Adams was actuall and death reigneth not but where sinne reigneth The same Apostle finding in his understanding enlightned and in his zeale inflamed and in his will rectified by the Spirit of God good motions to serve God uprightly yet those discouraged and ineffectualled in him often he chargeth all this upon his corrupt nature which he calleth Peccatum inhabitans Sinne dwelling in him Vers 20. Lexmembrorum the law of his members Vers 23. Corpus mortis the body of death Vers 24. The flesh Vers 25. With my minde I serve the Law of God with my flesh the law of sinne This the Author to the Hebrews doth call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sinne that doth so easily beset and inviron us For this little Infants unborne and new borne are subject unto death and to charge death without a charge of sinne would call the judge of all the world unjust That there is originall sinne and that David here complaineth of it we have made it cleare Now observe that David in his repentance to make it full doth apply all his sinnes to the multitude of Gods tender compassions For a full confession maketh way to a full absolution When Jeremiah advise thus to search and try our wayes first and then to turn to the Lord he intendeth that we must examine our hearts in this search to the bottome and go so farre back in this inquisition as to the mother sinne the primitive and originall masse of corruption which empoysoneth our nature which cancreth our manners and in time gangreneth our whole conversation mortally to the very dominion of sinne David doth so for here he looketh back so farre as to his first conception and diggeth so deep as the root of his sinne For he chargeth all his transgressions upon this beginning of sinne which indeed in all the children of Adam is not onely a naturall pollution defiling us but it is a corrupt seed shooting out in time into a blade and bearing a full eare of actuall prevarications Therefore no man knoweth his own heart and let no man be so bold of his own strength to promise resistance to such temptations as have corrupted others It is the Apostles good counsell Brethren if any man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spirituall restore such a one in the spirit of meeknesse considering thy self lest thou also be tempted In which words The considering of thy self is no other then the wise remembrance of thy originall corruption for there is tinder in thee apt to take fire from a little spark There is in Sathan both cunning and malice enough with his temptations to strike this fire The Apostle useth a fit word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 si anticipetur for sometimes we are by sensuall motives perswaded and by semblance of good deceived or by entisements of pleasure or profit allured to evill When the Serpent as with Eve disputeth with us and corrupteth our judgement darkeneth our reason blindeth benummeth or deadeth our conscience and so we not onely take but gather and give the forbidden fruit Sometimes Sathan catcheth us by surprise and with a sudden temptation having all opportunities for sinne to friend he overtaketh us and embarketh us in some trespasse before we have leasure to advise our selves So was Troy taken at last by a cunning stratageme Victâ—mque quamvis videat Vix or edit sibi potuisse vinci She saw her self orecome by foes Yet scarse beleeves she what she knows Thus was David here caught he was at leasure in peace in glory and power at ease his mind now quiet his breasts full of milk his bones of marrow and walking on the leads of his house his eye no sooner was fastened on the beauty but his heart was fired with lust after Vriahs wife he enquired of her sent for her defiled her prevented and surprized with a sudden temptation This he imputeth to his naturall corruption by his originall and birth sinne So some that have ever made conscience of an oath yet upon a sudden passion sometimes rap out a fearfull oath to Gods great dishonour and their foule offence So some that make conscience of giving Suum cuique to every one his own yet upon an opportunitie offering them anothers goods upon faire termes of likely secrecie have robbed a neighbour I have upon like occasion given examples of this work of corrupt nature in the sonnes of men in Hazael who brought a present from Benhadad to Elisha to demand whether his master should dye of that disease The man of God looked Hazael so stedfastly in the face that Hazael was out of countenance but the man of God wept And when Hazael demanded why weepeth my Lord He answered Because I see the evill that thou wilt do to the children of Israel their strong holds wilt thou set on fire and their yong men wilt thou destroy with the sword and wilt dash their children and wilt rip up their women with childe And Hazael said But whâ—t is thy servant a dogge that he should do this great thing Yet presently he returned to his master brought him comfort of his recovery and on the morrow he took a thick cloth and dipt it in water and spread it on his face that he dyed He reigned in his stead and did like a dogge all that evill c. When Christ said one of his twelve should betray him Judas was one of them that demanded with the rest Nunquid ego Domine Is it I Lord But a sudden temptation surprised him Then entred Sathan into Judas Iscariot And he went his way and communed with the chiefe Priests and Captains how he might betray him unto them Most memorable is the example of Peter whom Christ forewarned of his denyall of him A thing so farre from Peters heart that he took it ill to be so charged he protested against it and vowed to dye with him or for him rather then he would deny him Yet being in the high Priests Hall when Christ was ill used there for feare of his own skinne he denyed and forswore him thrice This body of sinne we do all alwayes beare about us and therefore we passe the time of our so journing here with feare for which of us may not be thus surprised For there is no kinde of sinne which our heart abhorreth most but we are in danger of it by reason of our naturall corruption wherefore Christ taught us to pray Et ne nos inducas in tentationem And leade us not into temptation Therefore a wise man feareth and departeth from evill but a foole rageth and is confident Folly is rash and goeth on inconsiderately and trusteth to his own strength We live in perpetuall danger by reason of this naturall corruption for the Spirit hath his eclipse and often upon our grieving him leaveth us in our own wayes that we may see our naturall impotencie to that which the Law requireth of us and be so much the more
hostility wherin he proclaims open war against the Church of God hath his secret insinuations by which he windeth himselfe into the hearts of men So he entred into the heart of Iudas and Saint Peter saith to Simon Magus Thy heart is not right in the sight of God Sathan had beene secretly working upon his heart into which he had infused some gall of bitternesse Against this Davids receipt was Absconds in corde sermonem tuum ut non peccarem contra te I have hid thy word in my heart that I might not sinne against thee When he let that word goe Sathan came in and sowed the seeds of lust Intravit mors per feâ—esâ—ras Death came in at the windowes he let it in by his eyes for no sooner did his eye looke but his heart did lust and then all his parts proved instruments of sinne and traitours to the spirit of God that was in him This setteth us a worke to furnish our secret part with wisedome for so it will be a fortification against open warre and a privy coat against a sudden stabbe of temptation This wisedome though thus secretly stored cannot be concealed but it will speake in the tongue the language of Canaan For ext of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh It will be seene in the face for the wise doe set their faces toward Ierusalem and you may see by their lookes which way they are bound all their workes and whole conversation will taste of it The greatest hinderance to good conversation to good workes and to repentance of our evill waies is the unsoundnesse and rottennesse of our secret part that is 1 Vanity in our understanding when wee busie our thoughts and exercise our wits either onely in the things which concerne this life what we shall eat what we shall drinke where with we shall be cloathed for which the heathens take care who know no God to take that care for them or when we spend our braines in impertinent disquisitions studying genealogies and intricating our thoughts in vaine questions which are not worthy our study 2 Our inward part is mortally diseassed by corruption of our will when wee live in a perpetuall pursuit of our owne desires and goe in the way that seemeth good in our owne eyes for so the strength of sinne is the law and the more we are restrained the more we strive both against the Commandement that biddeth and forbiddeth and against the word of exhortation that putteth the Commandement upon the conscience And against those good motions of the spirit of God and of his good Angels which continually labour to compose us to obedience The way to heale all this is by wisedome in this secret part for that will teach 1 For the world there is no cause to care for the Lord careth for us and for impertinent studies the word will shew us unum necessarium the one thing needfull against the vanity of minde 2 For our will this wisedome will correct it and teach it subjection to the will of God whose will is our best friend for by that we were chosen created redeemed saved fiat voluntas tua thy will be done 3 Davids faith Thou wilt make me to know The naturall man doth not perceive the things of the spirit of God neither can he They that are born sinners are born fooles darkened in their understandings and hardened in their hearts the light that is in them is darkenesse and therefore quâ—ntâ— tenebrâ— how great darknesse Therefore they must be made to know wisedome and none but God can doe it he teacheth man knowledge and David beleeveth that he will doe it Christ saith All shall be taught of God for he offereth himselfe a teacher to all Wisedome cryeth in the streets and uttereth her voyce in the high wayes and calleth the simple and ignorant to her schoole to be taught Wisedome hath many auditors few proficients many truants that come not to schoole many dull and indocile that learne little but David beleeveth two things 1 That God will teach him 2 That he will make him know our apprehensions are often more quicke to conceive wisedome then either our memories to retaine it or our affections to embrace it We are never said truely to know wisedome till wee know the want of it the giver of it the value of it and the right use of it Seneca could teach his schollars that the inquisition and posing of students in Philosophy is Non quantum in philosophia sed quantum in vita profecerint Not what profit they have received in philosophy but how much in their lives The way of furnishing us with this wisedome is 1 By the Word working upon our understandings for that giveth light to the simple 2 By the spirit stirring up our spirits and setting them aworke If any man love God he is taught of God David now repenting and returning to himselfe hath faith in the goodnesse of God that he will give him this wisedome to repaire him which sheweth that our wisedome may for a time be lost for David had it before and guided all his former waies with discretion but being overtaken with this temptation he committed folly wisedome for a time departed from him his understanding was darkened his heart was hardened sinne had possessed his inward and secret part the hid man of the heart So that he is now to learne wisedome againe and so is cast much behind hand And make him to know it in his hidden part Great comfort here is given to the true penitent for his sincere repentance removeth both sinne and punishment and quickeneth the graces of God in him so that though he stumble he cannot fall quia Dominus supponis manum because the Lord putteth under his hand his faith layeth hold upon that hand and keeps him upright VERSE 7. Purge me with hysope and I shall be cleane wash mee and I shall be whiter than snow 3. HE returneth againe to supplications and he hath many suits to God 1 For his purgation from the pollution of his sinne Verse 7. 