SERMON XLVIII.
0 Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chssten me in thy hot displeasure. GOD hnputes but one thing to David, but one sin; Urial the Hittite: nor that neither, but by way of exception, hot till he had first established an assurance, that David stood well with him. First he had said, Daid did that chich was 'i.qht is ¢he eyes of the Lord, aud turned hot aside fi'om anything, that he had commanded him all the days of his lire : here was rectitude, He dld that wh&h was rçqht in the eyes of the Lord; no obliquity, no departing into by-ways, upon eollateral respeets; here was integrity to God's service, no serving of God and mammon, He turned not.from anythi»g that God commanded him; and here -cas perpetuity, perseveranee, constancy, ail the days of li./è: and then, and not till then, God makes that one, and but that one exception, Excelot the marrer of Lrriah the Hittite. Vhen God was reeoneiled to him, he would hot so much as naine that sin, that had offended him. And herein is the merey of God, in the merits of Christ, a of merey, that as the sen retains no impression of the ships that pass if, (for navies make no path in the sea) so when we put out into the boundless sen of the blood of Christ Jesus, by which only we have reeoneiliation to God, there remains no record against us; for God hath caneelled that record which he kept, and that which Satau kept God hath nailed to the cross of his Son. That man whieh hath seen nm t the scaling of my pardon, and the seal of my reconciliation, at the saerament, many times sinee, will yet in his passion, or in his ill nature, or in his uneharitableness, objeet to me the sins of my youth; whereas God himself, if I have repented to-day, knows hot thc sins that I did yc»terday. God bath rased the record of my sin, in heaven it vffends hot him, it grieves net his saints nor angels there; and e bath rased the record in hell it advances not their interest in me there, nor their triumph over me. And yet here, the uncharib]e mau will know more, and sec more, and remember more, than my God, or his devil, rcmembe, or know or secs: he will sce a path in thc sea; he will sec my sin, when it drowned in the blovd of my Savionr. After the kins pardon, percance it will beal" an action, to ca]l man bv that infamous naine, which that crime, which is pardoned, did justly cast un him belote the pardon: after God's reconci]iation to David, would hot naine David's sin in the paicular. But yct tbr ail this, thouh God will braiding or reproachlng repented sins, when God hath so far expressed his love, as to bring that sinner to that repenmnce, and so to mercy, yet, that he may perfeet his o,m tare, he exercises that repentant sinner with such medicinal corrections, as nmy euable him to stand upright for the future. And to that purpose, was no man ever more exercised than David. David broke into another's family; he built upon another's ground; he planted in anothers seminary; and God broke into his family, his ground, his seminm T. hl no story, eau we find so much donleic affliction, such rapes, and incests, and murders, and rebellions, from their own children, as in David's story. Under the heavy weight and oppression of some of those, is David, by ail expositors, conceived to bave conceived, and uttered this Psalm. Some take it to bave been occasioned bv some of his temporal aictions; either ]ris persecution from Saul, or bodil" sickness in himself, of which traditionally the rabbins speak much, or Absalom's unnatural rebellion. Sonle others, with whom we find more rean to join, find more rean to interet it of a spiritual aiction that David, in the apprehension, and under the sense of the wrath and indignation of God, came to this vehement exclamation, or deprecation, 0 Lord rebu1"e me hot in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot di.léare. In which words we shall consider, first the person, npon whom David turned for his suceour, and then what succour he seeks at his hnnds. Firt his word, and then his end; first to whom, and then tbr what he supplieates. And in the first of these, the person, we shall make these three steps; first that he makes his first access to God only, 0 Lord rebuke me,wt; do hot thou, and though I will hot say, I ere hot, yet I ere tho less who do. And seeondly, tlmt it is to God by naine, hOt to any univeal God, in general notions; so natural men corne to God; but to God whom h« eonsiders in n pamicular naine, in prticular notions, and attfibutes, and manifestations of himself; a God whom he knows, by his tbrmer works donc upon him. And then, tiret naine in which he cornes to him here, is the naine of Jehovah; his radical, his thndamental, his primary, his essential naine, the naine of Beiny, Jehovah. For, he that deliberately, and considerately believes himself to have his very being tom God, believes eertainly that he bath his well-boi**g from him too; he that acknowledges, that it is by God's providence that hc breathos, believes that it is by his providence that he eats too. So his aeeess is to GI, and to Goal by naine, that is by paicular eonsiderations, and then, to God in the naine of Jd,ovah, to that God that hath donc ai1, tom his first bcginning, from his being. And in thooe the we shall determine our tiret part. First, in this first branch of this p«, David cornes to God, but without any confidence in himselt2 Here is et«s ad rotr«. sine Tutrono, Herc is the prisonor at the bar, and no counsel allowed him. He confesses indictments, faster than they tan be road: if he hear himself indicted, that he loe;ed tpon Bathsheba, that he lusted after Bthshda, he cries, Alas, I have dono tt, nd more; dishonoured her, md m'selt and out God; and more than that, I bave continued the act into habit; and more thon that, I h«ve drowned that si in blood, lest it should fise up to my sight; nd more than ail that, I Imve caused the naine of God to be blasphemed; and lest his Majesy, and his greatness should be a terror to me, I hve occasioned fhe euemy to undervalue him, and speak despitetflly of God himself. And when he hath eonfessed ail, all that he remembers, he must corne o his A6 occultis meis, Lord cleanse me'o» , secret sins; for there re sins, which we have laboured so long to hide from the wofld, tht t last, they are hiddeu from ourselves, from ont own memories, out own consciences. As much as David stands in
