/his conclusion,,$'alum m« fae, 0 Lord sar« me,; that is, apply that salvation, Chrisg Jesus to me. iNow beloved, you nmy know, tt yourselves have a part in those means, whichGod uses to that purpo, yoursel'es are instruments, though not causes of)ur own salvation.,S'us faetas es pro iMlo, on de n ihilo tamen "; Thou bringest nothing for fliy sMvation, yet something to fly alvation; nothing worth i, but ye something with it; thy new creation, by which thou a a new creature, that is, thy regeneration, is wrought as the first creation was wrought. God ruade heaven and eah of nothing; but he produced the other creatures out of that marrer, which he had mme. Thou hadst nothing to do in the fit work of thy regeneration; thou couldst hot so much as wish it; but in ail the test, thou art a fellow-worker with God; because, belote that, there are seeds of former grace shed in thee. And flerefore when thou comest to this lt petition, 'olrum me lac, 0 Lord sate me, remember still, that thou hast something fo do, well as to say; that so thou mayest have a comfonable answer in thy soul, to the whole prayer, Rtt,tr 0 Lord, deliver my soul, and sare me. And so we llave donc with out filt pmoE, which w the prayer itself; and the second, which is the reasons of the prayer, we must reserve for a second exercise.
SERMON LI. PREACHED UPON THE PENITENTI.tL PSAL2tlS.
PSaL ri. , 5. Return, 0 Lord; dellver my soul; 0 Lord save me, for thy mercy's sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee; and in the grave, who shall give thee thanks? VE corne now to the reasons of these petitions, in David's prayer; for, as every prayer must be ruade with faith, (I must believe that God will grant my prayer, if it conduce to his glory, and my good to do soç that is thc limit of my faith) so I must bave reason fo a Bernard.
ground a ]ikelihood, and a fait probability that that particular which I pray for, doth conduce to his glory and my good, and that thereïore God is likely to gnt it. David's first reason here is grounded ou God himsclf, Proptêr misericdiam, Do it for tky mercy's sabe; and in his second reason, though David himself, and all men with him, seem to have a pa, yet at last we shall the reason itself to determine whollv and entirely in God too, and in ]ris g]ory, Quonlam non in morte, Do it O Lord, For in deat there is no remembrance of thee, c. In some other places, David cornes to God with two reans, and both grounded merely in God;,Iiserlcordia, et reritas, Let thy mercy and thy truth always reseree me . In this place he purs himnself wholly upon his merey, for mercy is all, or at least, the foundation that sustains ail, or the wall that embraces ail. That mercy, 'hich the word of this text, casad, imports, is Beniynitas in non romerit«m; Mercy is a good disposition towards him, who hath deserved nothing of himself; for, where there is merit, there is no mercy. 'ay, it imports more than , for mercy, as mercy, presumes not only no merit in man, but it takes knowledge of no promise in God, properly; for that is the différence between mercy and truth, that by mercy at first, God would make promises to nmn, in gcneral; and then by truth, he would perfomau those promises: but mercy goeth fit; and there Davi«l begins and grounds his prayer, at mercy; mercy that ean have no pre-mover, no pre-relation, but begins in itelf. For if we consider the mercy of God fo nmnkind subsequently, I mean, after the death of Christ, so it cannot be properly ealled mercy. lercy thus considered, hath a ground; and God thus eonsider, hath reeeivcd a plentifid, and an abundant satisfaction in the merits of Christ Jesus; and that 'hich hath a ound in man, that which hath a satisfaction from man, (Chri was truly man) falls not properly, precisely, rigidly, under the naine of mercy. But eonsider God in his first disposition to man, after his fall, that he would vouchsafe to study out reeovery, and that he would turn upon no other way, but the shedding of the blood of his o,m and innocent, and glorious Son, Quid est homo, aut filius hominis? I Pal. x. II.
What was man, or ail mankind, that God should be mindful of him so, or so merciful to him. XVhen God promises that he will be merciful and gracious to me, if I do his will, when in sonae measre I do that will of his, God begins hot then to merciful; but his merey was awake and at work before, when he exeited me, by that promise, to do his will. And after, in my performance of those duties, his spirit seals to me a deelaration, that his truth is exereised upon inc now, as his mercy was before. Still, his truth is in the eflbct, in the fruit, in the execution, but the deeree, and the foot is only merey. God is pleased also when we corne to him with other reasons; when we remcmber him of his covenant; when we remember |lira of his holy servants, Abraham, Isaae, and Jacob; yea when we remember him of out own innocency, iii that particular» for whieh we may be then unjustly lmrsued; God was glad to hear of a righteousness, and of an innoeeney, and of clean and pure hands in David, when he was unjustly pursued by Saul. But tlle root of ail is in this, Propret misericordiam, Do it for thymercy's sake. For whcn we speak of God's covenant, it may be mistaken, who is, and who is hot within that covenant; what knov Il Of nations, and of churches, which have received the outward profession of Christ, we may be able to say, They are within the covenant, generally tal¢en; but when we corne to particular lnen iii the congrceation, tllere I may call a hypocrite, a saint, and think an exeommunicate soul, to be within the covenant; I may mistale the covenant, and I ma)" mistake God's servants, who did, and who did hot ie in his favour, Vhat knov I. We sec at exeeutions, when men pretend to die cheerfully for the glory of God, half the company will call them traitors, and hall martyrs. So if we speak of our own innoeency, we may bave a pride in that, or some other vicious and defictive respect (as uncharitableness towards our malicious persecutors, or laying seditious aspersions upon the justice of the state) that may make us guilty towards God, though we be truly innocent to the world, in that particular. But let me make my recourse to the mercy of God, and there can be no error, no mistaking. And therefore if that, and nothing but that be my ground,
od will 'etu'n to me, od 11 deliv«r my so, God vill e, fir Ms cys sae; tt is, becau his mercy is enaed in it. And if od were to 11 me this zeturniç, this «liv«riny, this saviny, and ail tht I pray for what could I oflr God for that, so gret his o mercy, in which I oflr him the innocency, the obedience, the blood oï his only Son. If I buy of the king's land, I nmst pay for it in the kins money; I have no mine, ner mint of mine os; if I would haro anything frein God, I must give him that which is his own for it, that is, his mercy; and this te give God s mercy, te give God thanks for his mercy, te give te ail his mercy, and te acknowledge, that if my works be accepble te him, nav if my very faith be acceptable te him, itis net became my works, no ner my faith hath any proportion of equivalency in it, or is woh the let flash of joy, or the last spangle of glory in heaven, in itseff, but because God in his mercy, oy of his merey, merely for the glory of his mercy, hath past such a covenant, Crede, etfac oc, Believe this, and de this, and thou shalt lire, net for thy deed's sake, net ner for thy faith's sake, but for my mercy's sake. And faher we carry net this first remon of the prayer, arising only frein God. There remaîns in these words another reon, in whieh David himself, and ail men seem te have part, Quia non in morte, For in death there is no remembrance of thee, &c., upon occasion of which wos, becae they seem te imply a loethness in David te die, it may well be inquired, why d¢ath seemed se terribly te the good and gooey men of those rimes, that evermore we s them complain of shoness of lire, and of the nearns of death. Ceainly the rule is true, in natural, and in civil, and in divine things, as long we are in this world, Alle meliorem, est rruptio primæ habitudinls , That man is net well, who desires net te be better; it but our corruption here, that makes us loath te hasten te our incorruption there. And besides, many of the ancients, and ail the later casuists of the other side, and alllOllt our o men, Peter Ma, and Cah-in, si certain ces, in which it bath tionem boni, the nature of goed, and therefore is te be embraced, te wish out dissolution and departure out of this world; and yet, many good and godly men haro declared this loathness te dic. Beloved, weigh liïo and dcath one against anotler, and the balance will ho oven; throw tle glory of God into citler balance, and that turns the,cale. St. Paul could net tcll which te wi.h, lire, or death; there the balance was even tlmn cornes in the lory of God, tlm addition of his seul te that choir, that,pend all their rime, eternity itself, only in glorifying God, and that turns tle,cale, and tlen he cornes te his Copie di,olri, Te de, ire te be di**olved, ad te be with Ch'i,. But then, he puts in more of the sanm weight in the other,cale, ho secs that it advances God's glory more, for him te st,y, and labour in the building of God's kingdom here, and se add more seuls than his own te that smte, than only te enjoy that kingdom in himselt; and that turns the,cale,gain, and se he is content te lire. These saints of God then when they deprecate death, and cernplain of the approachcs of death, they are, at that time, in a charitable ecstasy, ubstracted and withdrawn frein the consideration of that particular happiness, which they, in themselves, might have in heaven; and they are transported and swallowed up with this sorrow, that the church here, and Godes kingdoln upon earth, should lack those tneans of ad'almement, or assistance, which God, by their service, was pleased te afford te his church. Vhether they were good kiugs, good priests, or good prophets, the church lest by their death; and thereïore they deprecated that dcath, and desired te lire. T/w grave canner lor««ise thee, d«ath canner celebrate thee; bot the livi».q, the liiy, he,hall prai, e thee, as I de thi, day', says Hezekiah; he was aflcted with an apprehension of a future barreuness after his death, and a want f propagation of God's tl'uth I,hall no,ee t]e Lord, ev« Lord, says he. Ho had assurance, that he should see the Lord in heaven, when by death ho was corne thither; but, says he,,hall wt,ee him in te lad of the iivi.q; well, even in the land of the living, oven in the land of lire itself, he was te seo him, if by death he were te see him in heaven; but this is the loss that he laments, this is the misery that he deplores with se much holy passion, I,hall behold na w more, with te i«abita,t, of the world; howsoever, I,hall ejoy God myself, yet I shall be no