2 For comfort against his sinnes and the punishment of them Verse 8. 3 For pardon of them Verse 9. 4 For newnesse of life Verse 10. 5 For a constant course of the grace and favour of God Verse 11. 12. 13. 6 For particular pardon of his last great sinne Verse 14. 7 For ability to performe the service of Gods holy worship Verse 15. 16. 17. 1 For purgation from sinne hee doubleth his request here as in an important businesse dearely concerning him for 1 He findeth himselfe so foule with his sinnes as he needeth washing and purging and he needeth Gods washing 2 To shew yet his pollution more he presseth to bee washt with hysope 3 To shew what innocency and purity he affecteth he first desireth to be made cleane he resumeth the suit and expresseth his desires in full measure he would be whiter than snow 1 His importunity to be washt
enemies etiaÌ„ domestici ejus inimiciejus the enemies be homebred Iob amongst many other aberrations of men wherof he acquitteth himselfe saith if mine heart walked after mine eyes for when our eyes behold beauty as David did to lust we lose our heart by it Dinah is deflowred if she gad If our heart walk after our eare we may entertain wanton lascivious words which corrupt good manners calumnious and slandercus reports which deprave our neighbours dicterious and satanicall invectives which hurt their good name prophane and blasphemous words which dishonour the name of God If our heart walke after ouâ— tast wee may defile our bodies and soules with surfetting and drunkennesse to the distemper of our bodies the corruption of our soules the displeasing of God the defiling of our consciences the abuse of Gods good creatures unthankfully and the corrupting of others by our evill example So when Christ shall say to thee My sonne give me thy heart thou hast no heart to give him for whoredome wine and new wine take away the heart It is good for us to take into our consideration what is good and what the Lord requireth of us We see the fruit of it in David for having before considered that God requireth truth in the inward part he now becomes carefull of his inward parts and is an humble suter to God for his heart they that meditate not on these things lose their hearts 2 He desireth a cleane heart so he interpreteth his former petitions wash me cleanse me purge me with hysop me that is my heart there is a deepe steine in it of originall sinne there is a foule issue from thence of all other sins these make the conscience sicke of an infectious leprosie even to the second death these make our words and workes and our whole conversation noxious to our brethren obnoxious to the wrath of God The purging of the heart is the cleansing of the whole man for out of the abundance of the heart the tongue speaketh the eare heareth the eye seeth the foot walketh The heart ruleth and guideth all the rest of the man if the fountaine be cleare the streames that flow thence will bee pure and the waters sweet else they will be like the waters of Marab bitter waters Saint Augustine wonders at the folly of man be desireth every thing for himselfe good and of the best he loves cleane cloathing upon him he loves cleane feeding cleane lodging he is next to a bruit beast that is a sloven and yet few desire to have cleane hearts Cleane garners for your graine cleane warehouses for your commodities are desired Your heart is the granary for the pure seed of the word the warehouse for the rich commodity of Gods spirituall favours and graces if that be nastie and noysome stenched with our abominable sinnes tenanted by uncleane spirits Non est loâ—us in diversorio there is no roome in the Inne Though the Saviour of the world was borne in a Stable for want of a fitter roome his good spirit will not house it selfe in hearts that like Stables are fitter for bruit beasts than for the Sonne of God to be entertained there Beati mundi corde blessed are the pure in heart saith Christ S. Gr. upon that saith Si illum qui ab omni peccato mundus est in cordis nostri hospitio habere volumus oportet primò ut cor ab omni vitiorum sorde purgemus If we will have him in the Inne of our hearts which is pure from all sinne wee must first purge our hearts from the foulenesse of vices Our bodies be the temples of the holy Ghost our hearts the Chancell of the Church the Sanctum Sanctorum where the Arke of God is to be placed and where God should sit betweene the Cherubins He that defileth the house of God him will God destroy David asketh the question who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place he answereth He that hath cleane hands and a pure heart for no uncleane thing shall bee admitted to enter that holy place They that thinke well of this as much as they desire salvation with God in heaven so much will they strive with God by prayers to obtaine of him a cleane heart and an unstumbling conscience 3 He desireth this of God by way of creation crea in me create in me 1 He desireth this of God for hee onely is the purger of hearts who is the creator of them he takes it upon himselfe I will save you from all your uncleannesses we must goe out of our selves for this for so Ieremie confesseth O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himselfe it is not in man that walketh to direct his steppes therefore helpe O God as before doe thou wash and cleanse and purge me with thy hysope and I shall be cleane if wee be of his washing we shall be whiter than snow 2 He requesteth this by way of creation to create is to make something of nothing Our hearts are so foule and corrupt that there is no repairing of them we must have nâ—w ones made of purpose to serve God with which God in wisedome knowing and in mercy pittying saith A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh 2 Petition 1 He desireth of God his spirit this is the spirit of sanctification This Saint Paul praied for the Thessalonians And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly or throughout The spirit of naturall life doth animate the body and maketh it fit for actions of life The spirit of God doth quicken us to actions thoughts and words which belong to holy life We are by nature dead in trespasses sins it is the good spirit of God by which we are new borne and without this we are the children of death for except ye be borne againe of water and the holy Ghost ye cannot enter into the kingdome of heaven he that is so borne of this spirit hath a seed remaining in him 2 He desireth a right spirit the margent of the K. B. doth more naturally expresse the originall calling it a constant spirit For David had received the good spirit of God which so enlightened his understanding and so sanctified his affections and governed his whole conversation that he was a man after the heart of God But when he embraced that mischievous temptation which carried him away from the Word and Commandement of God and opened his eare to the perswasions of flesh and bloud then that good spirit forsooke him for a time and hee lay like a dead man insensible of his fault of his danger Therefore now returning to God by repentance he petitioneth God for a constant spirit that may abide ever with him to guide him that he may never
a way that seemeth good in a mans owne eyes but the end thereof are the wayes of death This is viaâ—on bona the way not good we must turne out of it here repentance beginneth Leave to doe evill Natures way the way of corrupt will the way of our lusts the way of the world are beaten waies many travaile them but these are new waies which are called our owne crooked waies turne out of them 3 The object to the Lord. This may seeme to import very small comfort for transgressors to turne to the Lord for he hath declared himselfe a jealous God and a consuming fire he hath digged a pit for sinners his wisedome cannot but see his lawes broken his holinesse can doe no lesse than abhorre it his justice cannot but punish it To turne sinners to God is to bring stubble to the fire but marke the sequence of my text First he will teach sinners Gods waies and then there can be no danger of their turning to God For Adam when he had turned from God by disobedience it was no wonder that he turned not to God by repentance but fled from his presence and hid himselfe because the way to God was shutup till God himselfe opened it in the promised seed yet there is no record of his turning kept This point affordeth the most comfortable doctrine that we can preach or you heare That a sinner may turne to God and be welcome to him it is the oyle of gladnesse it is the bread that strengtheneth mans heart Manna reconditum the hidden Manna It is a flagon of wine from the Lords Cellar It is the fulnesse and fatnesse and marrow of Gods house It is the living water drawne from the rivers of Gods pleasure which refresh the City magni regis of the great King It is the very extraction and distilment of the two Testaments of the Law and of the Gospell Let a sinner upon survey of his conscience and the detection of his sinne whilest his iniquities are in number and are set in order before him even then in the cold fit of feare resort to the Lord and cast himselfe at his feet and seeke his face There be great reasons for it 1 There is a necessitie in it there is no helpe elsewhere none can forgive sinnes but God onely The Apostles and Ministers of the Word forgive sinnes upon repentance but ministerially they doe pronounce