78 IRP, A.CHEn UION THE [SERo XLVIIIo ïear of this Judge, he must entreat this Judge, to remember his sins; remember them, O Lord, for else they will uot fMI iuto my pardon; but remember them in mercy, and hot in anger; for so they will hot ïall into my pardon neither. Vhatsoever the affliction then was, temporal, or spiritual, (we take it rather to be spiritual) David's recourse is presently to God. He doth hot, as his predecessor Saul did, when he was afflicted, send for one that was cunning upon the harp, to divert sorrow so . If his subjects rebel, he doth llOt say, Let them alone, let them go on, I shall bave the juster cause, by their rebellion, of confiscations upon their estates, of executions upon their persons, of revocations of their laws, and customs, and privileges, which they car D" themselves so high upon. If his son lift up his hand against him, he doth hot place his hope in that, that that occasion will eut off his son, and that then the people's hearts which were bent upon his son, will return to him again. David knew he could hot retire himself from God in his bedchamber; guards and ushers could not keep him out. He knew he could hot defend himself from God in his army; for the Lord of Hosts is Lord of his hosts. If he fled to sea, to hearen, to hell, he was sure fo meet God there; and there thou shalt meet him too, if thou fly from God, to the relief of outward comforts, of music, of mirth, of drink, of cordials, of comedies, of conversation. Not dmt such recreations are unlawful; the mind bath her physic as well as the body; but when thy sadness proceeds from a sense of thy sins, (which is God's key fo the door of mercy, put into thy hand,) it is a new, and a greater sin, fo go about fo overcome that holy sadness, with these profane diversions; fo fly ad consolatiatwMas cre«t«traIoE (as that elegant man Luther expresses if, according to his natural delight in that elegancy of diminutives, with which he abounds above all authors) fo the little and contemptible comforts of little and contemptible creatures. And as Luther uses the physic, Job useth the physician; Luther calls the comforts, miserable comforts; and Job cal|s them that miuister them, Oterosos cocsolatores, 3lis«rable comforters are!/o«« all. David could hot drown his adultery in blood; never think thou to drown thine in wine. The ministera I Sain. xvi. 14.
of God are sons of thunder, thoy are falls of waters, trampling of horses, and runnings of chariots; and if these voiees of theso ministera, cannot ovoreomo thy music, thy security, yet tho angeFs trumpet will; that 6'ur.qite qui dormitis, Arise ye that sleep in the dust, in the dust of the grave, is a treble that over-reaehes ail; that Ire maledicti, Go ye a¢¢ursed into hell fire, is a bass that drowns ail. There is no reeourae but to God, no relief but in God; and therefore David applied himself to the right method, fo make his first access to God. It is to God only, and to God by naine, and hot in general notions; for it implies a nearer, a ]note familiar, and more presential knowledge of God, a more cheerful acquaintance, and a more assiduous conversation with God, when we know how to call God by a naine, a Creator, a Redeemer, a Comforter, than when we consider him only as a diffused poxver, that spreads itself over all creatures; when we corne to him in affirmatives, and confessions, This thou hast done for me, than when we corne to him only in negatives, and say, That that is God, which is nothing else. God is corne nearer to us tlmn fo others, when we know his name. For though it be truly said in the school, that no naine can be given to God, Ejus essentiam adwquate reprcesentans, No one name can reach to the expressing of all that God is; and though Trismegistus do humbly, and modestly, and reverently say, /Von spero, It never fell into my thought, nor into my hope, that the maker and founder of all Majesty, could be circumscribed, or imprisoned by any one naine, though a naine compounded and complicated of many names, as the rabbins have ruade one name of God, of all his names in the Scriptures; though Jacob smed fo lmve been rebuked for askiny God's naine , when he wrestled with him; and so also the angel which was to do a miraculous work, a work appertaining ody to God to give a child to the barren, because he represented God, and had the person of God upon him, would hot permit Manoah to inquire after his naine, Because, as he says there, that naine was secret and wonde(fal'; and though God himself, to dignify and authorize that angel, which he ruade his commissioner, and the tutelar and national guide of his people, says of that angel, to that Gea. xxxii, 29. Juàges xiii.! 8.
people, Fear Mm, prvzve im wtfvr y ame is i Mm , and yet did hot tell thern, what that naine was; yet certainly, we cou|d not so rnuch as say, God cannot be narned, except we cou]d narne God by some naine; we could hot say, God bath no narne except Goal had a narne; for that very word, Goal, is his naine. God calls upon us often in the Scriptures, Tv cll vn Ms and in the Scriptures he bath manifested to us divers narnes, by which we may call upon him. Dost thou know what naine to call him by, when thou callest him to bear false xvitness, to aver a falsehood. Hath God a naine to swear by? Dost thou know what naine to call hirn by, whcn thou wouldst rnake him thy servant, thy instrument, thy executioner, to plaque others, upon thy bitter curses and imprecations. Hath God a narne to curse by. Canst thou wound his body, exhaust his bloo, tear off his flesh, break his bones, excruciate llis soul; and all this by his right name . Hath God a naine to blaspheme by. and hath God no naine to pray by. Is he such a stranger to thee . Dost thou know every fair house in thy way, as thou travellest, whose that is; and dost thou not know, in whose house thou standest now? Beloved, to kno,v God by name, and to eome to him by naine, is to consider his partieular blessings to thee; to eonsider him in his power, and how he hath protected thee there; and in his wisdom, and how he hath direeted thee there; and in his love, and how he bath affeeted thee there; and expressed ail, in partieular mercies. He is but a dark, but a narrow, a shallow, a lazy man in nature, that knows no more, but that there is a heaven, and an earth, and a sea; he that will be of use in this world, cornes to know the influences of the heavens, the virtue of the plants, and mines of the earth, the course and divisions of the sea. "fo the natural man, God gives geueral notions of himself; a God that spreads over ail as the heavens; a God that sustains all as the earth; a God that transports, and eommunicates all fo aH as the sea: but to the Christian church, God applies hirnself in more particular notions; as a Father, as a Son, as a Holy Ghost; and to every Christiau soul, as a Creator, a Redeemer, a Benefactor; that I ma)" say, This I was hOt born to, and yet this I » Exod. xxiii. 20.