|on,er a means, an instrument of the propagation of Godes truth amongst others; and, till we corne to that joy, which the cannot conceive, it is, I think, the reatest joy dat the soul of man is capable of in this lire, (esçecia]ly were a man ath bcen any occasion of sin to others) to assist the salation of others. Au een that considcration, That he sall be able to do Godes casc no more oed ere, may make ood man ]oath to die. Quid/àcies nçqno omini tuo'? says Joshua in his prayer to God; if the Canaanites corne in, and destroy us, and blaspheme thee, lVhat wilt thou do.unto tby miyl name XVhat àlt thou do unto thy glorious church, said the sain of God in those deprecations, if thou take those men out of the world, whom thou hadst chosen, enabled, qualified for the edification, sustentation, propagation of that church. In a word, David considers hot here, what men do, or do hot in the next world; but he conslders only, that in this world he was bouud to propagate God's truth, and that that he could hot do, if God took him away by death. Consider then this horror, and detestation, and depcation of death, in those saints of the Old Testament, with relation to their particular, and then it must be, qtia promls.iones obscurw, because BIoses had conveyed to those men, all God's fnture blessiugs, aH the joy and glory of heaven, only in the tes of earthlv things, and said little ot" the state of the soul after this lire. And the- fore the promises belonglng to the godly afier this lire, were hot so clear then, hot so -ell manifested to them, hot so well fixed in them, as that they could, in contemplation of them, step easily, or deliver themselves coufidently into the jaws of death; he that is hot fully satisfied of the next world, males shift to be content with this; and he that cannot reach, or does hot feel that, will be glad to keep his hold upon this. Consider their horror, and detestation, and deprecation of death, hot with lation to themselves, but to God's church, and then it wiH be, 9uia oerarii a«ci, bause God had great harvest in hand, and few labourers in it, they were loath to be taken from the worl¢. And these reasons miht, at least, by way of excuse and extenuation, in those times of darkne, prevail somewhat in their behalf; they saw hot whithcr they went, and therefore were loatll to go; and they were loath to go, because they sw not how God's church would subsisti when they were gone. But in these times of ours, when Almighty God bath given an abundant remedy to both these, their excuses will hot be appliable to We have a full clearness of the state of the soul after this lire, hot only above those of the o]d la,,v, but above those of the primitive Chritial church, wllich, in some hundreds of years, came hot to a c]ear understanding in that point, whether the soul were immortal by nature, or but by preservation, whether the sou| could not die, or only should hot die. Or (because that perchance may be without any constant clearness yet) that was hot clear to them: (which concerns our case nearer) whether the soul came to a present fruition of the sight of God after death or no. But God having afforded us clearness in that, and then blest out times with an established church, and plenty of able workmen for the present, and plenty of schools, and competency of endowments in universities, for the establishing of our hopes, and assurances for the future, since,,ve have both the promise of heaven after, and the promise that the gates of hell shall hot prerail against the chmh here; since we can neither sa)', Promissiones obscurw, That heaven hangs in a cloud, nor say, Operarii pauci, That dangers hang over the church, it is much more inexcusable in us now, than it was in any of them then, to be loath to die, or to be too passionate in that reason of the deprecation, Quia non in morte, Because in deat] t]ere is o remembrance of thee, &c. Whieh words, being taken literally, may fill our meditation, and exalt our devotion thus; if il death there be no remembrance of God, if this remembranee perish in death, eertainly it decays iii the neal'ness to death; if there be a possession in death, there is an approaeh in age; and therefore, Remember ww thy Ceator in tke day, of tky youtl . There are spiritual lethargies, that make a man forget his naine; forget that he was a Christian, and whnt belongs to that duty. God knows what forgetfulness may possess thee upon thy deathbed, nd freeze thee there; God knows what rage, what distemper, what madness lnay scatter thee tllen; and though in such cases God reckon with his ser-
46 PREACHED UPON' T|IE [ER. Ll. vants, according to that disposition which they use to bave towards him before, and hot according to those declinations from him, which they show in such distempered sicknesses, t God»s mercy towards them can vork but so, that he returns to those times, when those men did remember him before. ut if God can find no such time, that they never remembered him, then he seals their former negligence with a present lethargy; they neglected God all their lires, and now in death there is no r membrance of him, nor there is no remembrance in him; God shall forget him eternally; and when he thinks he is corne to his consummatum est, the bell tolls, and will ring out, and there is an end of all in death, by death he comcs but to his secua seculotus, to the beginning of that miseD', which shall never end. This then which we have spoken, arises out of that sense of these words, which oeems the most literal; that is, of natm'al death. But as it is well noted by divers expositors upon this Psa.lm this whole PsMm is intended of a spiritual agony, and combat of D3vid, wrestling with the apprehension of hell, and of the indignation of God, even in this world, whilst he was alive here. And therefore St. Augustine upon the last words of tllis verse, in that translation which he followed, In erno uis cofitebitur tibi? Not, In the.qrave, but in hell, u'ho sh«ll confess mto thee? Puts llimself un this, In ioEèro Dives confeus Domino, et oravit pro fratribu», In hell Dives did eonfess the nanle of the Lord, and prayed there for llis brethven in tlle world. And therefore he understands not these words of a literal, and natural, a bodily death, a departing out of this worhl; bnt he ealls pe«atum mortem, and then, coecitatem animw irnum; he makes the easiness of sinning to be death, aild then, blindness, and obduration, and remorselessness, and impenitenee, to be this hell. And so also doth St. Jerome understand all that passionate deploring of Hezekiah, (whieh seems literally to be spoken of natural death) of this spiritual death, of the habit of sin, and that he eonsidered, and lamented espeeially his danger of that death, of a departing from God in this world, rather than of a departing out of this world. And truly many pieces and passages of Hezekiah's lamentation there, will fall naturally enough into that spiritual illterpretation; though perehanee all will hot,
8ERo Ll.] PENITENTIAL 18AI,.8o thouh St. Jerome with a holy purpose drive them, and draw them that way. But whether that of Hezekiah be of natural, or of sçiritual death, we bave another author ancienter than St. Augustine, and St. Jerome, and much esteem by St. Jerome, as that he tmnslated some of his works, which is Did) nms of Alexandria, who says, it is mia , hot an inconvenient, or unnatural, but an impious and irreligious opinion, understand this verse of naturel death; because, says he, the dead do much more remember God than the living do. And he makes use of that place, Deus non cwimditur, God is hot ashamed to be called the God of the dead,)br he hatk repared them a city . And therefore reading these words of out text, according to that tnslation which prevailed in the Eastern chureh, which was the Septuagint, he argues thus, he collects thus, that ail that David says hgre, is only this, on est in nwrte qui nwr est Dei, Not that he that is dead remembers hot God, but that he remembers God, is hot dead; uot in an irreparable, and irrecoverable state of death; not under such a burden of sin devastates and exterminates the conscience, and evacuates the whole power and work of grace, but that if he ean remember God, confess God, though he be fallcn under the hand of a spiritual death, by me sin, yet he shall have Iris resurrection in this lire; for, n est in morte, says Did)aus, He that remembers God, is not dead, in a perpetual death. And then this tenon of Davidç prayer here, (do this and this, Jbr in death there fs no remembranee " thee) will bave this force, that God would return to him in his effectual ace, that God would delirer his soul in dangerous temptations, that God would saee him in applying fo him, and imprinting in him a sober, but yet confident aurance that the salvation of Christ Jesus belongs to him; because if God did hot return to him, but suffit him to sther in a long absence, if God did hot ddirer him, by taking hold of him when he was readv to fall into such sins as his soeiableness, his confidence, his inconsideratin, his infirmity, his euriosity brought him fo tllç brink of, if God did not sare him, by a faithful assnrance of sah'ation after a sin eommitted and resented, this absence, this slipperiness, this preter- mitting, might bring him to such a deadly, and such a llellish state in this world, as that in deatk, that is, in that death, he should bave no renembrance of God, in hell, in tltegrare, that is, in that hell, in that grave, he should hot confess, nor praise God at ail. There,vas his danger, he should forger God utterly, and God forger him eternally, if God suffered him to proceed so far in sin, that is, deatk, and so far in an obduration and remorselessness, in sin, that is, l«ll, the death and the hell of this world, to which those fathers refer this text. In this lamentable state, we will only note the force, and the emphasis of this tti, and t/bi, in this verse; no remelnbrance of teê, no praise to teê; for this is not spoken of God in general, but of that God, to which David directs the last and principal part of his prayer, which is, to zarê lffm; it is to God, as (od is Jesus, a Saviour; and the wretchedness of this state is, that God shall not be remembered in that notion, as he i Jesus, a Saviour. 1o man is so swallowed up in the death of sin, nor in the grave of impenitence, no nmn so dead, and buried in the custom or senselessness of sin, but that he remembers a God, he confesses a God; if an atheist svear the contrary, believe him not; his inward terrors, his midnight startlings remember him of that, and bring him to confissions of that. But here is the depth, and desperateness of this death, and this grave, habitual sin, and impenitence in sin, that he cannot remember, he cannot confess that God which should save him, Christ Jesus his ledeemer; he shall corne, he shall hOt choose but corne to relnember a God that shall damn him, but not a saving God, a Jesus. Belo'ed in the bowels of that Jesus, not only the riches, and honours, and pleasures of this world, and the favour of princes, are, as Job speaks, Oerosi consolatores, lIiserable comforter are they all, all this world, but even of God himself Çoe it spoken with piety and reverence, and far from misconstruction) we nmy say, Oerosa cosolatio, It is but a miserable conffort which we can bave in God himself, it is but a faint remembrance which we retain of God himself, it is but a lame confession which we make to God himseff,,S'i o tui, si non tibi, If we remember not thee, If we confess hot thee, out only Lord and Saviour ç'krist Jes«s. It is hot hall out work to be godly men, to confess a God in general; we must be Christians too; to confess God so, as God bath lnanifested himself to us. I, to whom God hath manifested himself in the Christian church, ara as much an atheist, if I deny Christ, as if I deny God; and I deny Christ, as much, if I deny him in the truth of his worship, in my religion, as if I denied him in his person. And therefore, Si non tui,,s'i non tibi, If I do hot remember thee, If I do hot profess thee in thy truth, I ara fallen into this deatk, and buried in this yrarê which David depreeates in this text, For i death tkêre is no rêmembrance oF thee, &c.
SERMON LII. PREACItED TO TIIE KING AT IVHITEIL4LL, UPON THE OCCASION OF TtlE FAST,.dPIIIL 5, 1628.
I ara weary vith my groning; all the night make I my bed fo swim, I wter my couch with my tears. Mine eye in consumed because of grief; it wxeth old, because of ail mine pncmies.