Gods pardon ex officio by their office Therefore the Iewes accused Christ of blasphemy for forgiving sinnes for they knew him not to be God He healeth all our infirmities and pardoneth all our sinnes 2 God though he abhorre sinne yet he loveth the person of the sinner he cannot despise the worke of his own hand he hath sworne by his life that he will not the death of a sinner but rather that he turne to him All the while that he hath his hand in his bosome while he is plucking of his sword out of the sheath while he is whetting of it while he is lifting it up all this while he is expecting our repentance and if we turne not he smiteth home if we doe convert he saith Put up thy selfe into thy scabberd rest and be still He dealeth not withus as with enemies at armes end but forbeareth us and openeth his bosome and revealeth to us the bowels of his compassion The two greatest and dearest loves that are he taketh upon himself to declare his tendernesse over us 1 the love of an husband secondly of a father for under these titles he hath desired to appeare to his Church yet he taketh an holy pride to transcend husbands and fathers in their naturall love for thy Maker is thy husband the Lord of hoasts is his name What husband will receive againe a disloyall divorced wife that hath given her body to be defiled and hath scornefully abused him and borne children to strangers yet God receiveth us after all this wrong yea whilest we are in the height of this sinne he wooeth and courteth us and seeketh our conversion I will allure her and bring her into the wildernesse and speake friendly to her heart Though fathers provoked by disobedient children forget naturall affection and mothers cast off all compassion yet God cannot yea though he doe for a time forbeare yet upon repentance if thou turne to him In the place where it was said ye are not my people there it shall bee said unto them ye are the sonnes of the living God Hee was that father who saw met received and cloathed and welcommed his vnthrifty sonne he sent not after him but when he returned he embraced him Our God is kinder than that father for he sendeth into the farre Country after to seeke us out he sendeth his Prophets Apostles Ministers Ite in universum mundum goe into all the world he riseth early to send them God himselfe offereth his owne wings how often would I have gathered you some parables expresse chiefly what God doth somewhat we should doe The parable of the Prodigall chiefly sheweth quid nos what we The parable of the lost sheepe quid Deus what God 3 We have comfort from Gods often inviting sinners to him nothing shall dismay us for he requireth and commandeth our resort to him with a non obstante nothing hindering and Samuel saith to the people yee have done all this wickednesse yet turne not aside from following the Lord but serve the Lord with all your heart and Christ saith Come all weary and heavy laden 4 God taketh more pleasure in the returne of a sinner to him then he conceived anger for his departing from him When God had lost Adam by his sinnes the griefe was not so great as his joy was when he recovered him by the seed of the woman The second Adam had twise from heaven proclaimed over him Hic est filius meus dilectus this is my beloved Sonne There is a parable for that more joy for the lost sheepe than the 99. Sinne is an act of depraved nature it is opus nostrum our worke Grace is opus Dei Gods worke he loves his owne workes more than hee hates ours Iacob Satis est vivit filius meus It is enough my sonne is yet alive The father in the parable pleaded and justified the cause of his joy My sonne was lost and is found This shewes the sure mercies of God which declare him God But because of us sinners thou shalt be called mercifull for ubi non est miseria non est misericordia where there is no misery there is no mercy The first sinners were Angels they fell not all and those that fell did corrupt onely themselves there was no propagation of that creature When Adam and Evah fell they corrupted the whole nature of mankinde and this magnified the Creators mercie when he raised up an horn of salvation to preserve a creature whose generations had else beene subject to ruine
water to wash these wounds and they are tender and this must be done often Beloved let me tell you that Sathan befooleth us with many false pleasures of vanitie which make these wounds in our souls We pay deare for them when we come to this washing And he that considers it well will know the terrour of the Lord and be afraid to give way to temptations that may put him to the pain of repentance It is true that nothing in this world is so painfull as true repentance It is called mortification killing the old man not every kinde of death crucifie the flesh Mors lâ—ntâ— violenta dedecorosa a death slow violent disgracefull It is called the breaking of the heart the renting and tâ—aring of it in peeces It is sackcloth for clothing baldnesse for beauty it is Amaritudo animae the bitter nessâ— of soul Yet for all this Multiplica lavare multiply to wash Iâ— drosse be mingled with our gold it will ask an hot fire to purge it out and that is repentance Behold Niniveh doing penance for her sinnes The King arose from his throne he layed his roabe from him and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes proclaimed Let neither man nor beast taste any thing let them not feed nor drink water But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth Here is a Citie washt throughly in a bath of repentant and true tears Ecce Rex tâ—ns venit tibi mansuetus Behold thy King comes to thee meek the true and living picture of mortification He that sate on a throne of majestie and honour a glorious King arose from his throne as if his throne trembled under him in a we of the supreme throne which is set for justice upon all the world He layeth down his glory and casteth his Crown at the footstool of the most high All the ensignes of honour and principalitie above men he putteth off and puts himself into the number and rank of common men He puts off his royall garments the habite of glory He puts on sackcloth the dresse and trimme of repentance and humility He casteth himself on the ground there he sitteth in an heap of ashes He depriveth himself of his food and then Regis ad exemplum according to the Kings example all do so What can be added to this unworthying of himself He thought himself neither worthy of honour nor rayment nor ease nor food Not made onely a common man but as one of the beasts of the earth they were also clad in sackcloth Job in cinere in ashes dust to dust Thus the sinne of pride doth penance in coming down and abusing themselves The sinne of vanitie in apparrell doth penance in sackcloth The sinne of delicacie and nicenesse in a seat of ashes The sinne of drunkennesse and gluttony in fasting not bread not water The sinne of contempt and scorne of one another doth penance in an equality of like condition behold and see which is the King which is the Subject nay which is the man which is the beast all in one Liverie of sorrow and shame all in sackcloth Yet let me use the words of our Saviour of this sight Solomon in all his glorious royalty was not apparreled like one of these Never did Niniveh shew fairer in the eyes of heaven then this day never was Nineveh so throughly washt never so cleane Me thinks I heare the voyce of God saying as of Ahab so much rather so of Niniveh Seest thou how Niniveh humbleth it self before me It was a day of Ninivehs purification and God was appeased the doome of her destruction gratiously reversed David himself in this storie feeling the hand of God upon him in the visitation of his childe refused his bed laid him down on the earth would not wash or anoint or change garments refused to eat his bread We visit the Courts of Princes in our bravest trimme We finde the face and favour of God soonest in our worst clothes and meanest accoutrements All this is thought nothing the Penitent saith I will yet be more vile When Benhadad the proud provoker of King Ahab was down the winde his Servants had this hope onely left to propound to him Behold now we have heard that the Kings of Israel are mercifull Kings let us therefore I pray thee put sackcloth upon our loyns and rops upon our heads and go out to the King of Israel c. They did so Thus must they do that will have a guilt of sinne washed away thorowly and so our God being a mercifull God our life may be spared 3 David desireth God to wash him for the truth is he may say to us all as once to Peter Nisi ego te lavero non habebis partem mecum Except I wash thee thou shalt have no part in me David saith I will wash my hands in innocencie and Isaiah biddeth Wash you make you clean The work of our purification is not performed throughly but in the concurrence of both these we wash our selves in our true repentance God washeth us in his gratious pardon Yet even in our repentance God doth wash us too for he giveth both the grace and power of repentance he worketh all his works in us our spirits and faculties work together with him we are not meerly passives in our own washing but we give our affections and desires of heart to it we offer the service of our sighs and groans and tears and bring our bodies in subjection The Spirit of God doth not all it self but it helpeth our infirmities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word is of strong signification for here is a burthen too heavy for us to beare the Spirit of God comes to our help and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alone were a carriage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is over against us as when a burthen is born betweene two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decompoundeth the word and joyneth him in the burthen with us So he leaves not all the burthen upon us whose weaknesse cannot undergo it He takes not all the burthen upon him and from us but he beareth with us and as it ever falleth out between two that beare the same burthen the weaker doth ease himself upon the stronger so it is here the most of our burthen in this act of repentance lyeth upon God therefore Lava tu Domine wash thou Lord. Many would faine cast all the care upon God of their washing David doth his best and craveth here but Gods assistance For we must not sit out in our burthens and duties we cannot exonerate our selves so The manner how God worketh this lotion in us is 1 By his word so Christ Uos mundi est is propter sermonem quem ego locutus sum vobis You are clean by the word which I have spoken unto you Saint Augustine sheweth how the word doth cleanse us for it is Verbum fidei docens gignens alens fidem the word of faith teaching begetting nourishing faith And
