SER. LIII.J PENITENTIAL PSALSIS. 483 amicum rex, says a wise statesman 7; In nature, (that is, in tho nature of greatness, and, as reat) great persons consider no man to be so much a friend, nor to be so much an enemy, but that they will fall out with that friend, and be reconciled to that enemy, to serve their own turn, says that statesmn. But yet when grcat persons trust servants with such secret actions, as nmy bring them into contempt at home, or danger abroad, by those vices, if they should be published, they cannot corne when they would, to this Discedie, eart om me ail ye u'orkers of iniçuity. We haro this evidently, and unavoidably, we eannot but sec it, and say it, in this example whieh is before us, even in King David. tic had employed Joab in ch services, that he stoed in fear of him, and endured at his hands that behaviour, and tht language, Thon hast skamed tkis day tke bces of ail thy servants tkat kave saed thy 1oEë, and tky sons, and dauyhters, and &es, and concublnes, thon re9ardest neither thy princes, servants; but corne out, and speak co»brtably.unto them, br swear b tke Lord, exceFt thon do corne out, there will hot tarry one man with tkee this ni9ht . Dvid endured ail this, for he knew that Joab had that letter in his cabinet, which he writ to him for the murder of Uriah, and he never came fo this discedite, fo remove Joab from hiln in his life, but gave if in commandmeut to llis n, Let hot Joab's koaçv head go dou'n to tke ffrave i peace': here is the misery of David, he eannot diseharge hilnself of that servant when he will, and here the misery of that se'vant, that at one time or other he will; and he is short lived man, whose ruin jealous prinee studies. Beeause the text invited us, eommanded, and eonrained us to do so, we put this example in a court, but we need not dazzle ourselves with that height; every lnail iii his own bouse nmy find it, that to those servants, whieh have served him in ill aetions, he dates not sy, bcedite, DpartJ)'om me ye workers of iniquity. Thus then it is; if those whom David dismisses here were his own servants, it was an expressing of his thankfulness to God, and duty that lay upon him, to deliver himself of sueh servants. But other expositors take these men to be men of another sort,
8 PREAC,D çON rHE [SER. Lin. men that came to triumph over him in his mlsery, men that Perecuted him whom God had mien, and ad«d to the orrow of him whom God had ounded , s himsdf eomplins; men that pretended to visit him, yet when they eme, They spoke li, their hearts gathed iniquity to thselees, and n'hen they ent abroad they told item; men tht sid to one nother, When shall he die, and his naine pesh? Here lso ws deelartion of the powerfulness of God's Spirit in him, that he eould triumph over the triumpher, nd exorcise those evil spirits, nd eommand them awy, whose eoming ws fo dishonour God, in Iris dishonour; and to rgue and eonclude out of his ruin, that either his God xvas a xveak God, or cruel God, that he eodd not, or would not deliver his servants from destruction. That Dvid eould eommand them way, whose errand was fo blaspheme God, nd whose stying in longer conversation nfight bave #ven him occasion of new sins, either in distrusting God's merey wards himself, or in murmuring at God's patience tovards them, or perehance in being unehritably offended with them, and expressing it with some bitterness, but that in respect of himself, and hot of God's glory only, this Disoedite, Depart from me ail such men s do sin in yourselves, nd may make me sin toe, was n oet of an heavenly courage, and thanul testimony of God's greious visiting his soul, enabling him so resolutely to teur himseff from sueh persons, s might lead him into tentation. either is this separation of David, and his eompny, partial; he does hot banish those that incline him to one sin, sin that perehanee he is wery of, or gown unable to proceed in, and retained them that eoneur with him in some fresh sin, to which he hath new appetite. David doth not banish them that sueked his subjects" blood, or their money, nd retained them that solicit, nd corrupt their vives, and daughters; he doth not displaee them, who served the fiees of his predeeessor, and supply those places with instruments of new vices of his o, but it la Discedite omnes, Depart ail ye u'or'ers of iniquity. ow beloved, when God begins so high as in kings, he makes this dut the esier fo thee; fo bnish from thoe, e wo-ee £OEM. It is hot cee, th ill serve o bnsh one, nd in the test, nor cee, fo bnish he re, nd rein one, but iscedite omnes, epart ail, for that sin stays in state, that stays alone, and bath the venom, and the malignity of ail the test contracted in it. Itis nothing for siek man that bath lost his reste, to y, Discedat 9ula, Depart voluptuousness; nothing in a consumption to say, Disçedat luxuria, Depart wantonness; nothing for a client in forma pauperis, to say, Discedat rrttptio, I will not bribe; but Discedant omnes, Depart all, and all together, ye workers of iniquity. But yet David's general discharge had, and ours must bave, a restriction, a limitation; it is not (as St. Jerome notes upon this place) Omnes qui operati, but Omnes oerantes, not all that have wrought iniquity, but ail that continue in doing so till. David was not inexorable towards those that had offended; what an exam])le should he bave given God against himself, if he d been so we must hot despise, nor defame men, because they bave committed some sin. Vhen the mercy of God bath wrought upon their sin in the remission thereof, that leprosy of Naaman cleaves to us, their sin is but transferred to us, if we will not forgive that which God hath foiven, for it is but omnes operantes, all they that continue in their evil ways. Ail these must depart: how f fir, thcy must be avoided, Declinate, ith St. Paul, I beseech you brethren, mark them diliffently which cause division and oknces, and aroid them . And this corrects out desire in running after such men, as corne wifl tiroir own inventions, schismatical Separatists, declinate, avoid them; if he be no such, but amont ouroelves, a brother, but yet a worker of iniquity, If any one that is lled a brother, be a fornicat, or cetous, with such a one eat hot". If we cannot srve him out, we nmst thrust him out; put away from anmng you, that wicked man. No convertion at ail is allowed to us, with such a man, is obstinate in his sin, and incorrigible; no not to bid him God speed, For he that biddeth him God sTe, is eartaker of his evil deeds ». In this divorce, both the generMity, and the distance is best expressed by Christ himself, If tMne eye, tMe ad, ty foo oè<l thee, amptadi et projlciendl , with what anish or remorse soever it be doue, they must be cet o and being cut «est awa; if is divorce and no superinduction, itis eparating, and no rentegration. Though thou coldst be content to go to heaven with both eyes, (thyself and thy companion) yet better to go into heaven with one, thyself alone, than to endanger thyself to be left out for thy coml»anion's sake. To conclude this first prt, David does not sy, Discedam, but Discedite, he does not say, that he will depm't ti'om them, but ]le commands them to depart from him. We must hot think to deprt from the offices of society, and duties of a caing, and bide ourselves in monasteries, or in retired lires, for fear of tentations; hut when a tentation attempts us, to corne with that autbority, and that powerful exorcism of Nazianzen, Ftt9e, re«de, e te cruce Ckristi, ad qt«am omnia cotttremisctttt, feriam, De]»ar from me, lest the cross of Christ, in my nd, overthrow you. For a sober life, and a Christian mortification, and dioereet disciplite, are crosses derived from the cross of Christ Jesus, and animated by it, and may be always in readiness to cross such tentations. In the former descriltions of the manner of our bebaviour towards workers of iniquity, there is one declittate, one word that implies a thdrawing of ourselves; for that nmst be done, hot out of the world, but out of that ill air; we lnust hOt put ourselves in danger, nor in distance of a tentation; but all the other words are words of more active vehemence, a»tpt«tate, and pricite; it is discedite, and hot discedam, a driving away, and not a running away. Ve proceed now in out second pa, to the reasons of Davies confidence, nd his openness, md his public declaration; vhy David was content to be rid of all his company; and it was, because he had better; he snys, The Lord kad heard hin; and first, He h«td he«rd, eocem flettts, tlw voice of his weel»itt . Here is an admirable readiness in God, that hears voice in that, which hath none. They bave described God by saying he is eye, an univeal eye, that pierceth into every dnrk corner; but in dark corners, there is something for him to see; but he is all 3Iatt. v. 28.
er too, nnd hears even file silent, nd seechless an, and hears that in that an, that akes o sourd, his tears. Vhen Hezekih wept, lin ws turned to the wall ', (perchnce, because he would hot be seen) and yet God bade the l)rop]mt Esay tell him, di lacrymam; though the text say, Heze'iah wTt sore, yct vldit l«vrym««m, God saw every single tear, his first tear, and was aflècted with that. But yet this is more strange; God heard his tears. And thcreforc the weeping of hot impropcdy called, Leyatio lacry»tar«m TM, an embassage of team; to ambassadors belongs an audience, and to these embassaz God gives a acious audience; Abyss«s ««bysst«» im'ocat, O»e deptl lls tpon anotlter ; and so doth one kind of tcars call upon one another. Tears of sorrow call upon tears of joy, and all call upon God, aud bring hlm to that ready hearing which is implied in the words of this text, sltamaty; word of that laçgeness in the Scriptures, tiret sometimes in the translation of the Septuagint, it signifies hcaring, shama, is attdit, God gives car to our tear; ometimes it is bclieving, skamatty, is credit, God gives faith, and credit to out tears; sometimes if is affecting, sham««9, is »iseretur, God bath mercy upon us for our tem's; ometimes it is affecting, shc«»tat[], is respotdet, God answers the petition of out tears; and sometimes it is publication, shamat9, is diettqat, God declares and nmnifests to others, by his blessings upon us, the pleasure that he tales in our holy and repentant tears. And therefore LactmoE.foeus, says St. Basil, Tears are that usury, by which the joys of heaveu are multiplied unto us; the preventing grace, nd the free mercy of God, is our oek, and principal; but the acts of obedicnce, and mortification, fasting, and praying, and weeping, are fa'ttts, (says that blessed father) the interest, and the increase of our holy joy. That which we intend in all this, is, that when our heart is well disposed toward God, God sees out prayers, as they are eoming in the way, before they bave any voice, in our woràs. When Christ came to Lazarus' bouse, before Mary h asked anything at his hand, as soon as she had wept, Christ was affected, He yroated the spirit, he was trotbled, and he wept
PREACHED UPON T/tE [SEI. LIIIo too°; and he proceeded to the raising of Lazarus, before she asked him; ber eyes were his glass, and he saw her desire in her tears. There is a kind of simplicity in tears, which God hearkens to, and believes, llç 'now hot what we shouM ray for as we ou[¢ht ". Quid? e.¢cimus or«tionem domb&am? Can we not say thc Lord's Prayer, says St. Augustine Yes, we ean y that; but Nescimus tribulationem prodesse, says he, We do hOt know thc benefit that is to be ruade of tribulation, and tentation, et petimus libera'i ab omni malo, we pray to be delivered fi'onl all evil, and we mean ail tribulation, and ail tentation, as though all they were alwa.ys evil; but in that there inay be much error: the sons of Zebedce prayed, but ambitiously, and were hOt heard; St. Paul prayed for the taking away of the provocation of the flesh, but ineonsiderately, and missed; the apostles ruade a request., for tire against the Samaritans, but uncharitably, and were reproved '. But when Jehoshaphat was corne to that perplexity by the Moabites, that he kew hot what to do, nor what fo say, Hoc solnm residui habemus, says he, «t oculos nostros dirçqamus ad te, This we cm do, and we need do no more, we tan turn our eyes to thee. Now whether he directed those eyes in ]ooking to him, or in weeping to him, God hears the voice of our looks, God hears the voice of our tears, sometimes better than the voice of our words; for it is the,Sirit itse" that mab«s inttwession for us , Gemitibus inenarrabiHbs, In those ffroans, and so in those tears, which we cannot utt«r; Inelogltacibus, as Tertullian reads that place, devout, and simple tears, which cannot speak, speak aloud in the ears of God; nay, tears which we cannot utter; hot only hOt utter fle force of the tears, but hot utter the very tears themselves. As God secs the water in the spring in the veins of the earth, before it bubble upon the face of the earth; so God oees tears in the heart of a man, before they blubber his face; God hears the tears of tiret sorrowful soul, which for sorrow cannot shed tears. From this casting up of the eyes, and pouring out the sorrow of the heart at the eyes, at least opening God a window, through which he may sec a wet heart through a dry eye; from these o oh xl. Rom. vifi. 26. et 5latt. xx. 2 Cor. i. 8. 2 Con. . 12. Ro fi. 26.
