherein we see how he dedicateth this Psalm, as the first fruit and testimony of his Repentance, to be sung publicly in the Church, for understanding whereof we must know how David ordained some of the Levites, skilled in Music to praise the Lord by singing, and playing upon Instruments, these were in number four thousand, who 1. Chron. 23. 5. by course served the Lord in his Sanctuary. They were divided in several classes; and over every one of them, some that were Masters of Music, Precentors, who in singing and playing excelled the rest, such as Asaph, Heman, Idithun, etc. and to these it is, that David dedicateth this Psalm to be sung publicly, for the word Natseah in Piel, signifieth one that is an overseer, or precedent over others, for his excellency in strength, or skill, or otherways, and so here and in other Psalms David useth it, to signify a master of Music. The instruments they used in praising the Lord, are most Two sorts of musical Instruments used in the Levitical Law. of them reckoned up in the last Psalm; all of them may be reduced to two sorts, whereof the one are called Neginoth, such as made a sound by touching, from the word Nagan, pulsavit; the other called Nechiloth, such as being hollow, made a sound by breathing, from the word Halal. Sometime the musical Instrument was premitted, and the singing voice followed, and then the Song was called Canticum Psalmi, for Psalterium properly is a kind of musical Instrument, called of the Hebrews Naula, but is translated to signify the Psalms. Sometime again the Song was first sung with the voice, and the musical Instrument followed, and then it is called Psalmus cantici. What upon this is to be observed, see our notes upon the one hundred and nineteen Psalm. Only now we mark, how The godly are content to shame themselves, by Confession of sin that they may give glory unto God. David careth not to take shame to himself, by confessing his Murder and Adultery publicly in the Church, that he may give glory unto God; So is it with all God's children, who hath felt the terror of an accusing conscience for sin, who are grieved in themselves for displeasing the Lord, and are earnestly seeking to be reconciled with God, they refuse not to manifest their own shame, yea and as it were with that filthy Leper under the Law, with his clothes rend, with his head bare, with a covering upon his lips, to cry out before all the world, I am unclean, I am unclean, Levit. 13. 45. that so they may get peace from God, and may give him glory by their repentance as they dishonoured him by their sin. I speak not this This is not to be under stood of private sins. of private sins, the example whereof hath not offended thy neighbour; Such sins I rather wish to be buried, as Israel with their paddles buried their filth without the Camp under the earth, nor laid open to the eyes of others: but of public sins, it is not our shame to confess these for removing of the slander, but double sin and shame to conceal them, how so ever it be currant now, as an undoubted axiom among carnal men, that no man is bound to swear to his own shame, sure we are, it is not warranted by any Divine authority, for so Achan might have excused himself when joshua, willed him by confessing of theft, to give glory to God, and so David here might have shifted himself from this public confession; where the conscience is sleeping, any warrant A sleeping Conscience excuseth sin. is thought sufficient to excuse a sin, and man fears not to defraud the Lord of that glory, he should have by confession of it, but where the Lord wakens the conscience, all excuses are set aside, and man is glad to disburden himself, by confessing his sin unto the Lord. This the Lord will have of all flesh at the length, for so hath he sworn, As I live saith the Lord, every tongue shall confess to me, he shall then force them to give him glory by confessing, who now wickedly defraud him of it by concealing: But happy and wise is he, who doth it in time when Mercy is to be found with the LORD. PSALM. 51. VERSE 1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy compassions, put away mine iniquity. HItherto the inscription The sum and order of this Psalm. or preface of the PSALM: Now follows the PSALM, wherein David first prayeth for himself to the 18. Verse; Next for the Church of GOD Verse 18. In the prayer for himself, he hath first a general petition, have mercy on me, O God, Verse 1. then three particular petitions, first, the remission of his sin, which he expresseth by putting away, washing, purging, to the Verse 8. Next the restitution of peace, and joy to his conscience, which by his sin he had sore impaired, Verse 89. Thirdly, the renovation of his Heart and Spirit within him, which most fearfully he had altered from the love of God, to the love of iniquity, Verse 10. 11. etc. This Psalm is frequently They cannot rightly use the words of this Psalm, who want David's disposition. sung in the mouths of many men, but sure it is these words which were true, when David spoke them, are but lies when they are pronounced by many men, for so they pray, O Lord consider my distress, when as in very deed they had never such a thing, as a distressed soul for sin. Is not this a mocking of God to pray him to look upon that, which is not in thee, to pray him consider that, which thou never consideredst thyself, learn therefore when ye sing this Psalm of David, to take on so near as ye may David his disposition, though ye have not sinned as he did, yet look unto your other sins, and be ye humbled for them, otherways your confession of sins shall be but a profession of sin, to say with David, against thee only have I sinned, and then either to have no remorse for sin, or no confidence in God's mercy, shall profit thee no more than the confession of Saul or judas: I have sinned, said the one; I have sinned in betraying innocent blood, said the other, their confession was somewhat like David's, their heart no way like David's: And it is certain that the Lord, Radicem attendit, non florem. Have mercy on me. What Where Sin pursues no refuge but to mercy. was David his estate when he broke out in these words, ye may see out of the 32. Psalm, his conscience being wakened by the ministry of Nathan, he is so terrified with the lively sense of his sin and sight of that wrath which by it he had deserved, that his bones were consumed, and the moisture of his body turned in the drogth of Summer: In this perplexed estate the first comfort that he finds is by looking up to the mercy of God. Natural men may marvel No external comfort can sustain a man troubled for sin. what is this that should have troubled David so sore, was he not King of Canaan, his sins were murder, and adultery; but was there any in the Land to put him to an Assize? was there any to punish him? what needed he to fear? But he himself tells thee what ailed him, the hand of God was heavy upon him night and day, the Lord had erected a Tribunal in his own conscience, and did there sit and judge him, where no man might judge him, there the Lord convicted him of sin, and threatened him with terrors, for sure it is all the comforts of the world, if thou hadst them in one, cannot sustain thee when God in thy own conscience persecutes thee for sin, examples are Balthasar and David: The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit, who can bear it? And therefore David sore David's appellation from God to God. straightened with the judgement of God, turns him to the mercy of God, he finds no other thing whereupon to rely his faith, he can get no other gripe whereby to hold him, that he fall not in the pit of desperation, but this mercy. O Lord, in regard of thy power thou art invincible, who can resist thee? who can endure the stroke of thine hand? In regard of thy wisdom, thou art allseeing, nothing can be hid from thee In regard of thy justice thou art most holy, & canst not be corrupted, in none of these can I find comfort, the only hope of mine heart is in thy goodness and mercy, so that now he flees ad communem peccantium Chrysost. portum, to the common harbour of all poor penitent sinners, who are tossed too and fro with the tumbling thoughts of an accusing conscience, threatening more fearful death, than the raging waves of the Sea to jonas, never can settle nor rest till they come within the Port of God his mercy, even so here doth David, terrified with God's judgement, before which he could not stand, he appeals to God's mercy, tanquam ab inferiori sede ad superiorem, as the higher bench wherein the glory of God shineth most eminently, for mercy reioyses against judgement. jam. 2. 13. When we hear that David, Nothing in the world to be esteemed misery, but only iniquity. and others of God's Saints, cry for mercy, we must remember that this includes a humble confession of their misery, and what was David's misery which he craves to be cured by God his mercy, he tells you in the end of the Verse, no other but the misery of sin: Nathan 2. Sam. 12. 10. had threatened him with the sword, & that he should make his Son, who came out of his bowels, a scourge unto him, but David counts none of these his misery, for which he craves mercy, his misery is his iniquity, and the mercy he craves is the putting away of his iniquity. This blind age counts bodily infirmities & want of temporal things misery, but sin they count no misery, blinder than the Egyptians of old, who esteemed shepherds abominable, but Idolaters not abominable: but indeed it is far otherways: wert thou so poor as Lazarus, filled with biles in thy body from head to foot as job was, yet if thou be freed from sin, thou art freed from misery, and be the contrary, wert thou so rich as that glutton clad in purple, and faring delicately every day 〈◊〉 thou health and honour, and all the comforts of the world after the desire of thine own heart, if yet thou be in thy sins, the end shall declare thou art a miserable creature. This will be manifest at the Even the wicked at the last shall fear find more than death. length in all the wicked, that their misery is not in sickness, nay not in death itself, but in an evil conscience guilty of sin, though now they abhor nothing but death, & esteem sin but a pastime: the day is coming, wherein they shall seek death & not find it, saying, hills and mountains fall upon us, and cover us, they shall be glad to be smothered to the death, and to suffer the greatest misery that can come to their bodies, upon condition they were freed from the misery of an evil conscience; which sin hath brought upon them. But howsoever this misery A comfortable meditation of God's mercy. of David was exceeding great, he espies in God by the eye of faith a greater mercy to cure it, and therefore cries he for mercy according to the multitude of his commiserations; O Lord, I know that whatsoever is in thee is thyself, thy mercy is no less than thyself. Cum sis misericors, quid es, nisi ipsa misericordia, Hieron. Savanarola. seeing thou art merciful, what art thou but mercy itself? and what can mercy do but thine own work? canst thou deny thyself? canst thou departed from thine own nature? what is the work of mercy, but to take away misery, here am I Lord before thee a miserable man, and my greatest misery is my sin, do thy own work, O Lord, cure my misery with thy mercy, show the virtue of thy mercies upon me, abyssus abyssum invocat, abyssus miseriae invocat abyssum misericor diae, one deep calls upon an other, the deep of misery calls upon the deep of mercy, greater is the deep of mercy then the deep of misery; let therefore the deep of thy mercy swallow up the deep of my misery, and put thou away mine iniquity. On me. David doth not now The humility of a penitent thinks not his name worth to be named. as at other times express his name, as when he said, Lord remember David, etc. neither takes he here to himself the name of God's servant, as customably he doth in other places, but concealeth his name, ashamed of himself, not unlike that forlorn child, I have sinned against heaven and against Luke 15. thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. According to thy loving kindness. David depends on God's mercy not on his own merit. We have heard David his petition in general: Now the reason whereby he will move the Lord to grant it, is not from any merit in himself, he utterly disclaims that, but only from God his loving kindness and commiseration, upon these two doth he now fasten his gripes, and by the meditation of them he conceives some hope of favour in the Lord, even when in himself he had received a condemnatory sentence of death, by reason of his sin. Two things are requisite in The two eyes of a penitent sinner, and what loss it is to want either of them. a sinner, that would have mercy; first, an eye to know his sins that being ashamed of himself, he may resolve, there can be no life for him, if he rest in himself. And next an eye to see God's mercy, many have not the first, & therefore think that either without a Sacrifice, or with a small sacrifice, God will be pleased, they cannot mourn for sin, esteeming their sins so small that they need no great mourning: Others again have not the other eye whereby to see God's mercy in Christ, they see their own sin, but see not God his mercy, and therefore are carried either to a temporal desperation, which may befall the godly that for a time they seem to themselves utterly undone, or then to a final, us all the reprobates do: examples whereof we have in Cain, Saul, and judas, from whose miserable condition the Lord preserve us. Now David finding nothing Two things in God David grounds upon. in himself to comfort him, when he looks up to God he sees two things, as I said, that sustain him; first, the kindness 1 His benignity or kindness, this is either general. of God; next the manifold compassions of God; the word expressing his kindness is Chesed, the benignity of God, and this is either general, where by he loves his creatures conserving them, as he made them, and delights to do good unto them, in so far as they are the works of his hands. Thou Lord Math. 5. 45 savest man and beast, he makes his Sun to arise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and unjust. And this howsoever it rendered some comfort, yet could it not give full comfort to DAVID, considering that sin, the poison of the Serpent in him, made him justly Or special. abominable to God. And therefore he casts his eye further unto that special benignity of God, which in effect is his mercy, whereby he loves his own in Christ redeems them from their sins, and saves them by his grace when they have lost themselves by their iniquity. And this is evident by the other word immediately he adjoines The special is in effect God's mercy and tender compassion. of God his compassion which is the other ground, whereupon the faith of David reposed, for the word Racham signifies to love from the very bowels and inward affection, being deduced from the name Rêchêm, which signifies the What great comfort we have into it. womb or matrice, that with most kindly and tender affection, compass and nourish the Infant within it, suppose it cannot be thankful for the present, nor do the duty wherein it is bound, but rather be offensive to the mother that carries it, David knew that the like tender affection was in God toward his own poor children, yea and much more greater, than the heavens are higher 〈…〉 from the earth; so far are the thoughts of God his love and compassion, above all that can be in us, it is possible the mother may forget the birth of her womb, but the LORD cannot forget them who are his. Therefore doth he not only Compassions in the plural number are ascribed to God. ascribe unto God compassions but great compassions, or a multitude of them, & so he speaks for two causes, first because where God shows mercies, he 1 Because where he shows mercy, he shows many mercies together. shows many mercies together a heap and a very mass of mercies. The royal heart of Alexander thought it not honourable for him to give a small thing, what then shall we think of our God? The odds is so great that there can be no comparison. But sure where he gives any of his chief blessings, there he gives such a treasure forth of his infinite riches of mercy, as we are not able to speak of. Yet for our comfort in our Six ranks of mercy. meditation, his mercies showed unto us, since we could 1 Preventing mercy. know, what mercy was, we may reduce them to six ranks, the first I call preventing mercies, whereby the Lord did us good when we knew him not, and kept us from many sins, which otherways we would have committed: O quanta dignatio Bern. de Evang. 7. Panum Ser. 1. pietatis, quod ingratum sic gratia conseruabat, Many sins have we done against him, but far more should we have done if his mercy had not prevented us, Agnosce ergo gratiam eius cui debes, etiam quod non admisisti. Augu. Mihi debet iste quod factum est & dimissum vidisti, mihi debes & tu quod non fecisti. Acknowledge therefore God's mercy toward thee, even in these sins, which thou hast not done. If thou seest one who is debtor to me for a sin, which he did and I forgave him; understand also that thou art debtor to me for keeping thee, that thou didst not the like, for there is no sin which any man hath done, but an other man would do the like, if God by grace did not preserve him from it. The second rank hath in it his sparing mercies, or the mercies Sparing mercies. of his patience, though we have been kept from the doing of many sins, yet have we done enough to condemn us. There is an other sort of mercy, Peccabam & tu dissimulabas, non continebam a sceleribus & tu a verberibus abstinebas, I sinned and thou heldst thy tongue, I transgressed, thou sparedst and killed'st me not, when we look to Zimri and Cosbi slain in the act of harlotry; to Ananias and Saphira stricken to death in their sin, what shall we say, but it is a great mercy of God, that hitherto we have not been taken away in the midst of our sins? In the third rank, we place his pardoning mercies, for a 3 Pardoning mercies. man may think what benefit is it to me, to be long spared, seeing at the last, judgement will come, & quo diutius expectat, eo districtius judicabit, but this fear is taken away from the godly by God his pardoning mercies, he forgives their sins in Christ, he will never impute their iniquity unto them, but taketh them utterly away, Peccatum non imputatum, est quasi nunquam fuerit commissum. But with these is also given 4 Renewing mercies. us the fourth sort, that is his renewing mercies. There are many quorum infructuosa est poenitentia, who repent of their sins, but are not renewed by amendment of life, in whom novissimus error peior est priori, their returning like Dogs to their vomit, is worse than their first transgression: but the Lord when he gives to his own children the grace of remission, doth also give with it the grace of renovation, whereby he makes them new creatures, abounding in the fruits of righteousness, to God's glory, the edification of their brethren, and the comfort of their own consciences in Christ. And yet all these were nothing, if it were not that the fift 5. Corroborating and continuing mercy. rank of mercies were also heaped upon us, which I call continuing mercies, whereby we persever in that estate of grace, whereunto we are once called. Adam in his best estate of innocency continued not, & would we stand in grace, if perseverance, which he wanted, were not communicated unto us. As mercy brought us to this state of grace, so it is by mercy also that we are kept in it. And the last rank is of Gods crowning mercies, whereby he 6. Crowning mercies. shall perfect his own work, finish that which he hath begun in us, he shall perform to us his promised Kingdom, fear of evil shall be far from us, in that Paradise no tempter shall be to snare us, mercy shall compass us, no good shall be lacking to us, the Lord shall be all in all unto us, and from that blessed fellowship and communion with him, shall we never be divided again. And as this way God's mercies Compassions in the plural number, are ascribed to God, because the proof and practice of them is manifold. are manifold, so likewise are the praises of them in respect of innumerable persons, on whom they have been declared, for miserationes Dei sunt opera & processus misericordiae eius, and so his meditation is, O Lord thou hast showed compassion to many a penitent sinner, since the beginning of the world, thou never reiectedst any that sought thee with a penitent heart, for number they cannot be told to whom thou hast been merciful, quot enim justi, tot miserationes, let them all be gathered that are in heaven and earth, if it be demanded of them, how is it they have been saved, they will all answer, Not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name be the praise; And therefore seeing thou, O Lord, art the same; And no shadow of change is with thee, I beseech thee close not that door of mercy on me, which hath opened to receive so many sinners before me, and these Rivers of compassion which have flowed so abundantly toward others, let them not be dried up to me. This earnestness of David's Feeling of our wants, make earnest Prayer. prayer, flows from the feeling of his great sins, he knew his sins were great, and therefore craves he great mercies, magna siquidem vulnera paribus indigent Basil. Pharmacis, yea that in this one transgression, manifold sins were included, and that therefore he needed not one, but a multitude of divine commiserations: Vniver same in se Dei gratiam effundi, & totum miserationum fontem in peccati sui ulcera evacuari orat. But how soever the mercies The mercies of God are plentiful, yet not extended to all, and why of God be plentiful, yet are they not extended unto all, they are free indeed; I have mercy (saith the Lord) on whom I will have mercy, but so that if there be any man, to whom they flow not, he may always find the cause in himself, in his hard heart that cannot repent, it holds true in all the reprobate, which the Apostle speaks of the rebellious jews; Ye put it from you, meaning the word of the Gospel, wherein mercy and grace is offered, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, therefore that mercy which is here craved by David, Act. 13. 