Tins is David's humiliation; and coming after his repentance and reconciliatiou, David's penanee: and yet here is no fast; it is truc; no fast named; David had had experience, that as the wisest actions of kings, (of kings as kings over subjects) so the devoutest actions of kings, (of kings, as humble subjects to the King of kings, the God of heaven) had been misinterpreted. Of slghing, and groaning, and weeping, and languishing, (as iu this text) David speaks often, ver)', very often in the Psalms; and they let him sigh, and groan, and weep, and languish; they neglect his passion, and are hot affected with that; but that is ail; they afflict hin o farther: but when he cornes to fasting, thcy deride him, they reproach him; Carcs God whether you eat, or fast. But thrice in all tho Psahns does David speak of his VOL. 11. G fasting, and in all three places, it,vas misinterpreted, and reproachfully misinterpreted; I humbled my soul with fastin 9, ad my prayer returned into mine own. bosom i; he did this (as he says there) for others, that needed it, and they would hot thank him for it, but reproached him. When I wept, and chaetened my soul with fastiny, that was to rny reproach . So also my bones are weak throuyh fastiny, and I became a reproach -unto them . And therefore no wonder that David does hot so often mention and publish his fastiug, as his other mooEifications; no wonder that in all his seven penitential Psalms, (which are the church's topics for nortification and hmniliation.) there is no mention of his fasting. But for his practice, (though he speak not so much of it in the Psalms) in his history where others, not himself, speak of him, we know that when he mourned, and prayed for his sick child, he fasted too'. And we doubt hOt, but that, when he was thus wearied, (I ara weary with my yroanlny; ail tke iyht ake I my bed to swim, I water my couch u'ith my tears; nine eye is consnmed because of grief; it waa:eth old becauee of all mine enemies) he ïasted ton; he fasted oftener, than he tells us of it. As St. Hierome says, dejunium non lerfecta irtus, ced caterarum irt«t«mfundametum, If we must not eall fasting (as fastingisbut a bodily abstinence) a religious aet, an aet of God's worship, yet it is a basis, and a foundation, upon whieh other religious aets, and aets of God's worship are the better advanced. It is so at ail times; but it is so especially when it is enjoined by sovereign authority, and upon manifest occasion, as now to us.,%toper :irtutis cibusjejunium fuit, it is elegantly, and usefully said»: At ail times, Religion feeds upon fasting, and feasts upon fasting, and grows the stronger for fasting. But, (2uod piun est ayere non indictum, impium est neyli9erelrwdicatum", It is a godly thing fo fast uncommanded, but to neglect it being commanded, is an ungodly, an impious, a refractory perverseness, says the saine father. But then another carries it to a higher expression, Deslerationie yenus eêt, tunc manducare, cure abetinere debeas , lot to fast when the rimes require it, and when authority enjoins it, Psalm zxxv. 13. t Psalm Lxix. 10. s Psalm cix. 24. 2 Sain. ii. 15. Leo. « Leo. » Maximus de jejunio Ninevitarum.
or hot to believe, that God will be affected and moved with that fasting, and be the better inclined for it, is despairing of the state, a despairing of the church, a despairing of the grace of God to both, or of his mercy upon both. And truly there cannot be a more disloyal affection than that, desperare rem]mbli««ra, to forespeak great councils, to bewitch great actions, to despair of good ends in thins well intended: and in our distresses, where can we hope, but in God. And how shall we bave access to God, but in humiliation. We doubt hot therefore but that this act of humiliatmn, his fasting, was spread over Davids other acts in this text, and that as private person, and as a king in his public and exemplar office, ho fasted also, (though he says hot so) when he said he -,vas wearied, I cm weary with raff.aroani»£¢; ail tke nOkt make I y bed to su, ira, I water m!f couch u'ith mil tears; mixte eye is consumed because of grief; it u'axeth old because of all mine enemies. But though this fasting, and these other penal acts of humiliation, be the body that cal'ries, and deelares, yet the soul that inanimates,-and quiekens all, is prayer; and therefore this whole Psalm is a prayer; and the prayer is partly depreeatory, in some things David desil'es that God would forbear hilu, as ver. 1., Cor- «ect me hot, for if thou eol'rect me, Ot]lers will trample upon me; «ebukeme hot, fol" if thou rebuke llle, others will ealmnniate llle and partly postulatory, that some things God would give him, as kealtk, and d«liverance, and that whieh is all, salvation, in the other verses. Both parts of the prayer are (as all prayer must be) grounded upon masons; and the reasons are from divers lVOts; some from the consideration of himself, and they argue his humiliation; some from the contemplation of God, and they testify his devotion, and present recourse to him; some from both together, God, and himselt" jointly, which is an acknowledgment, that God works hot alone in heaven, nor man lires hot alone upon earth, but there is a conversation, and a correspondence, and a commerce between God and man, and conditions, and contracts, and covenants, and stipulations between them, and so a mutual interest in one almther. From God himself alone, David raises a reason, (ver. 4 0 Propt¢r misericordiam, 0 sare me.fbr thy mercies" sake; fol" of tlle merey of God, there is no preeedent, there
IIIEAeIIED UPON THE [SF-II. LIIo is no concurren renson there is no ren of the mercy of God bu he mercy of God: fi'om God nnd himself toeher he rises reason, v. 5, Q«ia non in morte, For in death tere is no remembrance of thé; destroy me hot, for if I die, Quid racles m«çqno omini tuo? (as Joshua speaks) what will bome of thy glory $ Of that glory which thou shouldst receive from my service in this world, if thou take me out of this world But then, as ho begun in reasons arising froln himself, and out of the sense of his own humiliation under the hand of God, (for so he does) v. 2, Q«ia i'rmus, Have mercy qon me, because I ara weak, and cannot subsist without that lnercy. And Quia turbata ossa, His bones were vexed; Habet anlma ossa sua, says St. Basil, The soul bath bones as well as the body; the bones of the soul are the strongest faculties, and best operations of the soul, and his best, and strongest actions, were but questionable actions, disputable, and suspicious actions; and t«rbata anima, all his foeulties, even in their very roet, his very soul, was sore exed, v. 3, As, I say, he began with reasons of that kind, arising from himself, so ho returns and ends with the saine humiliation, in the reans arising from himself toe, Quia laboravl in gemitu, I ara weary with my 9roaning, all the night make I my bed to swim, &c. As our Saviour Christ entered into the house to his diiples, januis clausis, when the doers were shut «: so God enters into us toe, januis cl«usis, when out eyes have not opened theil" doers, in any real peniteut tears, when out mouths bave hot opened their doors, in any verbal prayers; God sees, and he hears the inclinations of the heart. St. Bernard notes well upon those words of Christ, af tlle raising of Lazarus, Father I thank thee, that thou hast heard me , that af that rime, when Christ gave thanks to God, for having heard him, he had said nothing to his father; but God had heard his heart. Since God does so even to us, ho will much more hear , as David, when we nmke outward do clarations too, because that outward declaration conduces more to his glory, in the edication of his servants, therefore David comes fo that declaratory protestation, Quia labora¢i in gemitu, I ara wear with ty groanhçq, &c.
In which words, we shall consider, Quid factura, and Quid faciendum, x, Vhat David did, and what we are to do: for David, after he had thrown himself upon the mercy of God, after he had confessed, and prayed, and done the spiritual parts of repentance, he afflicts his body besicles; and so ought we likewise to do, if we will be partakers of David's exa]nple. And therefore we may do well fo consider Q«idfaciendum, How this example of David binds us, how these groanings and waterings of his bed with tears, and other mortifications assumed after repentance, and reconciliation to God, lay an obligation upon us. But tbis is out part, Quidfaciend«m, "What is to be done by us; first, Q,idfactum, Vhat David did; and truly he did much first çemuit, he came to çroan, to sigh, to outward declarations of inward heaviness. And Laborait in emitu, He laboured, he travailed in that passion, and (as the word imports, and as our later translation bath it) he was wearied, tired with it; so far, that (as it is in the first translation)hefainted, he languished with it. First he sighed, and sighed so; and groaned, and groaned so; passionately, vehemently, and then openly, exemplarily; and he was not ashamed of it, for he came to weeping, though he knew it would be thought childish: and that in that abundance, Natare feci, and Liquefeci h'ctum, He watered his bed, dissolved his bed, ruade his bed to swim, surrounàed his bed with tears; and more, he maeerated his bed with that brine: and then he eontinued this affliction; it was hOt a sudden passion, a flash of remorse; but he eontinued it, till his eye was consumed by reason of that anguish, and despite, and indi.qnation; as out diverse translations vary the expressing thereof; so long, as night and dav lasted, so long, as that he was waxen old under it; and when this great affliction should have brought him safely into harbour, that he might bave rested seeurely af last, his enemies that triumphed over him, gave him new occasions of misery, his eyes were consumed, and waxed old because of kis enemies; that is, beeause he,vas still anaongst enemies that triumphed over him. Be pleased to take another edition, another impression of these particulars; a natural man's moral constancy will hold out against outward declarations of grief; yet David came to that, he groaned:, groan, a sigh may break out, and tho heart bo at tho more easo for tbat; but I«boraz'it, they grew upon him, and tho more he groaned, and the more he sighed, the moto he ha«l an inclination, an«l not only that, but eauso to do so, for ho found tbat his rrov was fo be sorrowed for, and his repentaneo to ho repend, there wero such imperfections in ail. Therefore ho suffered thus till he was wearied, till he fainted with groaning, and sighing. And then this wind does hot blov over the rain, he weeps; and weeps the more violently, and tho more eontinually, extremes that seldom meet, violence, anti lasting, but in his case they did. Ail this, ail night, and ail this, ail this while, not amont friends to pity bim, and eondole with him, but amongst enemies to afli'ont him, and deritle him: so tbat here aro ail the ingredients, ail the elements of misery; sorrow of heart, that admits no disguise, but flovs into outward declarations; and sueh deelarations as ereate no compassion, but triumph in tbe enemy. I ara weary cit my yroa»i», To proceed then to the partieulars in our first part, QttM factura, XVhat David did, first yendt, he cornes to sigh, to groan, to ait outward declnration of a sense of (otl's indignation npon him, till he had perfeeted his repentanee. S'e dylwd, and turned bacg'ward, was Jerusalem's misery. To sigh, and tm'n baekwar, to repent, and relapoe, is a wofid condition: but fo sigh, and turn forward, to turn upon God, and to pursue this sorrow tbr our sins, then, in such sighs, The sTirit f ma, retuvns to (od that yare it°; as God breathed into nmn, so man breathes unto the nostrils of God a sarour t" rest, as it is said of oah, an acceptable sacrifice, when ho sighs for iris sins. This sighiug, this groaning, expressed in this word, Anach,.qemitus, is