overtures of repentance, which re s tho imperfect sounds of words, which parents delight in, in their children, belote they speak plain; penitent sinner cornes to a verbal, and more express prayer. To these prayers, these vocal and verbal prayers fi'om David, God had given ear, and ri'oto this hearing of those prayers was David corne to this thankful confidence, Te Lord otk eard, te Lord will ear. 'ow, beloved, this pryer which David speaks of here, which out first translation calls petition, is very properly rendered in out second translation, a su]lication; for supplications *vere à supplicHs; supplications amongst the Gentiles were such sacrifices, as were ruade to the gods, out of confiscations, out of the goeds of those men, upon whom the state had inflicted any pecuniary or capital punishment. plicationes, à ulliciis; and therefore this pryer which David ruade to God, when his hand was upon him, in that heax correction, and calamity, which occasioned this Psahn, is truly and pper]y called a supplication, tiret is, a prayer, or petition, that proceeds from suffering. And if God hve heard his supplication, if God have regarded him then, when he was in his displeasure, if God hve turned to him, when he was turned from him, and stroked him with the saine hand that struck him, God will much more perfect his own work, and grant his prayer after; if God would endure to lk un him in his deformity, he will delight to look upon him then, when he hath shed the liht and the loveliness of his own countenance upon him: it is the apostle's argument, as well as David's, If u'hen we u'ere enemie, we u'ere reconciled to God, by the death OE ki,,ç, »uch »ore hein 9 reconciled, we $kall be $aeed b ki, 1oEe . XVhen David round, that God had heard his,u- plication,, tlle voie of hi uffering, of his punishment, he was ure he wofld hear hi praer, the voiee of hi tllankfulnes too. And thi was Dafid' eeond reason, çor his alaerity, and confidence, that God would nêver be weary of hearing, he had heard hiln, and he would hear him still, he had heard the supplication, and he would hr his prayer; for this word, which signifies prayer here, is derived from palal, which signifies properly searare: as his suplication was acceptable, which proceeded à Rom. v. 10.
90 ,CD çOr ISSU. Lm suppliciis, from a sense of his afflictions; so this praler, which came post separationem, after he had separated, and divorced himsclf from his former company, after his discedite, his discharging of all the workers of iniquity, must necearily be better acceptcd at God's hand. He that hcars a suppliant, that is, a man in misery, and does some small marrer for the prient easo of that man, and proceeds no farther, ipsum quod dedit Terit, that which he gave is lo, it is drowned by that flood of misei T that overflows and surrounds that wretched man, he is hot tho bettcr toemorrow for to-day's altos, et ÇRam Troducit ad mlseriam, that very ahns prolongs his miserable lire still; without to-day's altos, he should not bave had a to-morrow tobe miserable in. Now, Christ only is the Samaritan which perfectcd his cure upon the wouuded nmn: IIe saw him, says tho tcxt , so did the rt that passed by him; but, He had compasslon on him; so he might, and yet actually bave donc him no goed; but, tic went to him; so he might too, and then out of a dclicateness or fastidiousne, bave gone from him ain; but (to contract) he bound u l) his wounds, he poured in oil and wine, he 1)ut him upon his own beast, he brought him to an inn, ruade provision for him, gave the host moncy beforehand, we him charge to have care of him, and (whlch is the perfection of all, the greatest ttimony of our Samaritan's love to us) he promised to corne again, and af that coming, he does not say, He will pay, but IIe will recomTense, which is a more abundant expressing of his bounty. Christ loves not but in the way of marriage; if he begin to love thee, he tclls thee,,çonsabo te mihi, I will rry thee tnto me s, and Slonsabo in a'ternum, I will marr?l tkee for «ver. For if is a marriage that prevents all nfistakings, and exeludes all impedinaents, I will marr[/ tkee in rOkteottsne, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies, and in faith- dness; many, and grea assurances. And as if is added, Seminabo te mihi, whieh is a strange expressing of God's love fo us, I will sow thee vnto me in the earth; when I bave taken thee into my husbandry, thou shalt inerease, and multiply, seminabo te, and ail that thou dost produee, shall be direeted upon me, seminabo te mihi, I will sow thee to myse: therefore thy soul s Luke x. 33. a Eosea ii. 19.
gER. LIH.] PENITENTIAL PSALMS. may be bold to join with David in that thankful confidence, hat heard my SUlplication, and therefore, ho will hear my prayer; ho looked npon me in the dust of the earth, much more will ho do so, lmving now laid me upon carpets; ho looked upon me my sores, sores of mine enemieg malice, and sores of mine own sins, mueh more will ho do so now, when ho hath imprinted iu ne he wounds of his own Son; for those that xvere so many wounds upon him, are so many sta's upon me Ho looked upon me, nny Dax-id say, when I followed the ewes great with young, much more will ho do so now, now when by his directions, I lea«l ont his lmoplc, great with enterprises, and victories ainst his enemies. First Dnx-id cornes to that holy nobleness, ho dates cast off iii instruments, and is hot ail'nid of conspiraey; ho dates divoree himself from dangerous eompany, and is not afi'aid of melaneholy; ho dates love God, and is hot afraid of that jenlousy, tht ho is too religious to be employed, too tender conseieneed to bc put upon business; ho dates reprehend them that aa'e u;ader his charge, and is hOt afraid of a recrimination; ho dnres observe Sabbath, ho dates stnrtle at n blasphemy, ho dnrês forber eountenancing a profnne or scurril jest xvith his praise, ho dates be an honest man; which holy confidence constituted out first praise, Depa't f'om me all ye u'orbers of iMquity and thon ho grounds this eonfidence upon an undeceivable rock, upon God's seal, 6'od hatl heard mê, tlterefore. God cill hear me. And when God hears, God speaks too, and when God speaks, God does too, and therefore I may safely proceed as I do, which wns out econd eonsideration. And thon the third, which remains, is, tiret upon this, ho returns to the consideration, what that was, that ho had donc; ho had either impreeated, or denouneed, at least, henry judgments upon lais enemies; and ho finds it a'owable, anti justifiable to bave donc so; and therefore persists in it, Let all mine enemies be ashamed, and sore vexed; let them return, and be ashamêd suddetdy. Ail elean beasts had both these marks, they di'ided the hoof, and they chewed the eud: ail good resolutions, which pss out prayer, nmst have these two marks too, they must di'ide the hoof, they must make double impression, they must be directed upon God's glory, and upon out good, and they must pass rumination,
492 razcn eo TZ [sea. Lin. w¢r¢ o ¢odtionCd or no. V¢ pry somCtmCs ou of suddCn and indigested apprehensions; we pray sometimes out of custom, and communion with others; we pray metimes out of a present sen of pain, or imminent danger; and this prayer may di4de the hoof; it may look towards God's glory, and towar our good; but it does hot chew the cud too; that is, if I bave hot considered, hot examined, whether it do so or no, it is hot a prayer that Goal will eall a sacrifice. You sec Christ brought his om prayer,,çi possibile, If it be possible, &c., through such a rumination, lrutt«tmen, t hot mg will, &c. As many a man swears, and if he be surprised, and asked, XVhat did you say, he does hot remember his o oath, hot what he swore; so many a man prays, and does hot remember his own prayer. As a cloek gives a rning before it strikes, and then there remains a sound, and a tinkling of the bell after it hath striekeu: so a preeedent mediration, and a subsequent rumination, make the prayer a prayer; I must think before, what I will ask, and consider again, what I have asked; and upou this dividing the hoof, and chewing the cud, David avows to his own conoeieuce his whole action, e'eu to this consummation thereof, L mine eremies ashamed, c. Now these words, whether we consider the natural siific tio of the words, or the authority of thooe men, who bave boen expositors upon them, may be understood either way, either to be imprecatoria, words of imprecation, that David in the spirit of anish wishes that these things might fall upon his enemies, or else prwdictoria, words of prediction, that Dard in the irit of prophy pronounc that these things shaH fall upon them. If they be imprecatoria, ords spoken out of his wish, and desire, then they bave in them the natte of a cue: and becae Lyra takes them to be so, a curse, he refe the words Ad d nes, To the devil: that herein David seconds God's malediction upon the serpent, and cses the devil, as the occioner and st mover of ail these calamities; and says of them, Let all out enemies be asamed, ad sore exed, &c. Others refer these wor to the fit Christian rimes, and the persecutions then, and so to be a malediction, a curse upon the Jews, and upon the Romans
SEIt. LIII.] 'rHE PENITENTIAL PSALMS. 493 vho persecuted the primitive church then, Le &c. And then Gregory Nyssen refers these words to more domestical and intrinsic enemies, to David's own concupiscences, and the rebellions of his own lusts, Let those enemles be as]:amed, &c. For all those who understand these words to be a curse, a malediction, are loath to adroit that David did curse his enemies, merely out of a respect of those calamities which they had inflicted upon him. And that is a sale ground; no man may curse another, in contemplation of hhnoelf only, if only himself be concerned in the case. And when it concerns the glory of God, out imprecations, out maledictions upon the persons, must not have their principal relation, as to God's enemies, but as to God's glory; out end must be, that God may bave his glory, not that they may bave th¢ir punishment. And therefore how vehement soever David seem in this imprecation, and though he be more vehement in another place, Let them be cooEouded, ad troubled.for ever, yea, let tlem be put to shame, and perish ', yet that perishing is but a perishing of their purposes, let their plots perish, let their malignity against thy church be frustratcd; for so he expresses himself in the verse immediately belote, Fill their.fi«és with shame; but why. and how. ame, 0 Lord; that was David's end, even in the curse; David wishes them no ill, but for their good; no worse to God's enemies, but that they might become his fl'iends. The rule is good, which out of his moderation St. Augustiue gives, that in all inquisitions, and executions in matters of religion, (when it is merely for religion without sedition) Sint qui poeMteat, Let the men remain alive, or else how can they repent. So in all imprecations, in all hard wishes, even upon God's enemies, Sitôt corvert«tur, Let the men remain, that thcy may be capable of conversion; wish them hot so ill, as that God can show no mercy fo them; for so the ill wish falls upon God hilnself, if it preclude his way of mercy upon that ill man. In no case must the curse be directed upon the person; for when in the next Psa}m to this, David seems passionate, when he asks that of God there, which he desires God to forbear in the beginning of this Psalm, 'hen his 'e arguas in ira, 0 Lord rebuke uot ii thine azger, is trned to a,ç'rye Domine in ire, rie 0 Lord in tMne