46. by a most fearful decree was denied unto them, God gave that people a name Lo-Ruchamah, I will no more have pity Hos. 1. 6. on them, whereupon followed another name, expressing their Such as will not be God's people, shall not find God's mercy misery after that once God for their sins had cast them away, Lo-Ammi, that is to say, they are not my people, and I will not be theirs. No tongue can express the misery of that man, who for his proud continuance in sin, and contempt of grace offered unto him, receives most justly from the Lord, that decree of Lo-Ruchamah, I will have no mercy on him; where the Fountain is stopped the Springs of necessity must dry up, where mercy is denied, all good things flowing from it must decay. This will be the cursed condition of the damned. All fat and excellent Revel. 18. 14. things shall departed from them, from which the Lord deliver us. Put away mine iniquities. Hitherto David enters to his particular petitions. we have heard David his general petition for mercy, now follows his three particular petitions, expressing what mercy it is he craved, as we showed in the beginning of the Verse. His first particular petition Whereof the first is a petition for the remission of his sins. is for forgiveness of his sin, the fact was past, but the gilt remained, the pleasure of it was soon done, but the terror of it still vexed him, all the comfort of his Kingdom could not make him merry, the torment of an accusing conscience for sin was more strong to deject him, than all the pleasures of Canaan were to sustain him, yea it is most sure that external comforts are so far from comforting a troubled conscience, that by the contrary they increase the trouble thereof, and the more worldly comforts be presented, the greater is the heaviness of that soul, which is afflicted for sin; and therefore now when he comes to The grief of sin can not be assuaged by any worldly comfort. the point, he tells where his sore was, what grieved him most, iniquity, iniquity; he cries out for this in the 32. Psalm; Blessed is the man whose wickedness is forgiven, whose sin is covered, and to whom the Lord imputes not iniquity. As if he would say, he that hath not this, hath no blessing, all comforts without this are comfortless. Where we have to take up What a fear full evil sin is. what a cursed and miserable thing sin is, a sparkle of fire come from hell, that burns up all the pleasures of the Paradise of a good Conscience, a seed of Satan, a piece of leaven that soureth and infecteth all it comes among, turning sweetest things into bitter. It is but a small thing to look to, soon done in the twinkling of an eye, but hath an enduring sting, and produceth manifold and great evil effects, it perturbeth all being but one, and spoil man of the comfort of all God his creatures, miserable men bewitched with the deceit of sin, drunken with the present false pleasures thereof cannot believe this, it is but a pastime to them to do wickedly; but let them know it shall turn to bitterness in the end. But of this more in the third verse, where he complains that his sin was ever before him. The word that in this petition God hath his account Book, wherein the debts of men, that is their sins are Registered. David useth is Machah, signifying a scraping & a blotting out; he alludes as it seems to the manner of them, who have their account Books, wherein they writ up their debts, whereof they purpose to have payment, although they spare for a time, whereupon David sayeth, I know Lord thou hast thine own account Book, wherein thou writest the transgressions of them, with whom thou mindest to enter in judgement according to that, The sin of juda is written with a Pen of iron, and jere. 17. the point of a Diamond. Let not O Lord my debt stand Registered there, but of thy mercy put it and blot it out, I have done enough for my part to put my own name out of the Book of life, and insert it in the Roll of them that must come to judgement. I know there is a standing decree in thy Book, That death is the wages of sin; If my sin stand in thy Register, I am but a dead man, Lord quicken me, forgive me my trespass, and put away the Colos. 2. 13. hand-writing of thy ordinance, which is contrary to me. But here let us mark, how The books are two, the book of his Science, and the book of our Conscience. it is that the Lord putteth sin out of his twofold Register, First out of the book of his own science, he putteth the sins of his children utterly, both the gilt and the memory of them he putteth away, so that out of his account book he scrapes our debt clean away, that it appears not again, according to his promise, I will remember their sins no more. But out of the Register of our conscience, he putteth the gilt, the accusing, and tormenting power of it, but abolisheth not utterly the remembrance of it. He reserves some monument of our sins in our memory, after that they are forgiven, partly to humble us, when we look back unto them, and partly to preserve us from committing the like in time to come. And further we see how David Blind are they who think they can make satisfaction to God for their debts. acknowledgeth, his debt was more than he was able to pay, and therefore disclaiming his own sufficiency, he appeals to God's mercy, beseeching the L. to blot it out, for he had not to pay it. It is a pitiful blindness in the adversaries of the truth, that teacheth poor people to lean unto man's satisfactions, which they must make to God for their sins, either here or in Purgatory, how wilt thou satisfy that infifinite majesty of God for thy manifold sins, Ille figulus, tu Ber. Scr. de quadrup. debito. figmentum. When thou hast given unto him all that thou art able, either by doing or suffering, Nonneistud est, sicut stella ad , gutta ad flwium, What is it, but as if one should compare a Star with the Sun, or a drop with a river, Nemo est qui millesimae imo nec minimae part debitorum suorum valeat respondere. I see it was blindness, and so it is, whatsoever show of learning be in them, who maintain it, if they knew how great is the debt that man oweth unto God, they would say with Bernard, There is none in the world able to answer the thousand part; nay, not the smallest part of that Debt, which man oweth unto God. Away therefore with that blasphemous word of humane satisfaction, for except the Lord have compassion on us, and for Mattb. 18. 27. give the debt, there remains nothing for us, but to be pined in prison for ever. And this also is to be observed, By three words, David expresseth his sin, to show the greatness thereof. how David making mention of his sin, contents him not with one word, but changes there sundry words to express it, whereof the one Pashang, signifieth defection and rebellion; the other Gnavah, signifieth perverseness or crooked doing; the third Chatta, signifieth to err or wander from the mark. Men who do weigh sin in the balance of consuetude, can never know the weight of it, they esteem it but a light thing, but godly men who weigh it in the balance of the Sanctuary, and examine it according to the rule of the word, find it such a horrible evil as wherein manifold evils do concur. VERSE. 2. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. David insists, and Three things which make fervent Prayer. in other terms he repeats his former petition: There are three things which make earnestness and fervency in prayer. First, Conscience of sin. Secondly, fear or sense of wrath. Thirdly, ardent desire of mercy; these three were at this time strong in David, and therefore sends he up fervent and strong petitions to God. More particularly we learn Sin, a vile uncleanness. here, that Sin is a filthiness which defiles a man, there is no uncleanness can make us so vile, and abominable in the eyes of man, as sin maketh us in the eyes of God; what more vile thing in the world than a Menstruous cloth? If even our righteousness be like unto it, as Esay witnesseth, I pray you whereunto shall our unrighteousness be compared, or what similitude can be gotten sufficiently to express it. Now as it is an uncleanness indeed, would to God we could so esteem of it; we can suffer no uncleanness in our bodies, but incontinent we wash it away; Neither can abide it in our garments, but without delay we remedy it: yea, the smallest uncleanness in the vessels that serve us for meat and drink, makes our very food loathsome unto us; But alas, we have not half of that care to keep our Souls and Consciences clean, from the filthy pollution of sin, nor yet to wash them in that Fountain, opened to DAVID'S house for sin and for uncleanness, when we have defiled them. And yet a great necessity to do so, lies upon us, for we are No part can we have with Christ, if he wash us not. warned that no unclean thing can enter into heavenly jerusalem. That answer given by the Lord jesus unto Peter, joh. 13. 8. stands for a warning to us all; If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me; Oh that it moved us, as it moved him, that we might also pray with him. O Lord rather than my uncleanness banish me from thy fellowship, wash I beseech thee not my feet only, but my hands and my head also, Wash my feet, that is my unclean affections: Wash my head, that is my unclean imaginations and senses. And wash also my hands, that is the uncleanness of mine actions. But the word that David useth A comfort able meditation of God's manifold mercies. imports much washing, he knew his sin was a deep spot, not easily rubbed away, and therefore craves he much washing, so then, his meaning is, Many sins hast thou Lord forgiven me, now I pray thee yet further wash me from this sin also. Are thy mercies numbered, or are they so narrow that they cannot cover this transgression among the rest, how great so ever it be. So that here David doth still depend upon the greatness of God's compassion, and by it is he sustained, that the greatness of his transgression driveth him not to despair, when the Apostle Saint Peter inquired at the Lord jesus, how oft shall I forgive my brother in Since he will have us to forgive an other seven times in the day, what will he do himself? the day, if he offend me, shall I forgive him seven times? Our Saviour answered, not seven times only, but seventy times seven times also. O word full of consolation, how doth it animate us to repose on the the Lords mercy. Nun maior Deus homine? nun melior homine? Is not the Lord greater than man? is he not better than man? If he will have so great compassion in a man to forgive his brother so often in a day: what compassion is in himself to forgive his own poor penitent creature, that prostrates himself for mercy before him. VERSE 3 For I know mine iniquity, and my sin is ever before me. Here is subjoined a reason of his Confession from a penitent heart obtains mercy. former petition. O Lord, I do not hide & conceal the iniquity of my bosom, I seek not now to cover it as I did before, but now I acknowledge it, and I confess it to thee against myself, therefore, Lord have mercy upon me, and forgive it: this is a good reason, for it is grounded on the Lords promise: He that hideth his sins shall not prosper: Prou. 28. but he that confesseth, and forsaketh them shall have mercy. And again, If we confess our sins 1. joh. 1. 9 God is faithful and just to forgive them. Or otherways we may take up these words as Vatablus doth, Lord thou knowest that I seek not mercy from thee dissemblingly, or for fashion, as the manner of hypocrites is, who make supplication for mercy, of custom rather than of contrition, nay Lord I feel my sin a burden which troubles me, the very sight of it terrifies and afraies me, therefore Lord take it away from thee. So long as sin is in a man's So long as sin is in the affection that a man loves it there is no remission of it. affection that he likes it and hath pleasure in it, it is but a mocking of God to desire him to forgive it, shall he forgive that which thou wilt not forego? shall he pardon thine offences so long as thou hast pleasure to offend? No, no, unless thou put thine iniquity from thee out of thine affection, unless thou find it a burden unto thee whereof thou art weary, go not to him to seek mercy: for so his promise is, Come unto me all ye that are weary, and laden, and I will refresh you: But alas, it is far otherwise with many, who use in babbling manner these words of David. O Lord consider my distress, when as they had never such a thing as a distressed soul for sin; and cannot say with David, I know mine iniquity and my sin is ever before me. But when is this, that David An example of that deep security wherein God's children may fall. comes to know his sin? after that Nathan had reproved him without, and God had wakened his own conscience within to accuse him; and this was nine months after the committing of the sin: all this time he slept in a careless security, albeit he haunted the exercises of religion, and had some general knowledge of his sins, yet it moved him not, till now God lets him see an other sight of his sins, than he had before. In him we see an image of To sin is of ourself, to repent is of grace. our corrupt disposition; we fall easily into sin, and when we have fallen, we can do nothing but lie still in sin, except the Lord put under his merciful hand and raise us up. As Adam when he had sinned, ran away from the Lord, so is it the manner of Adam's children; after sin, instead of running to the Lord, to run away always, the longer and the further from him, if the Lord do not follow and recover them. For this is a piece of Satan's policy that as he is subtle in Satan's policy, first draws a man to sin then keeps him unto it. alluring man to commit sin, so when he hath done it, he labours to blind the mind, that man should never come to the knowledge of his sin till he be passed remedy: a fearful example whereof we have in judas. And therefore it is a great mercy of God towards his own, that he opens their eyes in time to see their sin, so long as he sits upon his mercy-seat to pardon and forgive them. Satan knows he hath no vantage by sin, when true repentance followeth it. For, where sin hath abounded, there grace hath much more supper abounded. It is not sin so much which condemns men, as impenitency that despises mercy, and therefore Satan contents not to draw his miserable captives into sin: but when he hath done it, hides the sight of it from them always till the time of grace be expired, and they be past recovery, then lets he them see the ugliness of their sin, and with restless torments disquiets their souls for it. Further we see here that there are two sorts of the knowledge A twofold knowledge of sin. of sin: one which is but general, idle, & works no reformation, and an other which is effectual to work conversion. David, as I said, before that Nathan came to him, he knew that One, that is idle and works no remorse: another, that breeds repentance. murder & adultery were sins, but that troubled him not. But now God works another know ledge of sin in him, he sees his sins in another manner, he feels now the just weight of them, he tastes now the bitter fruits of them, his spirit is filled with anguish for them and his soul abhors them. It is to be lamented that the knowledge of sin which now is in most part of the world, is but like that knowledge of sin which David had in time of his security; they confess they are sinners, they know that blasphemy, drunkenness, fornication, and such like, are sins, but their conscience being sleeping, they walk still on in their sins, and thinks it is Christianity good enough, if every morning they say, God be merciful to me, for I am a poor sinner, but alas poor art thou indeed, and pitifully deceived, this knowledge will but make thee inexcusable, because in thy words confessing, and condemning sin, in thy works thou practisest it: but there is an other knowledge of sin, which the Lord shall once discover unto thee, either in mercy for thy amendment, as he doth here to David, or in wrath, as he did to judas. Pray unto the Lord that this knowledge of sin may be given you in his mercy for your conversion, and not in his wrath for your confusion. And my sin is ever before me, What means David by How sin looks not always with one face. this? was not sin before him ere now? It was indeed ere he committed it, it stood before alluring him and he liked it, and sought occasion to commit it; when he had committed, it was before him also. But it looked with so ill favoured a face, that he sought to hide it, and now when his conscience is wakened, it stood before him, directly to accuse him and it troubles him so, that he would feign be quit of the sight thereof. Oh that men could consider this in time, how sin will change her countenance; before the action, sin comes like a laughing enemy purposing to slay, but in flattering manner pretending friendship. In the action, like sweet poison, deadly and yet delights the sense, but after the action a stinging Scorpion leaving no other fruit behind it, but guiltiness in the conscience, terror in the mind, anguish in the spirit. Si cupis peccati cognoscere Chrys. in joan. 8. hom. 51. turpitudinem, commissum considera, cum liber non amplius eius perturbaris affectibus, If men could think of this in time, they would not be much moved with the beautiful face of sin, at the first coming to them, because it is certain that sin which at the first is before a man to tempt him, and will not let him to rest till he do it: that same sin at the next time shall stand before him to torment him, and not let him rest, because he hath do it. And this he further amplifies, The action of sin is momentary, the effects of it remains. when he says, it is ever before him, both night and day, sleeping and waking, go where I will, it goes with me; no change of place changes my trouble. Sine intermissione video Basil. malorum meorum imagines, and it is so before me that it is against me, Semper coram me Saua. opponens se mihi, ne ad te transeat oratio mea. Sin is soon committed, in a moment passeth the pleasure of it, but the gilt, and terror is not so soon done, parvum est ad horam peccatum, Cyrill, Catechis. 12. longaeva autem est ex eo, & aeterna verecundia. That for which a man sins, shall not abide with him: try when ye will, ye shall find it so; wilt thou slay Naboth for his Vineycard, thou must go from it; wilt thou incur the curse with Achan for a wedge of gold, thou shalt not keep it, the curse bides with thee, the gilt of sin remains, but that for which thou didst sin, shall be taken from thee, and thou from it. The remembrance of this were a singular preservative against sin. It is an opinion of carnal men blinded with the deceit of sin, that when sin is committed, Sin is not always done when it is ended, as the foolish think. they think it done, and away, and so casts it behind their back, as a thing never any more to be remembered; but truth shall teach them by experience, when they are judged that it is before them. It is now nine months since David sinned, yet he finds his sin before him, the cruelty of jacobs' sons against their brother joseph, which they committed in Canaan, met them twenty years after that, in Egypt, though for a long time they believed it had been done, and forgotten. No No length of time takes away sin without repentance. length of time can we are sin away, if it be not taken away by repentance, the sins we have done many years since, if we mourn not for them till we get mercy, shall stand up as fresh and young against us, when we come to be judged as they were, the first hour that we committed them. The Lord make us wise to think upon it: ourselves wax old, our bodies are declining to the grave, our years are near an end, and will we take no pains to wear away our sins, to make them as if they had never been, or shall we let them stand in their strength and vigour against us, this were a pitiful folly which will not fail to trouble us at the last: happy are they who are judged in this world, that they be not condemned in the world to come. Further, we note here the The folly of sinners, they redeem a perishing pleasure with an enduring pain. folly of sinners, and just manner of the Lords dealing with them; their folly is here, that that they redeem a perishing pleasure with an enduring pain; God's justice is here, that he punisheth the wicked with their own sinful deeds, and lets them eat the fruit of their own labours. This he threateneth by Ezechiel, I shall turn your ways upon your own heads, and truly it were a punishment greater than men are able to bear, if the Lord should set their iniquities before them, and let them see them as they are. Let wicked Psalm. 