I%x turturis. Tttrtur ffemlt; it is that voice, that sound whlch the turtle gives; and we learn by authors of natural story tt, and by experienee, T, trturis yemltus indicium veris, The voice of tbe turtle is an evideneo of the spring; when a siroter cornes to this voiee, to this sighing, there is a spring of graee begun in him; then t%x t,trturis audlta in terra wstra, says Christ fo his spouse, The volte of the turtle is heard in our land'; and so he says to thy ul, this voice of the turtle, these sighs of thy penitent soul, arc heard terra nostra, in out land, in the kingdom of heaven. And,vhen he hears this voice of this turt]e, these sighs of tby soul, then he puts thy naine a]so iato that list which he gave to his messenger, (in which commission this very word of out text, aluw, is used),S'i.qnabis si91um sqer.t'rolttibus rirorum susplra- tium et 9eme«tium la, Upon all their foreheads, that sigh and groan, imprint my mark; which is ordinarily conceived by the ancients to bave been the letter t«u; of which though Calvin assign a useful, and a convenient reason, that they were marked with this letter tau, whieh is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, in sign, that though they were in estimation of the world, the most abject, and the outcasts thereof, yet God set his mark upon them, with a purpose to raise them; yet St. Hierome, and the ancients for the most part assign that for the reason, why they were narked with that letter, because that letter had thc form of the cross; not for any sueh use, or power, as the I{oman church bath ascribed to that sign, but as in the persecutions of the primitive church, the martyrs at the stake, when a cry was raised, that they died for treason, for rebellion, for sedition, and could hot be heard, for the clamour, to clear themselves, used then in the sight of all, who, though they could hot hear them, could see them, to sign themselves with the cross, hot to drivc away devi]s, or to strenoEhen themselves against temptations by that sign. but by that sign to deelare the cause of their death to be the profession of the Christian religion, and hot treason, nor sedition. And as we in our baptism have that cross imprinted upon us, hOt as a part of the sacrament, or any piecc of that armour, which we put on of spiritual strength, but as a protestation, whose soldiers we became: so God imprinted upon them, that sighed, and mourned, that tau, that letter, which had the form of the cross, that it might be an evidence, that ail their crosses shall be swallowed in lais cross, theh" sighs in his sighs, and their agonies in his. And therefore, beloved, these sighs are too spiritual a substance, to be bestowed upon worldly matters; ail the love, ail the ambitions, ail the losses of this worl4, are hot worth a sih if they were, yet thou ha none to are, for ail thy sihs are due to thy sins; bestow them there. Gemit, he sighs, he oans; and then Laborarit in yfftu; he laboured, he travailed, he grew weary, he fainted with sighing. 'ot tobe curiou we meet with a threefold labour in Scriptures. First there is Labor commtnis, The labour which no man may avoid; lan la born nto trarail, as tke parks fly npward'; where we mav note in the comparison, that itis hot a dejeetion, a diminution, a depressing downward, but a flying upward, the truc exaltation of a man, that he labours duly in a lawf ealling; and this is labor communis; secondly there is Labor impii, The labour of the wicked, for, they have taught their tones to eak lies, says Daxfid, and take great pains to deal wickedly; as itis also in Job, The ricked man traraileth,rith pain ail dts ', and (as our former translation had it) he ¢s continually as one trheailinff,ritl child; indeed the labour is greater, to do ill, than well; to get hell, than heaven; heaven might be had with less pains, than men do bestow upon hell; and this is labor impiorum. And lastly, there is Zaborjustorum, The labour of the rightus, which is, To fise early, to 1&E do,cn late, and to eat the bread OE sorrotc; for, though in that place, this seems to be said to be donc in vain, It la in ain to fise earOt, in ain to l& do,rn late, in ain to eat the bread sorrow ', set it is with the same exception, which is there cified, that is, Ecet the Lord build, it is in tain to labour, éxcépt the Lord kéep the city, it is in ain to ratch; so ecept the Zord ffire test to his belored, it is in tain to fise earOt: in vain to travail, except God give a blessing. But when the Lord hath ven thee rest, in the remission of thy sins, then cornes this labor jutorum, the labour that a righteous man is bound to, that as God hath given him a good night's test, he v God a good day's work, as God hath given him rest and peaee of conscience, for that which is past, so he take some pains for that which is to corne, for such was Dad's case, and David's eare, and David's labour. Ephraim, an ancient deacon, and expositor in the Chriian ehch, takes ts labour of David, laborari in yitu, to have been in gemiu, but in corimedo geit, that he laboured fo conceal his pcnance and modification, from the s]ght and know- ]edge of othem; beloved, this concealing of those things, which we put ourselves to in the ways of godlhmm, hath always a food u, when ]t ]s done, to avo]d ostentation, and vain glory, and pra]se of men; and ]t bath otherw]se, somet]mes a go use, to conceal our tribulations and nfiseries from others, because the w]cked oftcn take occasion, ri'oto thc calam]ties and pressures of the gly, to insult and triumph over them, and to d]shonour and blaspheme their God, and to say, lVlere is now yo«r God? And therefore it may sometimes concern us to labour to hide out miseries, to sw«llow out own sTittle, as Job speaks, and to sponge up our tears in our brains, and to cat, and snmther our sighs in our own bosoms. But this was not David's case now; but as he had opened himself to God, he opened himself to the wor]d toe; and as he says in another place, Corne and I will tell you, u'kat Godhath donc for raff soul, so here he says, Corne, and I will tell you, what I bave donc against my God. So he sighed, and so he groaned; he laboured, hc was affected bitterly with it himself; and he declared it, he ruade it exemplar, and catechistical, that his dejection in himself, might be an exaltation to others; and then he was hot ashamed of it, but as he said of his dancing before the ark, If this be tobe file, I will be more ele, so heoe, if this passion be weakness, I will yet be nmre weak; for this wind brought raiu, these sighs brought tears, Ail the »i[tht m«Z'e I nty d to scim, &c. The concupiscences of man, are naturally dry powder, combtible easily, easily apt to take tire; but tears damp them, and give them a little more leisure, and us intermission and consi,leration. David had laboured hard; tiret ad ruborem, as physicians advise, to a redne, to a blushing, to a shalne of his sin; and now ad sudorem, he had laboured to a sweat: for Lac/moE sudor mHmw moerentis , Tears are the sweat of a labouring soul, aml that soul that labours David did, will sweat, as David did, in the tears of contrition; till then, till tears break out, and find a vent in outvard declaration, we pant and strngglc in miserablc convulsions, and distortions, and distractions, and eaoEhquakes,
458 PREACHED IZPON THE [qElo LII. and irresolutions of the sou]; I can believe, that God will have mercy upon me, if I repent, but I cannot believe that is repentance, if I cannot weep, or come to outward declarations. This is the laborious irresolution of the sou]; but Lacrymw «tereunt animam TM, These tears carry up out sou], as the tlood carried up the ark, higher than any hills; whether hills of power, and so above the oppression of potent adçersaries, or hills of our own pride, and ambition; truc holy tears carrv us ahove ail. And therefore, when the angel rebuked the people, for hot destro. ing idolatry, T/ey welt, says the text , there was their present remedy and they called the name of the place Bochim, Tears, that there miht be permanent testimony of that expressing of their repentance; that that wav thev went to God, and in that way God received them; and that their children might sav to one another, SVhere did God show that great mercy to out fathers. Here; here, in Bochim, that is, here in tears. And so when at Samuel's motions, and increpation, the people would testi.fy their repentance, They drew water, says the story, and poured it out before the Lord. and fasted, atwl said, sinned ayainst the Lord °. They poured water, Lt esset symbolum lacr!tmarum ', That that might be a type, and figure, in what proportion of tears, they desired to express their repentance. For, such an effusion of tears, David inay be well thought to intend, wheu he says, Effttndite coram Deo animam estram, Potr o,t your souls before God, pour them out in such an eflhsion, in a continual, and a contrite weeping. Still the prophets cry out upon idols and idolaters, Uiulate sctdptilia; Howl ye idvls, and owl!le idolaters; he bath no hope of their weeping. And so the devil, and the damned are said to howl. but hOt to weep; or when they are said to weep, it is with a gnashing of teeth, which is a voire of indignation, even towards God, and hot of hmniliation under his hand: so also sans the prophet of an impenitent sinner, Induratw super petram j'àcies, Tey are ruade tteir faces tarder tan stone; XVherein.r Ttou ast tricl['en ti, em, but tteq tare hot we'l)t; hot sorrow,d. Out of a stone water cannot be drawn, but by miracle, though it be twice strieken; as Moses s Nazianzen. t Judges iL 5. oe 1 Sain. vil 6. « Nab. Oziel. Jer. v. 3.
struck the rock twice 83, yet the water came by the miraculous power of God, and hot by Moses second stroke. Though God strike this sinner twice, thrice, he will hot weep: though inward termrs strike his conscience, and outward diseases strike his body, and calamities and ruin strike his estate, yet he vill hot confess by one tear, that these are judgments of God, but natural accidents; or if judgments, tlmt they proceeded hot tom his sin, but tom some decree in God, or some purpose in God, to glorit himself, by thus aicting him, and that if he had been better, he should have tred never thc better, tbr Godes puq)ose must stand. Therefore says God of such in that place,,'«rely they are poor, that w plain enough, and they are foolish too, says God there: and God gives the reason of it, br they kww hot thejtdgmets of GOE1; thcy know hot his judgmentu to be judentu; they ascribe all calamities to other causes, and so they turn upon otller ways, and other plots, and other miserable comlbrters. But attribute all to the Lord; never say of anything, This lhlls upon aile, but of all, This is laid upon me by the hand of God, alld thou wilt corne to him in tears. Rain-water is better than riverwater; the water of heaven, tears for oflnding thy God, are better than tears lbr worhlly ]osses; but yet corne to tears of any kind, and whatsoever occasion thy tears, Dents absterflet omem lacrymam, there is the largeness of his bouuty, He will wipe all tea'sfrom thlne eyes'; but thou must have tears first: first thon must corne to this weepiug, or else God cannot corne to this wiping; God bath not that errand to thee, fo wipe tels from thine eyes, if there be noue there; if thoa do nothing for thyself, God finds nothing to do for thee. David wept thus, thus vehemently, and he wept thus, thus coutinually; in the nlffht, says our text; not that he wept hot iii the day: he ys of himself, ly tears haee bee mg neat, both dc«y ad night , where though he naine no fhst, you sec his diet, how that was attentmted. And no when it is said of Jerusalem, weepeth contiually in the nl[/ht «, if is hot that she put off her weeping till night, but that she continucd lier days weeping to the night, and in tlle night: Plorando plorabit, says the original a Numb. . ll. a Psalm XL. 3. Liment. i. 2.