St. Augustine begins to wonder, Quid? illum, qu peoEectum dicimus, ad iram prorocat Deum? Would David provoke God, who is all sweetness, and nfildness, to anger against any m No, hOt.against any man; but Diaboli possesslo peccator, Every sinuer is a dave to his heloved sin; and therefore, Miericoes orat, adrersus eum, yu&unque orat, How bitterly soever I ourse that sin, yet I pray for that siuner. David would hare God angry with the tyrant, hot with the slave that is oppred; with the sin, hot with the soul that is enthralled to it. And so, as the words may be a ourse, a malediction in David's mouth, we may take them into out nmuth too, and say, Let those enemi be ashamed, e. If this hen were an impreeation, n malediefion, yet if was medicinal, and had ationem boni, a charitable tineure, and nature in it; he wished he men no harm, as men. Bu ratller proedictorium, a prophetieal vehemenee, that if they will take no knowledge of God's declaring hinelf in the proeefion his eants, if they would hot eonider a God had heard, and would hear, had reseued, and would reeue his ehildren, bu would continue their opposition agains him, heavy judxents would eeainly fall upon them; their punishmt «hould be certain, bu the effeet hould be uneertain; for God only knov, whether his correction shall work upon his enemies, o their mollifying, or to their obduration. Thoe bitter, and weighty precations which David hath heaped together agas 3uda eeln to be ree imprecation "; and ye St. Peter himself ealls them propheeies Oportet imlderi Scripturam; Thl were done savs he, tkat the,çcripture miyht be filled; hot ta David in his o heart did wish all tiret upon 3udas; bu only o, as for eeiug in the piri of prophesying, tha thoe things hld fall upon him, he concurred vith the purpose of God therein, and o f:r as he aw it to be the will of God, he ruade it his will, and his wish. And so have ail thoe judgmellt, which we denounce upon inners, the nature of propheeies in them; when we read in the church, that eommination, Cursed is the idolator, this nmy fall upon ome of out o kindred; and Cursed is ke that curseth
EH. LIII.J PE1VITE1VTIAL ISALMS. fater or moter, th]s may fall upon some of our o children: and Curs poweul persons, that we may bave u dependance upon; and upon these we do hot wish that God's vengeance should fall; yct we prophesy, and denounce justly, tht upon such, such vcngences will rail; aad then, all prophecies of that kind are alwys conditionl; they are condtional, if we consider any decree in God; they must be conditional in ail our denunc]ations; if you repent, they sha]l not rail upon you, if hot, Oportet pleri t«rmn, T£e »S'r[pt««re »ust be fu'lled; we do hot wish them, we do but prophesy them; no, uor we do not prophesy them; but tho Scr]ptures have prc-prophes]ed them before; they will fall upon you, as upoa Judas, in condemnation, and perchance, as upon Judas, iu dcsperation too. David's purpose then being in these words to wo'k to thcir amendment, and hOt their final destruction, we may easily and usefully discern in the particular words, a milder sense than the wor seem at first to preseut. And first give nm leave by tho way, only in passing, by cas]on of those words which are here mndered, Courertetur, et erubesce»t, and wh]ch i the original arejashabt, and jebosh«t, which have a musical, aud harmonious sound, and agnomination in them, ]ct me note thus much, even in that, that the Holy Ghost in penning the Scriptures delights himself, not only with a propriety, but with a delicy, and ha] mony, and mclody of language; with height of metaphors, aud other figures, which may work greater impressions upon thc readers, and hOt with barbarous, or trivial, or market, or homely language: it is truc, that when the Grecians, and thc Roman, and St. Augustine hilnself, undervalued and despised the Scripturcs, bwause of the poor and beggarly phrase, that they seemed to be written in, the Christians could say little against it, but turned still upon the other saler way, we consider the matter, and not the l,hrase, beoeuse for the most part, they had read the Scriptures only in translations, which could hot maintain the majesty, nor preserve the elegancies of the original. Their case was somewhat like ours, at the bcginning of the Refornmtion; when, becuuse lnOSt of those men who laboured in that Reformation, came out of the Roman church, and there had never read the body of the fathers at large; but only such rags and framents of those fathers, as were patched together in thelr decretats, and decretals, and other such common place for their l»urpose, and to serve theh" turn, therefore they were loath at fit to corne to that issue, to try controversies by the fathe. But as soon as out men that embraced the eformation, had had time to read the fathe, they were readyenouh tojoin with the adversary in that issue: and still we protest, that we accei»t that evidcnce, the testimony of the fathers, and refuse nothing, which the fathers unanimously dclivered, for matter of faith; and howsoever at the beginnin some men were a little umbrageous, and startling at the name of the fathers, yet since the fathe bave been well studied for more than threescore years, e bave behaved ourselves 'ith more reverence towrds the fathers, aud more confidence in the fathers, than they of the Roman persuasion bave done, and been less apt to suspect or fluarrel tiroir books or to reprove their doctrines, than our adversaries bave been. So, howsoever the Christins at first were fain to sink little under that imputation, that their Scriptures bave no majesty no elouence, because these embellishments could not appear in translations, nor they thon read originals, yet now, that perfect knowledge of those languages hath brought us to oee the beauty and the glory of those books, we are able to reply to them, that there are not in all the world so eloquent boeks as the Scriptures; and that nothing is more demonstmble, than that if we would take all those figures, and trol)es, which are collected out of secular poets, and orators, we may give higher, and livelier examples, of eve one of those figures, out of the Scriptures, than out of all the Greek and Latin poets, and orators; and they mistake it nmch, that think, that the Holy Ghost bath rather chosen a low, and barbatous, and homely style, than an eloquent, and powerful nmnner of expressing himsel£ To return and to cast a glance upon these words in David's prediction, upon his enemies, what hardness is in the first, Erubescet, Let them be ash(«ned: for the word impos no more, our last translation says no nmre, neither did our first translators intend any more, by their word, Cofotded; for that is, confounded with shame in themselves. This is 5"ra discipHnæ,
SE/t. L|I|.] IEN'ITENTAL »Sr.MS. says St. Bernard; as long as we are ashamed of sin, we are hot grown np, and hardened in it; we are nnder correction; the correction of a rernorse. As soon as Adam came to be ashamed of his nakedness, he presently thought of some rernedy; if one should corne and tell thee, that he looked through the door, that he stood in a window over against thine, and saw thee do such or such a sin, this would put thee to a shame, and thou wouldst hot do that sin, till thou wert sure he could not sec thee. O, if thou wouldst hot sin, till thou couldst think that God saw thee hot, this sharne had wrought well upon thee. There are complexions that cannot blush there grows a blackness, a sootiness upon the soul, by custom in sin, which overcomes all blushin, ail tenderness. Vhite alone is paleness, and God loves hot a pale soul, a soul possessed with a horror, affrihted with a diffidence, and distrusting his mercy, ledness alone is aner, and vehemency, and distemper, and God loves hot such a red soul, a soul that sweats in sin, that ciuarrels for sin, that re'enges in sin. But that whiteness that preserves itself, not only from being dyed all over in any foui colour, from contractin the naine of any habitual sin, and so to be called such or such a sinner, but from taking any spot, from coming within distance of a temptation, or of a suspicion, is that whiteuess, which God means, when he says, T/wu art all J'air "my lofe, aad t/wre is o ,Tot in tlwe . Indifferent looking, equal and easy conversation, appliableness to wanton discourses, and notions, and motions, are the deviFs single money, aud many pieces of these make up an adultery. As light a thing as a spangle is, a spangle is silver; and leaf-gold, that is blown away, is gold; and sand that hath no strength, no coherence, yet knits the building; so do approaches to sin, become sin, and fixed siu. To avoid these spots, is that whitencss that Goal loves in the soul. But there is a redness that God loves too; which is this erubescence that we speak of; an aptness in the soul to blush, whcn any of these spots do fMI upon it. God is the universal confessor, the general penitentiary of all the world, and ail die in the guilt of their sin, that go hot to confession to him. And there are sins of such weight to the soul, and such entangling, and perplexity to the consciençe, in tee Cant. iv. 7. VOL. Il. 2 K
498 pREACHV..D UI)ON 'I'HE [S]R. LIII. some circumstances of the sin, as that certainly a soul may receive much ee in such cases, by confessing itself to man. h this holy shameftness, which we intend in this outward blushing of the face, the soul goes to confession too. And it is one of the principal arguments against confessions by litter, (vhich some went about to set up in the Roman church) that that took away one of the greatest evidences, and testimonies of t|mir repentance whieh is this erubescênce, this blushing, this shame after sin; if they should hot be put to speak it face to face, but to write it, that would remove the shame, which is a part of the repentance. But tllat soul that goes not to confession to itself, that hath not an interual blushing after a sin committed, is a pale sonl, even in the paleness of deat]l, and senselessness, and a red sonl, red in the defiance of God. And that whiteness, to avoid approaches to sin, and that redness, to blush upon a sin, which does attempt us, is the complexion of the soul, which God loves, and which the ttoly Ghost testifies, when he says, l-y belored is white a»d 'uddyL And when these meu that David speaks of here, had lost that whiteness, their innocency, for David to wish that they might corne to a redness, a shame, a blushing, a remorse, a sense of sin, may bave been no such great malediction, or imprecation in the mouth of David, but that a man may wish it to his best fi'iend, which should be his soul, and say, Er«besca.m, hot let mine enemies, but let me be ashamed with such a shame. In the second word, Zet them be sore «exed, he u'ishes his enemies no worse than himself had been: for he had used the saine word of himself before, Os.ca ttrbata, ]I!! bows are vexed, and AMma ttrb«ta, 21Iy soM is vexed'; and considering, that David had found this vexation to be his way to God, it 'as no malicious imprecation, to wish that enemy the saine 1.hysic that he had taken, n'ho was more sick of the saine disease than he was. For this is like a troubled sea after a tem])est; the danger is past, bnt yet the billow is great sti]l: the danger was in the ca]m, in the security, or in the tempest, by mis-interpreting God's corrections to our obduration, and to a remorseless stupefactioa; but when a man is corne to this holy vexation, to be troubled, to be shaken with a sense of the indignation of God, the storm is past, and the aa Cant. v. 10. a l'salin ri. 2, 3.