50. men consider this, that while they are multiplying sins, they are but pletting cords, wherewith they shall be whipped the next day with their own hands, they are heaping up wrath to themselves. No place of complaining against the Lord's justice, shall be left Rom. 2. unto them, when they shall clearly see, it is their own iniquity that vexeth and torments them. But now seeing Nathan the Remembrance of sin, remains after remission in the godly, and why. Prophet had proclaimed to David the remission of his sin, how is it, that yet it is before him? I answer, in his dearest children after remission of sin, he will have the remembrance of sin to remain; First, to keep them in mind of God his great mercy, who slew them not in their sins, as he hath done many, that so he may make them the more thankful. gratior sit misericordia dei, ut sentias quid tibi Chrysost. concesserit. Si enim semper memor fuer is cumuli peccatorum tuorum, eris etiam memor magnitudinis beneficentiae dei. Next the memory of sin past, serves as a preservative to keep God's children from the like sins in time to come. And thirdly, it teacheth us to have compassion on others, when they fall in the like sins, and to restore them with the spirit of meekness, considering also ourselves. VERSE. 4. Against thee, against thee only have I sinned, and done evil in thy sight, that thou mayest be just, when thou speakest, and pure, when thou judgest. NOw David breks forth, and gives Confession of sin most needful. glory to God, by an open and plain Confession of his sins, he knew it was needful for him to do so; Because remission of sins, is promised upon a condition of the confession of them. He that hideth his Proverb. sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsake them, shall have mercy. And again, If we confess our sins, God is faithful 1. john 1. 9 to forgive them. But here we have first to consider, Before men confession defileth, before God it cleanseth. why is it that God requires confession, is it to get knowledge of that which we have done? Or to get out of our own mouth, a point of Ditty against ourselves? Novit omnia Deus, sed expectat vocem Amb. de penitent. li. 2. cap. 7. tuam, non ut puniat, sed ut ignoscat. He knows all things, when thou committedst thy sin in secret, he saw thee, what then craveth he? nothing but that thou in thy heart mayest know thy sin; In thy mouth mayest confess it to the end, that he may forgive it. Optat solvere confitentes, ne contumaces punire cogatur. The best Augu. medicine for a sin, is not to hide, or excuse, or extenuate it, but humbly to confess it. Quenadmodum nobis peccatorum vulnera nunquam desunt, sic & confessionis medicamenta deesse non debent. For it is not with the Lord as it is with men, before earthly Tribunales confession of sin defileth the confessor, makes him guilty and culpable, but before the heavenly it absolves him. And this is the cause why the Lord requires confession of a sin from man. Now we have to see what Private sins in what case should they be publicly confessed. sort of confession pleaseth God, seeing it is certain, confession of sin hath been made by many, which the Lord hath not accepted; here first we must distinguish the sins to be confessed, public sins whereby God is openly dishonoured, and his Church slandered, out of all doubt required a public confession to God, and before men; In private sins the confession is required to God only: Plerumque non expedit Ber. m. Cant. ser. 42. innotescere omnibus, omnia quae nos scimus de nobis, atque ipsa charitatis veritate & veritatis charitate, vetamur, palam fieri velle, quod noceat agnoscenti: yet with this exception, that when the private sin is done in such a manner, as that the evil thereof redounds to the hurt of many, and that for this cause also God persewes it to bring it to light, in this case private sins committed by thee, known to none but to thyself should be publicly confessed, that thou mayest give glory to God, and do good to his Church as is evident in the example of Achan and David. Next we must take heed to Three things required in the true confession of sin. Ber. the manner of the confession, if it be true, it must have these three properties. First it must proceed from contrition of the spirit for sin: Primum opus fidei 1. Contrition. per dilectionem operantis, compunctio cordis est, è quo sine dubio eij ciuntur daemonia, cum eradicantur è cord peccata, confession of sin in the mouth, which proceeds not from contrition for sin in the heart, will never draw down mercy to thee, more than it did to Saul, whose mouth said, I have sinned, but his heart was not grieved for sin. Secondly, true confession 2. Faith. proceeds from faith in Christ jesus, for there is a confession which is the daughter of desperation, and can not profit thee: An example whereof we have in judas, I have sinned in betraying of innocent blood, but wanting faith he got no remission of his sin. And thirdly, true confession hath always 3. Correction. with it an amendment of life: otherwise Confessio sine emendatione vitae est professio peccati, confession of sin without amendment is a profession of sin, thou that every day confessest sin, and yet walkest on in the same sins, art no other, but a plain professor of sin. A threefold happy fruit of true confession. Now confession of sin with these properties, brings down to the penitent sinner, a threefold fruit: first union and reconciliation with God ensues, for sin the cause of division between God and man is now removed, quasi duaeres sunt homo Augu. in joan. Tract. 12. & peccator, quod audis (homo) deus fecit, quod audis (peccator) homo ipse fecit, deal quid fecisti, ut saluet deus quod fecit: Man and sin are two sundry things, destroy sin which is man his 1. It reconciles thee with God. work, and God can not but love, and embrace man, as his own work. So long as man keeps his sin, he works directly against the Lord, hiding that which God will discover, and harbouring within him the rebel, whom God is persewing, but when man turns against sin, confessing it, bringing it to light, that it may be destroyed, then works he with Ibid. God, qui Confitetur peccata sua et accusat, iam cum deo facit, accusat deus peccata tua & si tu accusas, iam coniungeris deo. Yea, he that in humble manner confesseth, giveth to the Lord the praise of justice, that knows if he did continue in these sins the Lord ought to punish him, he gives him also the praise of wisdom, that no secret thing can be hid from the Lord, and the praise of power, he knows there is no way to flee from the Lord, and therefore in time he flies to him, and at last he gives him the praise of mercy, that he is gracious and ready to forgive. Bis deum laudamus, ubi pie nos accusamus. The second fruit of it is confusion 2. It brings Confusion to Satan. to Satan, it is a chief point of his labour to accuse us night and day, for in one of these three he is always exercised, either to tempt, or to accuse or to torment, when he tempts let us resist him, that we sin not, if we have sinned, let us prevent the accuser, and be the first accusers of ourselves, so shall we stop the mouth of our adversary, that he shall have nothing to say. Non circumueniet te ante judicem, cum enim tui ipse fueris accusator, & dominus liberator, quid erit ille nisi calumniator? The third is that true confession which brings comfort, It brings peace and quietness to a man's own heart. peace, and quietness to a man's own heart. As a sick stomach is eased by vomiting, so a guilty conscience by confession. They who will not sow, how can they reap? we must sow in tears, the humble confession of sin, if we look to reap the sweet consolation of the spirit, let us not do the one sparingly, if we hope to enjoy the other abundantly, Modica Sementis Ber. de tractio, non modicum messis est detrimentum. So long as we keep in the heart the pleasures of sin, we can not taste of the joys of God. Vis ut intret mel, Aug. unde acetum nondum fudisti? fund quod habes, ut capias, quod non habes, no more than it is possible to power sweet honey into that vessel, which is filled with sour Vinegar already, but as after great showers of rain, the air becomes more calm and clear, so after that sin is powered out with confession and tears, the heart is pacified, and freed from her former perturbations. Furthermore we perceive Public sins would have public repentance. here, how David contents not himself with a secret confession of his sin to the Lord, and to Nathan the Prophet, but will have his repentance declared in public, and a memorial of it extant for benefit of the Church of God. No doubt many impediments had David to hinder him from so clear a confession, but such is the force of true repentance, that it overcomes all impediments and maketh the penitent man heartily well content to give glory to God, although it were with never so great shame to himself. Such as had fallen in public offences were not received The form and order of public repentance in the primitive church. Ambros de penitent. li. 1. c. 16. but upon their public repentance, yea and their supplication made to all the assembly of God's people, Petat veniam reus cum lachrym is, petat gemitibus, petat populi totius fletibus, ut ignoscatur obsecret & cum secundo, aut tertio fuerit dilata eius communio, credat seremissius supplicasse, fletus augeat. Let him that is guilty seek pardon with tears, seek it with groans, let him seek that all the people may mourn for him, and if twice or thrice his receiving to the communion be delayed, let him think he hath prayed but slackly, and hath need to augment his tears, and because many than thought shame to do this, he gives them a notable admonition, Si homini satisfacien dum Lib. 2. c. 10. esset, multos obsecrares ut dignentur interuenire, hoc in ecclesia facere fastidis, ut deo supplices, ut patrocinium tibi ad deum obsecrandum sanctae plebis requiras, if thou haddest to do with men, thou wouldst request many to sue for thee, thinkest thou evil to do that in the Church, to make there supplication to God, and to seek the help of the Saints of God. Vbi nihil est quod pudari esse debeat, nisi non fateri, cum omnes simus peccatores, ubi ille laudabilior, qui humilior; & iustior qui abiectior, fleat itaque pro te Mater ecclesia, where there is nothing whereof we should think shame except not to confess our sins, seeing we are all sinners, and he is most worthy of praise who is most abject. Let therefore thy mother the Church mourn unto God for thee. It is a common policy of Satan takes away shamewhere it should be, and brings it in where it should not be. Satan, to take away shame where it should be, namely in the committing of it; and to bring it in where it should not be, to wit, in the confessing of sin: But if men be moved with shame, I would wish they were moved with the greatest shame, for it is a greater shame to confess sin before the Angels and the whole world, God sitting in his judgement seat to condemn it, then to confess it before his Church, God sitting in his mercy seat, ready to forgive it. Concealed can it not be, for the word of God hath confirmed it with a solemn oath. As I live (sayeth the Lord) every tongue shall confess unto me. Two ways in this verse, By two arguments David amplifieth his sin. doth David amplify his sin: first that it was done against God, Next in the sight of God. To sin against a King his commandment lawful, is a great sin, but to sin against him in his own face, is a double rebellion. Sin is counted a light thing among men, because they commonly weigh it in Statera suarum consuetudinum Aug. count Parmen. lib 3. Cap. 2. dolosa, The deceitful balance of custom: but if we come and weigh it in the balance of God's word, we shall find it heavy, which otherways we think light. This first circumstance that That it was done against God. it was against God, doth greatly aggravate his sin. Whether ye look to the goodness, or to the greatness of God. The Lord was good many ways to David, of a Shepherd he made him a King; and did in every state of life so bless him, that as he himself confesseth, he was loaded with the benefits of God. Now it cannot be but a great ingratitude to offend so loving and gracious a God, who daily delights to do good unto us. Or otherwise if we consider his greatness we must say it What a fearful thing it is to fight against God. is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the lord Are we stronger than he? why then do we provoke him to anger? This is a great argument of his power, that he turns against us those things which we do against him, and punisheth us with our own deeds. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, jerem. 2. 19 and thy turnings back shall reprove thee, and thou shall know that it is an evil thing, and a bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and procured this Vers. 17. unto thyself. The Sidonians sought peace from Herode when he intended war against them, and all because they were nourished by Herod's lands, and might not want his favour: and foolish man thinks it nothing to fight against God, who is offering him peace, which is so great a good, that he is able to drive back man's weapons upon his own face, and confound him with his own thoughts. But here it is to be demanded, How says David he sinned against God only, seeing he slew Vriah, and defiled Bathshebath. how says he that he sinned against God only, seeing he sinned against Bathsheba, enticing her to the snare of Satan: he sinned against Vriah, whom he slew with the sword of the Ammonite; and he sinned against the whole Army, casting them into danger for Vriah his sake: and lastly, against the whole Church in his kingdom by his evil example. The answer 1 In all sin God properly is the party offended. is, that to speak properly, In all sin, properly God is the party offended; whether it be done immediately, as in sins against the first Table, or mediately, as in sins against the second table: and so the wrong done to the creature is not for the hurt of such a creature, but for the interceding command of God, which is broken, for sin is the transgression of the Law; and were it not for that, no wrong were 2. David speaks this according to his sense, for at this time he had no party, but God. done to the creature. Next David speaks this, according to his own sense and feeling, at this time he had no party that troubled him, but the Lord, for as to him that got the wrong, Non timebam Chrysost. eum, miles meus erat, non poterat me judicare. He was my servant he could not judge me. As for others, Rex sum, caeterorum omnium Dominus, te solum commissorum ●uthym. a me scelerum judicem habeo. I am their King and Lord, and find nothing in them to trouble me, but thou O Lord, art he to whom all creatures must render an account, thou art higher than the highest, and judgest the King and the subject alike. What peace then can▪ be to me, so long as thou art against me, pursuing me for my sins. Hereof first arises, a lesson to men of power in the world, let them not think the less of Let not men think the less of their sins, because they are done against weak men. their sins, because they have to do with a weak party, that hath neither power nor means to redress their wrongs; let them remember, that God is their party, who will judge the cause of the poor, the widow, and the fatherless: this should restrain them from doing wrong to any, albeit they might do it uncontrolled of men; this was a means of awe to joseph, he might have revenged the wrong in Egypt which his brethren had done him in Canaan, but he would not because he feared God, and considered that he himself was also under God. Secondly, we learn of this that seeing in all sin, God is No discharge of sin is sufficient but the Lords. the party offended; the remission and discharge of the sin should be sought from him. This is for these carnal Atheists, who if they can obtain pardon from the earthly judge; or a discharge of the party, care nothing for the Lord's part, but he will stand to his own part and make thee find by experience, that albeit all the world would forgive thy sin, yet if the Lord forgive thee not, it shall nothing avail thee. Men of mean estate should have patience when they are wronged because the offence is done unto God. Last of all, let this learn them of mean estate patience, for no wrong can be done unto them, which first of all is not done to the Lord, he is the principal party offended. If men could, as I have said before, ponder this, it might learn them with patience to commit their cause to the Lord, and not rashly to step in into his room, either by imprecations, or railings, or any other such carnal mean, but to reserve unto the Lord his own honour. Vengeance is mine and I will repay it, saith the Lord. And done evil in thy sight. 2 The other argument whereby he amplifies his sin, is that it was done in God's sight. The other circumstance whereby he amplifies his sin, is, that it was done in the sight of God: when he did the sin, God saw him, but he forgot then that God was looking upon him: but now when his conscience is wakened, and he looks back again to his former iniquity, he sees now that he did it in the sight of God. This is also one of Satan his Satan's deceit is to make man conceive that God seethe him not. customable policies whereby he draws men unto sin to cover their minds with a vail to darken their understanding, to steal out of their hearts the remembrance, at least the reverence of the divine Majesty, so that he is brought to think for a time, that either God sees it not, or then doth not regard it. But this is a pitiful blindness, like the folly of children, who when their own eyes are closed that they cannot see, do therefore conceit that none other seethe them: so is it, I say with them whose affections are captived by a sin, they are blinded and have not an eye to look up to God, and therefore think that he is not looking down upon them. The best remedy for this is to sanctify the Lord always in The remembrance of God is a new band to sin. our hearts, let us set the Lord always in our sight, esteeming of every place as jacob did of Bethel, The Lord is in this place, and I was not aware, that so his countenance may be an new band to keep us from sin, otherwise it cannot be but a deep contempt of God, when in our estimation we set him inferior to his creature, not ashamed to do that under the eye of GOD, which we would be ashamed to do under the eye of man. That thou mayest be just. His The Lord strikes not without a cause. meaning is not, that he sinned for this end: that God might be justified, quod dicit ut iustificeris, non habet causae significationem, non eam ob causam peccavit David, ut Deus iustificaretur. No, but that for this end he confessed his sin, that the justice of God, judging, reproving, and threatening him by Nathan, might be manifested to others. It is not Lord without cause that thou hast denounced so sharp punishments against me, by thy servant Nathan, Ego haec mihi mala conciliavi, I have deserved them all, and given thee just cause to speak and judge against me as thou hast done, and now I humbly confess it before the world, that thou mayest have the praise of righteousness in all thy speaking, & judging. The children of God humbled Men visited with his rods should give him the praise of righteousness with a sense of their sins, spare not to shame themselves that they may glorify God. So Daniel ascribeth shame and confusion to himself and his people, but gives though praise of righteousness to the Lord. Where the Lord strikes with his rods which men may see, and he that is stricken will not acknowledge his sins, in effect he blames the Lord, as if he did strike without a cause; therefore josua, when Achan was taken by Lot for his sin, and the wrath of God on Israel was manifest, but the cause procuring the wrath, was hidden from them, exhorted him to give glory to God, thou seest doth he, say that God is angry with Israel, he hath suffered his people to fall before their enemies, this cannot be without a cause: seeing the lot is fallen upon thee, and the finger of God points at thee, that thou hast procured this evil. I pray thee give glory to God, by confessing the sin thou hast done, that all the people may know that the Lord is not angry without cause. It is a dangerous thing to hide our sins, where the hiding of them, may hide and obscure the glory of God; as the manner of hypocrites is, who grudge and murmur when God strikes them with his rods, as if either they were punished without a cause, or then worse handled, than they had deserved. Again, let us mark here Happy are they whom God judges now in such sort that he corrects them. the manner of God his dealing with his own, he judgeth them in this life, that they should not be condemned hereafter. This he doth partly by his word, reproving them of sin; partly by his rods, correcting them. Happy are they who now are so judged, for they who profit not, neither by his rebukes nor his rods; what else do they, but reserve themselves to a sharper judgement. VERSE. 