460 l,m.CneD t:l, On Tn [stm. Lin in that place; he does weep aeady, and she ill eep i; she puts it hot off dilatorily, (I will weep, but hot yet) nor she puts it hot over easily, suddenly, (I have wept, and I need no more) but as God pwmises to his children, the rst and la,er tain , so must his children give to him again both rains, tea of the day, and tea of the night, by washing the sins of the day in t]le evening, and the sins of the night in the moming. But this vas an addition to David's affliction in this night-weeping, that whereas the night was nlade for man to rest in, David eod hOt make that use of the night. Vhen he had proposed so great a pa of his happiness to consist in this, That he would la him down ad sleep it» peace'% we see in the next Psalm but one, he that thought to sleep out the night, corne to weep out the night. Vhen the saints of God bave that security, which St. Hierome speaks of, *t sanctis ipse somnus sit oratio, They sleep securely, for their very sleep is a glori'ing of God, who giveth his beloved sleep, yet David could have none of this. But why not he ç, ctem l«tferam wcte co»ensaP'; first, for the place, the sin came in at those windows, at his eyes, and came in, in tire, in lust, and it must go out at those windows too, and go out in water, in the water of repentant tears; and then, for the rime, as the night defiled his sonl, so the sin must be expiated, and the ul washed in the night too. And this may be some emblem, some nsefM intimation, how hastily repentanee follows sin; David's sin is placed, but in the beginning of the night, in the evening, (I tle ere»ii» 9 he rose, a»d wal'ed upon tke terrace, htd saw Batsheba) and in the next pari of time, in the night, he falls a weeping: no more between the sweetue of sin. and the bitterness of repentante, than betweeu evening, and night; no morning to either of them, till the sun of grace arise, and shine out, and pvceed to a meridional height, and make the repentance upon circumstance, to ho a repentance upon the substance, and bring it to be a repentance for the sin itsdf, whieh at first was but a repentance upon some calalnity, that that sin induced. He wept then, and wept in the night; in a rime, when he could neither receive rest in himself, which ail men had, nor receive praise ri'oto others, which all men affect. And he wept omnl nocte; which is hot only Omnibu octibuo, Sometime every night, but it is Tota octe, Clean through the night; and he wept in that abundance, as hath put the Ho]y Ghost to that hyperbole in David's pen to express it, Ziquefecit otratum., totare fecit stratum, It drowned his bed, surrounded his bed, it dissolved, it maeerated, it melted his bed with that brine. SVell; Qui riyat stratum, He that washes his bed so with repentant tears, _Aon. ]ootest i» coyitationem ejus libidinum lmmpa subrqoere3°: Temptations take hold of us sonletimes after our teal's, after out repentante, but seldom or never in the act of out repentante, and in the very shedding of out tears; at least Libidinum The vietory, the triumph of lust breaks hot in npon us, in a bed, so dissolved, so surrounded, so macerated with sueh tears. Thy bed is a figure of thy grave; such as thy grave receives thee at death, it shall deliver thee up to judgment at last; sueh as thy bed receives thee at night, it shall deliver thee in the morning: if thou sleep without ealliug thyself fo an aceount, thou wilt wake so, and walk so, and proceed so, without ever calling thyself to an account, till Christ Jesus call thee in the clouds. It is hot intended, that thou shouldst afflict thyself so grievously, as some over-doing pel, itents, to put chips, and shells, and splints, and flints, and nails, and rowels of spurs in thy bed, to wound and macerate thy body so. The inventions of men, are hOt intended here; but here is rt precept of God, implied in this precedent and practice of David, that as long as the sense of former sin, or the inclination to a future oppresses thee, thou must hot close thine eyes, thou must hot take thy test, till, as God married thy body and soul together in the creation, and shall at last crown thy body and soul together in the resurrection, so they may also test together here, tlmt as thy body rests in thy bed, thy soul may test in the peace of thy conscience, and that thou never say to thy head, Rest upon this pillow, till thou canst say to thy soul, Rest in this repentante, in this peace. Now as this sorrow of David's continued day and night, (in the day for the better edifieation of men, and ill the night for his better capitulation with God) so there is a farther continuation thereof without any weariness, expressed in thc next clause, Turbatus à furore oculus meus, as the Vulgate reads it, and Mine eye is dimned,.tbr despight or iidi.matioi, as our formcr, or as this last translation hath it, 3Iie eye is cosumed becaztse o2" [/rie./; and to spcak nearest to the original, Eroszts est oculus, 31ie eye is eate, o«t with indignation. A word or two shall be enough of each of these words, these three terms, Vhat the eye, which is the subject, what this consunHg, or dimmig, which is the effect, and what this griej': or i«llgtation, which is the affection, imports and oflbrs to our application. First, ocMas, the eye, is ordinarily taken in the Scriptures, Tro aspectzt, for the whole fce, the looks, the eountenance, the air of a man; and this air, an looks, and countenance, declares the whole habitude, and consti - tution of the man; as he looks, so he is: so that the eye here, the whole person; and so this grief had wrought upon the whole ri'ame and constitution of David, and decayed that; though he place it in the eye, yet it had grown over all the body. Since thou vast hot able to say to thy sin, The sin shall corne to mine eyes, but no farther, I will look, but hot lust, I will see, but hot covet, thou must not say, My repentance shall corne to mine eyes, and no farther, I will shed a few tears, and no nmre; but (with this prol,het David, and with the apostle St. Paul) thou must beat down thy body fo that particular purpose, and lu that proportion, as thou findest the rebellions thcreof to require: thou couldst not stop the sin at thine eyes; stop not thy repentance there neither, but pursue it in wholesonm nmrtification, through all those parts, in which the sin hath advanced his dolninion over thee; and that is our use of thc first word, the este, the whole frame. For the second word, which in our translations, is, in one dimmed, in the other cotsttmed, and in the Vulgate trottbled, a great naster in the original ' renders it well, elegantly, and naturally, out of the origilml, l'ernHtavit, tineavit, which is such a detbrmity, as worms make in wood, or in books; if David's sorrow for his sins brought him fo this deformity, what sorrow do they owe fo their sins, who being corne to a deformity by Reuchli.
their own licentiousnes, and intemperance, disguise ail that by unnatural heIps, to the drawing in of others, and the continuation of their former sins. The sin itself was the devil's act in thee but in the deformity and ability, though it follow upon the sin, God hath a hand; and they that smother and suppress these by paintings, and pamperings, unnatural helps to unlawful ends, do hot deliver themselves of the plague, but they bide the marks, and infict others, and wrestle against God's notifications of their former sins. And then the last of these three words, which is here rendered grief, does properly signify, indiffatio, and alger: and therefore St. Augustine upon this place, puts himself to tht question, If David's constitution be shaken, if his complexion and countenance be decayed, and withered, Prw indignationæ, For indignation, for anger, from whom proceeds this indignation, and this anger . says that blessed father. If it proceed from God, says he, it is well that he is but turbatus, and hot exti,ctus, that he is but troubled, and hot distracted, but shaken, and hot overthrown but overthrown, and hot ground to powder, hot trodden as fiat as dirt in the streets, as the prophet speaks. For David himself had told us but a few Psalms betbre, That when the aff]ry , (and when we speak of the Son, we intend a person more sensible, and so nmre compassionate oï our miseries, than when we speak of God, of God considered in the height of his majesty) and but a little agry, (which amounts hot to this provocation oï God, which David had fallen into here) we may perioh; and perish in the way; perish in a half repentanee, before we Derfect our reconciliation: in the way so, before we corne to out end; or in the way, in these outward actions of repentance, if they be hypocritically, or occasionally, or fashionally, or perfunctorily performed, and hot with a right heart towards God. Though this be the way, we may perish in the way. Now Aquinas places this fury (as the Vulgate calls it, this dignation) in Absalom, and hOt in David; he takes David's sorrow to rise out of his son's rebellion, and furious prosecution thereof; that David was thus vehemently afl'ected for the fault of another: and truly it is a holy tenderness, and an exemplar
6 PREACHED UPON Trie [.ER. LIIo disposition to be so sensible, nnd comniOllate for the sins o other men; tholl Abslom could not ]mre hu] Darid, wod bave rieved or his mmatura] attempt fo do if. So A(luinas' sense, it is Excandescettia pro iMmicis, A $OlTOV for his enemies; 'ot for his own danger from them, but for their sin in themselves; but Gregory vssen takes it, De excattdese- tia in iMmicos, For an indiguation against his enemies: and that David speaks tllis by way of confession, and accusation of hinlself, as of a ault, that he was too soon trsported to an impatience, and indignation against them, though cnemies; and taking that sense, we see, how quickly even the saints of God put themselves beyond the ability of making that petition sincerely, ryice us out tresTasses, as we for9ive them that tre.ass a9ainst us; how hard it is even for a good man to forgive an enemy; and how hard it is, 'ihil i peccatore odisse nlsl peccat«tm, To sever the sin from the sinner, and to hate the çault, aud hot the man. But leang Thomas and Gregory, Aquinas and Nyssen to that exposition, in which (I think) they are singularly singdar, either that this sorrow in David was a charitable and compassionate sense of others" faults, which is Aquinas' way, or that it was a confession of uncharitableness in himself towards others, which is Gregory's way, the whole stream (for the most part) of ancient expositors divide themselves into these two channels; either that this indignation conceived by David, which withered and decayed him, was a holy scorn and indignation against his own sins, that such wretched things as thooe should scparate him from his God, and from his inheritance, according to that chain of affections which the apostle nmkes , That godly sorrow brings a sinner to a cal'e; he is no longer careless, negligent of his ways; and that care to a clearing of himself, uot to clear himself by way of excuse, or disise, but to clear himseff by wav of physic, by humble confession; and then that clearing brings him to an indignation, to a kind of holy scorn, and wonder, how that temptation could work so; such an affection as we conceive to bave been in the spouse, when she said, Lari pedes, I hae washed my f«et, how shall I dçfile them? I have elnptied my soul by confession, is it possible I should charge it with new transgressions Or else they place this fl'eetion, this indignation in God; and then they say, it was an apprehension of the anger of God, to be expressed upon him in the day of judgment; and against this vermination, (as the original denotes) against this gnawing of the worm, that may bore througb, and sink the stronest vessel that sails in the seas of tbis world, there is no other varnish, no other liniment, no other medicament, no other pitch nor rosin against this worm, but the hlood of Christ Jesus: and therefore whensoever this worm, this apprchension of God's future iudignation, reservcd for the judgment, bites upon thee, be sure to present to it the blood of thy Saviour: never consider the judgnent of God for sin alone, bat in the company of the mereies of Christ. It is but the hissing of the serpent, and the whispering of Satan, when he surprises thee in a melancholy midnight of dejection of spirit, and lays thy sins before thee then; look hot upon thy sins so i||separably, that thou canst hot see Christ too: corne hot to a confession to God, without consideration of the promises of his Gospel; even the sense and remorse of sin is a dangerous consideration, but when the cup of salvation stands by me, to keep me from fainting. David himself could not get off when he would; but (as lac complains there, which is the last act of his sorrow to be considered in this, which is ail his part, and ail our first part) Ineterarit, tle waxed old because of all lds enemies. The difference is hot of much importance, whether it be inreterai, or inr«teradt; in the first, or in the third person. Vhether David's eyes, or David himself be thus decayed, and waxen old, imports little. But yet that which Bellarmine co|lects, upon this diflbrence, imports much. For, because the Vulgate edition, and the Septuagint, (such a Septuagint as we have now) read this in the first person of David himselt; inreterari, and the Hebrew hath it lu the third, ineterarlt, Bellarmine will needs think, that the Hebrew, the original, is falsified and corrupted still in advancement of that dangerous position of theirs, that their translation is to be preferred before the original; and that is an insufferable tyranny, and an idolatrous servility. The translation is a reverend translation; a translation to which the church of God owes much; but gold will makc an i,lol as well as wood, and to make a||y translation equal, or better than the original, is VOL. Il. 2 H an idolatrous seility. It is truc, that that hich is said here in the third person, implies the rst; and it is Dard, that after s sizains, and fainting with tat, after his weepin, and dissolving with that, after is consumin, and witherin wit that, foresees no reue, no escaue, inreterar$t, he waxes old amonst enemies. Vho were his enemies, and what was this ae that he eaks of It is of best use to pure the iritual sense of this Plm and so his enemies were his sins; and David round that e bad hot ot te victory over any one enemy, any one sin; anothcs bloed did hot extinish te lustfifl at of his own, nor the murder of the husband, the adtery with te ife: cane of sin is not an overcoming of sin; he that uasses from sin to sire witout reuntance, (whic was David's case for a rime) still leaves an enemy behind him; and thouh he bave no present asault fmm his foer enemy, no temutation to any act of his trer sin, yet he is still in the midst of his enemies; under condemnation of his çast, well as of his çsent sins; as wortby a receiver of the sacrament, for the sins of is youth donc forty years ao, if those sins were never reuented, thouh so discontinued as r his ambition, or covetoue, or indevotin of this uresent day. Theoe are his eneies; aud then this is te ae that rows upon hic, the ae tat David comulains of, I ara waxen oIJ; tat is, grown into abits of these sins. Tere is an old ae of our natal condition, le sall wax old as Jot a yarment'; David woul hot comulain of that wch ail men desire to wish to be old, and then udge to be old, when we are corne t it, cannot consist with moral constancy. There is an old age expreed in that phase, te old man, which the apole speaks of, which is that natural corption and disposition to sin, cast upon us by Adam; but that old man was crtwed in Christ, s the apostle'; and was hOt so only from that time when Christ w actually crucified, one thoand six hundred years ago, but from that time that 3 cond Adam w promioed to the first, in Paradise; and so that Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, from the beginning delivered all them, to whom the means ordained by God, (as circumcision to them, baptism to us) were aflbrded; and in that respect, David vas hOt » P c. 26. Ro ri. 6.