indignation of God is blown over. That soul is in a fair and ne.r way, of being restored to a ealmness, and to reposed security of conscience, that is corne to this holy vexation. In a fiat mal», there goes no more, to make west east, though they be distant in an extremity, but to paste that fiat map upon a round body, and then west and east are ail one. In a fiat soul, in a dcjected conscience, in a troubled spirit, there goes no more to the making of that trouble, peace, than to apply that trouble fo thc body of the merits, to the body of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, and conform thee to him, and thy "West is East, thy trouble of spirit is tranquillity of spirit. The naine of Christ is Oriens, tle East3'; and yet Lucifer himself is called Filius Orieti., tle,S'o» of tke Ea.t '. If thou beest fallen by Lncifer, fallen to Lucifer, and hot fallen as Lucifer, to a senselessness of thy fall, and an impenitibleness therein, but to a troubled spirit, still thy prospect is the East, still thy climate is heaven, still thy haven is Jerusalem: for, in out lowes dejcction of all, even in the dust of the grave, we are so composed, so laid down, as that we look to the East if I could believe that Trajau, or Tecla, eould look east-ward, that is, towards Christ, in hell, I could believe with them of lq:ome, that Trajan and Tecla were redeemed by prayer out of hell. God had accepted sacrifices before; but no sacrifice is called Odor quietle, It is hot said, Th«tt God emelt a savour of test , in any sacrifice, but that which loah off¢red, after he had been variously tossed and tumbled, in the long hulling of the ark upon the waters. A troublesome spirit, and a quiet spirit, are far asunder; but a troubled spirit, and a quiet spirit, are near neighbours. And therefore David means them no great harm, when he says, Let them be troubled; for, let the wind be as high as it will, so I sail belote the wind, let th¢ trouble of my soul be as great as it will, so it direct me upon God, and I bave calm enough. And this peace, this calm is implied in the next word, Convertantur, whieh is hot, Let them be orerthrow, but Let tkem return, let them be foreed to return; he prays, that God would do something to cross their purposes; because as they are against God, so Zach. ri. 12. s Isaiah xiv, 12. Gen. viii. 21.
00 IEACFIED UPO/ T]I they re gains their own souls. In that wy where they are, he sees there is no remedy and tberefore he desires that they might be tur»ed into another way; what is that way. This. Turn us 0 Lord, and we sall be turned; that is, turned the right way; towards God. And as there was a promise from God, to hear his people, hOt on]y when they came to him in the Temple, but when they turned towards that Temple, in what distance soever they were, so it is aIways accompanied with a blessing, ocasionaIly to turn toards God but this prayer, Tnrn e may be trned, is that we nmy be, that is, remain turned, that we may continue fLxed in that posture. LoCs wife turned herself, and remained an everlastin monument of God's aner God so turn us always into riht ways, as that we be not able to turn ourselves out of them. Fo God hath Viam rectam, et bonam, as himself speaks in the prophet, A right way, and then a good way, which yet is hot the right way, that is, hot the way which God of himself would go. For his right way is, that we should still keep in his way: his good way is, to beat us into his right way again, by his medicinal corrections, when we put ourseh'es out of his right way. And that, and that only David wishes, and we wish, that you may turn, and be tnrned; stand in that holy posture, all the year, all the vears of your lires, that your Christmas may be as holy as your Easter, even your recreations as innocent as your devotions, and every room in the bouse as free from profaneness as the sanctuary. And this he ends as he begun, with another erubescant, let them be ashamed, and that 'alde,:elociter, suddenly: for David saw, that if a sinner came hot to a shame of sin quiekly, he would quiekly eome to a shamelessness, to an impudence, to a searedness, to an obduration in it. How beloved, this is the worst eurse that cornes out of a holy man's mouth, even towards his enemy, that God wou]d correct him to his amendment. And this is the worst harm that we mean to you, when we denounee the judgments of God against sin and sinners, ut erubescatis, that we might see blood in your faces, the blood of your Saviour working in that shame for sin. That that question of the prophet might hot eonfound you, l|ére they askamed when tkey committed abomination? 2ay, they were hot ashamed; Erube, cere nesciebant, They were never used to shame, they knew hot how to be nshmed. Therefore, sys he, they shall fidl amonyst them tkat fall, they shall do as the world does, sin as their neighbours sin, and rail s they fall, irrepentantly here, and hereafter irreeoverably. And then, nf conturbati sitis, that you may be troubled in your hearts, and hot ery peaee, peace, where there is no peaee, and flatter yourselves, because)'ou are in a true religion, and in tlle right vay; for n ehihl may drown iii a font, and a man nmy be poisoned in the saerament nmeh more perish, though iii n true church. And also Ut rerertamlni, That)'ou may return again to the Lord, return fo sate of pureness, which God gave you in baptism, fo that which God gtve you the last rime you reeeived his body and blood so as became you. And then lastly, Ut erubescatis q:elociter, That you may corne to the beginning of this, and to ail this quickly, and hot fo defer if, because God defers the judgment. For fo end this with St. Augustine's words, upon this word relociter, Quandocun- 9te enit, celerrime eenit, quod deslgeratnr esse 'enturum: ] tow late soever if corne, tha cornes quickly, if if eome at all, which we belie-ed would never corne, tlov long soever if be, belote judgment corne, yet if cornes quiekly, if it eome belote thou look for if, or be ready for it. Vhosoever labours fo sleep out the thought of tliat day, His damnatio sleeleth hot, says the apostle. Itis hot only, that his damnation is uot dead, that there shall never be an), sueh day, but that if is no day asleep: every midnight shall be a day of judgment to him, and keep him awake; and when consternation, and lassitude lend him, or eounterfeit fo him a sleep, as St. Basil says of the righteous, Etiam somnia justorum preces sunt, That even their dreams are prayers, so this incorrigible sinner's dreams shall be, hot only presages of his future, but oets of his present eondemnation.
P,i.t xxxii, l, 2. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose s is eovered; bled the man, to whom th Lord imputeth no qy, and whos theoe is no Tins tha I have read o you, ean scaree be ealled all the tex; I proposed çor the ext, the firs and second verses, and there longs more o the firsL than I have delivered in i; çor, in all those ranslaors, and expositors, who apply themselves exactly to the original, to the Hebrew, the title oç the Psalm, is pa t]le firs verse oç the Psalm. St. Augustine gives solnewha strange reason, why the Book oç Enoch, cited by SL EEude in his Epistle, and sonm other such ancient books as that, were never received into the body oç canonical Scriptures, Ut in authoritato apud nos non essent, nimia fect eorum antiquitas, The ehurch suspected them, because they vere too ancient, says St. Augustine. But that reason alone, is so far from being euough to exclude anythiug from being part of the Scriptures, as that we make it justly an ar.ment, for the receing the titles of the Psahns into the body of canonical Scriptures, that they are as ancient as the Psahns themselves. So then the title of this Psahn enters into our text, as a pa of the first verse. And the title is Daridis Erudlens; where we need hot insert (as or translators in ail languages and editions have conceived a necessity to do) any word, for the clearing of the text, more than is in the text itseF, (and therefore Tremellius hath inseoEed that word, An Ode Darid, we, A Psalm of Darid, others, others) for the words themselves yield a perfect sense in themseh-es, Le Darid.]laschil, is Daridis Erudiens, that is, Daridis Eruditio, David's Institution, David's catechism; and so our text, which is the first and secd verse, taking aH the first verse, in aH accounts, is now David's catechism; Bleed is he whose transgress&n i for- #iren, &c.
In thcse words, out ])arts shall be these; first, that so great a toaster as David, proceeded by way of catechism, of instruction lu fundamental things, and doctrines of edifiction. Secondly, That the foundation of this building the first lesson in this art, the tïrst letter in this alphabet, is b[esedness for, Prim«s «ctt«s roluntatis est amor; llan is hot man, till ho hve produced sone acts of the faculties of that soul, that makes him man; till ho understand something, and will something, till ho know, and till ho would have something, ho is no man; now, the first act of tho will is love; and no man can love anything, but in the likeness, and in the notion of lt«q)l)iness, of blesseclness, or of some degree thereof; and therefore David proposes that for the foundation of Iris catechisnl, blessedness; the catechisna of David, Blessed is tle man. But thon. in a third consideration, we lay hold upon St. Augustine's aphorism, Amare isi ota wn possumts, Ve cannot tl'uly love anything, but that we know; and therefore Da'id being to proceed catechistically, and for instruction, proposes this blessedness, which as it is in heaven, and reserved for out possession there, is in-intelligible (as Tertullian speaks) inconceivable, ho purposes it in such notions, and by such lights, as may enable us to see it, and know it in this lire. And those lights are in this text, three; for, Tlefor.¢ireness o.t" tras.¢ressions, and thell, Tle coveri»y of sis, and lastly, T/te hot iral«tb.q of inlqttity, which three David proposes bore, are not a thre¢fold repeating of one and the saine thing; but this blessedness consisting in out reconciliation to God, (for we were creatcd in a state of friendship with God, our rebellion put us into a state of hostility, and now we need a reconciliation, because we are hot able to nmintain a war against God, no, nor against any other enemy of man, without God) this blessedness David doth hot deliver us all at once, in three expressings of the saine thing, but ho gives us one light thereof, in the knowledge that there is a forgiving of transgressions, another, in the covering of sins, and a fllird, in the not imputing of iniquity. But thon, (that which will constitute a fourth consideration) when f3od bath prescnted himself, and offered his peace, in ail these, there is also something to be done on our part; for though the forgiving of transgression, the covering of sin, the hot imputing of iniquity, pro-
0 IREACHED UPON' THE [ER. LlV. ceed only from God, yet God aords tese to none but im, whose sp;rit there is ogMle. And so you have all that belongs to the toaster, and his manner of teaching, David catechising; and all that belongs to the doctrine and thc catechism, blessedne, that is reconciliation to God, notified in those three acts of mcrcy; and all that belongs to the disciple, that is tobe cat chised, a docilc, an humble, a sincere hcan, In whose spirit there is no.q«ile; and to these particulars, in their order thus proposed, we shall noxv pass. That thon which constitutes out first part, is this, that David, than whom this world ncvcr had a greater toaster for the next. amongst thc sons of men, delivers himself, by way of catcchising, of fimdamental and casy teaching. As we say justly, and confidcntly, That «»f all rhetorical and poetical figures, that fall into any art, we are able to produce higher strains, and livelier examples, out of the Scriptures, than out of all the orators, and poets in the wo']d, yet we read not, we preach hot the Scriptures for that use, to magnify their cloquence; so in David's Psahns we find abundant impressions, and testinmnies of his knowlcdge in all arts, and all kinds of learning, but that is hot it which he proposes ¢o us. David's last words are, and in that David's holy g]olT was p]aced, that he was hot on]y the sweet Psalmist , that he had amharmonious, a melodious, a charming, a powerful way of entering into the soul, and working upon the affections of men, but he was the sweet Psalmist of Israel, he employed his faculties for the conveying of the God of Israel, into the Israel of God; The,;rit qf the Lord spake t,y me, ad his word was in my toy,te; hot the spirit of rhetoric, nor the spirit of poetry, nor thc spi'it of mathenatics, and demonstration, but, The,Sirit the Lord, the Rock " Israd sTabe by me, says he; he boasts hot that he had delivered himself in strong, or deep, or mysterious arts, that was hot his rock; but his rock was the rock of Israel, his way was to establish the church of God upon fundamental doctrines. 2]Ioses was learwd in ail the wisdom the Eyyptla,s, says Stephen . Likely tobe so, because being adopted by the king's daughter, he had an extraordinary education; and likely
SEIo L|V.] PENITENTIAL ISALMSo 505 also, ecause he brout so good natural çculties, for his masters to work pon, Ut e»dMd ts vderetur, çuam Jcere , That whatsoer any mster roosed unto him, he rathe seeme to remember it then, than to ]earn it but then; and yet in Moses oos, we eet no eat testimonies, or deep impressions of tese ]earnings in Moses: he had (as St. Ambrose notes e]l) more occasions to speak of natural philosophy, in the creation of the world, and of the more secret, and reserved, and remote corners of nature, in those counterfeitings of miracles in Pharaoh's court, than he bath laid hold o£ So Nebuchadnezzar appointed his officers, that they should furnish his cou vith some young gentlemen, of good blood and families of the Jews; and (as it is added thereO well-favoured youths, in whom there was no blemisk,,kiul in ail wisdom, and cunning in knowled9e, ad understan# in9 science; and then farther, To be tauyht the toçque, and the learnin 9 of the Chaldeans. And Daniel was one of these, and, no doubt, eat profieient in ail these; and yet Daniel seems hot to make any great show of these learnings in his writings. St. Paul was in a higher poedagogy, and another manner of university than all this; Caçoht,tp into the third hearen, into Paradise, as he says '; and there he learnt nmeh; but (as he says too) suck tkin9s as it u'as tot la,l fo utter; that is, it fell hot within the laws of preaehing to publish them. So that hot only some learning in humanity, (as in Moses" and Daniel's ease) but some points of divinity, (as in St. Paul's case) may be unfit to be preaehed. Not that a divine should ignorant of either; either ornaments of human, or mysteries of divine knowledge. For, says St. Austine, Every man that cornes from Eg)t, nmst bring some of the Egyptian's goods th him. Quanto auto ea'irit s,arcinatus (tprianus, ys he, How nmeh of the Eg3- tian gold and goods brought Crian, and Laetantius, and Opmtus, and Hi]ary out of Egypt That is, what n treasure of learning, gathered when they were of the Gentiles, brought they from thenee, to the advaneing of Chrisfianity, when they applied themselves to it S. Austine confesses, that the reading of Cieero's Hortensius, lutaeit affectum meure , began in him a con- * Po. n Dan. i. 4. « 2 Cor. . 2. 7 Lib, . e, 4.