5. Behold I was borne in iniquity, and in sin hath my mother conceived me. HE still proceeds David searches out the first original of his sin. in the amplification of his sin, and now he rippeth it up from the very foutaine and first original thereof, entering in a deep consideration of the universal corruption of his Nature. It is not in this fact only will he say that I am culpable, I confess my whole Nature to be so corrupt from the very womb through sin, as most justly making me odious & abominable in the eyes of God, yea now when by occasion of this one sin, which hath broken out in external action, I look to my inward disposition and consider the original corruption of my nature con-containing all sorts of sin within it, proceeding from the want and privation of original righteousness, I am ashamed of myself in the sight of God. To express this he uses two words; the first Cholel signifying How original sin is expressed by David. to create or form, whereby he will declare that even in his forming in the womb, he was infected with sin, the other is jacham signifying to warm: thereby declaring that while he was warmed, fostered and nourishedde in his mother's womb, he was defiled with sin original. At the beginning he was but an unclean Creature. Where we are not to think Marriage is not blamed, when it is said that man was conceived and borne in sin. that he accuses the formation or fostering of a birth in the mother's womb, these are the great and marvelous works of God. Neither yet that he rejects the blame on his parents, or condemns marriage, or use of the marriage-bed, these are the ordinances of God. Non Aug. count Pelag. lib. 3. cap. 21. De nupt. et concupiscen. est malum quod natus es, sed cum quo natuses. And again, Natura humana quae de coniugio nascitur, opus est Dei. And to this same purpose said Basil, non accusat Basil. hic nuptias, sicut quidam stulte sunt suspicati. Sed praevaricationem quae ab initio mundi a progenitoribus nostris est commissa, in medium producit, & hanc fontem esse factam ipsorum fluentorum dicit. He doth not here accuse marriage, as some have foolishly suspected, but the transgression committed by our first Progenitors, he brings out as the fountain of all these floods of iniquity, that since sin have broken out in our nature. Here first we may perceive, The rhetoric by which godly men move the Lord to mercy. what is the Rhetoric, which godly men use whereby they would move the Lord to be merciful unto them, namely to present to the eyes of his compassion their heavy diseases and the deep, wide, and inveterate wounds which they have received from their deadly enemy, let us learn by their example not to cover nor hide our sins, if we would have mercy. A wise man desires his wound to be ripped up, and not to be overplaistred, albeit the Physician would forget it, he will remember and request him to do it. How much more should we lay open our wounds to Christ, that he may cure them, he is that sweet Samaritan who at the first sight of the wounds of that poor traveler between jericho and jerusalem was moved to compassion and powered wine and oil into his wounds, when Priest nor Levit had pity upon him, what mercy here he preached in that parable, he hath it ready to practise upon all that from a penitent and believing heart, present their miseries unto him. Secondly, we see here how Particular sins move the godly to a detestation of the whole corruption of Nature. these particular sins of David leads him to a narrower inquisition and greater detestation of the whole corruption of his nature, thus the children of God are moved by some particular sins, wherein they are fallen to grow in the hatred of all sins whatsoever. Whereas by the contrary carnal men excuse their particular sins by the common corruption of man's nature, as if their sins, were the less because all men by nature are sinners, but they deceive themselves, for the less they think of their sins, the more shall God think of them when he shall visit them, let us not sparingly judge ourselves, if we would have the Lord merciful unto us. And lastly, since this is true in What great need man hath to be changed out of Nature's estate. us all, that we were conceived, and borne in sin, what great need have we of regeneration: for unless a man be borne again, he can not see the kingdom of God? Let natural parents who have been instruments to their children of a natural generation, whereby they are borne heirs of the wrath of God, do what lies in them by prayer and good education to make them partakers of regeneration, otherways they will curse the loins that got them, and the womb that bore them, and children again who glory in the external privileges of blood and heritage, which they have gotten from their parents, let them remember unless they be borne again, it had been better for them never to have been borne. VERSE. 6. Behold thou lovest truth in the inward affections, and haste taught me wisdom in the secret of mine heart. HE proceeds still The vileness of sin appears in this, that it is contrary to God's holy disposition. to amplify his sin by consideration of that contrary holy disposition, which is in God: the Lord is holy, his eye is so pure that it cannot behold iniquity, he loveth truth and delights in the holiness, and cleanness of the heart, but alas I am unclean, and therefore so much the more miserable, that my disposition is contrary to his. Of this we learn that the The true knowledge of God works true humility. best way to humble us in regard of that sinful corruption which is in us, is the knowledge of God, when Esay in a vision saw the majesty of God as it pleased him to show it, than he cried out woe is me. I am a man of polluted lips, he knew before that he was a sinful man, but a new sight of God his holiness, discovers to him a deeper sight of his own corruption, the spots of the face not perceived in darkness, are manifested in the day, and then do men think shame of them, when they are discovered by the light. So long as the eye looks to the earth, and creatures which are in it, it seems to be quick enough but turn it upward toward the sun, the weakness of it is soon perceived: when we look to ourselves, and compare ourselves with ourselves, and with men like ourselves, we seem to be some thing, but if our eyes were open to see the Lord, and that most excellent purity and holiness which is in him, than would we cry out with job. Now mine eyes hath seen the Lord, therefore I abhor myself. The holy Angels cover their faces at the brightness of his glory, what shall man do who is dust and dwells in lodgings of clay? Again, seeing God loves Sin is but a lying vanity. truth in the inward affections, let us also study to love it, for in a conformity with God standeth man's felicity. By truth here we understand two things: holiness, and sincerity, opposite to sin, and hypocrisy: sin is in very deed but a lie, a falsehood, and a vanity, and therefore so named by the spirit of God. It seems to be an other thing than it is indeed, all that to this day have been enamoured with it, have found it in the end to be but a lying vanity, and yet vain man cannot learn to despise the deceit thereof. And this evil becomes so Then is it worst when it is covered with hypocrisy. much the worse, when it lurketh under a show of holiness, hypocrisy is a general lie of the whole man. In a common lie the tongue lies against the heart only, but in hypocrisy not the tongue only, but the eye, the hand, the feet lie also, when the hand is lifted up to heaven, and eye looks up, but the heart follows them not, when the knee is bowed, but the heart is not bowed before the Lord. Nothing distinguishes a true The proper difference of a true Christian from a counterfeit. christian from a counterfeit, but this truth, and sincerity in the inward affections, the bastard Christian can counterfeit the true Christians behaviour in all things, but he cannot follow him in this one, the sincerity of his heart. As a Painter can paint the colour of the fire, and the form of the flame thereof, but cannot paint the heat of it, so a hypocrite can resemble a Christian in any thing, but not in his heart. Esau can mourn and weep bitterly like Ezechia: Ahab can put on sack cloth, like Mordecai, Saul can confess in word, I have sinned, like David, but none of their hearts were upright in the sight of God. Thirdly, when we hear If the Lord require truth in us, how much more is he true himself- that God loves truth we may consider that he is true or rather truth itself, what he loves in his creature is but a sparkle of that goodness, which is in himself, we have here then strong consolation against our natural doubtings, and distrusts, if we consider how God is verity. Of his nature he can not break his promise, if he require such constant truth in his Psal. 15. creature, that when he swears, he will not have him to change, but to perform the good which he promises, how much more may we look to find this truth in himself? Therefore thou hast taught me wisdom. This is the last argument An other amplification of David's sin, it was against knowledge. whereby David amplifies his sin, that he had done against that knowledge, wherewith God had endued him, for the Lord had dealt favourably with him, and had taught him the knowledge of his will, but he like a beast suffered that light to be suffocated by the fury of his own affections. Of this we see that the light A fearful thing to sin against knowledge. which God gives men, if they do against it, is a great augmentation of their sin, The servant that knoweth his masters will and doth it not, is worthy of double stripes: If I had not come, and spoken to you, ye should have had no sin, the Gentiles who had no more but the light of nature are convinced, because that when they knew God, they Rom. 1. glorified him not as God: what then shall become of us, who beside the light of nature have also the light of the gospel, if still we walk in darkness, it shall certainly aggravate our sin, and make our condemnation more fearful, then that of Sodom and Gomorrha. From which, the Lord of his great mercy preserve us. VERSE. 7. Purge me with Hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. AFter that DAVID After confession the godly join petition for mercy, not so the wicked. had made a confession of his sin, and that not coldly, or for fashion, as they do, whose consciences are not wakened with the sight of their sins, but had by all circumstances aggravated his sin, now he returns to his petition of mercy. This hyssop, wherewith The hyssop by which David craves to be purged. David craveth to be purged, it is as Basil calls it, Alterius reioenigma. Natural hyssop is an herb humilis, calida, & odorifera, of excellent virtue in medicine, Est enim in hyssopo vis purgatoria Aug. de doct. christ. lib. 2. maxim pulmonum. The typical use of it in the ceremonial Law was threefold; first, the Israelites sprinkled the posts of their doors, with a bunch of hyssop dipped in the blood of the Paschall Lamb: Exod. 12. secondly, a bunch of hyssoppe dipped in blood, was used in the besprinkling and cleansing of the Leper: and thirdly, in the Sacrifice for sin. Numbers Levit. 14. 19 All these were typical, and did signify no other, but that All typical purgations figure the blood of Christ. all his people should look for purgation from all their leprosy and uncleanness in the blood of the Lamb Christ jesus: who takes away the sins of the world, and his blood cleanseth from all sin. David knew that these were types and figures instituted for signification of better things, and therefore did he not neglect them, yet on the other part, he would not lean unto them, as if remission of sins were to be gotten by these Legal purgations, but by them he ascended to the spiritual thing signified by them, he had enough of the typical hyssop at his commandment, and the Priest ready to spinkle him with it, when it pleased him, but he knew this would not serve his turn, he looks to the Spiritual hyssop, and he prays that God would purge him, without which no Levitical washing could make him clean. The Spiritual hyssop then The purging virtue of Christ's blood. full of blood, is Christ jesus. Qui humiliavit se ad mortem, qui calore suae immensae charitatis nos dilexit, qui odore manfuctudinis, & suavitatis totum mundum replevit. His blood sprinkles not the bodies so much as the souls and consciences of men, for so the purging virtue which is in the natural hyssop is internal, and by it is signified, Coram Deo opus esse non externa, sed interna purgatione. Seeing so it is, that the godly How carnal Papists are, who place so great sanctification in external things. Israelites in using these external types, which were not ordained for themselves, but for other things, had a spiritual disposition looking ever to the thing signified by them. Is it not a shame for Papists to be so gross and carnal, as to place any sanctification in the like external sprinkling of their body with their holy water, as they call it: with as great reason might they bring in again all that ceremonial Law, which was but for a time, and now is abrogated, But now seeing the truth is come, which is Christ jesus, it is good reason the type and figure should cease. The fountain is opened to David's house, for sin and for uncleanness. He hath made a perfect purgation of our sins by his own blood. Now to retain the ceremonies of judaisme, or to bring in from Paganism their superstitious washings of sin, as Papists borrow from Pompilius these heathenish purgations, by sprinkling of water which they use, is to offer wrong to Christ jesus: for the first, in effect, imports that Christ the veritic is not yet come, and therefore they will still retain the figure: the second imports, that albeit he be come, he hath not made a perfect purgation of our sins by himself, but his wants must be supplied by a purging with water on earth, and a purging by fire in the second house of hell. But here it is to be demanded, Sin not imputed is as if it had not been committed. how it is that David says, if the Lord wash him, he shall be cleaner and whiter than the snow, doth he mean, that after sin is forgiven, there abideth no more any remainder of sin unto him. No, this is not his meaning, but that if the Lord forgive him his sin, he shall he in as good estate with the Lord, as if he had never done it, Peccatum enim non imputatum est quasi non commissum, a sin not imputed, is, as if it had never been committed. That we may understand A twofold purging of sin. this the better, we are to consider, how there is a twofold 1 One by Christ's blood, this is our justification. washing or taking away of sin: one, that is made by the blood of Christ: another, by the spirit of Christ. The taking away of sin by the blood of Christ is perfect even now. For they to whom the merit of the blood of Christ is imputed, have presently all the guiltiness of their sin removed fully and perfectly; this in effect is the benefit of our-iustification. The other taking away of sin by the spirit of 2 The other by his spirit this is our sanctification. Christ, is imperfect: his virtue hath begun in us a mortification of our earthly members; his spirit daily weakeneth and subdueth in us the life and power of sin, that it reigneth not to command us as it was wont to do, and this in effect is the benefit of sanctification; but this taking away of sin in this life is not perfect, for some remainders of sin even in them to whom sin is forgiven, will the Lord have remaining, for the exercise of our faith, and daily humiliation, as more at large we have showed in our Treatise upon the 8. to the Romans. VERSE 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. HItherto DAVID with his confession The second rank of David's petitions is for peace of Conscience. of sin hath joined petitions for mercy. Now he proceeds and craves that these evils which his sin had brought upon him, may be removed. Sin hath many evil effects, at the first it offends God, and grieves his spirit, but at the last, it shall grieve the soul of him that did it. Let us learn to beware of it. This petition of David is to Sin spoils man of inward peace and joy. be opposed to his present disposition, so shall we understand it. O Lord, I hear within mean accusing voice of conscience, which terrifies and disquiets me, I beseech thee, Lord let me hear the contrary voice of joy and gladness. Hear than he confesseth that which all the children of God may find in their own experience, that sin impairs the peace of conscience. If we could remember how sweet is the joy and peace which we lose, for the vain and perishing pleasure of sin, we would be loath any more to make any such exchange. Secondly, we see here that there is not any testimony save only the testimony of Man's testimony of the remission of sins is nothing, without the testimony of God's spirit. God's spirit that can bring peace to the troubled conscience. Nathan had before this witnessed to David, that his sins were forgiven him, but nathan's word pacified not his conscience, the ministration of the word of God hath credit with men, the ministration of the Spirit, that bringeth consolation he hath reserved to himself. When Martha and Marie mourned for dead Lazarous, many godly jews came out of jerusalem to comfort them, but they got never comfort till Christ jesus came, and so the godly may mourn for their sins, and for the deadness of their heart, but there shall be no comfort till the comforter come, and refresh their souls, But here it will be objected, The ministerial comfort of God's servants greatly to be regarded and why. what then avails the ministry of the word, and the consolations of the servants of God given out of it. Yea very much indeed, for where the testimony of the word pronounced by God's servants goes before to witness mercy, there the testimony of God's spirit conforming it follows after, for the blessing of peace pronounced Luke. by the servants of God upon the children of peace abides upon them, this we see clearly here in David: Nathan pronounced to him upon the knowledge of his repentance the remission of his sins, he could not feel it for the present, but the Lord follows and justifies nathan's Ministry, witnessing that to David's heart, which Nathan had witnessed unto his ear. And this we have to mark Remission of of sins may be thine, suppose thou feel it not. for a comfort against these spiritual desertions, whereunto the Children of God are subject. Remission of sins may be thine, the servants of God with a warrant may witness unto thee, that thy sins are forgiven thee, as here Nathan doth unto David, and yet thou not feel that it is so, we must not therefore be so discouraged; as to think we want that grace alway, which we cannot Therefore David craves not only mercy, but sense of mercy. feel. It is now clear what is the benefit which DAVID here craves. To wit not mercy only that he hath sought before, but the sense of mercy also, make me to hear joy, so that I may feel it. For all the inward senses of the soul are in feeling; to hear the Lord, to see him, to taste how good he is, is no other but to enjoy him and to feel his consolations. It is thy praise o Lord that thou speakest peace to thy Saints; among the rest, speak peace unto mine heart also. O what a joy was it to that man sick of the palsy when he heard that voice, thy sins are forgiven thee. And such like to that sinful woman when she heard, go in peace, thy faith hath saved thee. And how was the soul of that converted sinner comforted in the mids of the dolours of death when he hard that voice, This night thou shalt be with me in paradise. This is the exceeding great Great comfort, that God not only forgives our sins, but tells us they are forgiven. love of the Lord toward his children, that he hath not only provided a sure salvation for them through the remission of their sins in Christ jesus, but also seals up in their heart the testimony thereof by his Holy Spirit of adoption, and that for their present consolation lest they should be swallowed up of heaviness through continual temptations. Though he speak not to all his children as he did to Daniel by an Angel; O man greatly beloved of God, nor as he did to the blessed Virgin Marie; hail Marie freely beloved, yet doth he witness the same to the hearts of his children by an inward testimony, when they hear it, they are alive; when they want it, they are but dead, their soul refuses all other comfort whatsoever. That the hones, which thou hath A troubled mind sore weakeneth the body. broken may rejoice. By these Basil understands Ossa animae spiritualia, that is as saith Savanarola and others, Vires animae rationalis but as this agrees not with this sense, so there is no reason why it should be enforced. David his words, Psalm 32. serves for a commentary to this, there he complains, that through extremity of the anguish of his Spirit; the moisture of his body was turned into the drought of Summer, now the marrow we know is the strength of the bones, these being so extenuate no marvel, his flesh consumed, his skin was parched, his face withered, his sight dimmed, his knees enfeebled, and the whole external man greatly weakened, the Spirit of a man says Solomon will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear it? Of this let us learn that if The miserable state of the wicked who must bear the burden of their own sins. the sight of sin presented to the godly from a just accusing conscience, do so terrify them, and breed them such excessive trouble as for a time, doth sorely torment them. In what state shall the wicked be, when the Lord shall present their sins to them & wake their conscience upon them not in mercy, as he doth to his own, but in wrath, not for a time, but for ever. O what anguish and remediless tribulation shall be unto them, the days of wicked men's sinning are compared to the time of a woman's conceiving, but the days of their punishment are compared to the time of her traveling: they conceive their sins with wantonness and pleasure, but shall bear them with dolour unspeakable, their dolours shall exceed the dolour of a woman, for she knows once to be delivered of her pain either by life or death, but the wicked shall never be lighter of their sins, nor be delivered from the anguish of their accusing conscience, from which most miserable condition the Lord deliver us for Christ jesus sake. VERSE 9 Hid thy face from my sins, and put away all mine iniquities. DAVID yet from Guiltiness of sin soon contracted, not so soon put away. God the fourth time seeks the remission of his sins, the gilt of sin is soon contracted, but not so soon gotten away, we are happy if the examples of other men may learn us to be wise, he was a man dearly beloved of God, and yet how many requests makes he, before