it self will prove the burthen of the conscience the feare of a deadly blow the trembling of our hearts the shame of our faces the disquieting of the whole man This sheweth us what a body of sinne we beare about us for as the proverbe is Wickednesse proceedeth from the wicked this calleth the heart uncleane and the conscience defiled Cease therefore to do evill and learne to do well This is the way of life to escape the paths of death Evils are a shamed of themselves and Sathan dare not be so open in his temptations as to tender them to us bare-faced but he putteth either some matter of vertue upon them to hide them out of sight or some pretence of great pleasure or profit to sweeten them that they may go down with us without distaste Let us but take so much leasure as to take off this disguise and behold evill in it own proper colours and we shall see such a loathed deformitie we shall feele such an abhorred complection of stench and commistion of filthinesse as will discourage us from it We shall discerne danger in the touch of it and death in the committing of it Libera nos à malo Deliver us from evill 4 The particularity This sinne Here Davids repentance doth come home to his present disease this great exemplarie teeming and pregnant this parturient sinne which brought forth so many so horrible sinnes Lust when it conceiveth bringeth forth sinne Lust was Davids sinne see the present issue and encrease of it it broughtforth adultery Two bodies defiled Matrimony Gods ordinance polluted Gods good creatures abused to drunkennesse Joab corrupted Uriah murthered This sinne cherished veiled with a marriage and for ten moneths unrepented I have done this evill all this beside all the other sinnes of my life I have added this also No doubt but he did consider this sinne also in the punishment of it 1 With vexation in his conscience 2 With shame in the world 3 With the griefe of the Church 4 With the joy of Gods enemies 5 With the anger of God 6 With the chiding of Nathan 7 With the death of the childe 8 With a continuall incumbent punishment in his own house Non discedet gladius c. The sword shall not depart c. Before he craved mercy against his transgressions and iniquitie and sinnes Now he comes to this eminent and notorious sinne I have done evill this evill Which teacheth us when we come to repaire the decayes of our spirituall man by repentance to have speciall care of those particular sinnes which have especially corrupted us and provoked God against us A generall peccavi iniquè egi I have sinned and done wickedly will not serve without we come to this evill As the people of Israel did when the Lord affrighted them with thunder and raine in their wheat-harvest they confessed and said to Samuel Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we dye not for we have added unto all our sinnes this evill in asking us a King We say of some man he is a very true hearted honest man but he will sometimes over-drink or he will sometimes sweare in his passion or he will over-shoot himself in his anger or he is somewhat covetous or prodigall or wanton c. Let every man so account with God for his sinnes as to confesse with griefe shame and fear this evill to which either some corruption of nature or some continuance of custome or some temptation of pleasure profit or some present occasion for want of grace by some sudden surprize hath prevailed with him to give him a fall Opportunitie doth often tempt and prevaile against a great measure of knowledge and grace and God sometimes leaveth us to our selves to try our strength how we can resist Sathan If we prove too weake for him and that he do over-beare us we have no remedie but this particular repentance All sinnes foule us therefore David prayeth to be washed some sinnes steine us and an ordinarie washing will not cleare us therefore he prayeth Wash me throughly and make me cleane It is our wisedome to discerne this difference of our sinnes and consider which be dyed in crimsin which in scarlet and to bring them to the washing especially So shall we be purged from our great offence Here is Noahs drunkennesse and Lots drunkennesse and incest Pauls persecution of the Church Peters denyall of his Master In multis offendimus omnes in many things we sinne all But if we survey our consciences carefully and inquisitively we shall finde this evill some especiall sinne that we have either much accustomed our selves to or that we have once committed overtaken with some sudden strong temptation which we may call this evill How evill this evill tasted in the end we see his appetite desired it before as a chiefe pleasure and now it is become his griefe and greatest paine He was very warie after of falling into this sinne Yet another temptation put him into new sinne of numbring his people when he had done this evill also he fell to this remedy of particular repentance And David said unto God I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing but now I beseech thee do away the iniquity of thy servant for I have done very foolishly He that hath many of these grosse and high-growne sinnes blasphemies prophanations of the Lords-day adulterie drunkennesse c. to account for is in heavy case If one at once smart so shâ—rply and weigh so heavily what will many do Aperiantur ut operiantur sanemus ut sanemus Let them be shewn that they may becovered let us reveal them that we may heal them 5 The daring of this sinne In thy sight He had conveied this sinne as closely and warily as he could God took notice of that also Thou diddest it secretly Bathsheba was secretly sent for and entised and defiled Vriah dyed in a just warre But now David seeeth that all this was done in the sight of God he seeth what the hand doth and what heart setteth it awork David could not be ignorant of this but we willingly embrace temptations to evill which we can keep out of the worlds eye The searching eye of God cannot be benighted it is over all the world and discerneth both good and evill Will any man steale whilest the owner looketh on Dare any man trespasse a King when his eye is upon him A king sitting on the throne of judgement driveth away all evill with his eye He was a foole that said in his heart Non est Deus there is no God he saith so that denyeth him a sight of all things There is no power like the power of God there is no strength to execute power like the strength of God There is no fire so hot as the fire of his furie There is no threatning so surely accomplished as his menaces Yet when we are afraid of every eye of man in our secret sinnes we dare
most orthodoxe Fathers of the Church in their own words For he citeth Ireneus Ciprian Reticius Olimpus Hispaâ— Hilar. Ambrose Innocentius Gregor Basil Magnus Chrysost and Jerome which is a full cloud of sacred witnesses of antiquity beleeving and teaching the same doctrine This upon the Text in hand Saint Augustine doth clearly avouch Nunquid David de adulterio natus erat quid est quod sie dicit nisi quia trahitur iniquitas ab Adam Nemo nasâ—itur nisi trahens poenam trabens meritum poenae Was David born in adultery Why speaks he so but because iniquity is drawn from Adam There is none born which draws not punishment drawing that which deserves punishment He urgeth the words of the Apostle Corpus mortuum est propter peccatum propago sumus corporis mortui The body is dead by reason of sinne We are the off-spring of a dead body Julian the Pelagian did urge against originall sinne the honourable state of Matrimony So Saint Augustine chargeth him Tu autem dicis nuptias sine dubio damâ—ari ab omni sit liberum obligatione peccati But thou sayest The condemning of marriage is no sinne But marriage was ordained and the blessing of propagation was given before the sinne of Adam And marriage is honourable among all men and the bed undefiled The sinne of Adam did not discommand marriage nor reverse the blessing of encrease And Saint Augustine upon this Psalme doth answer Opus hoc castum in conjuge non habet culpam sed origo peccati trahit secum debitam poenam Non enim maritus quia maritus mortalis non est aâ—t aliunde nisi peccato mortalis est Matrimoniall function is without fault but originall sinne draws with it the punishment due to it For the husband as a husband brings not death nor any way but by sinne God provided a remedy the seed of the woman against sinne and suffered humane infirmity to passe on that he might shew mercie where he pleased But you may demand what any spirit of contradiction can alledge against Davids disert confession of his formation and conception in sinne Our Anabaptists answer That it is a question whether his confession here intend himself or his mother It was a poore shift to busie our thoughts about such a question for why should David confesse any thing here concerning his mother If any why not both parents This confession must have coherence and correspondence with the former I acknowledge my wickednesse my sinne is ever before me But what if it concerne him Then thus he confesseth and desireth God to consider whereof he was made of dust weak flesh unable to resist the tempter when the Law came unto him through which weaknesse he was overcome This is that which we call originall sinne this Carentis justitiae wanting of righteousnesse this impotencie to all good acts this seed of corruption which is the teeming and pregnant spawne of all sinnes But they would have it that as Christ because he had our flesh and was made sinne yet was no sinner So David though confessing himself conceived in sinne was not by conception and birth a transgressour To which we answer 1 That the comparison is blasphemous between Christ and David for Christ was conceived by the holy Ghost David in the ordinary way of flesh 2 That we call not originall sinne transgression of the Law in origine for that is the definition of actuall sinne For originall sinne is defined 1 Est corruptio naturae à prima perfectione It is the corruption of nature from the first perfection 2 Est corruptio naturae hominis quae efficit ne vere obediamus legi Dei nec simus sine peccato It is the corruption of humane nature which makes us unable to obey Gods Law that we cannot be without sinne 3 Est ignorantia inmente concupiscentia in carne It is ignorance in the minde and concupiscence in the flesh 4 But the fullest is this It is an hereditarie corruption of nature which bringeth forth in us the works of the flesh and proneth us to all evils and thereby doth fasten upon us a guiltinesse whereby we are in desert and danger of the wrath of God And this is the sinne which David here confesseth which began with him in his very conception But they alledge that the words of David may have reference not to himself but to his mother Then we must understand him thus that David doth not confesse sinne as a fault but as a punishment and so it hath regard to curse I will multiply the sorrows of thy conceptions So he onely meaneth his mothers punishment for the fall and his weaknesse through the