506 .OE o- Tn [s.. LXV. version from the world, Et ad teipum, Domine, m.vit reces », Tt book, says he, conveed me to more fervent prayers to thee, my God; Et suryere jam ceperam ut ad te rirem, By that help I rose, and came towards thee. And so Jtin Mayr had his initiation, and beinning of his conversion, from reading borne passages in Plain. St. Basil exprcsses it we; They that will die a peect colour, dip it in some lem perfect colo before. To be a good divine, requires human knowledge; and so does it of all the mysteries of divinity too; because, as there are devils that will not be cast out but by fasting and prayer, so there are humours that undervalue men, that lack these helps. But out congations are not nmde of such persons; hot of mere natural men, tt mt be couverted out of Afistotle, and by Cicero's words, nor of Ariaus that require new proefs tbr the Trinity, nor Pelagians that must be pressed with new discoveries of Godes l»redestination; but peroens embracing, with a thaukful acquiescence therein, doctrines necessary for the salvation of their souls in the world to corne, and the exaltation of the devotion in this. This wav David calls his, a catechism. And let not the greatest doctor think it unworthy of him to catechise thus, nor the ]earnedest hearer to be thus catechised Christ enwraps the greatest doctors in his peton, and in his practice, when he ay,S'Ddte parr.los,,S'er litt& children to co uto me; and we do hot surfer them to eome unto m, if when they corne, wo do hOt speak to their understanding, and to their edifieation, for that is but an absent presenee, when they hear, and profit hOt; and Christ enwraps the ]earnedest hearers, in the persons of his own disciples, when he says, Ewcept ye beco a, the,e little children, ye catznot enter into tke kDqdom OE hearen; exeept you nourish yotwselves with eateeiea], and fundamental doetrine you are hot in a wholesome diet. Now in this eateehism, the first stone that David lays, (and that that suppos a) tho objeet that David presents, (and that that directs to al]) blessedness; David's eateehisni; Ble,,ed ia the man. Philosophers eould never bring us to the knowledge, what this zummum bonum, this happiness, this blessedness was. For they eonsidered only some paieu]ar fruits thereof; and it mueh asier, how high ever a tree be, to eome to a taste of some of
SER, LIV.] PENITENTIAL ISALIS. 507 the fruits, than to dig to the root of that tree: they satisfied flmmselves with a little taste of health, and çleasure, and riches, d hoour, and eve cosidered that 11 these must have their ot in heaven, and must have a relation to Christ Jesus, who is the foot of 1]. Ami s these philosophers could neçer tell us, what this blessedness was, o divines themsclçes, and those who are best excrcised i the lanuae of the Holy Ghost, the original tonue of this text cannot give us a clear 'ammaticl understanding, of this first word, in which David expresses this blessedness, osrei, which is hee translated, b[ess. They cannot telL whether it e an ado'erg, (and then it ]s ew ro, Vel] is it for that man, pathetic, a vehement acclamation, happily, blessedly is that man povided for) or whether if be a lural noun, (and then it is Beatitudies, such a blessedness as includes many, all blessednesses in it) and one of these two it must necessarily be in the rules of their construction; that either David cnters with an admiration, 0 how happily is that man provided for Or with a protestation, that there is no particular blessedness, which that man wants, that hath this, this reconciliation to God. Eusebius observes out of Plato, that he enjoined the poets, and the writers in his state, fo describe no man to be happy, but the gooE1 men; none to be miserable, but the wicked. And his scholar Aristotle enters into his book of ethics, and moral doctrine, with that contemplation first of all, that every man hath natumlly a disposition to affect, and desire happiness. David who is elder than they, begins his Book of Psahns so; the first word of the first Psahn, is the fil'st word of this text, Blessed is the ma. He comprehends all that belongs to man's knowledge, and all that belongs to man's practice, in those two, first in undel'- standing true blessedness, and thçn, in praising God for it: David's aITha is Beatus vir, 0 tbe blessedness of righteous men And David's omega is Lartdate Dominum, 0 that men would therefore bless the Lord And therefore, as he begins this book with God's blessing of man, so he ends it with man's praising of God: for, where the last st'oke upon this psaltery, the last verse of the last Plm, is, Let e¢ery thig that hath breath praise the Loed, yet he adds one note more to us in particular, Praize ye the Lord; and there is the end of a. And so Mso our Saviour
508 PREACH£D t'POI THE [S£R. LIV. Christ himself, in his own preaching, observed that method; he begun his great sermon in the Mount with that, Bl«ed are t poor in trpirit, bl«ed are they that mourn, blessed are the pure in heart; blessedness alone was an abundant reeompense for ail And so the subjeet of John Baptist's commission before, and of his diseiples" commission after,,vas still the saine, to preaeh this blessedness, Tkat the kinydom of God, that is, reeoneiliation to God in his visible ehureh, cas at hand, was forthwith to be established amongst them. Though then the eosummation of this blessedness be that risio Dei, that sight of God, whieh in our glorified state we shall bave in heaven, yet, beeause there is an incohation thereof in tbis world, whieh is that whieh we eall reeoneiliation, it behoves us to eonsider the disposition requisite for that. It is a binentable perverseness in us, that we are so eontentiously busy, in inquiring into the nature, and essence, and attributes of God, things whieh are reserved to our end, when we shall know at once, and without study, all that, of whieh ail our lires" study can teach us nothing; and that here, where we are upon the way, we are so negligent and lazy, in inquiring of things, which belong to the wav. Those thin we learn in no school so well as in adversity. As the body of man, and consequently health, is best nnderstood, and best advanced by dissections, and anatomies, when the hand and knife of the surgeon bath passed upon every part of the body, and laid it open: so when the hand and sword of God bath pierced our soul. we are brought to a better knowledge of ourselves, than any deee of prosperity would have raised us to. All creatures were brought to Adam, and, because he understood the natures of ail those creatures, he gave them names accordingly. In that he gave no naine to himseff, it may be by some perhaps argued, that he understood himseff less than he did other creatures. If Adam be our example, in the rime and school of nature, how hard a thing the knowledge of ourselves is, till we feel the &rection of adversity, David is also another example in the time of the law, who first said in hi» prosperity, he should nerer be mored; but, trhen, says he, thou hideet thy face Psalmxx 6.
frein me, [ waa troubled, and the I cried I prayed unto my God; theu, but net till
5O9 unto thee 0 Lord, and then. The saine art, the saine gramnmr lasts still and Peter is an example of the saine fuie, in the rime of graee, who was at t%st se confident, as te eomo te that, ai omnea scandalizati, if ail forsook him, mori oportuit, if he must die with him, or die for him, he was ready, and yet without any terrer frein an armed nmgistrate, without any surprisal of a subtle examiner, upon the question of a poor maid, ho denied his masoEer: but then, the bitterness of his sOUl taught him another retaper, aud moderation; when Christ asked him after, Aman me. Lovest thou me. net te pronouneo upon an infalliblo eontïdenee, I haro loved, and I de, and I will de till death, but, Domine tu sci, Lord tlto knowest that I loe thee; my love te thee is but tho effect of thy love te me, and therefore Lord continue thine, that mine nmy continue. No study is se necessary as te knov ourselves; no schoolmaster is se diligent, se vigilant, se assiduous, as adversity: and the end of kno,ving ourselves, is te know hov we are disposed for that which is our end, that is this blessedness; which, though it be well collected and sulnmed by St. Augustine, Beatis qui habet quicquid wdt, et nihil mali :ult, He only is blessed, that desires nothing but that which is good for him, and llath ail that, we nmst purstle, in those particulars, which here, in David's catechism, constitute this blessedness, and constitutoour third part, and are delivered in three branches, first, The forgiving of out transgressions, and flmn, T]e eovering of out tins, and thirdly, im]outiny of out iniquities. First then, that in this third part, we may see in the flrst branch, the first notification of this blessedness, we considcr the two terms, in which it is expressed, what this is, which is translated trans.aresdon, and then what this foryiviny imports. The original word is padtanff, and that signifies sin in ail extensions, the highest, tho deepest, the,veightiest sin it is a malicious, and a forcible opposition te God: it is when this Herod, and this Pilate (this body, and this seul of ours) are mado friends and agreed, that they may concur te the crucifying of Christ. Vhen net only the members of our bodies, but the fhculties of our seul, our will and understanding are bent upon sin: when we de net vnly sin stronly, and hunerly, and thirstily, (which appertain to the body) but we sin rationally, we find reasons (and those reasons, even in God»s lon patience) wh we shold sin: we sin vittily, we invent new sins, and we think it an ignorant, a dull, and an unsociable thing, not to sin; yea we sin wisely, and make our sin our way to preferment. Then is this word used by the Holy Ghost, when he expresses both the vehemence, and the weight, and the largeness, and the continuance, ail extensions, ail dimensions of the sins of Damascus; Thus salth the Lord, for three trans.qresslons of l)amascus, and.for.four, I will wt turn to it, because they hare thresIed Gilead wltI tIreshin.q instrnments of @on'; so then, we consider sin here, hot as a stain, such as original sin may be, nor as a wound, such as every actual sin may be, but as a burden, a complication, a packing up of many sins, in an habituM practice thereof. This is that weight that sunk the whole world under water, in the first flood, and shall press down the tire itself, to consume it a second time. It is a weight that stupifies and benumbs him that bears it, so, as that the sinner feels not the oppression of his own sins; Et qMd mieri.us ffsero non nlserante seilsum? Vhat misery can be greater, than when a miserable man bath hot sense to commiserate his own misery.t Our first errors are out of levity, and St. Augustine bath taught us a proper ballast and weight for that, 21mor Dei pondus animw, The love of God would earry us evenly, and steadil.,, if we would embark that: but as in great tradings, they corne to ballast with merchandise, ballast, and freight is ail one; so in this habitual sinner, ail is sin, plots and preparations belote the act, gladness and glory in the act, sometimes disguises, sometimes justifications after the aet, make up one body, one fi'eight of sin. So then transyression in this place, in the natnral signification of the word, is a weight, a burden, and cavrying it, as the word requires, to the greatest extension, it is the sin of the whole world; and that sin is for.air.en, which is the second terre. The prophet does hot say here, Blessed is t)}at man that bath,w trans.qression, for that were to say, Blessed is that man that is no man. Ail people, all nations, did ever in nature acknowledgo hot only a guiltiness of sin, but some means of reconciliation to Amos i. 3. m Augustine.