he can get his heart assured of mercy: but the presumption Foolish are they, who think they may get mercy for a word. of this age is so great, that men fear not to offend the Lord, because they think, mercy may be gotten for a word. But let men remember that fearful sentence, which the L. pronounced upon the people of the jews, for the abuse of his mercy; When they fast, I will not hear their cry: And again; Thougb Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet mine affection could not be toward this people, that so our hearts may be humbled with holy fear, which may restrain He that seeks not to hide his sins, provokes the Lord to inquire it. us from offending our God, upon presumption of mercy. Hid thy face. All David his care, when he had committed his sin, was to hide it from the Lord, for this cause he committed murder and slew Vriah, thinking if he were not alive to perceive it, his iniquity should never come to light. Now he sees it with a vain labour, Vriah is dead, but the angry countenance of God looking upon his sin troubles him, As the fish called Sepia casting forth a black liquor out of her mouth, of purpose to lurk under it, doth thereby give notice to the fisher of the place wherein they shall find her: so foolish man, while he thinks to hide one sin by another, doth but cast himself the more open to the eye of God, who then looks most narrowly to a sin when man most craftily labours to conceal it: Every sinner in sinning takes from God the praise of righteousness as if the Lord were like him, & were not a God that loves righteousness, and hates iniquity. But he that thinks to hide He that seeks to hide his sin from the Lord makes an idol of him. his sin from the Lord, when he hath done it, takes also from him the praise of wisdom, and makes the Lord so far as he may, like an Idol of the Nations, that hath eyes and sees not. And therefore the Lord as he will be avenged of every one that offends, so principally upon them who scorn him, by hiding their sins from him. Woe be to them that seek in deep We to such. to hide their Council from the Lord, their works are in secret, and they say who sees it? At this time David's sin was unknown to the world, no living No man knew David's sin, yet is be sore troubled, because he knew that God knew it. creature but himself Bathshabe and Nathan were privy to it, yet this terrifies him, that he saw the Lord looking upon it: It is no comfort to a man to have his sin hidden from all the world, unless he knew that the Lord also hath covered and forgiven it, alioqui Ambros. de paeniten. li. 2. cap. 11. ita gravis est culpa conscientiae, ut sine judice ipsa se puniat. So heavy is the sin of any evil conscience, that albeit no creature were to judge it, it judges and punishes itself. He said in the third verse that God will look to our sins, if we look not to them. his sin was always in his sight, and now he prays that God would put it out of his sight, this is a very good order, if we hold our sins in our eyes to pursue them, God will cast them behind his back to pardon them, if we remember them and repent, he will forget them and forgive, otherwise peccatum unde se homo non avertit, advertit deus, & si advertit, animaduertit, the sin from which man turns not, God looks to it, and if he look to it, sure he will punish it. Thy face. The face of God is The face of God put sometime for his mercy, sometime for justice. sometime put for his favour, and with this he looks on the persons of them, who are the children of his good will, this David prays may be lifted up upon him Psa. 4. that God would not hide it from him Psal. 27. the hiding of his face did trouble him sore Psal. 30. therefore it is his customable prayer▪ Lord cause thy face to shine upon us, Psa. 4. sometime again it is put for his anger or angry face, whereby he looks on the persons of the wicked, when he will vex them in his displeasure, or upon the sins of his own children, when he will humble them. How fearful a sight this How fearful a sight God's angry face is. angry face of God is, see it in David, for his good, the Lord who loved David's self, looked with an angry countenance at David's sins, but he protests he may not endure it, and prays God to hide it from him. See it again in Christ jesus, who endured the looks of that angry face, not for himself but for us, how did it make his soul heavy, and his flesh so weary that he did sweat blood. How miserable then are the reprobates, who must endure for ever the sight of God's angry face looking upon them? for they and their sins are one, no marvel they shall cry hills and mountains fall upon us, and hide us from the face of him that sits upon the throne. Let us fear and look with anger upon our sins in time, that God in mercy may look upon ourselves, and we may find joy in his face, wherein the wicked shall see nothing but terror. VERSE. 10. Great in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. NOw follows David's third petition, The third rank of David's petitions. wherein he craveth the grace of sanctification, he sought before the forgiveness of his sin, now he seeks to be delivered from it in time to come: for it is for this end that he prays for a cleand heart, and a renewed spirit, that he should not any more fall to the like uncleanness: This is a good order in our prayer, when first we seek the Remission of sin and renovation go together. grace of remission, and then the grace of renovation, for these two go inseparably together; to whom the Lord gives remission, them he makes new creatures, so that renovation of the heart is always an undoubted token of the remission of thy sins; and by the contrary he whose heart is not renewed but abides still in his former uncleanness, he deceives himself, if so be he thinks that his sins are forgiven. This is to be marked for the common sort of profane men They who seek forgiveness and not sanctification seek but liberty to sin. in this age, who seek from God mercy to forgive for fear of his plagues, but not grace to renew them to his image for love of himself, this in effect is no other but to seek a liberty to sin, while as men seek sin to be forgiven, but not to be restrained, it is an argument they have not a right hatred of sin, but we see in David what the disposition of the godly is, as they desire mercy for begun sins, so also grace to renew them and preserve them from the power and deceit of sin in all time to come, otherwise to crave that the Lord would pardon these sins, which thou art of purpose to commit, it is but to mock the Lord, by turning his grace into wantonness. The uncleanness of sin original increased by actual. job. David his heart was two ways unclean, first by reason of original sin wherein he was conceived and borne, Who can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean: & this uncleanness of heart is common to all mankind, but beside this he had defiled it with many actual sins, specially this foul adultery & murder, for every sin pollutes the heart, & leaves a new guiltiness upon the conscience, wherewith now David finding his heart overgrown, that it is not like the heart he had before, he prayeth the Lord to give him a new heart. He had now not only sinned, but fallen as Basile expounds it in Senium peccati into Basil. the very old age of sin, and therefore he desires, that the Lord would begin with him again, and make him to renew his youth like the Eagle. Many circumstances are to be marked here, whereby Sin seeks the very life of the soul. David aggravateth the greatness of his misery: as first, that his disease was in his heart, which is the fountain of life. As the natural heart is the life of the body, which when it is not well, vital humour, health, beauty, ability, and all decay in the body: so is the Lord the life of the soul. So David's meaning is, O Lord, by my sin I have grieved thy holy spirit, and forced thee to forsake me. Tu proprie cordis The heart of any Christian his heart. mei proprium es cor & vita: thou properly art the proper heart, and life of mine heart. Come again Lord, and restore life unto me, without thee I am dead and senseless, and an abominable creature, like a body, which wanting an heart is an unclean carrion, thou art the light of my mind, the peace of my soul, the life of my heart. I have lost life by my sin, I am like a man wanting his quickening spirit: when thou goest away, my life went away: Lord come again, and create a new heart within me. Again, in that he craves a Repentance is a new creation. clean heart may be created in him, he acknowledgeth that his sin had not only wounded him, but slain him, and that he stood in need not of any reparation, but of an new creation, wherein he utterly And so above the power of nature. distrusteth the power of his nature: yea the ability of his own free will notwithstanding grace once resumed, he finds it so oppressed by the power of his corruption, that he is forced to crave from God the benefit of a new creation, cor eius tale fieret per gratiam, Savan. quale non potuit esse per naturam. Of ourselves we fall, but of ourselves we rise not again. Not only is our first conversion a work of God's grace altogether and alone; but the works of our restitution by repentance, after we have fallen: as it is in the Lords praise, He quickened us, when we were dead. So is it his praise, that he keeps Psal. 100 As we created not ourselves. So we cannot renew ourselves. our souls in life. The Lord made us, we made not ourselves. We are content to give him the glory of our first creation, let us also give him the glory of our second creation. Yea, so oft as we fall into sin, let us consider that our rising again, is no less a work of the great power, and mercy of God: then was the raising of Lazarus out of the grave, for otherwise we should have lain still with others, rotting and perishing in our sins. And so have we to praise the Lord, not only for our first and second creation, but for the renewing of that benefit unto us, as oft as we by our transgression have lost that life, which the Lord did once communicate unto us. And this that our sanctification, A proper comparison of our first creation with the second. or restitution by repentance after that we have sinned, is called new creation, renders yet unto us a profitable instruction, if we compare our new creation with Adam his first creation. When shall we say that Adam was made a natural man? never till the Lord breathed the breath of life into him: the Lord first form his body of clay, after the same shape and similitude, that now ye see the body of man in all the porportion of the members thereof. No image can be made by man's wit so lively representing a man, as did that portraiture of clay, which the Lord at the first form with his own hand, but all this time it lay upon the ground, having eyes that saw not, ears that heard not, a mouth that could not speak, and feet that could not walk: he was then very like unto that which now man Many professed Christians are but carcases of Christians. is; but (as I said) was not a natural man, till God breathed the breath of life unto him. Let us consider the like in the new creation, how many shall ye find very like unto christians baptised in the name of jesus. who have a mouth to speak, and an eye to look up unto heaven, and an care, as a man would think, to hear very reverently the word of the Lord: who when all is done, what ever they seem in the eyes of men, are no other in God's sight, but as the carcases of christians: So to speak, destitute of that quickening spirit of grace, which only gives life to the actions of men. Let us take heed to ourselves that we be not of that number; for then only have we this comfort that we are Christians indeed, when we find that quickening spirit of grace, which is in Christ jesus, communicating life unto our spirits, that what we do in the works of Christianity stand not in external show, but may proceed from inward sense and feeling. VERSE. 11. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thine holy Spirit from me. STill David continues David's fervency in Supplication. his supplications, seeking a remedy of these manifold miseries, which he found by experience, his sin had brought upon him. For we must remember, that all these petitions proceeded from a sense of a contrary evil, which by his sin he had incurred, and craves that God of his mercy would divert it. He lamemted before that sin had slain him, and made him like a dead man wanting a heart, or quickening spirit, and now he fears lest as the dead are abhorred by the living, so the Lord should cast him out, as a dead and abominable thing out of his presence. Whereof we learn, this is The pleasures of sin are dear bought. one of the just punishments of sin, it procures the casting out of a man from the face of God, and it may let us see how dear bought are the pleasures of sin, when a man to enjoy the face of the creature, deprives himself of the comfortable face of the Creator, as David here for the carnal love of the face of Bathsheba, puts himself in danger to be cast out for ever from the presence of the Lord his God. If man could remember this in all Satan's temptations, what it is For Satan seeks frous man better than he can give him that the deceiver offers, and what it is again that he seeks, he would be loath to buy the perishing pleasures of sin, upon such a price as Satan selleth them, but would answer him, as the Apostle did Simon Magus, Thy money with thyself go into perdition, thy gain, thy glory, thy pleasure, and what ever thou wouldst give me to offend the Lord my God, go with thyself into perdition, for what canst thou offer unto me comparable to that, which thou wouldst steal from me. But how is it that he prays, A twofold presence of God. Cast me not out from thy presence. May a man be cast any way from it: says he not himself What way can I flee from thy presence? This is soon answered by distinguishing his twofold presence: one in mercy wherewith he refresheth and comforteth his own; and this without intermission they enjoy, who are in heaven: another, in wrath, whereby he terrifies and torments without intermission the damned in hell. As to them who are upon earth, certain it is, he is displeased with many, who because No casting out from the one. they see not his angry face, regard it not, borne out with temporal recreations of the cteature, which will fail them, and there are many again to whom he looks as a loving father in Christ, and yet they see not his merciful face, by reason of many interjected veils: but to them who once have felt the sweetness of his favourable face, it is death to want it. Absolom protested he could not want the sight 2. Sam. 14. 32. of David his Father, he spoke it out of his hypocrisy; but to such as are truly godly, there can be no punishment so heavy as to debar them, and it were but for a short time, from the comfortable face of their heavenly father. Thirdly, let us learn how What an all-sufficient good the Lord is. the all-sufficiency of the Lord our God, and his great power appears in this. It is punishment enough to a man, suppose he were Monarch of the world, and had all comforts earthly to uphold him; to want the countenance of God. O It is life to see his favourable face, and death to want it. what an infinite good, what an all-sufficient Majesty is he in himself! a look of whose countenance refreshes his creature: & no comfort can comfort him that wants it; as ye may see in Beltasar, how did he tremble in the midst of all his pleasures, at the sight of God's anger? and here in David, who once debarred from the sight of God's joyful face for his sins, could never rest till he got it again. All the sports and delights of his Kingdom could not refresh him. Doubtless he is an all-sufficient God, who lives by himself, whose only countenance comforts his creatures, and without whose favour, life, yea, the most honourable life that can be devised on earth, is worse than death. But what moved him to The godly fear when they remember Gods judgements on others. fear casting out from God's presence, who had so many both external and internal testimonies of God's favour toward him? Out of question the examples of Cain, cast out for murdering his brother, & the example of his predecessor Saul, justly rejected of God, did terrify him, left he for merciless murdering his own servant, and fearful backsliding from the Lord, should also be rejected. He remembered well the example of God's judgements on others for their sins, and his conscience told him within, he was guilty of the like or greater: & this made him afraid. Yet was not his fear without hope sustained by consideration Yet their fear is never without hope, if they fear God as a judge, they hope in him as a Saviour. of God his unchangeable love, but by the inward conscience of his own unfeigned repentance, and by the manifold examples of God's mercy showed to penitent sinners. If Cain was cast out from thy face, it was because he sought not thy favour: and Saul was rejected because he repent not. But Lord, I have opened my heart to thee; thou seest what grief is in my soul, for grieving thee by my sins; thou never reiectedst any, that from a penitent heart sought thy mercy: Quis unquam venit Savan. ad te & confusus abijt? Who ever came to thee, and went away ashamed? Shall I be the first that sought thy face, and was rejected? Nay Lord, Cast me not, I beseech thee, out of thy presence. Thus we see, how David at one time, Et timet à judice, Bernard. & sperat à saluatore, is both afraid of God as his judge, and hath hope in God as his Saviour; sometime fear oppresseth his hope, but at the length hope overcometh fear: Felix conscientia in qua eiusmodi luctamen. And take not thy holy Spirit The uncleanness of sin, grieves God's Spirit. from me. The Spirit of GOD will not dwell in a polluted soul. Every uncleanness diminisheth his presence. The Apostle warneth us hereof, when he saith, Grieve not the Spirit. And again, Quench not the Spirit. David felt it by his own experience, and therefore makes he this prayer to God, that the grace of his Spirit, which was weakened by his sin, should not utterly be taken from him. This is a petition necessary always to be used unto God: Without the Spirit, no fellowship with God. Rom. 8. for without this Spirit we can have no fellowship with God. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is not his: & this Spirit, he is known by his fruits, which are, Love, Peace, joy, long Suffering, Gentleness, Gal. 5. 22. Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance. Where we find the presence of this Spirit by his fruits, we are to cherish him; where we find a want, or decay of them, we are to pray for them: but many profane men in this age are like these, who know not whether there be such a thing as the Holy Yet profane men cannot discern his presence from his absence. Ghost, or not: they never felt his presence, neither had they ever experience of his renewing, and comforting grace; & therefore feel no loss by his absence. Let them enjoy such things as they love, they care not for him, because they know him not: most like unto brute beasts, to whom pearls and most excellent jewels are What an excellent guest and worthy entertainment the Spirit of God is. of no price; only such things as affect their sensual appetite, are pleasant unto them. But how excellent a guest this Spirit is, and how worthy to be harboured in our hearts, may be gathered from this proper Epithet, which always is attributed to him, A holy Spirit; both because in himself he is so, and doth also make them holy in whom he dwells. What notable effects he works in his own children, is summarily comprised by Bernard in three Bern. in fest. Pentecost. Ser. 5. words: he is Pignus Salutis, the pledge of salvation: all speaking of salvation without him, is but babbling: he is Robur vitae, the strength of our life▪ without him we have no ability to any spiritual action; and he is Scientiae lumen, the light of knowledge: for without his sanctifying grace, all knowledge whatsoever, is but darkness. But here it is demanded; May the spirit of God, once given Whether God's Spirit once given, may be taken from his children or not. to God's children, be taken from them? I answer, there are some of his gifts which may be given and taken away again: these are secondary and common, such as God gives indifferently to good men and evil. So Achitophel's wisdom, and Saul his gift of Kingly government, were at length taken from them: but there are other gifts, which once given, are never taken away again. These are principal and proper, communicated only to Gods elect; as the grace of regeneration, adoption, sanctification: these graces are crowned with that great grace of Perseverance. The reason whereof is not in us, nor in our stability; but in the unchangeable counsel and will of him who loved us, for whom he loves he loves, to the end: his gifts and calling are without repentance: We may fall after grace received, but the Lord puts under his hand and raises us up again: Because I am not changed, therefore ye are not consumed, saith the Lord: And truly even at this same time when David makes this prayer, it is evident, he wanted not this spirit of grace, restoring him by repentance after he had fallen, and making him thirst for mercy: Nullum enim certius praesentiae spiritus testimonium, quam desiderium amplioris gratiae. VERSE. 12. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and 'stablish me with thy free spirit. THree great evils Three great evils David's sin brought upon him. did David bring upon himself by his sin; a guiltiness which impaired the sense of God's mercy, an uncleanness which perverted and corrupted all the powers of his soul, upon which two, followed horror of a just accusing conscience. Against these three he frames his supplications. Against the His remedy against them all three. first he seeks mercy to pardon and forgive his sin: Against the second he seeks grace to renew him, and that God would create a clean heart within him. Against the third he seeks to be restored to the joy of God's salvation. But as this is the last and The way of a penitent sinner is: greatest petition that a sinner can seek to be comforted with the joys of God, so are we to remember, that in this petition we cannot prevail, except some other go before it, there then is the order to be observed by a penitent sinner, let us first fall down at his feet, and mourn: ploremus coram domino qui fecit nos, ea quae fecimus Bez. in Cant. ser. 3. nos, let us therefore continue a long time lamenting our manifold sins, and taking a view if possibly we may, of every one of them, that as by committing them we contracted guiltiness, so by mourning particularly for them, we may enfeeble their testimony against us. Then let us look up out From mourning at God's feet to go up to the kisses of his mouth. of the assurance of faith, and require the helping hand of the Lord to raise us up, these two being rightly done we shall find him like that merciful father, embracing the forlorn son in his arms and kissing him, from his feet we go to his hands, from his hands to the kisses of his mouth, such as fall not down to mourn at his feet, how can his helping hand raise them up, or the kisses of his mouth comfort them? See here what a deceiver, and Satan in tempting makes fair offers but indeed is a robber. supplanter Satan is, in temptation he seems to be a giver, for he makes great offers to men, if they will obey him, but in very deed he is but a robber, and so shall every man find him, when they are delivered from the deceit of sin, and get their ears opened, they shall see, that Satan by alluring them to sin, hath taken excellent things from them, for which they have need to pray earnestly unto God, as David here doth, that he would restore them. Let us not therefore hearken to him when he flattereth us the fairest. Where God gets love and obedience from man, there man gets comfort in his God, but Satan like a subtle divider doth what he can to deprive God of that obedience which his creature should give him, that so he may deprive the creature of that joy and comfort, which otherwise he might have in his God. And again we see how there No joy can comfort man's soul but the joy of God's salvation. is no joy can content David, but the joy of God's salvation, he was a King, & wanted none of these earthly comforts wherein worldly men rejoice, but none of them can comfort the heart of David, it is the joy which arises to the conscience from the feeling of God his salvation that he craves, & indeed what other joy can there be, albeit the Lord would give us all things that he hath made, unless we feel himself our father, and Saviour in Christ, what can they help us, it is true of them all, which job in his trouble spoke of his friends, Miserable comforters are ye, and yet many such miserable men are there in the world, who know no joy, but that which arises of meat, and drink, silver and gold, and such like things, this is but a brutish joy, for even the beasts have their own delight, when such objects are presented to them, as are agreeable to their nature, and thou if thou knowest no other, in respect thou wast made for greater things, art more beastly than they. Three great graces seeks David in this petition. And establish me with thy free spirit: In this short petition many notable benefits, David seeketh from the Lord, for by this free spirit Vatablus understands Spiritum libertatis, qua proni & faciles reddimur ad faciendum quae Deus praecipit, that spirit of liberty, which inclines our hearts willingly to do, what the Lord commands according to that of our Saviour, john 8. Then shall ye be free if the son make you free: So than the benefit David here craved, is 1 That reason may command affection. that he may find reason commanding affection, as Basil expounds it, and that his carnal affections have no power to draw his heart toward external and unlawful objects, away from his God as they had done: for affections once let lose, are not easily bridled and restrained again, but after a furious and inordinate manner carries away the heart of man, suffocates light, captives reason, whereby they themselves should be ruled, and this David feeling in himself, prays against it, that the Lord would establish him with his free spirit. Secondly, he is called Ruah 2 That the sense of God's love may overcome the terror of his accusing conscience. Nedibah the spirit of liberty for an other effect which he works in our hearts, whereof the Apostle speaks Rom. 8. Ye have not received the spirit of bondage to fear again but the spirit of adoption, whereby ye cry abba father: This effect is to comfort our heart with the sense of God's fatherly love, David was trouble with terrors of mind which his guilty conscience had wakened, and now he craves the confirming spirit of God or as tremble. translates it, Spiritum ingenuitatis, thy kindly spirit, which in regeneration thou givest to thy own children, whereby I may know that I am one of them: Every sin impairs in our heart the testimony of the spirit of adoption witnessing God's love, and therefore David craves it might again be renewed unto him. Thirdly, the word Nadab signifies to be willingly moved 3 That a Princely mind may be given him according to bis calling. to give, therefore among the Hebrews their Princes were called Nedibim for their free munificence and liberality and out of this sense he seeks a new benefit David was not a private man, but a public and therefore crave so to be governed by the spirit of God, that he might be made answerable to his calling: For the pride of Nebuchadnezer the heart of a A admonition for men in authority. man was taken from him, & the heart of a beast given, & David having misruled himself, found his gift decayed, by which he should have ruled his people: And therefore now prays that as the Lord had called him to be a Prince of his people, he would not cast him away for his sins, but restore to him that measure of God's spirit, whereby he might do that work according to the excellency of his calling. Oh that all Kings and Rulers of people could ever remember this, what shall purchase them reverence of their subjects? is it not the image of God? what shall make them able to govern others? is it not the spirit of God governing themselves? This was Pharaoh his reason why he made choice of joseph, Where can we find so meet a man as this to rule, in whom the Spirit of God is. And therefore above all other men should they be most instant to pray, that God would establish their hearts by his spirit: making their affections servants to their reason, that so themselves being ruled by God, they may the better rule his people. Always we see, it is not a small thing, which David here seeketh from God, but he seeketh It is an honouring of God, when we seek great things from him. Savan. the greatest gifts that God giveth on earth to his children, Rem magnam a te peto domine, quia tu es Deus magnus Dominus, iniuriam tibi facit qui a te parva petit. O Lord, I seek great things from thee, because thou art a great God, they dishonour the Lord, who seek small things from him, and they are most welcome to him who seek greatest things from him; as is evident by salomon's petition: he offers himself to be our Father, his Son to be our Saviour, his Spirit to be our comforter, to confirm and establish our hearts. These are his most excellent gifts let us covet these. VERSE. 13. Then shall I teach thy way unto the wicked, and Sinners shall be converted to thee. HItherto we have With petitions David joins promises heard DAVID'S petitions; now follows promises, which are of two sorts, in the first, he promises to be a good instrument to convert others unto the Lord: in the next that he shall publish the praises of his God. There is a duty that goeth Before remission of sin goes repentance. before remission of sin, and that is a godly sorrow for sin, which causes repentance to salvation: for how shall the Lord remit the sin whereof man will not repent. And there is an other duty that follows it, and that is thankfulness to God, and a loving care of the salvation of others. Our Saviour collected well, that many sins were forgiven to that And after follows thankfulness. penitent woman that did wash his feet with her tears, because she loved him much. But alas, if it be considered how small is our love towards God, how little is our regard of the salvation of our brethren. It may be said of many in this age, they have but small, or no warrant, that there sins are forgiven them, who have so little, or no love toward God, and their brethren, for the argument holds sure, they cannot but love the Lord greatly, to whom great and many sins are pardoned and forgiven. Then: Mark his words, He is not meet to speak of peace and pardon to to others, who is under the power of his own sin. when will David teach others, when God hath delivered him from his sins? A man under the power and gultinesse of his own sin, is not meet to speak of peace and pardon unto others. Obmutescit facundia, si aegra sit conscientia. Eloquence is silent where, the conscience is sick and diseased. A pitiful Nicephor. lib. 5. cap. 32. proof whereof we have in Origen, who being compelled either to suffer the abusing of his body by an Ethiopian, or to sacrifice unto Idols, made choice of the last, and offered incense unto Idols, wherewith his conscience was so troubled, that afterward coming to jerusalem, and there being first requested, and then upon his refusal forced to teach, he went to the Pulpit, and read there these words of the 50. Psalm, What hast thou to do to take my ordinances in thy mouth, seeing thou hatest to be reform, when thou seest a thief, thou runnest with him, and art partaker with the adulterers. When he had so done, he closed the book, and because he found his mouth closed by the guilt of his conscience, he fell to weeping and mourning, whereby he provoked all the congregation to mourn with him, but was not able to teach any. whereof all preachers have A warning to Preachers. their warning, that with great care they should keep their conscience clean, if they would speak to the conscience of others: and if at any time they have hurt their conscience, without delay should they heal it by repentance Cum eradicantur ex cord peccata Bern. in ascens. dom. Ser. 1. exinde qui in Christum credunt, linguis loquuntur novis. Then do they, who believe in Christ, speak with new tongues, when old sins are rooted out of The talon of mercy we have received, because it is greatest should be most used to the edification of others their hearts. Again we see our duty craves, that when we have received mercy from God for ourselves, we should make vantage of it for the edification of others. Every talon received from God should be put to profit, but specially the talon of mercy, as it is greatest: so the Lord requires greater fruit of it, both for his own glory, and for the edification of our brethren. Seeing we are the vessels of mercy, should not the scent and sweet odour of mercy go from us to others. This duty Christ craved from Peter, and thou when thou art converted, confirm thy brethrens. And this duty, as David here promises, so we may read how he did perform it, Come unto me all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what God hath done to my soul. The propetie of a Christian Basil. is, fides per dilectionem efficax, faith working by love. How we are bound to have a care of the salvation of our brethren What aviles it to pretend faith toward God, where there is no love toward thy neighbour, and wherein can thy love be declared more than in this, to draw thy neighbour to the participation of that same merit, whereunto God hath called thee. By the Law a man was bound to bring home his neighbours wandering beast, if he had met with it before, how much more than to turn again his neighbour himself, when he wanders from the Lord his God? If two men walking on the way, should both fall into one pit, and the one being relieved out of it, should go his way and forget his neighbour, might it not justly be called a barbarous & inhuman cruelty. We have all fallen into one and the same mire of iniquity: sith the Lord hath put out his merciful hand to draw us out of this prison of sin, shall we refuse to put out our hand, to see if possibly we may draw up our brethren with us? Thy ways. He saith not, that Profane men not only commit sin, but teach the way of sin to others. he will teach sinners his ways; the ways of sin can be learned without a teacher: but he will teach them Gods ways. There are many profane men in the world, who think it not enough to commit sin with greediness, but will boast of their sins, when they have done them, teaching and alluring others to commit the like iniquity: these are but like unto These are like beasts. dogs, and other such brutish beasts, who when they have avoided their dung, turn about their face unto it, delighting in the scent thereof; and yet blinded man will glory in such a beastly quality. But what are these ways Some ways of God are unsearchable, these a man should not learn. Leuit. of God, which David saith he will teach? Some of God's ways are unsearchable: of these we should beware; neither to teach, nor learn that which God first hath not taught us. But there are other of his ways, which he hath manifested, as, the way of judgement, whereby he walks stubbornly against them that walk stubbornly against him going far from them that depart from him: and the way of mercy, wherein he shows himself upright Psal. 18. But the way of judgement and mercy we should both teach it to others, and learn it ourselves. with the upright man, & comes near unto them, who with a humble & contrite spirit draw near unto him. These are thy ways, O Lord, which I shall teach, saith David, when I shall learn them: I have learned the way of thy judgement: I have felt thou art terrible to sinners, and that it is a fearful thing to fall into thine hands; let me also feel thy sweet mercy, forgiving my sin; then shall I teach the way of thy mercy to sinners also, & shall let them know how gracious thou art, how ready to forgive, & what they must do, if they would be received into thy favour. All the ways of GOD are unknown to men by nature, The way of God's mercy naturally is unknown. but especially the way of his mercy. Nature could never have dreamt of that way of mercy, which God hath discovered: it surpasseth all light that is in nature; if God had not revealed it, man should never have known it. Experience may confirm this: for we see it is an easy thing to instruct a man in the knowledge of God's power, providence, justice, and all, but to bring a sinner to the knowledge and assurance of God's mercy, is a difficult thing. It is easy to preach judgement by the Law, not so to persuade mercy by the Gospel: this is the highest, and most difficult point of a Pastor's calling. And sinners shall be converted unto thee. Mark the words Conversion of a sinner is God's work. of David; I, saith he, shall teach, and they shall be converted. When the conversion of a sinner is ascribed to man, we must understand, he is not the worker, but the instrument of it. He shall not want his own recompense: For they who convert many to righteousness, shall shine like the stars in the Firmament. But the glory of the conversion is proper to the Lord: men may plant and water, but God gives the increase. Paul preached at Philippi, but God opened the heart of Lydia: Peter preached to Cornelius and his kinsmen, but the Holy Ghost brought down the unction, which made them Christians. Repentance is a work full of miracles. it makes the dead to rise, the blind to see, the dumb to speak; and who can work these but the Lord? Vera Sanitas Macar. hom, 44. Repentance a work full of miracles. à Domino solo proficiscitur, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. As one sheep cannot heal another, but their health cometh from their shepherd; so the true health of our souls cometh from the great Pastor and Shepherd of Israel, Qui Leones mansuefecit & igni vim adurendi ademit, etc. He that tamed the Lions, & restrained the fire from burning, he it is that must tame our wild affections, and moderate the fire of our desires. Let Preachers when they go to any such work, require the helping hand of the Lord to work with them: and let people answer, and pray with jeremy, Convert us Lord, and we shall be converted. As sin averts man from God, so it perverts him: repentance An unpenitent sinner is a perverse and monstrous creature, and how. by the contrary turns a man to God again, and rectifieth all that is in him. An unpenitent sinner is a perverted or monstrous creature: for in him, that part is undermost which should be above. The soul that came from heaven, cleaveth to the dust by his body which was made of the earth: he can look up to heaven but in regard of his soul: he is but earthly minded. Again, he hath his face where his back should be, and by the contrary, the world which should be behind him, is ever before him, & the price of the high calling of God: even the riches of that glorious inheritance, which should be before him, he casteth it behind his back, and hath no thought of it. And where a wise man hath always his heart at his right hand, Eccles. 10. That is set upon best and most necessary things: this fool by the contrary, hath his heart at his left hand, busy about vain & unprofitable things, neglecting that one thing, which only is needful. And lastly, he hath that without which should be within: for he should be more beautiful within then without. But the best sight ye will see in him, is that which is outmost: there▪ he looks like a painted sepulchre, but within is full of rottenness: So confused a creature, is miserable man in his sins; all is disordered in him, he is Tartarus, a little hell on earth, a terror to himself, a trouble unto others, ever vexed with restless and fruitless perturbations. But from this time, by the But by grace he is rectified and renewed. grace of repentance he converteth & turneth to the Lord his God, than a comfortable change and comely order is wrought in him, than the body becomes subject unto the soul, than the affections begin to follow reason, and order restored makes him a quiet and peaceable heart, by the which he gins his heaven upon earth. VERSE. 14. Deliver me from blood, O God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing joyfully of thy righteousness. IN the midst of David can not satisfy himself in seeking mercy for his sins. his promises we see how he interlaces a new petition for mercy, for still he found his conscience pressed with the greatness of his sin, and therefore so oft as he feels it, so oft calls he for mercy, sin is soon committed as I said, but the gilt, the terror and the secret accusing voice thereof not so easily discharged. And that now he descends A general confession of sin is not sufficient. in particular, it is to teach us, that a general confession of sin is not sufficient, we must come to a particular, for it may truly be said, that he hates no sin, who hates not one above the rest, the sin which hath wounded our conscience deepest will grieve us sorest, this is manifest in David, who having committed two abominable sins, Adultery and Murder, in his particular confession makes mention of the blood, not of the adultery, for as in griefs of the body the greater pain makes the less not to be felt, so is it in the grief of conscience, though there be a grief for all sin in the penitent, yet the grief for the greatest sin exceeds all the rest. How heavy a sin the shedding Shedding of innocent blood a fearful sin. of innocent blood is, may appear, if we consider these particulars. First it is a destroying of the image of God, which cannot be without a great contempt of the divine majesty. When Theodosius had resolved to slay many Citizens of Antiochia for casting down the image of his wife, the Empress 1 Because it is a demolishing of God's image. Placilla: It was a notable warning which a certain Macedonian sent to him: If thou be so moved for demolishing of the brazen image of Placilla, how shall God be offended at the destruction of man who is the lively image of God, the loss of the one may soon be repaired, but the loss of the other can never be recovered, a Brasen-image cast down may be set up again in the same or a better estate; let a man once be slain, and who can revive him? Secondly, if a man be considered 2 It puts out the life of man for whom Christ died, and so is injurious to Christ's death. as he is a Christian, he is a part of the price of Christ's blood, I am commanded not to offend my brother for whom Christ died in a matter of meat and drink, which otherwise is lawful, how then dare I slay him? Oh what a horrible crime is this to put out the life of that man, for whom Christ died, that he might purchase life unto him! 3 It makes a man more unnatural than beasts. Thirdly, the similitude of nature makes it a grievous sin for a man to destroy his own kind Every herb that grows out of the earth hath a seed or some other equivalent virtue, whereby it seeks the conservation of his own kind: and brute beasts forbear on another: only unnatural man destroys his kind, yea we read that Lions and Bears have Cent. 4. l. 1. c. 5. spared christians presented naked before them, but whom the beasts did spare, them man more beastly than unreasonable beasts did cruelly devour. And lastly, the fearful punishment of it declares, how 4 It is punished with fearful plagues. fearful a sin it is. As in the first plague of Egypt all the waters thereof were turned into blood, so is it with a murderer, all is turned in blood to him, at his table his meat is seasoned with the thought of it, in his resting bed he is troubled with the dreams of every one; whom he sees he deems to be a revenger of blood, and every noise which he hears, he fears as a messenger or forerunner of blood. This sin then being so In what security are they who think innocent blood no burden. grievous as it is, we may easily consider how it comes to pass, that profane men think nothing of it, the reason is here that their conscience is sleeping, and custom of sin hath taken away sense: so long as David's conscience was a sleep, he thought nothing of it, as appears by his letter of Vriah, let not this trouble thee, hereof it is that men sleeping in sin count shedding of innocent blood, some of them, but a pastime, and others to be a piety and religion. Of the first ethnics esteem it a pastime. sort were Ethniques, who used combats between men upon public theatres, that by the slaughter of some men, they might make sport unto others: Of these said Cyprian, Scelus Cyprian. epist. 