fall That weaknesse we call originall sinne But why David in his repentance should repent his mothers punishment we cannot so well discerne for true repentance hath respect not to the punishment deserved but to the sinne deserving it Therefore these poore flashes of humane wisedome which is carnall sensuall and diabolicall cannot elude the evidence of truth that David bewailing his sinne doth repaire to the root of it in his conception confessing the first seminarie of this weaknesse to begin there But our Anabaptists urge further that if the matter of which David was made was tainted with sinne Then was also the matter of which Christ was made tainted with sinne for he was conceived in the wombe of a mother We reply That he was conceived by the holy Ghost and it was an holy thing that was born in his mother so the Angel saith to her They reply that then Christ was not true man for he was not born of the substance of his mother We answer That Christ was born of the very substance of Mary and that in his miraculous generation by the holy Ghost the substance was not changed but the qualitie of it For when David prayeth after for a new heart he doth not desire to have the substance of his heart changed but the qualitie thereof that of a sinfull and unclean heart it may be made a pure and holy heart a fit Temple for the holy Ghost to dwell in Thus I hope I have to any sober judgement cleared both our received doctrine of originall sinne and the interpretation of my Text against these old and new Pelagians and so the confession of David standeth good that beside his actuall transgressions of the Law he standeth guilty before God of originall uncleannesse from which corrupt fountain all his streames of actuall iniquities do derive I will now fortifie this doctrine with plain demonstrations of the truth from the Scripture 1 Wherefore as by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne and so death passed upon all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in whom all have sinned Neverthelesse death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after Adams transgression Saint Augustine understandeth this sinne to be that originall sinne that David here complaineth of for
our fault is that we do not husband our talent of Gods grace and of Christs merits to our amendment of nature and to the expurgation of our sinne Yet for Infants that have no sinne but that to answer for in the ordinary way of Gods favour I make no question of their salvation by Baptisme for so the Apostle Baptisme saveth us Yet the want of the outward Sacrament which cannot be charged upon little Infants doth not deprive them of the favour of God because the covenant is not limited by the signe of it The promise which is the soul and life of the Sacrament is past to you and to your children The Church of Rome denyeth unbaptised infants a place in heaven and they have built them a Limbus an upper-roome above hell where they place them but they cannot agree upon their estate there Some of their learned depriving them of the fruition of heaven but allowing them life everlasting without paine and with some measure of happinesse Others allow them an earthly paradise of naturall felicity for ever Thomas and others that they are deprived of the sight of God and have no poenam sensus paine of sense inward or outward Driedo and others affirme both poenam damni sensus paine of losse and sense But Saint Augustine saith he could never reade in Scripture of more then two places heaven for the saved and hell from that distanced very farre off for the damned Locum tertium non reperio I finde no third place We confesse that originall sinne without Christ is mortall but Christ became man and was born of a Virgin and became an Infant for Infants to preserve them from hell and we beleeve charitably and comfortably of them that he receiveth such to himself The conclusion of this point is that seeing we are thus born filii ira the children of wrath we should make it the exercise of our whole life to strive against this naturall corruption and to weaken the force of the flesh all we can by mortifying the deeds thereof and to grow daily in wisedome and knowledge and faith and obedience perfect throughly perfect to all good works making our election and calling sure in our owne consciences to the establishing of our hearts till we grow up to be perfect men in Christ Iesus for if we mortifie the deedes of the flesh by the spirit we shall live VERSE 6. Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make mee to know wisedome 5. TO aggravate his owne digression hee compareth himselfe in this state of transgression with that condition which God exacteth of us and which he will hereafter worke in him In which words we have 1 Davids feare 2 Davids faith 1 Davids feare He confesseth his transgressions and iniquities and sinnes and would very faine be quit of them because he findeth them so contrary to the holinesse and pure perfection of the divine nature for David had lived in the open profession and practise of religion he had established both religion and Courts of Iustice in Ierusalem yet secretly his corrupt heart had embraced a temptation to sinne and he had effected it whereby he had displeased God for God is not pleased with an out-side and semblance of religion which may passe currant with men who see no deeper than the shew he is a searcher of hearts and desireth not a seeming and shew but truth and that not in a face of holinesse in an outward profession but in the inward parts 2 Davids faith that notwithstanding this his grievous declination from the wayes of God yet God in his mercy will repaire him againe and make him to know wisedome in his hidden part that is in his understanding and in his heart Thus we must understand this text following our new translation but former translations doe alter the sense and change the matter of this verse The vulgar Latine the Spanish the Italian the French the old English the Geneva reading Junius Pagnine Calvine and generally all the translations that I have read and Comments Saint Augustine Lâ—dolphus Saint Ambrose Saint Gregory Cardinall Bellarmine c. doe all reade one way Thou hast made me to understand wisedome secretly Which doth also adde weight to the burthen of his sinne for seeing God requireth truth in the inward parts and had secretly informed him with wisedome to know so much and to direct him in the way of obedience This maketh Davids sinne greater who not onely transgressed Gods Commandement but sinned against the knowledge and wisedome which God gave him against it onely Montanus his interlineare readeth it in the future whom our translators of the Kings Bible have followed the originall doth beare it well and I choose rather to see David in faith then in feare and therefore I embrace our reading wherein David beleeves that God will make him wiser hereafter 1 Concerning his feare he had cause to mistrust himselfe when his conscience accused him of hypocrisie for having maintained an outward expressure of religion his heart proved false to God and his eye walked in wrong waies and misguided his heart God who looketh not onely upon our outward man but upon the heart soone found him out and saw the abhominations there for he is searcher of hearts and reines There is not a better rule to manage either our conversation or our faith or our repentance by then this to consider what God requireth of us and wherein he delighteth Micah the Lords Prophet saith He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what the Lord doth require of thee Hee is our Lord and it is fit that we take notice of his will and what he requireth he will shew us nothing but good the old way the good way that walking in it we may finde rest for our soules He desireth our eares to his word Let him that hath eares to heare heare what the spirit speaketh c. He desireth the eyes of our body that we keepe them from beholding vanity that we liâ—t them up to the hils unde auxilium whence commeth our helpe He requireth the lifting up of our hands in prayer the stretching out of our hands in almes in good workes in labour in our callings in subvention and supportation of the weake in taking up such as are fallen He requireth our tongues in voce laudiâ— in the voyce of thankesgiving wee must make his praise to be heard In prayers and supplications with strong cries He requireth our feete to tread in his Courts to stand in the gates of Ierusalem and cave pedi take heed to thy foot He requireth our knee for he hath sworne in holinesse â—gressum est verbum c. the word is gone forth Every knee shall bow to me O come let us worship and fall downe and kneele before the Lord but all these are formes which an hypocrite may put on and personate and act and who can say but he is religious and feareth
these in this distresse can tell you whether this be not a breaking of their bones Let the Word therefore work upon us and let every hearer when he heareth his sinne reproved take the reproofe to him and prevent an accusation tu es homo thou art the man with a confession Me me ad sum qui feci I I have done it So breaking our bones with remorse and contrition wee shall save them from his breaking we shall reserve them to his healing and binding up I conclude this point in the words of our Saviour He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him the word that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day 2 Davids suit wherein 1 Where he seeketh remedy it is from God the hand that â—â—oke his bones can set them againe no other hand can doe it Come let us returne to the Lord for he hath torn and he will heale us he hath smitten and he will binde us up David knoweth that God hath a multitude of tender compassions he layd that foundation of his faith repentance and prayer Verse 2. Whom have I in heaven but thee there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever David had good friends in heaven Abraham the father of the faithfull Isaac the seed promised Iacob that wrastled with God and prevailed yet he seeketh to none of these and I never read in either Testament of any one that had any suit to Abraham but the rich man in hell To countenance the use of invocation of Saints yet that hath no life in it to encourage any such mediation All the booke of God through the addresse of prayers hath beene onely to God and he hath revealed so open a way of accesse to him that wee need not goe so farre about for David saith He also will heare their prayers and will helpe them David was put to it to try all the wayes of comfort and hee used no other invocation The sorrowes of death compassed me the paines of hell gate hold upon me I found trouble and sorrow then called I upon the name of the Lord O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soule God maketh this good use of our sinnes to bring us to