under that old age, but was become a new creature. Nor as the law was called the old law, which is another age also; for to them who understood that law aright, the new law, the Gospel, was enwrapped in the ohl: and so David as well as we, rnight be said to seree God in the newness of spirit, amt hot in the oldness of the letterS«; so that tlfis was hot the age that oppressed him. The age that oppresses the sinner, is that when he is grown ohl in sin, he is grown weak in strength, and become less able to overeome that sin then, than he was at beginning. Blindness contracted by age, doth not deliver him from objects of temptations; he sees them, though he be blind; deafness doth hot deliver him from discourses of temptation; he heam thel]i though he be deaf; nor lameness doth hot deliver him from pursuit of temptation; for in his own memol T he sees, and hears, and pursues all his former sinful pleasures, and every night, evcry hour sins over all the sins of many years that are passed. Th«t wkich u'axeth ohl, is ready to vanish , says the apostle: if we would let them go, they would go; and whether we will or no, they leave us for the ability of practice; but thésaurizamus, we treasure them up in our mcrnories, and we treasure up the wrath of God with them, against the day of wrath; and whereas one calling of our sins to our memories by way of confession, would do us good, and ser-e out turns, this often calling them in a sinfid delight, in the memory of them, exceeds the sin itself, when it was committed , because it is more unnatural now, thall it was then, and fl.ustrates thc pardon of that sin, when it was repcnted. To end this branch, and this part, so hmnble was this holy prophet, and so apprchensive of his own debility, and so far from an iumginary infallibility of falling no more, as that aftcr all his agonies, and cxerciscs, and mortifications, and prayer, and sighs, and weeping, still he finds himself in thc midst of enemies, and of his old enemies; for hot only temptations to new sins, but even the memory of old, though formerly repented, arise against us, arise in us, and ruin us. And so we pass from these pieces which constitute our first part, quid factura, what David upon the sense of his case did, to the other, quid fttciendum, what by his example ve are to do and wht is reqired of us, aftcr wc bave repented, and God bath remitted the sin. Ot of this pasge here lu this plm, and out of tt hlstory, where Nathan says to David, The Lord hath Ttt away thy sin ", and yet ys after, The child that is born to tlwe shall surely die, and out of that story, where David repents earnestly his sin, committed in the numberiug of his people, and says; Now, now that I have rcpented, % I beseech thee 0 Lord, take away the iniquity of thy serrat, for I have done very foolishO", yet David w to endure one of thvse thrce calamities, of famine, war, or Ttilence; and out of some other such places as these, some men ve imagined a doctrine, that after out repentance, and aKer God had thereupon pardoned out sin, yet he leaves the punishment belonging to that sin unpardoned; though not all the punishment, hot the eternal, yet say they, There belongs a temporary punishmcnt too, and that God does not pardon, but exacts, and exacts in the nature of a punishment, and more, by way of satisfaction to his justice. Now, stipendiam peccati wrs t, there is the punishment for sin, The reward of oin is death. If there remain no death, there remains no puuishment: For the rewardof sit fs death, and death complicated in itself, death wrapped in death; and what is so intricate, so entangling as death Whoever got out of a windingsheet It is death aggravated by itself; death weighed down by death: and what is so heasT as death 1Vhoever threw off his grave-stone If is death multiplied by itoelf; and what is so infinite as death? 1Vhoever told over the days of death If is morte morieris, a double death, eternal, and temporary. Temporal, and spiritual death. Now, the temporary, the natural death, God never takes away from us, he never pardons that punishment because he never takes away that sin that occasioned it, which is original sin; to what sanctification soever a man cornes, original sin lires to his last breath. And therefore, stattttum t, that decree ands, semel rl, that eve man must die once ; but for any bis mori, for twice dying, for eternal death upon any man, man, if God consider him uot as an iml)otent sinner, there is 2 Sain. . 13. 2 Sain. xxiv. 10. « Heb. i 27.
no sueh invariable decree; for, that death being also the punishment for actual sin, if ho take away the cause, the sin, ho takes away that effect, that death also; for this death itself, eternal death, we ail agree that it is taken away with the sin; and then for other calamities in this lire, which we eall, Morticulaa, littlo deaths, the ehildren, the issue, the offspring, the propagation of death, if ve would speak properly, no affliction, no jud-maent of God in this lire, hath in it exaetly the nature of a punishment; hot only hot the nature of satisfaction, but not tho nature of a punishlnent. We call not coin, base coin, till tlle allay be more than the pure metal: God's judgments are hot punishments, exeept there be more danger than love, more justiee than merey in flmm; and that is never; for miserationes e/us scier omnia oTera, his mercies are above ail his works: in his first work, in the creation, his A'Idrit, the Holv Ghost, moed upon the fizce of" the waters; and still upon the face oï all out waters, (as waters are emblems of tribulation in ail the Scriptures) his Spirit, the Spirit of comfort, nmves too and as the waters produced the first creatures in the ereation, so tribulations offer us the first comforts, sooner than prosperity does. Goal executcs no judgment upon man in this lire, but in mercy; either in mercy to that person, in his sense thereof, if he be sensible, or at least in mercy fo his church, in the example thereof, if he be hot: therc is no person to whom we can say, that God's corrections are punishments, any otherwise than medicinal, and such, as he may receive amendment by, that receives them; neither does it become us in any case, to say God lays this upon him, because he is so ill, but because he may be better. But lere out consideration is only upon the godly, and such as by repentance stand upright in his favour; and even in them, out adversaries say, That after the renfission of their sins, there remains a punishment, and a punishment by way of satisfaction, to be borne for that sin, which is remitted. But since they themselres tell us, that in baptism God proceeds otherwise, and pal'- dons there all sin, and all punishment of sin, which should be infllcted in the next world, (for children newly baptized, do hot surfer anything in purgatory) and that this holds hot only in baFtismo flumiMs, in the saerament of baptism, but in baptismo sanyuinis, in the baptism of blood too; (t'or in martyrdom, as St. Augustine says, l»juriamfacit martyri, Ite wrongs a martyr that prays for a martyr, as though he were hot already in heaven, so he suspects a martyr, that thinks that martyr goes to purgatory) and sinec they say, that he tan do so in the other sacrament too, and in repcntanee, which they call, and justly, 5'ecundam post na'rayium t«bMam, That whel'eas baptism hath once delivercd us ïrom shipwreck, iii original sin, this repentance delivers us aftcr baptism, ri'oto ai:tual sin; SillCe God can pardon, without rcscrving any punishment, since God does so ill baptism and martyrdorn, since out of baptism or martyrdoln, it appears oïten, that de.facto, he hath donc so, (for he enjoined no penance to the lllall sick of the palsy, whcn he said, Son be of yood comfort, thy sins are foryiren thee ", sins, and punishments too. He intimated no such after reckoning to her, of whom he said, 21lany sins are forgire ber"; sins, and punishments too. He left no such fnture satisfaction in that parable upon the Publican, that departed to hls bouse justified«; justified from sins, and punishments too. And whcn he had declared Zaccheus to be the son of Abrahaln, and said, This da!l is salrcttion corne tnto th!l house «, he did not charge this blessed inheritanee with any such ineumbranee, that he should still be subjeet to old dcbts, to make satisfaction by bodily afflictions for former sins) sinee God ean do this, and does 8o in baptism, and martyrdom, and hath donc this vcry often, out of baptism, or martyrdom, in repentance, we had need of clearer evidenee than they have offered to produce yet, that God does othcrwise at any rime; that at any rime he pardons the sin, and retains the punishluent, by way of satisfaction. If tlleir tnarket should rail, that no nian would buy indulgences (as of laie years it was brought low, when they vented ten indulgences in America for one in Europe) if the tire of purgatory were quenehed, or slackencd, that men would hOt be so prodigal to buy out fathers' or friends' souls, from thence; if commutation of penanee were so moderated amongst them, that those penanees, and satisfae- tions, which they make so necessary, were not comnmted to money, and brought them in no profit, they would hot be perhaps so vehoment in maintenance of this doctrine. To leave such imaginations with their authors; we sec David did enjoin himself penauce, and impose upon himself heavy aictions after he had asked, and no doubt, reeeived assurance of the mercy of God, in the remission of his sins. XVhy did he so . St. A ugustine observes out of the words of this text, that because some of David's atflictions are expresscd in the l)reter tense, as things already past, aad some in the future, as things to corne, (for it is Laborari, I have mourned, and it is Vatare.làciam, I v,'ill wash my bed with tears) so that something David confesses lin had donc, and SOlnething he professes that he will do, therefore David hath a special regard to his future state, and he proeeeds with God, hot only by that way of holy worship, by way of confession, what he had donc, but by another religious worship of God too, by way of vow, what he would do. David understood his own conscience well; and was willing to husband it. to mauure, and cultivate it well; he knew what ploughing, what harrowing, what weeding, and watering, and pruning it needed, and so perhal)s might be trusted with himself, and he his own spiritual physieian. This is hot every one's case. Those that are hot so perfect lu the knowledge of their own estate, (as it is certain the most are hot) the church ever took into ber cure; and therefore it is truc, that in the primitive chureh, there were heavy penitential canons, and there were public penances enjoined fo sinners: either ad explorationem, when the church had eau.e to be jealous, and to suspect the hearty repentante of the party, they ruade this trial of their obedience, to submit them to that heavy penanee; or else ad cedi./lcationem, to satisfy the ehurch which was seandalized by their sins before; or ad exercitationêm, to keep them in continual praetice, the better to resist future remptations, and relapses; for to them this portance was an unction, as to one that was to wrestle with himself, and as the buckling on of an arrnour upon one that was to fight God's battles, in his own bowels. If from some of the fathers there ha-ce fallen sometimes some phrases, which may haro seemed to ome to attribute omething more to man's works, to his after-afflietions, and post-penanees, ome power of satisfaction to the justice of God, Bellarmine himself hath given us one good caution, That we must be ver)" wary in understanding those phrases; for he fiuds it very inconrenient to accept ail that the fathcrs bave said, in their manner of expressing themselves in that point. We will add thus much more, for the better understanding of repentante in the foot, and the fruits of repentante, that there is such an indissoluble knot, such an individual marriage between those parts of repentanee, which we eall l'artes constitutiras, Essential parts of repentante, and those parts, which we call consecutiras, which do infallibly concur, or immediately follow upon repentante, these two are so inscparable; there is hot only such a contiguity, but such a continuity in them, not only sueh a vicinity, bug such an identit S, between repentante, and the fruits of repentante, that many reverend persons, in their expositions, and meditations have presented, and named one for the other, and have called those subsequent, and subsidiary things, by the name of repentauce itselt'. Hence it cornes, that whereas repentante is only conrersio, a turning, and this conversion, this turning hath only terminum a quo, something to turn from, and that is sin, and terminum ad 9uem, something to turn to, and that is God, those things which are indeed but helps to hold us in that station, and in that posture whcn we are turned from sin upon God, they bave called by the names of repentante itself, as parts of it; and so these bodily afflictions, which we speak of. being indeed to be embraced for that use, to maintain us in that good disposition, to which out repentante hath brought us, have sometimes been called parts of repentante, even by godly, and learned expositors; and by occasion of that easiness in them, in calling these things thus, in after-times, salvation itself, which God gives upon repentante, bath been attributed to these post-penances, and after-afflictions, which because they do always accompany repentante, have sometimes been called repentante. The meaning of ancient and later men too therein, bath been to impose a necessitv of taking these medicinal physics, these after-afflictions, for that use of holding us in that state, to which we are brought; but their meaning bath ever been too, to exclude