have from my od tlfis a tent adverry soht to evict from me, but this I bave recovered by my God; sicness had enfeebled my body, but I bave con'alescence; calumny had defmed my reputation, ut I hve reçaration; malice in other e», or iraprovidence in myself, had ruined my fortune, but I have redinrelation fom my God. And then by the which are indecd but coynomina Dol, his sures, ames of distinction, names of the exeoeise of some paaicular ropeaies, and attributes of his, to corne to the foot of all to y very bein, that my present being in this world, nd my eternal being in the next, is ruade kno to me by his naine of Jehovah, which is his essential naine, to which David had recourse in this exinanition; when his a$iction had even annihilat, and brought him to nothing, he fled to Jehovah, the G of ail being, which is the foundation of ail his other attributes, and includes ail his other names, and is out,ext and last branch in this first pa. This name then of Jehovah, which is here translated Lord, is aeed by ail to be the greatest naine by which God hath d]ared and manifested himself to man. This is that naine whiclx the Jews falsely, but peremptorily, (for falsd,ood lires by perempt riness, and feeds and arms itself with perempriness) deny ever to have bn attributed to the Messiah, in the Scriptures. This is that name, in the virtue and use whereof, those calumniators of out Saviour's miroeles do say, That he did his miracles, aceording to a direction, and schedule, for the truc and right pronouncing of that name, which Solomon in his time had ruade, and Christ in his rime had round, and by whieh, say they, any other man might have donc those miracles, if he had had Sol mon's directions for the right sounding of this naine, Jehovah. This is that name, which out of n superstitious reverence the Jews always forbore und, or utter, but ever pronoune some other naine, either Adonai, or Elohim, in the place thereof, wheresver they found Jehovah. But now their rabbins 11 hot so mueh as write that naine, but still express it in four othoe letters. So that they date hot, hot only hot sod it, hot y it, but hot sec if. How this naine which we eall Jehovah, is truly m be sound, because in fl,at languae it is expressed in four consonants only,
38"2 Pa.Acazn uPos Hg [sza. XLVm. without vowds, is a pelexoe question; we may well bo content fo be iorant therein, sinee out Saviour Christ himself, in ail thoso ploees 'hich he eited out of the Old Testament, never sound it; he never id. dehovah. or the apostles after him, nor Origen, nor 2erome; ail persom very intelligent in tho pr pfiety of langage; they never sounded this naine 2ehovah. For though in St. 2eromds exposition un the 8th Psalm, wo End that word 2ehovah. in me editions which we have now, yet it is a elear case, that in the old copies it is hot so; in 2eroms mouth it was hot ; from 2eromds hand it came hot so. either doth it appear to me, that ever that naine 2ehovah w pnouneed, till late, in our htherç timo; for I think Petrus GaEatinus was the first that ever eaEed it . But howsoever this naine be to be sounded, that which falls in our eonsideration af this rime, is, that Dard in his resses fled presently to God, and to God by naine, that is, h eonsideration and eommemoration of his paiear blessin; and a God that had that naine, the naine 2ehovah, the namo of Essence and Being, which naine earried a confession, that ail our welbbeing, and the very first being itself, was, and was to be derived from him. Daxfid therefore cornes to God in omine totali; in nomine inte9rali; he considers God totally, entirely, altogether; hot altogether, that is, confuseoey; but altogether, that is, in sueh a name as comprehends all his attributes, ail his power upon the world, and ail his benefits upon him. The Geniles were hot able to consider (;od so; not so entirely, not altogether; but bke (od in pieces, and changed G into single money, and ruade a fraenta god of every power, and attribute in God, of eve blessing fm God, nay of every maledietion, and judent of God. A elap of thunder ruade a Jupiter, a tempest at sea ruade a 'eptune, an eahquake ruade a Pluto; fear came to be a g, and a rer came to be a god; everhing that they were in love th, or afraid of, came to be eanonized, and ruade a god amongst them. Dard eonsidered God as a centre, into whieh and from which ail lines flowed. 'either as the Gentiles did, nor as some ignorants of the Roman ehurch do, that there mmt be a stormy god, St. ichdas, and a play god, St. Roek and a sheeshearing god,