their gods in the remission of si;]s: for they had all some forma], and ceremonial sacrifices, and expiations, and lustrations, by which they thought their sins to be purged, and washed away. Whosoever acknowledges , God, acknowledges , renfission of sins, ,nd whosover acknowledges , remission of sins, acknowledges , God. Anti therefore in this first place, David does hot mention God at all; he does hot say, Blessed is te dose transyression te Lord lat foryiven; for he presumes it to be an impossible tentation to take hold of any nmn, that there tan be any retnission of SiJl, from any other person, or by any other means than from and by (od hilnself; and therefore remission of sins includes ail a, oE of God; but what kind ofact, is;nore particul,rly designed in the original word which la asa, than our word, fo'r.oivin.q, reaches to for the word does hot only siguify au.ferre, but.èrre; hot only to take awav sin, by way of pardon, bt to take the sin pon himself, anti so to bear the sin, and the punishment of the sin, in his own person. And so Christ is the Lamb of God, Qui tolllt, not only that taes away, but that takes upon iraseI/ the sins of the world. Tulit, ]oortarit, &«rely le ]atl borne our qriefs, and carried out sorrm«s"; those griefs, those sorrows which we should, he hath borne, and carried in his own person. So that, as it is ail one, never to bave COll;e in debt, and to have discharged the deht; so the whole world ail mankind, considered in Christ, is as innocent as if Adam had never Silmed. And so this is the first beam of blessedness that shines upon my soul, that I believe that the justice of Gotl is flly satisfied in the death of Christ, and that there is enough glven, and accepted in the treasure of his blood, for the renfission of ail transgressions. And then the second beam of this blessedness, is in t]e corerin# of h'ow to benefit ourselves by this part of David's catechism, we mus (as we did before) consider the two terres, of which this par of this blessedness eonsists, sin, and coverit.o.,5'in in this place is uo so he,vy , word, as transressio; was in the former; for tha was sin in all extensions, sin in all forma, ail sin of ail men, of ail times, of all places, the sin of all the world upon the shoulders of file Saviour of the world. In this place, (the word is catah, and by the derivation thereoï ïrom nata, which is to decline, to step aside, or to be withdrawn, and ut, which is /um, a thread, or a line)that which we call sin here, signifies transi/ire//neam, to depart, or by any tentation to be ithdrawn from the dioect duties» and the exact straightness which is required of ns in this world, or the attaining of the next: so that the word imports sins of infirmity, such sins as do fart upon God's best servants, such sins as rather induce a confession of out weakness, and an acknowledent of our continuM need of pardon for something passed, and strenh against future invasions, than that induce any devastation, or obduration of the conscience, which trançqression, in the former branch, implied. For so this word, carat, bath that signification (as in many other places) there, where it is said, Tat tere were seven un&'ed l-anded Benjamites, wkick wouM.flin stones at a hair's breadtk., and hOt f«il'; that is, hOt miss the mark a hair's breadth. And therefore when this word catah, sin, is used in Seripture, to express any weighty, heinous, enormous sin, it hath an addition, Peccatum mçqnum peccaerunt , says 5Ioses, when the people were become idolators, These people bave sinned a yreat sin;.otherwise it signifies sueh sin, as destlys hot the tbundation, sueh as in the nature thereof, does not wholly extinguish graee, nor grieve the spi'it of God in us. And sueh sius God coers, ys David here. ow what is his way of eovering these sins As sin in this notion, is 11o o deep a wound upon God, as tranaression in the other, so coeri»y here extends hot far, as foivin did there. There foqiiça was a taking away of sin, by taking that away, that Christ should bear all our sins, it s a suffering, a dying, i was a penal part, and a part of God's justiee, exeeuted upon his one and only Son; here it is a part of God's merey, in spreadin, and applying the merits and satiaetion of Christ upon all them, whom God by the Holy Ghost hath gathered in the profeion of Christ, and ealled to the apw hending and embraeing of this mantle, this garment, this eovering, the righteousness of Christ in the Christian Christ; in which ehureh, and by his visible ordinanees therein, the word, an saeraments, God eovers, hides, eoneeals, even from the inquisition x Jug¢s . 16, Exod. i. 31.
SEI. LIV.] PENITENTIAL PSALMS. 5]3 o his own justice, those smaller sins, whlch his servants commit, and does net tutu them out of his service, for those sins. Se the word (the word is casa, which we translate coering) is used, A wise man ronceath knowledge"; that is, does net pretend te know much indeed he does: se, out merciful G, when he -secs us under this mantle, this covering, Christ spread upon his ehurch, conceals his knowledge of out sins, and suffers them net te reflect upon our consciences, in a consternation thereoE Se the as the fo/iriny was aerre ferendo, a taking away of sin, by taking all sin upon his own person, se this coreriny is teyere attinendo, te cover sin, by coming te it, by applying himself te our sinful consciences, in the means instituted by him in his chureh: for they have in that language another word, sacac, whieh signifies teere obumbrando, te eover by ovcrshadowing, by refreshing. This is tçqere obumbrando, te cover by shadowing, when I defeud mine eye ri'oto the offenee of the suu, by interposing my hand between the sun and mine eye, at this distance, afar off: but teere attinyendo, is when thus I ly my hand upon mine eye, and eover it close, by that touching. In the knowledge that Christ bath takeu ail the sins of ail the world upon himself, that theoe is enough donc for the salvation of ail mankind, I have a shadowing, a refreshing; but beeause I tan bave no te timony, tiret this geneml demption belon te me, who ara still a sinner, exeept there pass seine act betwn God and me, seine seal, me investiture, seine aequittanee of my debts, my sins, therefore this sond beana of David's blessednes in this his echism, shines upon me in this, that God hath net only sowed and planted herbs, and simples in the world, medicinal for ail diseases of the wodd, but God hath gathered, and prepared those simples, and presented them, se prepared, te me, for my recovery frein my disease: God hath net only reeeived a full satisfaction for ail sin in Christ, but Christ, in his ordinanees in his ehureh, effets me an application of ail that for myself, and eovers my sin, frein the eye of his Father, net only obumbrando, as he hath spread himself as a eloud refreshing the whole world, in the value of the satisfaction, but attltçqendo, by eoming te me, by spreading himself upon me, as the prophet did upon the dead child, mouth ] Prov. xii. 23. VOL. 11. 2 L
14 »Acn» t Po [sEx. Lv. to mouth, hand to hand » in the mouth of his minister, he speaks to me; in the hand of the minister, he delivers himself to me and so by these visible acts, and seals of my reconciliation, teyit attinffendo, he covers me by touching me; he touches my conscience, with a sense and remorse of mv sins, in his word; and he touches my soul, wlth a faith of havng received him, and all the benefit of his death, in the Sacrament. And so he covers sin; that is, keeps our sins of irnfity, and a]l such sins, as do hot in their nature quench the light of his ace, from coming into his Father's presence, or ca]]ing for vengeance there. Forgiving of transessions is the general satisfaction for aU the world, and restoring the wor]d to a possibility of salvation in the death of Christ; covering of sin, is the benefit of discharging and easing the conscience, by those blessed helps which God bath afforded to the, whom he bath gathered in the boeom, and quickened in the womb of the Chriian church. And this is the second beam of blessedness, cast out by David here; and then the third the hOt imputing of iniquity, Blessed is the n to u'hom the Lord imputeth hot iniquity. In this al, (as in the two former we did)we consider this i»putiny, and then this iniquity, in tho root and original siification of the two words. SVhen in this place tho Lord is said, not to impute sin, it is meant, that the Lo shall hot suflr me fo impute sin to mysel£ The word is cashab, and cashab imr such a thinking, such a surmising, as may bo subject to error, and mismking. To that purpose ve find tho word, where Hannah was praying, and Eli the priest, who saw hor lips more, and heard no prayer corne from her, thought she had been drunk, imputed drunkenness unto ber, and said, How long u'ilt thou drunk put away thy cine»: so that this imputing, is such an imputing of ours may be erroneous, that is, an imputing from ourselves, in a diffidence, and jealousy, and suspicion of God's goodness towards us. To which purpose, we consider ao, that this word, which we translate here iniquity, ynaah, is oftentimes in the Scripture used for punishment, as well as for sin: and so indifferently for both, as that if we 11 compare translation with translation, and exposition th exposition, it will be hard for us
SEIt. LIV.] PENITENTIAL PSALMS. to say, whether Cain said, Mine iniuity is yreater tan can be yardoned, or, My punishment is qreater than I can bear«; and out last translation, whieh seems to bave been most eareful of the original, takes it rather so, My puniskment, in the text, and lays the other, my sin, aside in the margin. So then, this imputing, being an imputing whieh arises from ourselves, and so may be aeeompanied with error, and mistaking, that we impute that to ourselves, whieh God doth hot impute, and this misimputing of God"s anger to ourselves, arising out of Iris punishments, and his eorreetions inflieted upon us, that beeause we bave erosses in the world, we eannot believe, that we stand well in the sight of God, or that the forgiving of transgressions, or covering of sins appertains unto us, we justly conceive, that this hot imputing of iniquity, is that erenitas conscientice, That brightness, that clearness, that peaze, and tranquillity, that cahn and serenity, that acquiescence, and security of the conscience, in which I am delivered from ail scruples, and all tinorousness, that my transgressions are hot forgiven, or my sins hot covered. In the first act, we consider God the Father to have wrought; he proposed, he decreed, he accepted too a sacrifice for all mankind in the death of Christ. In the second, the covering of sins, we consider God the Son to work, Incubare ecclesice, He sits upon his church, as a hen upon her eggs, he covers all our sins, whom he hath gathered into that body, with spreading himself, and his merits upon us all there. In this third, the hot imputing of iniquity, we consider God the Holy Ghost to work, and, as the spirit of consolation, to blow away ail scruples, all diffidences, and to establish an assurance in the conscience. The Lord imputes not, that is, the Spirit of the Lord, the Lord the Spirit, the Holy Ghost, suffers not me to impute to myself those sins, which I bave truly repented. The over-tenderness of a bruised and a faint conscience may impute sin to itself, when it is discharicd; and a seared and obdurate conscience may impute none, when it abounds; if the Holy Ghost work, he rectifies both; and, if God do inflict punishments, (according to the signification of this word.qnarah) after our repentance, and the seals of our reconciliation, yit he suffers us hot to impute those sins to ourselves, or to repute Gen. iv. 13.