atisfaction, properly so tcrmcd. Pwnitentia est, ala prwterita ¥1avyêre ", This is repcntance savs that father, fo lainent and bcwail our former sins; but, this is hOt all that he requires, but he adds, Pla¢erda iterum vwn coffttere, This bclongs to repentante too, hot to return to those sins, which we have bewailed. For, repentance is lïndicta senper puins, quod doht se co»misisse «, says another also; A mau truly pcnitent is a daily cxccutioner upon himself, aud punishes aftcr, the sius which he bath committcd bcfore. Here we sec that both those I,lcssed fithers, St. Augustinc, and St. Ambrose, attribute these afteraictions, aud post-pcnances to rcpeutance, and call them by that naine, repentante. But yet, not fo lcave these blcssed fitthers under the danger of mis-intcrpretation, and iii-application of words well intended, we cousidcr the saine fathers in other places too; Lacry- as P«tri lego, satLàctionem non lego", I read of Pcter's tears, not of his satisfaction. So if these post-penances had the uature of punishments, yet these punishments had hOt the nature of satisfachon. But 6çdamitates ante remisslonem sttnt sq»plicia, post renissionem exercitationes «, says the other of those fathers: Till God be pacified by out repentance, his corrections have more of the nature of punishments, because considcred so, we are in the state of enemies, aud he may justly punish; but aKer God bath rcmitted the sin, the after-aictions are but f»om a physiciau, uot from an executioner, and intcnded to keep us iu our station, and uot to throw us lower; so that they are neither properly satisfactions, nor punishments. For, for satisfaction to the justice of God, c si te excories, sati.làcere possis , If thou flay thyself with hair-cloths, and whips, it is nothing towards satisfaction of that infinite BIajey, which thou hast violated, and wounded by thy sin; and then for the other, that is, puuishment after remission, Ubi misericordia, poe» locus wn est , They are incompatible things, if God have reserved a disposition and purpose to punish, he hath not pardoued. So that howsoever something said by them, may seem to make these ater-affiictions fo be necessary to repentante, aud, in a large sense, parts of repentante, yet neithcr did they put that value uon mans act, tht man should bc alc tJsçy od, nor that delusion upon God's act, that God should prctend p'don, and yet punish. We are hot disposed fo wrangle about words, and names; the sehool may adroit that exercise, but not the pulpit. If upon admittanee, that these after-aictions might be caHed punishments, they had hot inferred a satisfaction, and thereupon super-indueed a satishetion after this lire, and so a purgary, - and indulgeneies, and earried their Babel so many stories high, we to advance the doctrine of a necessity of theoe diiplines, and mortifications, even after God hath sealed to our consciences the remission of our fin, would not abhor, nor deeline the naine, we would not be afmid to call them penanees, nor punishments, nor satisfactions; for when St. Crystom in his rime, had no occasion to be afraid of such a miinterpretation, he was hot afraid to call them so; zXn remi»it »t,pplicium, mys he; God hath not forgiven the punishment; and Imonit poenam God exacts a punishment at thy hands; but yet, though St. Chrysostom suspeeted no such mis-intewretations, the Holy Ghost who tbresaw that they would corne, prevents all dangerous mis-constructiong and directs St. Chrysostom's pen, thus, God does all this, says he, on e«igen» »uppliciu» de pe'atio, oed corri.qen ad.t«tt«rum; Whatsoever I bave said of punishments, it is not that in that punishment. God bath anv relation to the former, but fo the future sin, hOt to out lapse, but to our relapse, not fo that which he hath seen, but to that whieh he foresees wod rail upon us, if he did not, if we did hOt pres'ent it with these medicinal - sisnces: and, as long as it is but so, eall them what you will, yet here is no tbundation laid, no materials, no stone brought to the building of the Roman satisfaction, or pmatory, or indulgeneies. Howsoever therefore you exclude dangerous names, do not, upon colour of that, exclude necessary things: howsoever you have delivered yourselves to the merci- of God, and he hath delivered a seal of his mercy to you, inwardly in his spirit, outwardly in his sacrament, yet there are Amaroe mgittw ex dulci nt Dei, (as 'azianzen ealls aictions after repentanee) sharp arrows out of the sweet hand of God; corroetions, by which God iuten to estab»h us in that spiritual health, to which out repennce, by his grace, hath brought us: remember still, that this which David did for the presellt, and that which he promised he would do for the future, both together ruade up the reason of his prayer to God, by which he desired God in the former verses, to return to him, to delierhis soul, and to sare him; he had had no reason, no ground of his prayer, thongh he had donc something already, if he had hOt proposed to himself something more to be donc. Tllere is a preparation before, and there fs a preser,'ation afer required at out hands, if we study r perfeet recover.v, and cure of out souls. And as St. Gregory notes well, there is a great deal of force in David's possessif'e, in his word of appropriation, 3leu», lectua nwua, and oculu» mena, ]t is his bed that ]le washed, and they are his eyes that washed it: he bore tac affliction himself, and trusted hot to that whieh others had suffered way of supererogation. Sometilnes, when the ehildren of great persons offend at sellool, another person is whipped for them, and that affects them, and works upon a good nature; but if tlmt person should take physic for them in siekness, it would do them no good: God's eorrections upon others may work by way of example upon thce; but because thou art sick for physic, take it thyself. Trust hOt to the treasure of the ehurch; neither the imaginary treasure of the church of Home, which pretends incxhaustible mine of the works of other nleu, to distribute and bestow; no, nor to the truc treasure of" the truc ehurch, that is, absolntion, upon confession, and repentante; no, trust uot to the merits of Christ himself, iii their application to thee, without a lectus tuua, and an oculus tuu$, except thou l'elnClliber thy sils in thy bed, and pour out thy tears from thine eyes, and fulfil the sufferings of Crist in thvself. N'othing ean be added to merits; that is true: but something must be added fo thee; disposition in thee, for the application of that whieh is his: hot, that thou canst begin this disposition in thyself, till God offer it, but that thou m,yest resist it, now it is offered, and reject it again, after it is reeeived. Trust hot in other, hot in the chureh, nor iii Crist himself, so, as to do nothing for thyself; nor trust hOt in that, which thou doest for thyself, so, as at any rime to think, thou hast done enough aud needest do no more: but when thou hast past th signet, that thou hast found the signature of
4?(; PeACHEn God's hand and seal, in a manifestation, that the marks of his grace are uçon thee, when thou haut past spirit bears witness with thy spirit, that thy repentance hafli been accepted by him, when thou hast past the great seal, in the holy and blessed sacrament publicly administered, do hot suspect the goodncss of God, as though ail werc hot done that were necessary for thy salvation, if thou wert to have thy transmigration out of this world this hour; but yet, as long as thou continucst in thc raie of tentations, continue and though thou have the seal of reconciliat]on, plead that seal to the church, (which is God's tribunal, and judgment-set upon carth) in a holy lire, and works of example to others, nd look daily, look hourly upon the ira quod of covenants and conditions, with which it is given, that if by ncglecting those medicinal helps, those auxiliary forces, those subsidies of the kingdom of heven, flmse aher-affiictions, (choese wheflcr you will ca flmm by the naine of penance, or no) you relapse into former sins, your present repentance, and your present seal of that repentance, the scrmnent, shall rise up ainst you at the last dy, and to that sentence (you did hot feed, you did hot clofle, you did hot harbour me in the poor) shall this be added, as the aggravation of all, you did repent, nd you did rcccive the seal, but you did not pursue that repentance, nor pertbrm the conditions required at your hands. But we are here tact, by God's gracious goodness, in botter disposition; with a sincere repentance of ll our former sins, and with a deliberte purpose, as those Israelites ruade thcir pouring out of water a testimony ofdissolving themselves into holy tears, make this fast from bodily sustenance an inchoation of spiritual fst, in bstinence from all that nmy exsperate our God gMnst us; that so, though hOt for tht, yet thereby our pruyers nmy be tire more acceptable to out glorious God, in out gracious Sviour, to Him tht sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, first, that he is thc King of kings, ho will establish, and prosper that crown, which ho hath set upon the head of his Anointed over us here, and hereafter crown that erown with another crown, a better erown, a cmwn of immareessible glory in thc kingdom of heaven, and in the mean rime, mako him his bulwark, and his rampart, agMnst all those powers, which seek to multip]y mitres, or crowns, to the disquiet and prejudice of Christendom: and then, that as he is the Lord of lords, he will inspire them, to whom he hath given lordship over others in this world, with a due consideration, that they also have a Lord over them, even in this wot'ld; and that he, and they, and we have one Lord over us all, in the other world: that as he is the Bishop and High Priest over out souls, he vouchsafe to continue in out" bishops, a holy will, and a competent power to superintend faithfully over his church, that they for their parts, when they depart from hence, may deliver it back into his hands, in the sme fom, and frame, in which his blessed spirit delivered it into their hands, in their predecessors, in the primitive institution thereof: that as he is the Angel of the great council, he vouchsafe to direct the great eouneil of this kingdom, to consider still, that as he works in this world by means, so it eoncerns his glory, that they expedite the supply of such means as may do his work, and may earry home the testimony of good consciences now, aud in their posterity h.ve the thanks of posterity, for their behaviour in this parliament; that as he is the God of peace, he will restore peaee to Christendom; that as he is the Lord of hosts, he will fight out battles, who have no other end in our w,rs, but his peaee; and that after this fast, whieh in the bodil.v and ghostly part too, we perform to-day, and vow and promise for our whole lires, he will bring us to the marriage-supper of the Lamb, in that kingdom, whieh our Saviour Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with tho inestimable price of his incorruptible blood, lmen.