SEP,. XLVIII.] PE;ITE;TIAL and a swineerd od, a od for every pags, a od for every oeeuçation od forbid. Aeknowlee od to be the author of thy being: n easily trace im, by te branches, to ail tat belons to thy wellbeing. The Lord of Hosts, and the God of pee, the God of the mountains, and the God of the valleys, the God of noon, and of midnight, of all rimes, the God of East and West, of all places, the God of princes, and of subjects, of all persons, is all one and the same God; and that which we intend, when we y Jehovah, is all He. And therefore bath St. Bernard a pathetical and useful medibrion to this purpose: Everything in the world, says he, tan my, Creator et«s es tu, Lord thou hast ruade me; all things that bave lire, and growth, can say, Pastor meus es tu, Lord thou hast fed me, increased me; all men eau say, Redemptor metts es tu, Lord I was sold to death through original sin, by one Adam, and thou hast redeemed me by another; all that bave fallen by infirmity, and risen again by grace, can say,,S'«sceptor Lord I was fallen, but thou hast undertaken me, and dost sustain me; but he that cornes to God in the naine of Jehovah, he means all this, and all other thin, in this one petition, Let me lmve a being, and then I ara sale, for I Mm we lire, and more, and ave ot«r beiy. If we solicit God as the Lord of Hosts, that he woMd deliver us from out enemies, perchance he may see it fitter for us to be delivered to our enemies: if we solicit him as Proprietary of all the wodd, as the beasts upon a thousand mountains are his, as all the gold and silver in tbe earth is his, perchance he sees that poverty is titrer for us: if we solicit him for health, or long lire, he gives lire, but he kills too, he beals, but he wounds too; and we may be ignorant which of these, lire or death, sickness or health, is for out advantage. But solicit him as Jehovah, for being, that beilig which flows from his purpose, that-being which he knows fittest for us, and then we follow his own instructions, Fiat ob«ntas tt«a, Thy will be doue upon us, d wo are sale. Now that whidt Jehovah was to David, Jesus is to us. Man in general bath relation to God, m he is Jehovah, Being; wo bave relation to Christ, as he is Jesus, out salvation; salvation our being, Jesus is our Jehovah. And therefore as David dêlights himse]f ith that naine Jehovah, for he repeats it eiht or nine times in this one short Psahn, and though he ask things of a diverse nature at God's hands, though he surfer affiictions, of a diverse nature, from God's hands, yet still he retains that one name, he speaks fo God in no other naine in all this Psalm but in the naine of Jehovah: so in the New Testament, he who may be compared with David, because he was under great sins, and yet in great favour with God, St. Paul, he delights himself with that name of Jesus so much, as that St. Jerome says, Que sterflue diliyebat, extraordinarie nominarit, As he loved him excessively, so he named him superabundantly. It is the naine that cost God most, and therefore he loves it best; it cost him his lire to be a Jesus, a Saviour. The naine of Christ which is anointed, he had by office; he was anointed as King, as Priest, as Prophet. All those names which he had in Isaiah, The Counsellor, the lVonderful, the Prince of Peace «, and the naine of Jehovah itself, which the Jews deny ever fo be given to him, and is evidently given to him in that place, Christ had by nature; but his naine of Jesus, a Saviour, he had by purchase, and that purchase cost him his blood. And therefore, as Jacob preferred his name of IsraeV, belote his former name of Jacob, because he had that naine upon his wrestling with God, and it cost him lameness; so is the naine of Jesus so precious to him who bought it so dearly, that hot only every knee bows at the naine of Jesus here, but Jesus himself, and the whole Trinity, bow down towards us, to We us all those things which we ask in that naine. For even of a devout use of that very naine, do some of the fathers interpret that, Oleum effusum nomen tuum, That the naine of Jesus shouhl be spread as an ointment, breathed as perfume, diffused as a soul over all the petitions of out prayers; as theochurch concludes for the most part, all her collects so, Grant tMs 0 Lord, for onr Lord and,çariour Christ Jesu sa'e. And so much does St. Paul abound in the use of this naine, as that he repeats it thrice, in the superscription of one of his letter the title of one of his Epistles, his first to Timothy. And with the saine devotion, St. Augustiue says, even of the naine, JIeliu « Isaiah ix. 6. Gen. xxxii. _o8.