him and sinne never undoeth us till it driveth us away from God to seeke help elsewhere You see what good successe the richman had with Abraham he could not get a drop of cold water he was sent to Moses and the Prophets for his brethren They sought no helpe any where but immediately in God he hath healing under his wings wings are the emblemes of speed he is swift to heare our complaints to heale our sores He healeth all our infirmities and forgiveth us all our sinnes 2 How he seeketh remedy by prayer he doth not come pharisaically to God to justifie himselfe by his former conscionable living he doth not â—lledge how he hath walked and done that which is right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the daies of his life save onely in this thing All our former holinesse will not beare us out in any one sinne but when we fall we cause all his righteousnesse that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespasse that he hath trespassed and in the sinne that he hath sinned in them shal he dye rather our sinne is aggravated thereby therefore the way of prayer is the way of remedy Let us seeke the face and favour of God so by confession deprecation and supplication The fountaine is deepe but we have wherewith to draw up the waters thereof our prayer is a bucket that will not come up empty The Apostle biddeth semper orate pray alwayes Christ biddeth aske seeke knocke This the Prophet calleth buying without money when we have all good things for asking The Church of Rome hath not a worse barre to keepe her children from God and other men from their communion then by teaching them to say prayers in a strange tongue for all such petitioners have their answer nescitis quid petatis ye know not what ye aske our understanding our affections our faith our hope all must be exercised in our prayers 3 What is his suit Make me to heare joy and gladnesse We may demand why David doth desire this now seeing he had no sooner confest his sinne but Nathan pronounced his absolution he heard joy in his pardon he heard gladnesse in the remedy of his punishment non morieris thou shalt not dye 1 David had heard this comfort from Nathan yet hee desireth further assurance of it from the spirit of God for in so sudden joyes we are not our owne men so are wee transported with the gladnesse thereof When thou broughtest againe the captivity of Sion we were like to them that dreame Our foule sinnes doe make us feare that it is too good to be true 2 He desireth more of this comfort more joy and more gladnesse The joy of sinne and delight of sense doth much hinder repentance the joy of the holy Ghost doth crown repentance 3 David openeth himselfe in his phrase of Petition he doth not say give me joy and gladnesse but make me heare for the vessell of his heart was not yet capable of the joy that was now tendred to him griefe and anguish had filled it he prayeth therefore for capacity to receive this gladnesse Five notes grow upon this point 1 When he had heard already he desireth to heare more they that have once tasted of this joy are never satisfied but cry alwaies give give till they come to the fulnesse and fatnesse of Gods house 2 See what a distressed man a sinner is Enosh he is â—â— fraid he shall never have joy enough â—â—◠〈◊〉 prayeth here for double joy joy and gladnesse joy in his pardon of sin gladnesse in his favour 3 See how long the conscience of a sinner is tost like to the sea after the winde is laid 4 Observe how he would have his joy come to him ex auditu fac me audire by hearing make me to heare for ex auditu fides faith comes by hearing he lost his joy by harkening to the voyce of the Serpent 5 It will not come so except God make him heare fac me aâ—dire make me to heare he must say ephata to our eare that we may not onely receive the sound of comfort in our eare but sound comfort in our heart If the foure windes should breath nothing but joy and gladnesse and all the Prophets and Angelâ— of God should like Ababs Prophets prophecie good to us unlesse God by his spirit did suggest to our spirits this joy wee were still in evill taking for till our spirit witnesse with Gods spirit wee have no joy He desireth assurance in his faith 4 The
that the purse hath saved the life yet that is but the price of intercession But the Kings pardon onely saveth life It is so in the state of our soules sinne is a capitall fault and the wages of it death and no way of escape from this just judgement but by Gods gratious and free pardon We cannot purchase a mediation at any rate to availe us without true and unfained repentance and then we have but one Mediatour to the Father and he must purchase our pardon with his bloud he must be wounded for our transgressions and we must be healed by his stripes and hee must dye for us that we may live in and by him Let Papists seeke heaven by their righteousnesse at their owne perill For my selfe I am so farre from trusting to any merits of our owne workes that I dare resolve that if the salvation of all mankinde had beene put to the plunge that Sodome was at with the other Cities to finde tenne righteous from Adam to the last man that shall stand upon the earth all mankinde must have perished for want of tenne such I dare adventure further in resolution that if the bringing one good worke before God done in all the generations of men performed without any tast or taint of sinne might save all mankinde I except none but Iesus Christ I doe beleeve that he that searched Jerusalem with candle and lanterne even his seven eyes which tunne to and fro through the whole earth cannot finde out one such good and perfect worke the caske distasteth the liquour who is he that doth good and sinneth not who doth good and sinneth not in the very good he hath done To make a worke perfectly holy is one thing to make it meritorious is another If no good work we doe can come from us holy it is not possible it should aske wages Our corruption of nature sprinckles every word worke and thought of ours with some graines more or lesse of our old Adam for as we consist of flesh and spirit ever conflicting there is of both in all we are or have it cannot bee otherwise for the imaginations of the thoughts of our heart are onely evill continually and from that neast these birds doe flye Adultery Fornication Strife c. But if wee could doe any worke holy and pure â—â—oâ—n blame yet there goeth more to it then holinesse to make it meritorious 1 It is required that we be able to doe it of our selves for no thankes to us for any good we doe if he land us the faculties and abilities of doing it 2 It is required that hee which deserveth should doe something for the benefit of him of whom he deserveth but our well-doing extendeth not to God 3 It is required that hee which meriteth doe his good worke out of his owne free will ex mero motu non ex debito meerely by his owne mooving not as of due debt For what we doe of duty we pay we doe not give 4 It is required that the reward bee proportionable to the worke for else whatsoever is more is gift not wages They that wrought all day deserved their penny they that came late had more gift then wages eternall life is too much reward for any service wee doe This putteth workes of supererogation quite out of countenance to name them is to shame them Micah 6. 6. Where withall shall I come before the Lord burnt offerings Calves of a yeare old Will the Lord bee pleased with thousands of rammes or with tenne thousand rivers of oyle shall I give my first borne for my transgressions the fruit of my body for the sinne of my soule Hee hath shewed thee c. To doe justly to love mercy to walke humbly before thy God The way of repentance and crying God mercy is the way of humility we cannot pay our debt we cannot buy out our fault we have nothing to give our plea is miserere have mercy we can finde no way out of our sinnes but by Gods gratious and free pardon This is not so easie a favour obtained as many thinke for suppose the pardon were obtained and sealed for God have mercy yet there is no moment of our life in which we doe not forfeit it and therefore we must renew it continually When you pray say Pater noster dimitte nobis Our Father forgive us and semper orate pray alwayes Be sure to renew your pardon by repentance and prayer continually especially at such times when we come to the house of God to the Table of God now wash us throughly O Lord now O Lord have mercy upon us now purge us with hysope now hide thy face from our sinnes and blot on t all our iniquities Now make us heare joy and gladnesse which thou impartest to us in the Sacrament of thy sons passion Our Church service is holily accommodated to this for we beginne at the words wherein God maketh us heare of joy and we humble our selves to God in a contrite deploration of our sins O Lord heare us from heaven and when thou hearest shew mercy VERSE 10. Create in me a cleane heart O God and renew a right spirit within me 4. HE prayeth for newnesse of life Here also he doubleth his petition and changeth the phrase 1 For his heart the seat of his affections 2 For the holy Ghost to sanctifie him throughout in his body soule and minde In the first observe 1 His suit is for the heart 2 He desireth that cleane 3 He wisheth it so by creation In the second 1 His suit is for the spirit 2 He would have that right 3 He would have it by renovation 1 For the heart there breed adulteries murthers and all other sinnes as Christ hath taught us and that was the neast of all his sinnes The message of God by Nathan descended into the secrets of his heart there he hid the word he saith before Thou requirest truth in the inward parts he found his heart no fit habitation for truth as it was It is our chiefest care to looke to the heart because Christ asketh that of us for himselfe My sonne give me thy heart The Church of the Iewes in tender care for the Church of the Gentiles complaineth We have a little sister and she hath no breasts what shall we doe for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for that is how shall wee doe for her when Christ shall be speake her for a Spouse for himselfe That should be our care every one for his heart wee have a foule and uncleane heart what shall we doe for it or how shall we answer when Christ saith My sonne give me thy heart Our care therefore must be for it to prepare it so that we may neither be ashamed nor afraid when Christ calleth for it to present him with it Here Salomon adviseth well Keep thy heart above all keeping for out of it are the issues of life This heart of ours hath many