516 'n^CHV UPON THE [SEI. LIV. thoçe corrections, puuishments, as though he had not forgiven them, or, as though he came to an execution after a pardon, but that they are laid upon us medicinally, and by way of prevention, and praution aainst his future displeasure. This is that Pa ncientioe, The peace of conscience, when there is hot one sword drawn: this is that,Srenitas consclentioE, The meridional brigh ness of the conscience, when there is not one cloud in our sky. 1 shall hot hope, that original sin shall not be imputed, but fear, that aetual sin may: not hope that my dumb sins shail not, but my er) ing sins may; not hope that my apparent sins, whieh have therefore induced in me a partieular sense of them, shall not, but my secret sins, sins that I ara not able to return and represent to mine own memory, may: for this non imputabit, hath no limitation; God shall surfer the conscience thus rtified, to terrify itself with nothing; whieh is also further extended in the original, vhere it is not non imputat, but non inutabit; though after ail this we do fall into the saine, or other sins, yet ve shall know out way, and evermore have out consolation in this, that as God hath forgiven out transgression, in taking the sins of all mankind upon himself, for he hath redeemed us, and ieft out angels, and as be hath eovered out sin, that is, provided us the word, and sacraments, and cast off" the Jews, and left out the heathen, so he will never impute naine iniquity, never suflhr it to terrify my conscience; not now, vhen his judgments, denounced by his minister, cali me to him here; nor hereafter, when the last bell shall call me to him, into the grave; nor at last, when the angel's trumpets shall call me to him, from the dust, iu the resurrection. But that, as ail umnkind bath a blesedness, in Christ's taking out sins, (which was the first article in this eatechism) and ail the Christian church a bleedness, in eovering our sins, (which was the second) so I may find this blessedness, in this work of the Holy Ghost, hot to impute, that is, hot to suspect, that God imputes any repented sin unto me, or reser'es anything to lay to my charge at the last day, vhich I have prayed may be, and therefore hoped hath been forgiven before. But then, after these three pats, which we bave now, in out order proposed at first, passed tbrough, that David applies himself us, in tbe most eonvenient wav. by the way of catechism,
81R. LIV.] PENI'I'gN'I'IAL PSAI.IS. 517 and instruction in fundamental things; and then, that he la for his foundation of ail beatitude, blessedness, happiness, which canner be had, in the eonsummation, and perhetion thereof, but in the next world: but yet, in the third place, gives us an in«hoation, an earnest, an evidence of this future and consummate blessedness, in bringing us faithfully te believe, that Crist died suciently for MI the world, that Christ offers the application of all this, te all the Christian church, that the Holy Ghost seals an auranco thereof, te every particular conscience well rectified; after all this dono thus largely on God's part, here remains somcthing te be done on ours, that may make ail this effectual upon us, Ut non oit dolus in spirite, Tat tkere be no guile in out spirit, whieh is our fourth part, and conclusion of all. Of ail these frlits of this blessedness, there is no other root but the goodness of God himself; but yet they grow in no other ground, than iu that man, In ctus sliritu non est doltts. The comment ami interpretation of St. Paul, hath ruade the sense and meaning of this plaee e]ear: To him that urketh, the ret««rd # qf debt, but to Mm that believetk, and eorketk hot, his ]àitk le counted.fir rOhteousness, eren as David describetk the blessedness qf man, says the apostle there ', and so proeeeds with the very words of this text. Doth the apostle then, in this text, exelude the eoeoperation of man? Diflhrs this proposition, That t]le man in whom God imprints these beams of blessedness, must be without guile in his spirit, from those other propositions, »çi ris in9redi, f tkou wilt enter btto IoEë, keep the Commandments"; And,,Ialedictus qui non, C«rsed fs he that performs wt ag Grows hot the blessedness of this text, from tho saine roet, as tlleb]essedness in Psalm exix. 1, Blessed are theff, who walk in tke way qf the Lord? Or doth St. Paul take David fo speak of any other blessedness in our text, than himself speaks of, f throtçqh tke spirit e mort/ the d«eds qf the body,.ge shag lire» Doth St. Paul require nothing, nothing out of this text, to be done by man Surely he does; and these propositions are truly all one, Tantum crMideris, Only believe, and you shall be gaved;
and, 'ac hoc et ives, Do this, and you shall be saved; as it is truly a|l one purpose, to say, If you lire you rnay walk, and to say, If you stretch out your legs, you rnay wa|k. To say, Eat of this tree, and you shall recover, and to say, Eat of this fruit, and you shall recover, is ail one; to attribute an action to the next cause, or to the cause of that cause, is, to this pnrpose, ail one. And therefore, as God gave a reforrnation to his Church, in prospering that doctrine, that justification was by faith only: so God give au unity to his Church, in this doctrine, that no man is justified, that works hOt; for, without works, how rnuch soever he rnagnify his faith, there is Dolus in spiritu., Guile in his spirit. As then the prophet David's principal purpose in this text, is, aeeording to the interpretation of St. Paul, to derive ail the blessedness of man frorn God: so is it also to put some conditions in man, cornprehended in this, That there be no yuile in his spirit. For, in this repentant sinner, that shall be partaker of these degTess of blessedness, of this foryiin.q, of this corering, of this hot inloutiny, there is required Iateyra 29oenitentia, A perfect, and entire repentance; and to the rnaking up of that, howsoever the words and terrns rnay bave been rnisused, and defamed, we acknowledge, that there belongs a contrition, confession, and a satisfaction; and all these (howsoever our adversaries slander us, with a doctrine of case, and a religion of liberty) we require with rnore exactness, and severity, than they do. For, for contrition, we do hot, we dare not say, as sorne of them, that attrition is suflàcient; that it is suflàcient to bave such a sorrow for sin, as a natural sense, and fear of torrnent doth irnprint in us, without any motion of the fear of God: we know no rneasure of sorrow great enough for the violating of the infinite rnajesty of God, by our transoTessîon. And then for confession, we deny hot a necessity to confess to man; there rnay be rnany cases of scruple, of perplexity, where it were an exposing ourselves to farther occasions of sin, hOt to confess to man; and in confession, we require a particular detestation of that sin which we confess, which they require hot. And lastly, for satisfaction, we ernbrace that rule, 6'ondi.(lna satisfactlo malefacta corri.qere , 0ur best satisfaction is, to be better in the arnend- o Bcrna:'d.
S[t. L|V.] PEN|TgNTIAL PSALIS. ment of out lires: and dispositions to çaicular sins, we correct in out bies by discipline, and moificatlons; and we teach, that no man bath done truly tht pa of reçentce, vhich he is bound to do, if he bave hot given satisfaction that is, restitution, to every peon damnified by him. If that which we teach, for this entireness of reçentance, be çroetised, in contrition, and confession, and satisfaction, they cannot calumniate our doctrine, nor our practice herein; and if it be not practised, there in sFiriu, G[[e teir sFirit, that pretend to any poet of this bleedness, fo/ivhy, or coeriny, or ot imFt[y, without this. For he that is sorry for sin only in contemplation of hell, and not of the joys of heven, that would hOt give over his sin, though thcre were no he, rather than he would lose heven, (which is that vhich some of them call attrition) he that confesses his sin, bt ath no purpose to leave it, he that does leave the sin, but being gro rich by that sin, retains, nd enjoys those riches, this man is not entire in gile in his spirit. fie that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a yreat wast'; He that makes hall" repentanees, makes none. Men run out of their estates, as well by a negligenee, and a hot taking aeeount of their offieers, as by their own pmdigality: our salvation is as mueh endangered, if we eall hot our conscience to an examination, as if we repent not those sins, whieh offer themoelves to ot knowledge, and memory. And therefore David plies the consummation of his vietory in that, I ha¢e pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them, neither did I turn ayain, till ey were consultiez: we require a pursuing of the enemy, a search for the sin, and not fo stay tiH an ocer, that is, a siekaess, or any other ealamity light upon that sin, and so bring it before us; we require an overtaking of the enemy, that we bo not weary, in the seareh of out consciences; and we require a consuming of the enemy, not a weakening only; a dislodging, a dispossessing of the sin, and the profit of the sin; all the profit, and ail the pleasure of all the body of sin for he that is sorry with a godly sorrow, ho that confesses with a deliberate detestation, he that satisfies with a full restitution for ail his sins but Prov. xviii. 9. Psalm xvfii. 37.