PSXLa ri. 8, 9, 10. Depart from me, ail ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord bath heard the voiee of my weeping. The Lord lmth heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer. Let all mine enemle be ahamed and sore vexed: let them retura and be ashamed addenly. Tins is David's profligation and discomfiture of his enemies this is an act of true honour, a true xictory, a true triumph, to keep the field, to make good one station, and yet put the enemy to flight. A man my perchanee be safe in retreat, but the honour, the victory, the triumph lies in enforcing the enemy to fly. To that is David corne here, to such a thankful sense of a victory; in whieh we shall first consider David's thanki'ulness, that is, his manner of declaring God's merey, and his seeurity in that mercy; which manner is, that he durst eome to an open defiance, and protestation, and hostility, without modifications, or disguises, D«part frorn me ai1 ye work«rs of inbluity. And thên, secondly, we shall sec his reason, upon which he groundêd this confidence, and this spiritual exultation, which was a pregnant reason, a reason that produeed another reazon; The Lord bath heard my sq,ldication, thv Lord u:ill hear noj prayer; upon no premises doth any conclusion follow so logically, so sincerely, so powerfully, so imperiously, so undeniably, as upon this, The Lord bath, and ther:[bre tlte Lord will. But then what was this pra.ver. that we may know, whether it were a prayer to be drawn into practice, and imitation, or no. It is hot argument ênougb, that it was so, because God heard it then; for we are hot bound, nay, we are not allowed to pray ail such prayers, as good men have prayed, and as God hath heard. But here the prayer was this, Let ail mine enemies be ashamed, and sore :exéd, let them return, and be ashamed suddenly. But this is a rnalediction, an imprecation of mischief upon others; and will good men pray so. or will God hear that. Because that is an holy problem, and an useful intcrrogatory, we shall make it a third part, or a conclusion rather, to inquire into the nature, and into the avowableness, and exemplariuess of this, in which David seems to bave been transported with some passion. So that out parts will be three, tire building itself, David's thanksgiving in his exultation, and declaration, Delart from me all ye workers of inipuity; and then the foundation of this building, For God ]tatk ]ward, and therefore God will hear; and lastly, the prospect of this building, David contemplates and looks over agaiu the prayer that he had ruade, and in a clear understanding, and in a rectified conscience, he finds that he may persist in that prayer, and he doth so: Let all mine enemies be as]amed, e«nd sore vexed, let t]era return, and be askamed sud- First then we consider Davd's thankt'ness; but why is it so long bcïore David leads ns to that consideration . Why bath he dcfcrrcd so primary a dnty, to so late place, to so low a room, to the end of the psalm t. The psalm bath a deprecatory part, that God would forbear him, and a postulatory part, that God would hear him, and grant some things to him, and a gratulatory part, a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Now the deprecatory part is placed in the first pl,ce, ver. l. For if if vere hot so, if we should hOt first ground that, That God should hOt rebuke as in his an.qer, nor chastea us in his hot disple«sure, but leave ourselves open to his indignation, and his judgments, we eould hot lire to corne to a second petition; out sins, and judgments due to our sins, require out first consideration; therefore David begins with the deprecatory prayer, tllat first God'fi nager may be removed: but then that depreeatory prayer, wherein he desired God to forbear him, spends but one verse of the psalm; David would hot insist upon that long: whcn I have penitently confessed my sins, I may say with Job, lll flesl is hot brass, wr my bones stones, tha I ca bear tle crath of the Lord; but yet I must say with Job too, 1.f tlw Lord bill me, yet will I trust in M-m. God hath hot asked me, what shall I do for thee, but of himself he hath done more, than I eould bave proposed to myself in a wish, or to him in a pr,yer. Nor vill I ask God, Quoustue, How long shall my foes increase. how long wilt thou fight on their side against me but suender myself entirely, in an aEvniat regnum, and a fiat volunta, tky kingdom corne, and thy will be dne. Dnvid makes if his first work, o stny God' anger in n depreeatory prnyer, but he stys not upon thnt long, he will hot preseribe his physieian, what he shall preribe fo him, but lenves God his own medieines, and to his own meth. But then the postulntory prayer, whnt he be of God, employs six verses: as well to show us, that our neeessities are lnany; as Mso that if God do not answer us at the beginning of out prayer, out duty is still to pursue that way, to continue in prayer. And then the third part of the pmlm, which is the atulary part, his giving of thanks, is, shall we say deferred, or rather reserved m the end of the psalm, and exercises only those three verses which are our text. Not that the duty of thanksgiving is less than that of prayer; for if we cod compare them, it is rather greater; because it contributes more to God's glory, to acknowledge by thanks, that Goal bath given, than m acknowledge by prayer, that God can give. But therefore nfight David be later and shorter here, in expressing that duty of thanks, first, because being reserved to the end, and close of the psMm, it leaves the best impression in the memory. And therefore it is ey fo observe, that in all lnetrical compositions, of which kind the Book of Psalms is, the force of the whole piece, is for the most part left to the shutting up; the whole frane of the poem is a bearing out of a piece of gold, but the last clause is as the impression of the stamp, and that is it that makes it current. And then also, because ont of his abundant manner of expressing his thankfulness to God, in every other place thereof, his whole Book of Psahns is called,,çtTker tehillim, a Book of praise and thankoe giving, he might reserve his thanks here to the last place; and lastly, cause natural and moral nen are better acquainted with the duty of gratitude, of thanksgiving, before they corne to the Scriptures, than they are with the other duty of repentance, which belongs to prayer; for in ail Solomon's Books, you shall not find haff so much of the duty of thmkfulness, as you shall in Seneca and in Plutarch. No book of ethics, of moral doctrine, is corne to us, wherein there is not, almost in every leaf, some
8ER. LllLJ PENITENTIAL P8ALM8. detestaton, some anathema aginst ingratitude; but of repentante, hot a word amongst them Ml. And therefore in tht duty of prayer, which presumes repentance, (for he must and recrus n curia that will pmy) Dvid hath insisted longest; and because he wou]d enter, and establish a man, upon 3 confidence in God, he begins with depcation of his nger; for but upon tht ound, no man can ad; and because he wouId dismiss him with that which concerns him most, he chooses to end in a thanksgiving. Therefore t lt he cornes to his thanks. Now this is so poor a duty, if we pçoion if to the infiaiteness of God's love unto , our thanks, as we may justly call it nothing af ail. But Amor Dei affectus, non cotractrs', The love of God is hOt a contract, a bargain, he looks for nothing again, and yet he looks for thanks, for that is nothing, because there is nothing done in it, it is but speaking; Gratias divere, est gratias ayere , To utter our thanks to God, is all out performance of thankfulness. It is hOt so amont us; Vix, att nunuam apud ws puram, et benoEciun; Every man that gives, gives out of design, and as it conduces to his en: Dorat in amo', There is a hook in every benefit, that sticks in his jaws that takes tlmt benefit, and draws him whither the benefactor will. God looks for nothing, nothing to be done in the way of exact recompense, but yet, as he that makes a clock, bestows all that labour upoa the se'eral whee]s, that thereby the bell might give a sound, and that thereby the hand might give knowledge to others how the time passes; so this is the principal pa of that thankfulness, vhich God requires fmm us, that we make open declarations of his mercies, to the winniag and confirming of others. This David does in this noble aud ingenuous publication, and protestation, I have strength enough, and company enough, power enough, and pleasure enough, joy enough, and treasure enough, honour enough, and recompense enough in my God alone, in him I shall surely have ail which you can pretend to give, and therefore Discedite à me, Depart om me all ye u'or'ers i:iity; here is then first a valediction, a paing with his old company, but it is a valediction, with a malediction, with an imprecation t Bernard. Austine. Plo Judoeus. IartiaL VOL. lI. 2 I of ods ustlce, upon their contempts and inuries. There was in the mouth of Christ, sometimes, such a dsceJe, such an as that farewell was a welcome; as wheu he said to the ruler, Abito, Go thy way, thy so liveth; and whcn he said to the wolnan, Go la peace, th!! faith bath sa¢ed thee «. This going was a staying with him still; here the abite, and venite was all one. He that goes about his worldly busiuess, and goes about them in God's naine, lu the fear and favour of God, remains in God's presence still. ,Vhcn the angels of God are sent fo visit his children, in the luidst of Sodom, or where they lie, and languish in sordid and nasty corners, and in the loathsomeness of corrupt and iufectious diseases, or whcre they faint in mioerable dungeons, this commission, this dlscedite, go fo that Sodom, fo that spital, to that dungeon, puts not those angels out of the presence of God. 1o descent into hell, of what kind soever you couceive that descent into hell to have been, put the Son of God out of heaven, by dcscending into hell; o discede, no leave, no commaudment that God gives us, fo do the works of out calling here, excludes us from him; but as the saints of God shall follov the Lamb, wheresoe,er he goes in heaven, so the Lamb of God shall follow llis saints, wheresoe-er they go upon earth, if they walk sincerely. Christ uses hot then as yet, as loug as we are in this world, ths dlscede of David, fo bid any man, any sinner to depart from him: but there shall corne a time, when Christ shall take David's discedê, the words of this text into his mouth, with as much and more bitterness than David does here, ¥sci¢i os, I never knew ye, and therefore Dpart J'fore me ye workers of iMqMtff. So bave you his protestatiou, his proclamation, they must avoid; but who. who be these that David dismisses here . Tako them to be thoso of his own bouse, his servants, aud officers in near places, whose service he had used to ill purposes, (as David's pcrson, and tank, and history directs us Ul)OU that considcration) and wo shall find all such persons wrapt up in this danger, that they date not discharge themsel-es, they date hot displace, nor disgraco those men, to whom, by such elnployments, they havo given that advantage over themselves, as that it is not sale to them, fo off'end such a servant. atttra ec hostem habet, te a John iv. 4. « Luke vii. 50.