s.m xvm.] »EmrEr »SL.S. 385 » mii 0 es»e, çzm »w Je»u e»se, I were better bave no bein, than be without Jesus; le[us e» o ver«, ç««m vere vRa, I were better bave no lire, than any lire without him. For as David could find no beiug without Jehovah, a Christian finds no lire without Jesus. Doth these names imply that which is in this text, in out translation, te Lord, lo»ffs; to whom ouly, and entirely we appertain his we are. And therefore whether we take )omi«», to be do mnas, to threaten, to afflict us, or to be do mantts, to succour, and relieve us, (as some have pleased themselves with those obvious derivations) as David did still, we must make out recourse to him, from whom, as he is Jehovah, Being, our being, out well-being, out eternal being, out creation, preservation, and salvation is derived; all is from him. Now when he bath his access fo the Lord, to this Lord, the Lord that bath ail, and gives ail, and is ail, the first part of David's prayer, and all his prayer which falls into out text, is but deprecatory; he does but pray that God would forbear him. He pretends no error, he enterprises no reversing ofjudmlent; no; at first, he dares hOt sue for pardon; he only desires a reprieve, a respite of execution, and that hot absolutely neither; but he would hot be executed in hot blood; ne ir ira, ne in fi«rore, hOt in God's anger, not in his hot displeasure. First then, deprecari, is hOt refra.qari, to deprecate, is hot to contend against a judge, nor to defend one's self against an oftîcer, but it is only it the quality, and in the humility of a petitioner, and suppliant, to beg a forbearance. The martyrs in the primitive church would hot do that. NiMI de causa st«a deprecatt«r, qui it)il de conditione st«a miratur, says Tertullian; and in that he describes a patience of steel, and an invincible retaper. He means that the Christians in those rimes of persecution, did never entreat the judge for favour, because it,vas hOt strange to them, fo sec themselves, whose conversation was in heaven, despised, and contemned, and condemned upon earth: A"it)il miratur de conditione, They wondered hot at their misery, they thought it a part of their profession, a part of the Christian religion, to suffit, and therefore, AiMl delrecati de cat«sa, They never solicited the judge for favour. They had learned by experience of daily tribulation, the apostle's lesson, Thik it hOt strme, VOL. II. C when temptations and tribulations rail; that is, Make that your daily bread, and you shall nerer stars-e, use yourselves te surfering, at least te the expeetation, the eontemplation of suffering, aequaint yourselves with that, accustom yourselves te that belote it corne, and it will net be a stranger te you when it cornes. Tertullian's method may be right, and if may work that effeet in very great affietions; a man may be se used te them, as that he will net deseend te any low depreeation, or suit te be delirered of them. But David's affliction was spiritual; and howsoever, as a natural man, nay, as a devout and religious man, (for even in reetified men there are affections of a nfiddle nature, that partieipate of nature, and of graee too, and in which the Spirit of God moves, and natural affections nmve too; tbr nature aud graee de net se destroy one another, as that we should eonelude, he hath strong natural affections, therefore he hath no graee) David I ay, that might justly wonder af his own condition, and thiuk it strange, that he that put his trust se entirely in God, should se entirely be delivered over te such afflictions, nfight also justly depreeate, and boldly say, 2Vefacias, 0 Lord deal net thus with thy servant. Oto" Saviour Christ's Transeat calix, I.et this c yass fi.om me, was a deprecation in his own behalf; and his Pater dimitte illis, Father,.fbr.qive them, they know net what they de,,vas a deprecation in the behalf of his enemies; and se was Stcphen's, statttas illis, 0 Lord, lay net tltis Mn te their ckar.qe, a deprecation in the behalf of llis executioners. And these deprecations for others, for ourselves, are proposed for out imitation. But for Moses' JDele ne, Pardon this people, or blet my naine out of thy book, and for St. Paul's anathema, rather than his brethren should net be saved, let himself be condemned, for such dcprecations for others, as were upon the matter, imprecations upon themselves, those ma)" net well be drawn into consequence, or practice; for in Moses and St. Paul themselves, there was, if net an irregularity, and an inordinateness, at least an inconsideration, net te be imitated by us new, net te be excused in them then; but for the prayer that is merely deprecatory, though seine bave thought it less lawful than the postulatoryprayer: because when God la eome te the act of afficting us, he bath then revealed, and declared, nnd mnnfested s wll fo be su('h, nd inst the revealed and nçested wll oç od we mny hot py, yet because tons are hot peremptory, but wc haçe ever day to show cae, why that aiction shod be taken ofl and becauso ail his judgments are conditionzl, and the condition of every particular judgment is hOt alys revealed to us, and this is always revealed to us, llserationes us super omnia oera us, That his merey is above ail his judgnents, therefore ve may eomo to that depreeation, that God will make his hand lighter upon us, and his eor- ctions easier unto us. As the saints in heaven bave their Usyue quo, How long Lord, holy and true, betbre thou begin to exeeute judgment! So tho in on earth have their Usque quo, Ilow long Lord, before thou take off the execution of this judgment upon us For, out depr catory pmyers, aro not mandatory, they are hot directory, they appoint not Goal his ways, nor his times; but as our postulatory prayers are, they also e submitted to the will of God, and haro all in them, that ingredient, that herb oçgrace, which Christ put into his own prayer, that Ver«tameu, ]%t hot »,y cill, bu thy will be fitlled; and they bave that ingredient, whieh Christ put into our prayer, Fiat oluntas, Thy u'ill be done in eart hearen; in heaven there is no resisting of his will; yet in heaven there is z soliciting, a hastening, an accelerating of the judgment, aud the glory of the resurreetion so though we resist not his corrections here upon earth, we nmy humbly present to God, the sense which we bave of his displeasure; for this sense, and appr hension of his eorrections, is one of the principal reasons, vhy ho sends them; he eorrects us therefore, that we nfight be sensible of his eorrections thzt when we, being humbled under his hand, bave said with his prophet, I «ill bear the u.ratl of the Lord, because I hare sinned çqainst kim , he may be pleased to y to his eorreeting angel, as he did to his destroying angel, This enouyh, and so burn his rod now, as he put up his sword then. For though David do, well for himself, and weH for out example, deprecate the anger of God, expressed in those judgments, yet we see he spends but one verse of file Psalm that deprecation. In all thc test he leaves God whoy to his blih v. 9.