fall againe for they that are led by the spirit of God are the sonnes of God therefore David petitioneth God here for a constant spirit such as may give him wisedome to resent a temptation and holinesse to hate it faith to resist and fortitude to overcome it 3 He desireth it by way of renovation the Apostles counsell is but be you transformed by the renewing of your minde Little or no externall difference doth appeare for the time betweene one elect and a reprobate David being guilty to himselfe of this desertion desireth the stirring up of the gift of the holy Ghost and renewing of the power thereof within him Vide ordinem primò cor munduns secundò spiritum rectum requirit prius enim omnis à corde vitiorum foeditas eliminanda est ut omne quod agitur aut dicitur expurae intentionis origine emanet consider the order first he desireth a cleane heart secondly a right spirit For first the foulenesse of sinne is to be taken from the heart that whatsoever is done or spoken may flow from the fountaine of a pure intention for the holy Ghost will not dwell in an uncleane heart but when wee have purged our consciences from dead workes he saith Here will I dwell for ever for I have a delight herein There be two faculties in the soule of man first understanding secondly will The understanding in a regenerate man may be darkened for a time and he falling into sinne may be beside himselfe for sinne is a kinde of madnesse the worst kinde It is said of the prodigall in his great famine reversus ad se returning to himselfe he said Ibo ad patremmeum I will goe to my Father The will may be corrupted by a strong temptation and so way made for the perpetration of sinne Sometimes the understanding breakes forth like lightening and discerneth the fault to convince the will of sinne This wee call the conscience which is awaked of purpose to detect and chide our sinfull aberrations But when God hath sufficiently expressed to us our weakenesse and pâ—one disposition to evill and his owne long suffering and patience he stirreth up his gift in us or in Saint Pauls phrase he revealeth Iesus Christ in us and this we call renewing of the spirit this cleareth our understanding and reformeth our will and mends all The petitions of David for holinesse of life thus opened 1 We observe the manner how David desireth to be repaired being by sinne so ruined 1 In his understanding in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisedome for repentance must beginne in intellectu recto in the understanding rightly informed this is our light and if we walke without this wee know not whither we goe The haughty policy of Rome to keep her children darke doth hinder both the finding of the good way and the going on in it so our ingression and progression both hindered we seek heaven darkelings God hath sent wisedome abroad to utter her voyce to call an audience to instruct men in the waies of life to escape the pathes of death Christ is made to us of God wisedome 2 He desireth of God the pardon of his sinnes which is no other but justification before him This is the washing and purging and blotting out of iniquities by him desired for wisedome to know our sinnes without justification by faith which apprehendeth the pardon of them were the broad way to despaire but being justified by faith we have peace with God and peace also in our owne consciences Christ is made unto us justification David leaves not here but 3 He desireth in this text the spirit of sanctification by which he may be renewed to holinesse to all pleasing of God And this is Christ also made to us for whom God justifieth them he sanctifieth Some have confounded these two graces of justification and sanctification and so commedled them as if they were all one and the same grace For the clearing whereof and to declare the difference betweene them understand 1 We are sinners and by faith in Christ we are justified and so the debt of our sinne discharged this is by the inherent righteousnesse of Christ imputed to us and it is the proper worke of the second person 2 By the holy Ghost applying this righteousnesse to us we are sanctified to rewnesse of life The first saveth us from hell the second seasoneth us for heaven David therefore addeth this suit for sanctification that being cleansed throughly from sinne he may become a new creature I may abridge all our learning in the schoole of Christ to this one lesson and comprehend totum hominis the whole of man in this short compend of dutie as the Apostle doth Circumcision profiteth nothing uncircumcision hindereth nothing all that God requireth of us is that wee be new creatures leaving off and laying aside the old man and renewed in spiritu mentis in the spirit of our mindes wee are never complete penitents till we have this spirit of sanctification in some measure It is the hardest worke that is accomplished in us because our naturall corruption and the manifold temptations amongst which we live and the sensuall delight which we take in sinne doe sow our hearts all over with tares and leave no roome for better seed To root out these is one labour to proseminate grace is another yet we neglect the labour of our sanctification as if it were a worke which we could doe at a very short warning and too many doe leave it to their death beds And another impediment is that many upon some good motions of the spirit some flashes of piety and scintillations of zeale doe overweene their possession of this spirit Me thinkes if they did examine their hearts by this text here is enough in it to reveale any man to himselfe and to tell him si habeat hunc spiritum if he hath this spirit 1 Let him examine his heart and spirit within him to see if there be truth there wisedom for many faire seemings and outsides of godlinesse are put on whereby we deceive others and flatter our selves quite out of the way of salvation therefore try if all be sound and sincere within 2 Let him enquire of this heart si cor novum if it bee a new heart we may soone know that si canticum novum si novitas vitae if there be a new song if newnesse of life It is not a new dresting and trimming up of the old heart in a new fashion that will serve it must be all new and that may be discerned in our thoughts in our words in ouâ— workes and wayes for if we abhorre and forsake our former sinnes and embrace better courses this makes faith of a good change 3 If it be a constant spirit that holdeth out to the end cheerefully and unweariedly we may conclude comfortably that our old heart is gone and we have a new in place thereof VERSE 11. Cast me not
away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me 12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit 13 Then will I teach transgressors thy wayes and sinners shall be converted unto thee HEre he petitioneth for a constant course of Gods favour for hereafter wherein 1. Deprecatur he prays against v. 1â— 2. Supplicat prayes for Verse 12. 3. Promittit promiseth Verse 13. 1 Deprecatur prayes against 2. 1 Gods casting him away from his presence 2 Gods taking his holy spirit c. 1 Cast me not away from thy presence Our sinnes deserve that God should deny us to come before him for why should the children of darkenesse presse to the light or the children of death to him in whose presence is life Our first Parents soone found how unfit they were for the presence of God and therefore so soone as they had sinned of their owne accord they fled from the presence of God and hid themselves When Cain had done that murther upon Abel his brother it was Gods just punishment a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be And he was sensible of it Behold thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and from thy face shall I be hid And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight This is excommunicatio major the greater excommunication When Pharaoh was exasperate against Moses he said Get thee from me take heed to thy selfe see my face no more When David heard how Absolon had slaine Amnon hee was moved like a father for the death of a sonne more that hee suffered that griefe from a sonne yet when the strong fit was off he could not but returne to his fatherly affection to Absolon yet neither his owne naturall inclination or the perswasions of Ioab by the woman of Tekoah did yet readmit him to the Kings presence The King said let him returne to his house and let him not see my face Much more sorrowfull is the punishment of exile from the face of God for David preferreth the presence of God before all other good whatsoever Many say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Christ is the light of Gods countenance a light to lighten the Gentiles God to Moses My presence shall goe with thee and I will give thee rest Christ is called the Angell of his face So David prayeth that Christ may not faile him and that he would not in respect of his sinnes deprive him of the comfort of his Redeemer Saint Gregory saith he prayeth here against Cains sinne of despaire for A facie dei projicitur cui spes veniâ— post peccatumnegatur Hee is cast from the sight of God to whom hope of pardon after sinne committed is denyed Augustine hath a good note here prius dixit averte faciem à peccatis meis first he said turne thy face from my sinnes but here ne projicias me à facie tuâ Cujus facieÌ„ timet ejus faciem invocat Cast me not from thy face whose face he feares his face he desires to see It was Abrahams prayer O that Ishmael might live in thy face or before thee â—he would aske no more of him They that walke uprightly and conscionably before God are not cannot be ashamed to behold his face As for me I will behold thy face in righteousnesse I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse 1 Here in the righteousnesse of Christ I shall see thee but hereafter I shall fully enjoy thee when after I have borne the image of the earthy I shall beare the image of the heavenly 2 Take not thy holy spirit from me Christ calleth this spirit a Comforter David had need of him now in distresse because of his sinnes This spirit he promised a guide to leade us in the way of all truth David had need of him for seeing God loveth truth in the inward parts and hee had gone in false waies he needeth this guide to guide his feet in the wayes of peace When David hearkened to the voyce of temptation and his eye did walke after his heart then did God withdraw his spirit from him and left him to goe alone He findeth the want of that faithfull guide of his waies and prayeth O take not thy holy spirit from mee David had a double portion of Gods holy spirit for hee had 1 The spirit of holinesse to direct and guide his life and conversation as a private man and by that hee became a man after Gods owne heart 2 He had the spirit in plentifull measure in regard of his office and place and that also was double for 1 Juveni Davidem servum meumâ— oleo sancto meo uâ—xi eum I have found David my servant with my holy oyle have I annoynted him he had not onely Samuels externall unction but God gave him a spirit fit for a King to goe in and out before his people Else how could the yongest sonne of Ishai bred abroad in the field and taken from following