2. Papists think it good religion. non tantum geritur, sed docetur. Of the other sorts are bloody Papists, who think it good service to God to murder and slay such, as are contrary minded to them in religion, to whom at this time I am content to speak with Erasmus, Non convenit ut hoc argumento nos Christianos Eras epist. ad volsium. declaremus, si quam plurimos occiderimus, sed si multos seruaverimus, alioqui citius futurum est, ut nos in Turcas degeneremus, quam Turcis in parts nostras pertrahamus, Et ut faeliciter cadat Martis semper ancipitis alea, fiet ut latius fortasse regnet pontifex aut huius cardanales, non ut latius regnet Christus. It is not a good argument to prove ourselves good Christians, because we have slain many, but rather that we have saved many: otherwise it shall sooner come to pass, that we shall degenerate into Turks, then turn Turks into Christians: And albeit the event of battle which is always doubtful should succeed as we would wish, it may well be that by blood shedding the kingdom of the Pope and his Cardinals be increased but the kingdom of Christ shall not by such means be enlarged. But howsoever to such A great mercy to be kept from shedding innocent blood. blind infidels the shedding of blood, be either pleasure or piety, yet to the godly whose conscience is wakened it is an abominable sin: how joyful was David when Abigail kept him from shedding of the blood of Nabal. How hearty did he thank God for keeping him from it. And when he had shed the blood of Vriah, how earnestly prays he that God would deliver him from it. When it was told Constantine, Proof hereof in David and Constantine. there was no way to cure his leprosy, but by bathing him in the blood of an infant, (upon what respect I know not not) it was a notable answer he gave, Malo semper aegrotare quam tali remedio convalescere. Let us flee the burden of innocent blood, and this prayer for pardoning mercy that David makes, let us turn it in a prayer for preventing mercy, Deliver us from blood, we are the sheep of Christ jesus, let us leave the shedding of blood to ravening wolves. Deliver me: No doubt David Sin hath first a commanding power after an accusing or controlling power. powered out these words from his sense and feeling: his speech imports a captivity, he was not a free man, but bound with the cords of his sins; the commanding power of it at this time he was freed from, though before it bond him: but he seeks to be delivered from the controlling, and accusing power thereof; this vexed him so that he thinks no shame publicly to ask God mercy for these sins, by which he had offended God, and given evil example to the Church: and men who have fallen with him in public sins, and yet cannot be induced to give glory to God, and remove offence from his people by as public repentance, do plainly declare that they were never touched with the conscience of their sin. In the primitive Church The manner of public repentance in the primitive Church. such as had given public offences, were not received without public repentance, and humiliation, yea they made supplication to all the assembly, Volo, veniam reus speret petat Ambr. de paeniten. li. 1. ca 16. cum lachymis, petat populi totius fletibus ut ignoscatur obsercret, & cum secundo vel tertio fuerit dilata eius communo, credat remissius se supplicasse. I will that he that is guilty hope for mercy, that he seeketh it with tears and mourning of the whole people: and if twice or thrice his receiving to the communoin be refused to him, let him think that he hath prayed more slackly than he should and so humble himself more entirely than he hath done. And again to the same purpose, he says, If thou hadst a do to satisfy a man whom How foolish are they who having committed public sins, refuse to make public repentance. thou hadst offended, how many wouldst thou request to sue for thee at his hands? Now seeing thou hast to seek reconciliation with God, why imploiest thou not the prayers of all his his people, Vbi nihil est quod pudori esse debeat, nisi non fateri cum omnes simus peccatores. For among us nothing should be a matter of shame, seeing we are all sinners, but not to confess our sins, Vbi ille laudabilior qui humilior, & iustior qui abiectior. Hear he is most worthy praise, who is most humble, and he is most just, who is most contrite, and dejected for sin. Fleat itaque pro te matter Ecclesia, let therefore thy mother the Church mourn for thee. But if men who have offended This is because they are not touched with the sense of sin. were touched with the sense of sin, as David was, they would not be ashamed as publicly to confess it and seek mercy as he did. For as I said, he found himself straited with his own sins. Infernus quidam animae rea est Conscientia, a guilty conscience is a hell to the soul and a sore prison, not like other prisons: for wheresoever the guilty man goes, he carries his prison with him, and this is the equity of God's judgements, who enwraps sinners in their sins, and binds them with the cords of their own transgressions, whereof they cannot complain. And this appeareth out of How sin binds and captives a man. his own words, when he says, Deliver me, His speech tells, he found himself captived. Two manner of ways doth sin straight, and bind any man; first, by the commanding power, of it, for than it oppresseth a man in such a sort, that he can neither eat, nor sleep, till he obey it. An example of which tyranny we have in Ammon, & many more. Next by the controlling or accusing power thereof, whereby in such sort sin committed, so straits a man, that it suffers him not to hear nor think of any other thing, but of her accusations only, whereby the soul of man is filled with restless fears, and horrible perturbations. Now at this time David was not troubled with the commanding power of sin, but only with the tormenting, & accusing power thereof; and from it here he prays the Lord to deliver him. From bloods: The word is plural, from bloods. Noting unto us, how David found every Innocent blood when it is shed falls not to the ground, but biaes on the head of him that shed it. drop of Vriah his blood a burden unto him. By the phrase of holy Scripture, the blood of him that is shed is said to lie upon his head that shed it. It seemeth unto men, that the blood of the man slain is spilled on the ground: but the spirit of God saith, that it lieth on the man slayer. A fearful thing: the blood which before was in the body of thy neighbour, to conserve his life, thou hast now taken it upon thy head, to procure thy death, and to cry unto God for a vengeance against thee. If this were considered, it might serve for an aweband to keep murderers from hasting as they do, to shed innocent blood. And albeit David was far Many ways may men be guilty of sin, albeit by their own hands they do it not. from Vriah, when he was slain; for the one was in jerusalem, the other in Rabbah of the Ammonites, yet the burden of that blood lieth heavy on him, because he was the man who counseled joab, how to slay him with the sworn of the Ammonites. Many ways have men, whereby to excuse themselves in their sin; specially, if they did not evil with their own hands, if they were far off, when the turn was done: but you see how little all these avail, where the conscience cannot excuse a man. O God of my salvation. So the godly style the Lord; not only Praise of our salvation properly belongs to God. because he is the author of the beginning, but of the progress also, and perfiting of our salvation: he not only gave life to our souls, when we were dead in sin, but he keeps our souls in life: we fall, and he raiseth us up: we wander, and he recalls us: we sin daily, and he forgiveth us. And it is for these renewing mercies, whereby the Lord every day saves us from a thousand deaths, in which otherwise we should perish; that we praise the Lord as the God of our salvation: giving him this glory with the Apostle, The Lord hath delivered us from so great a death, he doth deliver 2. Cor. 1. us: in whom also we trust, that yet hereafter he will deliver us. For the time passed he hath delivered, for the time present he doth deliver, and for the time to come he will deliver us: In all these respects we rejoice in him as in the God of our salvation. Again, he acknowledges Many great deliverances receive the godly but the greatest is deliverance from sin. that the deliverance of a man from his sins, is not a work of man's Power. No, it requires the powerful hand, and saving health of the mighty God of our salvation. Many great deliverances hath the Lord given to his anointed; he saved Noah from the deluge of waters, Let from burning in Sodom, he saved Israel in the Red sea, and jonas in the Whale's belly, he saved Daniel from the Lions, and Peter that he did not sink, when he walked in the water: but the deliverance of a man from the hands of Satan, and sin is a greater work than any of these, let us be thankful to our God for it. So shall I sing: a soul oppressed God hath fitted the exercises of his worship for our state. and borne down with the terrors of sin, cannot sing to the praise of God▪ a Christian in that estate, answers all that find fault with him, as the Israelites of old did the Caldees, How can Psal. 97. we sing a song of the Lord in a strange land? (and how can I says the Christian) sing joyfully, so long as the Comforter that should refresh my soul is away? But blessed be the Lord who in every state hath provided a remedy for us, that when we are not disposed for one exercise of God's worship, the Lord should licence us to go unto an other. Are we so afflicted jam. that we cannot sing, at least let us pray that we may be comforted? And in that he says he will In singing psalms our affection should be conformable to the word we sing. sing joyfully, it learns us how we should always conform our affections to the words which God puts either in our ears or in our mouths. If the word of the L. when we hear it or sing it, have a promise of mercy or a song of thanksgiving, should we not receive it and utter it with joy? and if on the other hand it contain a threatening, or a confession of sin, should we not hear it with grief and contrition: this is it which is taught us in that parable, if the Lord Pipe we should dance, if he mourn we should sorrow, And as his word is, so should we conform our affections. But this discovers the Atheism of this age, whether they hear the word or read it: no change of the Scripture changes their heart: one Chapter or Psalm makes them not to rejoice, and another to be sorrowful, because they hear all, they sing all after one manner, that is, for fashion sake, without any sense or feeling. Of thy righteousness. But A twofold righteousness in God worthy praises. how is this that God's righteousness is the matter of our thanksegiving? Are not his righteous judgements fearful and terrible to sinners? But we must know the sorts of God's righteousness: there is one whereby he punisheth the wicked and impenitent, another whereby he pardoneth the believing penitent. And of this spoke Abraham: God forbidden that the judge of all the world should do unrighteously; He meant in condemning godly Lot with the ungodly Sodomites. And this is greatly for our comfort, that the Lord when he pardoneth our sins, he is a righteous God, both because he hath so promised, as also that our sins are already punished in Christ jesus: so that the mercy which we get doth no way violate his righteousness. And we whom he hath received into mercy, are in such sort to praise him for his mercy, that we may also sing joyfully of his righteousness. VERSE. 15. Open thou my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. THis Verse containeth a new petition, The tongue to speak, a great benefit of God. wherein he craves that God would open his tongue, which his sins had closed, that he might praise God, as he was wont to do. The natural use of the tongue is God's great benefit, yea, and a miraculous work, that a member of flesh should be an interpreter of a heavenvly mind, and as it were, a Trenchman, whereby the spirit of one man knows what is the meaning of another. But as Consuetude draws Gods most excellent works in Disesteemd now, because it is common. contempt: so among the rest this is thought nothing, to speak with a tongue only, because it is common; yet Gods children acknowledge it to be God's benefit, and the Lord glories in it as in his own work. When Moses complained that he was not meet to be the Lords Ambassador, because he was not eloquent, but slow of speech, he received this answer, Who hath given the mouth to man, or who hath made the Exod. dumb or the deaf, or him that seethe, or the blind? Is it not I, the Lord? When he will he makes the dumb to speak, and the eloquent to be silent: Out of the mouths of babes hath he ordained Psal. strength: he openeth the mouths of children to confess his name, & closes the mouths of ancient men, as we see in Zachary, and all to teach that the benefit of the tongue is from the Lord. This benefit sin took away from man that now naturally, Sin takes away the use of the tongue, that man cannot speak as be he should. when he opens his mouth and moves his tongue, he speaks to the offence and dishonour of God who made him: the benefit to speak he hath it given of God, but abuseth it so through the corruption of his nature, that he speaks not as he should like unto a man sick of the palsy, who by natural strength moves his hand; but through his corrupt humours moves it inordinately, and as this way the It had been good for many men that they could never have spoken. moving of the hand is a pain to the one, so is the moving of the tongue without order both a sin and punishment to the other. Of these it may be said that Satan opens their mouths, and not God, and good had it been for them to have been stricken with natural dumbness all their days, for so should their sins have been the fewer, and their punishment the less. And this is the loss, of the The manifold evil effects of sin. tongue, whereof now David complains, and which he craveth to be redressed. Where we have to mark, how many fearful evils his sin had brought upon him: it had stolen away his heart, perverted his spirit, stopped his ears, and closed his mouth, that he could not think, nor will, nor hear, nor speak as he was wont to do; therefore prays he against all these in several petitions, that God would create a clean heart in him, renew a right spirit in him: that God would make him hear joy & gladness, and open his mouth to speak again the praises of God. Such are the miserable effects Sin takes away sense of misery, duty and all. Eph. 4. of sin: it takes from man all senses both inward and outward, and leaves him without feeling; so that he is no more moved when he doth evil, then if it were good, yea, not touched with fear of the judgement due to sin: but as Lot's kinsmen made a mock of God's judgements, when they heard it, so do they make a mock of sin, & of all that may follow it; but one day they shall feel the bitter fruits thereof. Men in their sins are like unto fools or young children: when their parents or friends perish they mourn not, for they know not the loss, and they care not to exchange the charters of their inheritance with trifles, but when they come to the years of discretion, and feel the loss, than they mourn, and lament for that which in their ignorance they little regarded. It is even so with men, who as long as their sin blinds them, cannot mourn, but when God shall waken them, and they see the evil of it, than they take up a bitter lamentation for it, and can get no rest night nor day, till God of his mercy pardon and forgive it. Again ye see, that if we be They who can not speakc to the prize of God are stricken with a sore plague. governed by the spirit of God, we will account that we are stricken with dumbness, when we cannot speak to the praise of God. Many are such in this age, who have a tongue for every purpose, but none for the praises of God, they are stricken with a sore plague, and yet they feel it not, their heart is bound by Satan with the cords of their sins, and so their tongues cannot be loosed to glorify God: from this most miserable estate the Lord deliver us. VERSE. 16. For thou desirest no sacrifice though I would give it, thou delightest not in offerings. IN this verse David joy for God's mercy and sorrow for our own sins agree well in the godly. gives a reason, why he promised no other duty of thankfulness to the Lord, but to praise him, as he protested he would do in the former verse: the reason is, because the sacrifice in man or from man which God likes best, is the sacrifice of a contrite spirit. Then ye see, that David when he sacrificed praise, sacrificed also a contrite spirit, what is it to give thanks for God's mercies, if all the same time we be not sorrowful, that we should have offended so merciful a God? The thanks given by many is tastles to God, because when they are touched with some sense of that God hath done to them, they feel no remorse of that evil, they have done against him: happy is the soul wherein these two meet together; a joy for God's mercies toward us, and a sorrow for our sins against God. And again, ye see that if a What praise is acceptable to God. man praise God truly, he offers with praises himself, and all that he may do: My soul praise thou the Lord, and all that Psal. 103. is within me praise thou his holy name: As he shows in the subsequent verse; The sacrifices of God are a contrite spirit. Wherein he declares, that in thanksgiving to God, he offered a thankful heart for bee-gone mercies, a sorrowful heart for bee-gone sins, a resolute heart in time to come to amend: And this is the praise wherein God delights. But here arises a threefold A threefold doubt moved. doubt: first seeing the legal sacrifices commanded by God; how can it be said the Lord desires not that which he commanded? secondly, is not the Apostles precept To do good Heb. 13. and distribute forget not, for with such sacrifices God is pleased? And thirdly, are not we commanded to offer up our bodies a living Rom. 12. sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, how is it then that here David speaks that God desireth no sacrifice. To these it is answered, that The first is answered, David doth not simply reject legal sacrifices. David speaks not simply, but by way of compariso, these external sacrifices, if they be alone wanting the internal sacrifices of a contrite spirit, are not acceptable to God, and of this for the first doubt, we learn that if under the law external worship without the inward pleased not the Lord, far less will it now please him under the gospel: Cursed (said Malachi) is the man who hath a male in his flock, and vows an sacrifices a corrupt thing to the Lord: And this curse is now double upon them, who give not the best they have to the Lord, drawing near him with their lips, but far from him in their hearts. As to the second, external The second answered, alms and such sacrifices are accepted of God if they flow from faith. sacrifices of alms and such like now commanded, please the Lord out of all doubt, if they proceed from faith in Christ, offered out of a contrite spirit, not puffed up with conceit of merit, the humble heart makes a small gift to be great, an example whereof we have in the widows mite, it was a small thing but because it proceeded from a great affection, Christ accounted it the greatest gift was offered that day: And the want of a good heart on the contrary makes a great gift to be small, an example whereof we have in Cain his sacrifice, in itself rich enough, but because it proceeded from a poor affection, it was not acceptable to God: Ten thousand rivers of oil, and all the beasts on thousand mountains, yea in all the Forest of Lebanon are nothing to the Lord, if the heart be not rightly set that offers them. And as to the third, we are The third answered we are bound to offer our bodies but every offering of the body is not acceptable to God. bound to offer up our bodies unto him, but remember every offering of the body pleases him not, some of a blind zeal becomes the buriers of their own bodies, like Baal his Priests, Turkish Derbies and Popish Penitentiaries, cutting, lancing and renting their flesh; or else defrauding their bodies of that due, which they own unto him, prodigal of them in their blind zeal, not moderately subdueing them by discipline. If every such sacrifice had pleased God, the Apostle would not have said, though I feed the 1. Cor. 13. poor with all my goods, and though I give my body to be burned, if I have no love, it is nothing: we must first see, that the heart be sacrificed to the Lord, and then the body in the reasonable service thereof, for no unreasonable suduing of the body pleases God. But what shall be said of many Atheists convinced who do not so much as offer external sacrifice to the Lord. profane Atheists, who now do not offer so much as external sactifices? they will not resort to the assemblies of God's saints, to give God in his house external prayer and praises: neither offer they to the poor external alms, nor to God the external service of their bodies, they bow not the knee, they lift not their hand, they use not the members of their body as weapons of righteousness, and how then shall we think they make conscience of God's internal worship. But now to the words in particular. VERSE. 