88 sCHV voN H [SS. XLVm. pleasure, how far he will extend, or aravate that judgment and he turns wholly upon the postulatory part, T)at God u'ould bave mercy «pon him, and save Mm, and delirer kis soul. And in that one verse, he does hOt deprecate all afflictions, all corrections. David knows what moves God to correct us; it is not only our illness that moves him; for he corrects us when we are hot ill in his sight, but ruade good by his pardon; but his goodness, as well as our illness, moves him to correct us; if he were hOt good, hot only good in himself, but good to us, he would let us alone, and never correct us. But, Ideo eos ui errant corripis, quia bonus et suaris es Domine, as the vu]gate reads that place', the Lord corrects us, not only as he is good, but as he is gentle; he were more cruel, more unmerciful, if he did ahvays show mercy; that David intends, when he says, Propitius fuisti, Thou wast a merciful God, because thou didst punish all their inventions. So then, our first work is to consider, that that in the prophet, is a promise, and bath the nature of a mercy, I will correct thee in measure°; where the promise does hOt fall only upon the measure, but upon the correction itself; and then, since this is a promise, a mercy, a part of our daily bread, we may pray as the same prophet directs us, 0 Lord correct me, but with judgment, hot in thine anger; where also the petition seems to rail, not only upon the measure, but upon the correction itself; and then, when I bave round some correction fit to be prayed for and afforded me by God upon my prayer, if that correction at any time grow heary, or wearisome mto me, I must relieve myself upon that consideration, l|'eter God bave smitten e, as he smote them that smote me , whether it be not another manner of execution, which God bath laid upon mine enemies, than that which he hath laid upon me, in having suffered them to be smitten with the spirit of sinful glory, and triumph in their sin, and my miser)', and with execration, and obdurateness, with impenitence, and insensibleness of their own case. Or at least, let me consider, as it is in the same place, Wlwther I be slain accordinff to tke slauffkter of them that eere slain by me; that is, e d. xfi. 1, o Jer. xxx.!!. n sL x. 24. s xxvii. 7.
SER. XLV[I[.J IENITENTI&L t'S,L,tS. 389 whether my opressio, my extotion, my prevarication bave ho broght oher men tomore misery, than God bath)'et broght me unto. And if we cosider this, as no dobt David did, and find that corectio is oe loaf o or dai|y bread, and find in or heaviest corectios, that Go bath been heavier upo or enemies, than upon us, and we heavier upon ohers, than God upon us too, we shall be cotent with any re«ke, and any ti»ement, sot be no in anyer, and in o diTleaure, which are the words that remain tobe considered. Now theso two phrases, A r9ui in furore, and corripi i ira, which we translate, To rebu]ce in a,ger, and to cka»ten in hot displeasure, are by some thought, to signify ono and the saine thing, that David intends the saine thing, and though in divers words, yet words of one and thc saine sigmifieation. But with reverence to those men, (for some of them arc men to whom much reverence is due) they do hOt well agree with one another, nor very constantly with themselves. St. Jerome says, Furor et ira maxime num sunt, That this anger, and hot displeasure, are merely, absolutely, entirely, one and the saine thing, and yet he says, that this anger is executed in this world, and this hot displeasure reserved for the world to corne. And this makes a great difference; no weight of God's whole hand here, can be so heavy, as any finger of his in hell; the highest exaltation of God's anger in this world, can bave no proportion to the least spark of that in hell; nor a furnace seven times' heat here, to the embers there. So also St. Augustine thinks, that these two words, to rebute, and to chasten, do hot differ at all; or if they do, that the latter is the lesser. But this is hot likely to be David's method, first to make a prayer for the greater, and that being granted, to make a second prayer for the lesser, included in that which was asked, and granted before. A later man in the Roman church*, allows the words to diflr, and the latter to be the heavier, but then he refers both to the next life; that to rebuke should be intended of purgatory, and of short continuance there, and to be chastened in ot dlsTleasure, should be intended of hell, and of everlasting condemnation there. And so David must make his first petitlon, Bebuke me hot in thine anyer, to this purpose, Let me pass at rny death immediately to heaven, without touching at any tire. and. his second petition, Ctasten me ot in thy hot displeasure to this purpose, If I must touch at any tire, let it be but purgatory, and not hell. But by the nature, and propriety, and the use of ail these words in the Scriptures, it appears, that the words are of a different signification, which St. Jerome it seems did hot think; and that the ]ast is the heaviest, which St. Augustine it seems did hot think; and thon, that they are tobe referred to this lire, which Ayguanus did hot think. For the words themselves, ail our three translations retain the two first words, to rebu'e and to chasen; neither tht which we call the Bishops" Bible, nor that which we call the Geneva Bble, and that which we may call the -ïy's, depart from those two flrst words. But thon for the other two, ayer and hot cHslMeaure, in them all three translations differ. The first calls them indiynation and disTl«aure, the second aner and wrath, and the last ayer and ot disp[easure. To begin with the first, to be rebul'ed was but to be chidden, but tobe chostened, was to be beaten; and yet David was heartily afraid of the first, of the least of them, when it was tobe donc in anger: thisword that is here to rebuke, Jocach, is for the most part, to repmve, fo convince bv way of argument, and disputation. So it is in Esay, Corne now, and ht us reaaon toyetlwr ', says God. The natural man is confident in his reason, in his phiIosophy; and ver God is content to join in that issue. If ho do hot make it al»pear, even to your reason, that ho is God, Choose wom ye will serte, as Joshua speaks; if ho do not make it appear, that ho is a good God, change him for anv other god that your reason can present fo be botter. In 5licah, the word bath somewhat more vehemence; The Lord latt a 9tarrei ayainst Ms yeop[e, and he wi[[ plead with 1-srael'. This is more than a disputation; itis a suit. God can maintain his possession other wavs; without suit; but ho will recover ris, by matter of record, openly, and in the face of the country; ho will put us to a shame, and to an acknowledgment, of having disloyally divested our allegiance. Yea, the word bath sometimes somewhat more sharlmess than this; for in the book of Proverbs, + Isa. i. 18. s Licah s'i. 2.