520 rm»,CUEO UrO, T [sen. Jav. no, Dolu in iritu, There is ilo in his spifit, and ho is in no better ese, thon if at se ho should op all lea but on nd pesh by that. Si i ld, oI omne catena'; If thou wilt be discharged, eaneel ail thy bonds; ono ehain till t)mt be broke, holds as fast as ten. And therefore surfer your oensideration to turn bek a little upon this subject, that thero may be olu# in irltu, Gui& in tac »Firit, in out pretenee to all those ps of blesdness, which David recommends to us in this catechism, in the forgireness of transgression», in the coverinff dn, in the imputing of iMquity. Fir then, in this #rgiing of tran,greooiona, whieh is out Saviour Christ's taking away the sins OE the world, by taking em, in tho punishment due to them, upon himself, there is Dolua in apiritu, Guile in that man's spirit, that will so far abridge tho great volumes of the merey of God, far eontraet his general propositions, as to restrain this lvation, hOt only in the effeet, but in God's own puose, a few, a very few souls. XVhen mibjects complain of any prince, that he is t mercifu], there is Dolt, s in spiritu, Guile and deeeit in this eomplaint; they do but think him merciful to other men' faults; for, where they need his merey for their own, they never think him too meiful. And which of do hot need God for a sins If we did hOt in ourselves, yet it were a new sin in us, hOt to desire that God should be as meifid to every other sinner, as to ourlves. As in heaven, the joy of every ul shall be my joy, so the merey of God to every soul here, is a meoey to my mul; by the extension of his mercies to others, I argue the applioEtion of his merey to myselL This eontraeting, and abridging of the merey of God, will end in despair of ourselves, that that mercy reaches hOt to us, or if we beeome confident, perehance presumw tuous of ourselve% we shall despair in the behalf of other men, and think they ean receive no merey: and when men eome to allov an impossibility of salvation in any, they will eome to msign that impoibility, nay to assign those men, and pronounce, for this, and this sin, this man eannot be saved. There is a sin ainst the Holy Ghost; and to make us afraid of aH approaehes towards that sin, Christ bath told us, that that sin is irremissible,
ISEIR. L[V.] I)INITEINTIk, L I)Sk, LIIS. 5"2[ unpardonable; but since tht sin includes imienitibleness in the way, and actual impenitence in the end, we can never pronounce, this is that sin, or this is that sinner. God is lais Father tlat can say, Out Father whiek ar in hearen, and his God that can say, I believe in God; and there iv Ddus in sloiritu, Guile in his spirit, the eraft of the serpent, (either the poison of the serpent, in a self-despair, or the sting of the serpent, in an uneharitable prejudging, and preeondemning of others) when a man cornes fo suspect God's good purposes, or eontract God's general propositions; for this forgiving of transgressions, is Christ's taking away the sins of ail the world, by taking ail the sins of ail men upon himself. And this yuile, this deeeit may also be in the second, in the coreriny ofsins, which is the particular application of this general merey, by his ordinances in lais ehurch. He then t]lat without guile will have benefit by this eovering, must diseover. Qui tegi rult peccata, d«te9at, is St. Augustine's way: he that will have his sins eovered, let him uneover them; he fllat would not have them known, let him eonfess them; ho that would have them forgotten, let hiln remelnber them; ho that would bury them, let him rake them up. Tkere la nothing corered, tkat shall hot be reeealed, and kid, tltat shall hot be known «. It is not thy sending away a servant, thy locking a door, thy blowing out a eandle, no hot though thou blow out, and extinguish the spirit, as much as thou eanst, that hides a sin froln God; but sinee thou thinkest that thou hast hid it, by the secret earriage thereof, thou must reveal it by confession. If thou wilt hot, God will show thee that he needed not thv confesion; he will take knowledge of it, fo thy condemnation, and he will publish it fo the knowledge of ail the world, to thy confusion. Tufecisti abscondite, says God to David, by Nathan, Thou didst it secret[y, btt 1 will do this thin.q before ail Israel, and belote the sun . Certainly it affeets, and stings nmny men more, that God hath brought to light their partieular ins and offenees, for which ]le does punish them, than ail the punishments that he infliets upon them; for then, they eannot lay their ruin upon fortune, upon vicissitudes, and revolutions, and changes of s Matt. x. '26, s 2 am. xii. 12.
court, upon disaffections of princes, upon suçç[antations of rivals and concurrents but God clears ail the world beside; ta ex te, God dec]ares that the punishment is his act, and the cause, my sin. This is God's way; and this ho expresses vehemently against Jerusalem, Behold, I will çatker ail ty lo, with u'kom thou haut taken leaure, and all them tkat tou ka lored, itk all them tat tkou haut hated, and will dier ty akedness to ail them «. Those who loved for prended virtues, shall sec how much they were deceived in us; those that hated us, because they were able to look into us, and to discern out actions, shall then say triumphantly, and publicly to ail, Did not we tell you what would become of this man It was never likely to be better with him. will trip her naked, and et her as in tke day tkat ske wa bornS; howsoever thou wert eovered with the covenant, and taken into the visible chureh, howsoever thou were clothed, by having put on Christ in baptism, yet, If thou in ayainst me, (says God) and Mde it from me, I ara oeain,t thee, and I will show the zation, thy nakedness and the kingdom* thg shame . To eome to the eovering of thy sins without guile, first eover them hot froln thyse]f, so, as that thou eanst hot see yesterday's in, tbr toedafs sin; nor the sins of thy youth, for thy present vins: eover not thy extortions with nmgnifie buildings, and sumptuous furniture; dung hot the fields that thou llast purehased with the bodies of those miserable wretche, vhoxn thou hast oppressed, neither strav rhino alleys and walks wih tho dust of God's saints, whom thy hard dealing hath grod to poivrier. There is but one good way of eovering sins from ourselves, Si bonafacta mali,,werponamu, ', If we eome to a habit of good aetions, eontrary to those evils, whieh wo had aeeustomed ourselves to, and cover our sins so; hot that we follet the old, but that wo cee no new. Thero is a good eovering of sins from ourselves, by sueh nev habits, and there is a good coverlng of them from other men; for, he that ins publiely, seandalously, avowedly, that teaehes and encourages others to sin, That declares his sin as 8odom, and Mdes it hot s°, as in a mirror, in a looking-glass, that is compassed and set about witb a hundred lesser glasses, a man shall see deformities in a hundred places ai once, so he that bath sinned thus shall feel his torments in himself, and in ail those, whom the not covering of his sins bath occasioned to commit the saine sins. Cover thy sins then from thyself, so it be not by obduration; cover them from others, so it be not by hypocrisy; but from God cover them hot at ail; He that cove'et his hot lrosper; but u'hoso confesseth and forsal['eth them, shall hae mercy; even in eonfessing, without forsaking, there is Dolus in spiritu, Guile and deeeit in that spirit. *oluit OEonoscere, maluit i.qnoscere, St. Augustine makes the case of a eustomary sinner he was ready to pardon himself always without any confession; but God shall invert it te his subversion, Iahdt a.qnoscere, noluit iynoscere, God shall manifest his sin, and net pardon it. Sin hath that pride, that it is hot content with one garment Adam covered first with fig-leaves, then with whole trees, hid himself amongst the trees: then he eovered his sin, with the woman; she proroked him: and then with God's action, Quam ttt dedisti, The woman whom tlou.oarest me; and this xvas Adam's wardrobe. David covers his first sin of uncleanness with sort stuff, with deeeit, with falsehood, with sort persuasions to Uriah, to go in to his wife; then he eo'«ers it with rich stuff, with scarlet, with the blood of Uriah, and of the army of the Lord of hosts; and then he eovers it with strong and durable stuff, with an impenitenee, and with an insensibleness, a year together; too long for a king, too long for any man, to wear such a garment: and this was David's wardrobe. But beloved, sin is a serpent, and he that cox'ers sin, does but keep it warm, that it may sting the more fiercely, and disperse the venom and malignity thereof the more effectually. Adam had patehed up an apron to cover him; God took none of those leaves; God wrought hot upon his beginnings, but he eox-ered him ail over with durable skins. God saw that Dax-id's several eoverings did rather load him, than eover the sin, and therefore Transtullt, He took ail away, sin, and covering: for the eoverings were as great sins, as the radical.o lsaiah iii. 9. Prov. xxviii. 13.
52 vs.Actn vPoN TUE [aE. Lin. sin, that was to be covered, was; yea greater; as the arms and boughs of a tree, are greater than the root. ow to this extension, and growth, and largeness 0f sin, no lesser covering serres than God in his church. It was the prayer against them who hindered the building of the temple» Coter not teir iniuty, eiter let telr in be ut o«t in ty resence . Our prayer is, Peccata nostra non eideat, ut w» eideat , Lord look not upon our sins, that thou mayest loek upon us. And since amongst ourselves, it is the effect of love, to cover «[«Ititudinem peatorum ', The multitude of sins, yea to cover Unirer»a delicta, Zoe coreret aH sins , much more shall God, who is loe itself, cover our sins so, as he covered the E'ptians, in a ed Sea, in the application of his bloed, by visible means in his church. That therefore thou mayest be capable of this covering, commit ty ways unto te Lord'; tlmt is, show unto him, by way of confession, what wrong ways thou hast gone, and inquire of by prayer, what ways thou art to go, and (as it is in the saine Psahn) IIe shall briny forth t»y riyt«ousn«ss as the liyht, and ju@ment as the noon-day; and so therm shall be no 9uile round in thy pirit, which miht hinder this coreriny of thy sin, which is, the application of Christ's merits, in the ordinances of his church, nor the hot imputiç of tine ininity, which is our Iast consideratiou, and the conclusion of ail. This hot imputhy, is that serenity and acquiescence, which a rectified conscience enjoys, when the spirit of God bears witness with my spirit, that, thus reconciled to my God, I ara now guiIty of nothing. St. Bernard defines the conscience thus, r«bills yloria, rd cofusio uuiusc(EEsque, pro qualitate depositi: It is that inseparable glory, or that inseparable confusion whieh every soul bath, aeeording to that whieh is deposited, and laid up in it. Now what is deposited, and laid up in it Naturally, hereditary, patrimonially, Con-reatus, says that father, from our first parents, a fellow-iltiness of their siu and they have left us sons aud heirs of the wrath and indignation of God, and that is the treasure they have laid up for us. Against this, God hath provided baptism; and baptism washes away that sin; for as t Nehem. iv. 5. Augustine. a, I Pet. iv. . a PlV. x- 12. alln xxxii. 6.
we do nothing to ourselves in baptism, but are therein merely passive, so neither did we anything ourselves in orieinal sin, but therein are merely passive too; and so the remedy, baptism is proportioned to the disease, original sin. But original sin being thus washed away, we make a new stock, we take in a new deloositum, a new treasure, actual and habitual slns, and therein much being done by ourselves, against God, into the rcmedy, there must enter something tobe done by ourselves, and something by God; and therefore we bring water to his wine, true tears of repentance to his true blood in the sacrament, and so receive the seals of our reconciliation, and having done that, we may boldly say unto God, Do hot co»demn me: show me wherefore thon cotendest with me . Vhen we have sai,1 as he doth, I bave sinned, what shall I do to thee? /ld have done that that he hath ordained, we may say also as he doth, 0 tkou preserver of men, u'hy dost thot hot pardon my transgression, and take au'ay mine inlquity? Vhy dost thon surfer me to faint and pant under this sad apprehension, that all is not yet well between my soul and thee. ]Ve are far ri'oto eneouraging any man to antidate his pardon; to presume his pardon to be passed belote it is: but when it is truly passed the seals of reeoneiliation, there is Dolus in spiritu, Guile and deeeit il that spil'it, lay it is the spirit of falsehood and deeeit itself, that will not surfer us fo enjoy that pardon, whieh God hath sealed fo us, but still malntain jealousies, and suspicion, between God and us. My heart is hot opener to God, than the bowels of his merey nre to me; and to accuse myself of sin, after God bath pardoned me, were as great a eontempt of God, as to presmne of that pardon, before he had granted it; alld so much a greater, as it is directed against his greatest attribute, his mercy.,ç'i aloud Deum de]onas injuriam, ipse ultor erlt , Lay all the injuries that thou surferest, af God's feet, and he will revenge theni;,Si damnun, ipse restituer; Lay all thy losses there, and he will repair them;,ç'i dolorem, ilose medicus; Lay down all thy diseases there, and lle shall heal tllee; Si mortem, ipse resuscltator, Die in his arms, and ho shall breatho a new lire into thee; add we to Tertullian: çl peccata, ilose sepe-