17. The sacrifices of God are a contrite spirit: a contrite and a broken heart, o God, thou wilt not despise. WE first learn that Some offer to the Lord that which is theirs, but not themselves. Savan. if any man would offer a sacrifice convenient for the Lord, let him prepare the spirit and the mind, God himself is a spirit, and will be worshipped in spirit, he loveth truth in the inward affection, Corpora fecit propter spiritus, ideoque etiam spiritualia non corporea quaerit: he made also the bodies for the spirits, and therefore seeks he not bodily without spiritual service. Some there are qui sua daunt, non seipsos, who offer to him not themselves, but that which is theirs, but it is a blind folly to think thou canst please him with gifts, when thou wilt not give the service of thine heart, and spirit unto him. But lest we should think Contrition of spirit many ways▪ expressed in scripture. that every spirit is acceptable to God: he adds this epithet, That a Contrite spirit is God's sacrifice, or as after he calls it a broken heart▪ it is called by joel a rend heart, by Esay it is compared to a bruised reed, and it is also called a pricking of the heart and a melting heart: such as was in josiah. All which imports none other but that inward unfeigned sorrow which is in a penitent soul, for offences done against God. Then were beasts under the As beasts in the Law were 1. bound, 2. slain, 3. sacrificed, so must our spirits be. law said to be sacrificed to the Lord, when they were taken from common & profane uses, bound with cords to the horns of the Altar, afterward slain & offered by fire unto God. And so is it to be done with our affections, if we mind to sacrifice them to the Lord, we must first separate them from their wont wander, we must bind them with the cords of God's word, and lay them down at the feet of Christ as his captives, by godly sorrow: we must slay that sinful pleasure which was the former life of our affection, and then become they sacrifices unto God. But here the difference is But in these sacrifices beasts offered lost their lives, here men sacrificed recover their lives. great: for beasts sacrificed under the law lost their lives, and became dead creatures, that they might be sacrificed. But we, when we are sacrificed, of dead creatures are made living: we being dead in sins and trespasses, then begin to live when sin is slain, and sinful lusts mortified in us. Oh that we could remember this, that the strife between us and sin, is here, Who shall slay other: if sin live, we must die: if we slay it, we shall live: except we bind our affections, and deliver them captives to Christ, they shall bind us, and deliver us captives to Satan. And that yet better we may know the quality and valour Three things concur to a contrite spirit. of a contrite spirit, let us consider these things in it: first, an inward sorrow for sin, which causeth repentance to salvation, 1 An inward sorrow. not to be repent of. Sin is contracted with carnal pleasure, but is dissolved with spiritual displeasure: even as the cause of sickness is removed by medicine, which is contrary to it. And this godly dolour is not only profitable to cure sins past, but also to prevent them in time to come. Cum dolemus admissa, admittenda excludimus, Amb. lib. 2. the paeniten. cap. 10. & fit quaedam de condemnatione culpae, disciplina innocentiae: for when we mourn for sins done, we close the door upon sins to be done, and the damning of our former faults, becomes a discipline, whereby we are instructed to amend in time to come. Secondly, in a contrite spirit there is a great sincerity: it is 2 Sincerity without dissimulation. that blessed spirit, wherein there is no guile; no covering nor dissembling of sin: for as in a thing which is brayed & stamped, the very inward parts of it are made manifest, and that which before was with a skin or shell, is now presented to the eye of man: so is it in a soul truly humbled: these sins which were secret & covered, the contrite spirit casts them out, and makes them open to God & man, fearing no shame in the eyes of man, if so be it may find mercy in the eyes of God. And therefore said Augustine of contrition, that it was Sanitas animarum, holocaustum medullarum, a health of the soul, and an offering to God, not of any outward matter, but of the inward marrow. And thirdly, this true contrition is never without faith, 3 True faith with an earnest desire of mercy. which causeth such a vehement desire of mercy, as maketh the soul of man to long, to wait, to faint, to cry, to hunger, to thirst for God's consolation: the delay whereof makes the soul of the creature pine away with inward grief, and he becomes like that book, wherein Ezechiel saw written, lamentations Aug. Ezech. 11. and woe: for still he cries, Woe is me, always till the comforter come, and assure him that his sins are forgiven him. Now this being spoken of A contrite spirit called sacrifices in the plural and why. the contrite spirit, we are to see, why he calls it sacrifices in the plural number, the reasons hereof are two, first because this is more worth in God's eyes then all the legal sacrifices, though they were joined in one, this one excelleth them all, & next because in the contrite spirit are many sacrifices, for it strikes the life of every sinful affection, and so sacrifices many beasts to the Lord: Nam si Gregor. Moral. vis compunctionis in intimis afficit, omnis strepitus pravae suggetionis obinutescit, for if once the sting of godly compunction touch the heart, incontinent the whispering of wicked suggestion is silenced. Under the law such as we Nobles and Princes offered As Princes under the law multiplied external sacrifices: so now powerful Christians are discerned by manifold internal oblations. 2. Chro. 7. great oblations, which far exceeded the offerings of the poor. We read at one time Solomon offered many thousand sacrifices, the common people contenting themselves with the offering of Pigeons and such like more simple sacrifices: But now Princes among God's people in God's estimation are they, who sacrifice most of their sinful affections unto him. If the Lord should send us to the bosom of the earth, to the deep bottom of the sea, to the uttermost ends of the world, to seek a sacrifice for him, we might most justly be astonished, and specially the poorer sort, whose means may not extend to the furniture of so great a sacrifice, but now O man, since They are inexcusable who sacrifice not to God, seeing that which be craves is within them. the Lord requires no thing, but that which is within thee, or at least may be and should be, if thou have not to offer him a contrite spirit, a sorrowful heart for sin; is not all excuse taken away from thee? God hath proclaimed to men, what is the sacrifice that pleaseth him, and if any man offer it not unto him, it is not because he may not, but because he will not: for in this sacrifice the poor may excel the most rich and honourable men in the world. A contrite spirit is called God's sacrifice, because he is the giver of it. And yet further, that he calls the contrite spirit the sacrifices of God, imports that he is the giver of this grace: he powers upon his people the spirit of grace and compassion, which causes them to mourn: he takes away the stony heart and gives them a heart of flesh. Even as he provided a sacrifice for Abraham, when he called him to worship on Mount Moriah, so doth he not only honour his children to be worshippers of his majesty, but also gives us grace, whereby we do it: that such worms as we are have place to stand before so great a majesty as he is, it is of his favour: that we have hearts disposed to pray to him or praise him, is of his grace: and that he answers us, is of his own unspeakable mercy. And in these respects is the sacrifice we offer called God's sacrifice. He is not like unto other Earthly kings love mirthbetter then mourning, the Lord doth not so. Kings, for commonly they love mirth better than mourning, joseph mourning for jacob his father, might not come before Pharaoh: Nehemiah with his sad countenance was afraid to stand before Artarxerxes: Mordecai with his mourning weed, entered not the courts of Ahasuerus, but we are most welcome to the Lord, when we come with our mourning weeds: Achabs sackcloth profited him something, but jezabel, her attiring and painting of her face availed nothing, she was cast to the dunghill, as a portion for dogs: Our face is never so pleasant, as when it is watered with the tears of a penitent heart. My Dove that mourneth Cant. in the clefts of the rock, let me see thy face. Now in this that we have spoken concerning the sacrifices The great sacrifice of Christians which makes all other acceptable, is Christ. of God, let us remember, that there is one great & principal sacrifice, which for the valour of itself is acceptable to God, that is the sacrifice of Christ once for all offered upon the cross, all other only in this and for this are acceptable to him. Thou wilt never despise. What The end of godly mourning is joy. Macar. hom. 15. fruit ariseth of a mourning heart for sin he now subjoins, the Lord never despiseth it, at no time, in no person. It renders comfort not only for the time to come, but also for the time present, ipsaelachrymae sunt vice delitiarum, for even tears are in steed of delights, and Gods children find more solid joy in their present mourning, than worldlings can in their mirth and greatest rejoicings. And as for the time to come, we know that our mourning will be turned into joy, and all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes, sicut post vehementes Chrys. in Math. hom. 6. imbres aer purus efficitur, ita lachrymarum plwias serenitas mentis sequitur. For as after the showers of rain the air is clearer, so after the tears of repentance, the mind becomes calm, perturbations cease, and the soul is pacified. Contrition of spirit an excellent grace and we should delight in it. Since a contrite spirit is so excellent a grace, as brings comfort presently, and much more for the time to come, for they that sow in tears shall reap in joy: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. What a folly is it that we cannot mourn, how shall the Lord gather our tears, which we scatter not? or how shall he wipe those tears from our eyes, which we never shed? or shall he comfort us that mourn not? No sacrifice is more acceptable to him, none more pleasing to him, none more profitable for ourselves: and why then are we not careful to be more abundant in it? Nemo potest, & in hac vita & in Aug. futura gaudere: Necesse est unam amittat, qui alteram vult possidere: No man can have pleasure here, & hereafter also. He that receives his consolation here, let him look for desolation hereafter, that answer given to on, serves for all the wicked, In thy life time thou receivedst pleasures, Esa. 65. 13. and Lazarus pains: now therefore is he comforted, and thou tormented: And again, My servants shall eat and ye shall be hungry, my servants shall drink and ye shall be thirsty, my servants shall rejoice, and ye shall be ashamed, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, and ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of mind, God make us wise, that we may make choice of the best, to mourn now with God's servants, and hereafter also be comforted with them. VERSE. 18. Be favourable unto Zion for thy good pleasure, build up the walls of jerusalem. NOw follows the The second part of the Psalm, containing a prayer for the Church. second part of the Psal. wherein he prays for the Church of God, after that he hath prayed for himself. His order is very good; to have done the second, and neglected the first had been unprofitable: for with what success canst thou pray for others, who art not reconciled with God, thyself? And again if he had contented him with the first, and neglected the second, he had been undutiful. For all they who are lively The gody prefer the welfare of the Church to their own private 〈◊〉. members of the Church, prefer the good of the whole body, unto their own particular welfare; as we see in good Nehemiah: all his honour and preferment in the Court of Artahshast, was not so pleasant unto him, as the desolation of jerusalem was grievous. The wicked by the contrary, like Tobiah and Sanhallat, with the rest of these Samaritans, are grieved, when they hear that jerusalems' walls are a building: and miserable Haman made a plain confession, that all his honour, whereunto he was advanced, did him not so much good as the welfare of Mordecai, and of the people of the jews, did him evil. Woe be unto all them that are of such a disposition; not only strangers, but enemies to Israel's Commonwealth, they shall never rejoice with the joy of God's children: but we will pray for jerusalem, That prosperity may be within her walls, & peace within her Palaces. David had hurt his people, Repentance teacheth us to repair wrongs we have done. not only by giving them an evil example, & by wakening Gods wrath against them; but by delivering a number of them to the sword of the Ammonites for Vriah his sake: and now he benefits them by his prayer. This true repentance will teach us, first, to restore the Lord to his glory, and then to repair the wrong we have done to any man, so far as we may. Again, we have to mark An example of happy love between a good King and his people. David his father love to his people: he had hurt them twice, once now by his adultery and murder, and after by numbering the people, for the which God diminished their number by pestilence. And both the times his heart was sore grieved for them, as he declares by his prayer, that both here and there he makes for them: It is I (said he) that have sinned, and committed the evil, but these poor sheep, what have they done? O Lord God, let thine hand be on me, and on my father's house, and not on thy people for their destruction. What a love is here! he wisheth himself to be stricken, that his people may be spared: and they again repaid him with the like loving affection, for when he would have gone out to battle against Absalon, they would not let him hazard himself: Thou art (said they) more worth than ten thousand of us. A happy harmony, where a King with tender affection embraceth his people as his own children, and they again esteem and reverence him as their father. For thy good pleasure. He neither The Church is preserved by God's mercy, not their merit. pretends his merits, nor his people's innocency, but appeals to God's mercy: the good pleasure of his own will moved him to choose a Church, and it is the same that moves him to conserve it. Even when the sins of his people procure that he should destroy it, if there were no more to preserve the Church, but her own deservings, or the favour, fidelity, and constancy of Kings, protectors thereof, it could not continue long; but God is the builder of jerusalem, his favour is the wall thereof, and therefore is it, that neither the sins of them who are within, nor malice of them who are without it can overcome it. Build up the wales. He prays jerusalems' material walls were four. both for the material and spiritual walls of jerusalem. In regard of material walls, jerusalem was a strong City, of four quarters, every one of them by walls divided from another. The first & highest was mount Zion, in it was the City of David, called by josephus the superior city, exceeding strong in regard of the natural situation thereof: the second was called the daughter of Zion, because it seemed to come out, as it were, of the bosom of the other, in this was the mount Moriah, whereupon the Temple stood: this City was compassed with a strong wall wherein stood threescore of strong Towers. The third was beautified with many ample streets pleasant ports, and compassed with a wall, whereupon were fourteen Towers. The fourth was inhabited by all sorts of Artificers, compassed with the third wall which was twenty and five cubits high, and had in it fourscore and ten Towers strong, high and four cornered. And albeit in David's days external state of a city depends on God's blessing▪ Psal. 127. the city was not as yet brought to this perfection, but was rather in the building, yet David knew, except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it, and except the Lord keep the City, the keeper watches in vain, and that many flourishing Cities and strong Castles have been made desolate for the sins of them that dwell in them: and therefore fearing lest his sin had procured a curse in jerusalem, like the curse of jericho, he prays even for the external state thereof. But much more may we think he had regard to the spiritual jerusalems' spiritual walls. walls thereof, which his sin had demolished, and he prays God to repair again. The first, innermost, and strongest 1 God's protection. wall of jerusalem, is the Lords favourable protection: this is called by Zacharie a wall of fire compassing Jerusalem, which will burn and consume the enemies that invade it: the 2 Holiness and unity. secondary walls are holiness and unity, for an unholy people are naked, like the idolatrous Israelites, after their worshipping of the golden Calf, and this breach of holiness ever procures breach in unity among people, & makes a rapture in the wall, whereby the adversary may easily get vantage. Now David knew that by his sin he had procured to be deprived of God's favour, and that his sons and servants should rebel against him, as he had rebelled against the Lord his God: and therefore he craves that these evils may be removed, his filthy sin pardoned, the favourable protection of God continued, and unity between him and his people preserved▪ And this for jerusalems' wails. Whereof let us learn what No enemies can destroy the walls of jerusalem, only the sins of inhabitants. it is that makes the Church a prey to her enemies: what destroys the walls of jerusalem: No force, no multitude, no policy, nor engine of the enemy, only the sins of them who dwell within it. God make us wise to take this to heart, lest our sins make a breach in jerusalems' walls. VERSE. 19 Then shalt thou accept the sacrifices of righteousness, even the offering and oblation, then shall they offer Calves upon thine Altar. HIs petitions are An heart to offer praise and prayer to the Lord, is an argument of mercy. concluded with a promise of thanksgiving. When thou shalt be favourable to us, then shall we offer, and thou shalt accept. Multiplication then of sacrifices is an effect of God's favour, to have a heart rightly set to pray to the Lord, or praise him, is an argument of mercy. When God was angry with Israel, he sent upon them the Chaldeans, who took away the daily sacrifice; but it is an effect of a far more fearful wrath, when God delivers up men to the hardness of their own heart, suffering them so to be captived by Satan, that they can neither repent of their sins, nor pray for graces which they want, nor yet give thanks for benefits that they have received: where the heavens become brass, and send down no dew: what marvel the earth be like iron, and can render no fruit; but if the Lord look on us in mercy, as he did on Peter, then shall we mourn for our sins, and if he be favourable unto us, as here David prays, then shall we be willing sacrificers of praise, and thanks unto him. The order of his words If our persons be not first in favour with God, our actions cannot please him. makes this clear unto us. When thou shalt be favourable to us, then shalt thou accept our offerings. Except first our persons be in favour with God, our actions were they never so good in show, will not be acceptable to him. Examples hereof we have in Abel and Cain, God looked first to Abel, and then had respect to his sacrifice. Let us therefore above all things have a care that we may be in favour with our God, reconciled with him in Christ, otherwise all our prayers and oblations whatsoever, are but an abomination to the Lord. And last of all, we see here Thanksgiving an eternal duty we must discharge to the Lord. how the greatest and most enduring duty we own unto God for all his benefits, is thanksgiving, he is content the profit of them all be ours, he craves no more but praise. We want not matter for which we should praise him; only we want affection: and therefore have we to pray, that the Lord among all the rest of his great goodness, wherein he is daily abundant toward us, would also bless us with a thankful heart, that in this duty also we may abound toward the Lord our God. To whom be praise, glory, and honour for ever. Now unto the King Immortal, Everlasting, Invisible: Unto God only wise be honour and glory for ever. Amen. FINIS.