it cornes to correction, Tks Lord corr«teth Mm whom t)e loveth, even as tke fatker dott the child, in whom /te delighteth. Though it be a fatherly correction, yet it is a correction and that is more than the reasoning or disputing, more than the sueing or impleading. Now though all this, disputing, impleadiug, eorreeting, in St. Augustine's interpretation, atnount but to an instruction, and an amendment, yet says he of David, In h'a emendari wn erudiri non vu#, He is loath to fall into God's hands, loath to eome into God's fingers af all, when God is angry: he would hot be disputed withal, not impleaded, hot eorreeted, no, not instrueted, hot amended hy God in his angeï. The anger of God is ueh pedagogue, ueh a eateehism, sueh a way of teaehing, as the law was. Lex pwdayçqus; the law is a sehoolmaster, says the apostle; but litera occidit, the law is sueh a sehooltoaster, as brings hot a rod, but a sword. God's anger should instruct us, but if we use it not aright, it hardens us. And therefore, I(iss tke,S'on lest he be anyf , says David, and what is the danger if he be . that which follows, Lest ye perish i» te way: though his anger be one of his ways, yet if is such a way, as you may easily stumble in; and, as you wouhl certainly perish without that way, so you may easily perish in that way. For when a sinner considers himself to be under the anger of God, naturally he conceives such a horror, as purs him further off. As soon as Adam heard the voice of God, and in an accent of anger, or as he tuned it in his guilty conscience, to an accent of anger, (for as a malicious man will tutu a sermon to a satire, and a pane.yric to a libel, so a despairing soul will set God's comfortablest words, to a sad tune, and force a 'ce even in God's eu.qe, and find anger, and everlastiug anger in every access, in every action of God) when Adam heard God but walkin. in the garden, but the noise of his going, and approaching towards him, (for God had then said nothing to him, hot so much as called him) Adam fled ri'oto his presence and hid himself anaongst the trees. Vhen the guilty man was but spoken to, and spokcn to mildly, by the toaster of the marriage feast, Amice quomodo intrasti? _Friend ou" came you in. we see he was presently syeecMess, and being so, not able to speak, to come to any confession, any excuse, he fell further and further into displeasure, ti]l he was bound hand and foot, and cast irrecovembly away. For 'i reloente interro.qet, 9uis resloo:tdebit eil? If God surprise a conscience with a sudden question, if God deprehend a man in the act of his sin, and while he accornplishes and consummates that sin, say to his soul, Vhy dost thou this, upou which mine anger haugs. there God speaks to that sinner, but he confounds him with the question; it is hOt a leading interrogatory, it gives hiln no light to answer, till God's anger be out of his contemplation, he cannot so much as say Domine im atior, responde pro me , 0 Lord I ara oppressed, do thou answer for me; do thou say to thvself for me, 3/y slpirit s/tall:wt always stri:e u'itt man, because /te is but fteslt . If the Lord corne in anger, if he speak in anger, if he do but look in anger, a sinner perishes; .«lexit et dissolrit.qentes; He did but look, and he dislved, he melted the nations; he poured them out as water upon the dust, and he blew them away as dust into the sea, Te ererlastin nwutains rere broken, and tie ancient Mil« did bou "°. It is not then the disputing, not the impleading, hot the correcting, which this word Jacacl imports, that David declines, or deprecates here, but that anger, vhich might change the nature of all, and make all the physic poison, all that was intended for our mollifying, to ad'ance our obduration. For when there was no anger in the case, David is a forward scho]ar, to hearken to God's reasoning, and disputing, and a tractable client, and easy defendant, to answer to God's suit, and impleading, and an obsequious ptient, to take any physic at his hands, if there were no anger in the eup. re rene et cor meure, says David , he provokes God with all those emphatical words, Jud.oe me, pro:e ne, tr./me, examite me, and more, nre rezes, bring not only a cand]e to search, but even tire, to melt me; but upon what confidence ail this . For thy lot, in 9 kitdnêss is e-ter belote mixte e/es. If God's anger, and hot his loving kindness had been before his eyes, it had been a fearful apparition, and a dangerous issue to bave gone upon. So also he surrenders himseff entire]y to God Job ix. 12. Isa. x-xxviil. 14. » Ge_n. ri. 3. o ]=lab. iiL 6. Psal. xxvi. 1.
ll.lo gLV|||o] PENITENT|AL PSALM. 393 in another psalm, Try me 0 God, ad ]{ow my)«ar; ]»rote ne, and know ny tkouffhts, and consider, if there be any way of wickedness in ne. But how eoncludes he. And lead me in tke righ wayfor ever tt. As long as I bave God by the hand, and feel his loving tare of me, I ean adroit any weight of his hand; any furnace of his heating. Let God mould me, and then me|t me again, let God make me, and then break me again, as long as he establishes and maintains a rectified assurance in my soul, that at last he means to make me a vessel of honour, to his glory, howsoever he rebuke or ehastise me, yet he will hOt rebuke me in anyer, much less cha,ten me i hot di«)pl«a,ure, which is the last, and the heaviest thing, that Da'id deprecates in this prayer. Both these words, whieh we translate to cka,ten, and ko ài,- oleasure, are words of a hea'y, and of a vehement signif]eation. They extend both to express the eternity of God's indigmation, even to the binding of the soul and body in eternal chains of darkness. For the first, Ja«ar, signifies oftentimes in the Scripturcs, incire, to bind, often with ropes, often with chains; to fetter or manacle, or pinion men, that are tobe exeeuted; so that it imports a slavery, a bondage all the way, and a destruction at last. And so the word is used by Rehoboam, 31y.tàther chasti,ed you u'ith whips, but I will chati,e you with scorpions . And then, the other word, Camath, doth no only ignify hot dL, Tleasure, but that eflèet of God's kot diopleasure, whieh is intended by the prophet Esay, Tkerefore h«th he poured forth his tierce wrath, and tke,trea.qth of battle, and that set him on tire round about, and he knew it ot, and it burnt him tp, and he conddered if hot '. These be tl fearful conditions of God's hot displeasm'e, tobe in a furnaee, and hOt to feel it; to be in a habit of sin, and not know what leads us into temptation; tobe burnt to ashes, and so hot only without all moisture, all holy tears, but, as ashes, without any possibility, that any good thing can grov in us. And yet this word, camath, bath a heavier signification than this; for it signifies poison itself, destruction itself, for soit is twice taken in one verse, Thelr Toison is lie the lwison of a serTent'; so that this ot dileasure, t Psal. cxxxix. 23. 1 Kings xii. 11. Esay xii. uit. ' Psal. t.viii. 4.
is that poison of the soul, obduration here, and that extension of this obduration, a final impenitence in this lire, and an infinite impenitibleness in the next, to die without any actual penitence here, and lire without all possibility of future penitence for ever hereafter. David therefore foresees, that if God rebul'e in an.qer, it will cone to a chastenil«.q in hot displealre. For what should stop him. For, if a man sin a.qainst tire Lord, who will plead for Mm? says Eli '; Plead thou my cause, says David; it is only the Lord, that can be of counscl with bim, and plead for him; and that Lord, is both the judge, and angry too. So Darid's prayer bath this force, Rebuke ne hot in a«yer, for though I were able to stand under that, yet thou vilt also clasten me in tldne hot displeasure, and that no soul can bear; for as long as God's anger lasts, so long he is going on towards our ntter destruction. Iu that state, (it is hOt a state) in that exinanition, in that annihilation of the soul, (it is not an annihilation, the sod is hOt so happy as to corne to nothing) but in that misery, which can no more receive a naine, than an end, all God's corrections are borne with grudging, with murmuring, with comparing out righteousness with other's righteousness; in.lob's impatience, Quare posuisti me contrarium tibi? l|'.y hast tlwu set me up as a mark against tlee, 0 tiou preserver of me f*? Thou that preservest other men, last benêt My bow, ad «ade e a mari{" ]'or tldne arrows , says the Lamentatfon: in that state we eannot ery to him, that he might ansver us; if we do ery, and he answer, we eannot hear; if we do hear, we eannot believe that it is he. Cure iuvocantem e.raudler;t, says Job, If [ cr]l, and e answer,?/et I do hot believe that he heard ny :oice t'. We had rather perish utterly, than stay his leisure in recovering us. Si fla.aellat, occidat semel, says Job in the vulgate, If God have a mind to destro me, let him do it at one blow«°; Et non de poenls rideat, Let IHm wt sport IHmsel.fwitl, misery. VVhatsoever corne after, xre would be content fo be out of this world, so we might but change our forment, whether it be a temporal calamity that oppresses our state or body, or a spiritual burden, a perplexity that sinks out under- « 1 8ara. il. 2. t Job vil 20. Lam. iii. 1. o. Job Lx. 16. o rer" 23.
standing, or a gniltineas that depresses out conscience. i»oEerno prote.qas, as Job also speaks, 0 that thon rouldest Mde me , In ioEerno, in the 9raee, sys the affiicted soul, but in inferno, in t)ell itself, says the despairing soul, rather than keep me in this torment, in this world! This is the miserable condition, or danger, that David abhors, and deprecates in this text, Te be rebuked in. anger, without any purposo in God te amend him; and te be chastened in his hot displeasure; se, as that we can fiad no interest in tho gracious promises of the Goepel, no conditions, no power of revocation in the severo threatenings of the law; no différence between those torments which haro attacked us here, and the overlasting terments of hell itself. That we have lest all out joy in this lire, and all our hopo of the next; that we would fain die, though it were by our own hands, and though that death de but unlock us a door, te pass from ose hell into another. This is Ira tus Domine, et ]'uror tuus, Th!/ a»9er, 0 Lord, and, thy hot displeasure. For as long as it is but ira patrie, the anger of my father, whieh hath disinherited me, gold is thine, and silver is thine, and thon eanst provide me. As long as it is but ira reyi», some misinformation to the king, some misapprehension in the king, ('or re.ois in manu tus, Tke kin9"« keart is in th!! hand, and thou eanst reetify it again. As long as ig is but furor the rage and distemper of a pestilent lever, or furor furori, the rage of madness itselï, thon wilt eonsider me, and aeeept me, and reekon with me aeeording fo those better times, before those distempers overtook me, and overthrew me. But when it cornes to be Ira tus, ft«ror tuus, Thy an.qer, and tk!! disFleasure, as David did, so let every Christian find comfort, if he able to say faithfully this verse, this tex, 0 Lord, rêbuke e wt in tMne anyer, neitker chatên me in tky hot displêasure; for as long as he tan pray aainst it, ho is hOt yeg so fallen under it, but that ho hath yet his part in ail God's blesings, which we shed upen the congregation in out serinons, and which we seal to every soul in the saerament of reconeiliation.