the ewes great with lambe have beene fit to have come from managing a sheepe-hooke amongst his fathers cattell to have managed a Scepter in Israell the Lords inheritance And wee have example hereof in Saul his predecessor of whom we reade that when hee parted from Samuel who annointed him King God gave him another heart for so Samuel had told him that the spirit of the Lord should come upon him and hee should be turned into another man Hee that called him to be a King accommodated him for government Thus did God also deale with David Then Samuel took an horne of oyle and annointed him in the middest of his brethren and the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward So that he not onely was sanctified in further measure as a private man but was indued with heroicall graces fit for a Prince And it is said after this that 1 He walked wisely 2 He governed prudently 2 David was a Prophet also of the Lord herein not inferiour to Saul for it is said of him that he prophecied and it was a wonder Etiam Saulinter Prophetas Is Saul also amongst the Prophets David is called the sweet singer of Israell and we have many of his holy Psalmes whereof the Church of God maketh singular use No question but the sinne of David had much weakened the power of the holy spirit in him all these waies and he seemed now to himselfe as a man divested of these graces in such sort as was grievous to him besides he had the fearefull example of Saul his predecestor of whom it is said But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evill spirit from the Lord troubled him Now charged with the conscience of his sinne and peradventure comparing his sinne with Sauls he feared the like punishment Saul
I beene holden vp from the wombe and resolveth to trust to that supportation I will goe in the strength of the Lord God Wee have many great examples in the best of Gods servants of falling into great sinnes Adam and Eve Noah Abraham Lot Isaack Iacob David Salomon Sampson Peter c. This feare shaketh David so that he craveth ayde of the good spirit for corroboration This is a singular marke of a just man so David describeth him he guideth his waies by discretion Surely he shall not be moved for ever his hart is fixed trusting in the Lord his heart is established We see here that the grace of repentance whereby weforsake sinne and turne to God and put our selves into the way of a new life will not serve unlesse the grace of confirmation doe establish us and keepe us from evill We are the Lords husbandry there is no end of that kinde of worke in the culture of ground there must bee breaking up of our fallow grounds stirring and plonghing till it be fit for seed There must be semination hrrowing to cover the seed There must be weeding of it and watering from heaven then an harvest then begin againe else Grandia saepe quibus mandavimus bordea sulcis Infelix lolium steriles dominantur avenae Often the furrowes where we sow good seeds Are overgrowne with cockle darnell weeds In the story of the widow that was so much in debt and her exactious creditours demanded her two sonnes for bondmen in satisfaction of the debt we reade that shee made her moane to Elisha he finding nothing in her house valuable but a small pot of oyle bade her borrow empty vessels and poure out and sell the oyle and pay the debt and said Live thou and thy children of the rest The Prophets care extended beyond the paiment of the debt to her maintenance In this miracle of Gods mercie here is a lively representation of his love to his elect For our sinnes doe make us debtors the justice of God is the creditour the graces of Gods spirit are the oyle he giveth of this plentifully to cleare the debt That is not all for this spirit which David here prayeth for he giveth for our after-maintenance that we grow not necessitous againe and renew our debt These two cares must not be parted the care of repentance and of a constant good life Christ joyned them together Ecce sanus factus es Behold thou art made whole and then noli amplius peccare sinne no more The corruption of nature is such even in the regenerate by the remaines of sinne that as tinder we are apt to take fire by the touch of the least sparke How then shall we bee fenced against the fiery darts of Sathan The grace of the spirit to beare off these and that which preserveth us from this fire is the shield of our faith for that establisheth our heart and moysteneth it so with the bloud of Iesus Christ that it cannot be apt to kindle suddenly And that faith doth David here request of God which is our best munition against these fiery assaults To shew what need every one of us hath to make this petition to our God for his confirming spirit 1 Let us see the miserable and unhappy condition of such as doe want this spirit 2 The singular benefit of such as have obtained it 1 Of the want we may all complaine of it for that want unheavened the Angels that kept not their first estate and turned the best of Gods creatures into divels and uncleane spirits the rebell and profest opposites of God and corrupters of man This want unparadised our first Parents and made them wofull spectacles of scorne Ecce homo factus est ut unus c. Behold the man is become like one of us What wanted in these two creatures to consummate the glory of their creation and to make their very making and happinesse but this free spirit of God to confirme and establish them It may be a wonder in reason and in religion why Almighty God did not accomplish his worke of creation by this addition of this spirit to the prevention of that misery that for want of it befell the creature and to the preservation of his owne worke from that malignity which followed sinne For hereby the creature became in it selfe corrupt and abhominable to the fellow creatures noxious and to God himselfe peccant and offensive all which had beene stayed by this one free spirit here desired I remember in the plea of God for his own full care of his people he urgeth that 1 He chose a fruitfull hill 2 He fenced it 3 He gathered out the stones 4 He planted it with the choisest Vine 5 He built a Tower in medio in the midst of it 6 He set up a Wine-presse in it and then he saith And now O inhabitants of Israell and men of Iudah judge I pray you betweene me and my Vineyard what could have beene done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it may we not heare his like complaint of Angels and man I created them in mine owne image I gave the one the fruition of heaven the other of Paradise the Angels saw my face Man was but a little lower than these Angels crowned with glory and honour invested in the dominion of his sublunarie creatures in the service of the very Angels and celestiall bodies What could have beene done more to these Angels and to man that I have not done in them may we not all answer Yes Lord thou mightest have given with these great favours thy free spirit to confirme and establish us in that happinesse and so we had beene alwaies as thou haddest made us In answer to this quere I could say who knoweth the minde of the Lord or who hath beene of his Councell we may step too farre having our shooes on our feet if we adventure to set our feet on holy ground the secrets of Gods will must be adored not searched God is not accountable to his creatures for his purposes or his actions With men the rule holds qui justè faciunt bis justi sunt they that doe justly are twise just but with God it is so that fecit omnia â—enè he hath done all things well and if he doe or say or decree or will any thing it is therefore just and good in high perfection because he doth it But you may take this for a put off and yet goe away unsatisfied Therefore seeing God calleth to the men of Iudah and inhabitants of Ierusalem to judge betweene him and his Vineyard I thinke we may boldly sit upon this cause and heare it indifferently God pleaded what could have beene done more clearing himselfe from all defectivenesse or failing on his part toward his creature Man replyeth one thing wanted even this spirit that David here desired I answer for God against all the world that that spirit was also given
offering So soon as sin is removed wee are presently fit for prayse It is the generall part of our service of God and it makes our prayers and prayses miscarry when we come to God charged with sins without repentance wash you make you clean c. Then come and let us reason together 2 Quid promittit What hee promises Here observe 1 What instrument he will use for Gods service lingua the tongue 2 Lingua mea my tongue 3 Cantabit shall sing The manner of his service 4 Aloud the intention 5 The argument of his song justitiam righteousnes 6 Tuam Thine 1 Lingua the tongue This is tuba animae the soules trumpet The best member that we have for this service So our old English Church Psalmes doe reade I will sing give prayse with the best member that I have The K. B. readeth I will sing give prayse even with my glory So Awake up my glory awake Psaltery Calvin readeth Exurge lingua arise ô tongue For that is the glorious instrument of Gods prayse The tongue hath an ill name in Scripture because it is the instrument of Gods dishonour and our neighbours great hurt oftentimes The tongue of David had lasciviously courted Uriah's wife and had spoken him faire to his hurt The tongue often blasphemeth God the common crying sinne of the time lying swearing flattering slandering false witnes multiloquium much-speaking turpiloquium filthy-speaking cursing boasting c. There are so many sins of the tongue that Saint Iames saith If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the wholebody But if any man seeme to be religious and bridleth not his tongue this mans religion is vain It is Davids first note of the tenants of Gods house aloft He that speaketh the truth in his heart and backbiteth not with his tongue And it is the first rule for him that desireth life and loveth many dayes that hee may see good Keepe thy tongue from evill and thy lips from speaking guile No lesson so hard to be learned of us here as the wise and â—â—â—creet government of the tongue David promised a singular care of this I said I will take heed to my wayes that I sin not in my tongue Socrates reports of one Pambâ— an honest wel-meaning man who came to his friend desiring him to teach him one of Davids Psalmes he read to him this Verse He answered This one Verse is enough if I learn it well Nineteen yeers after he said In all that time he had hardly learned that one Verse David is now in a good way to employ his tongue in the service of God For they are out which say with our tongue will we prevaile our lips are our owne who is Lord over us he that distinguished man by this excellent gift from all other his creatures meant it not to him for a rod to scourge himself for a Scorpion to sting his neighbour nor for mans own self punishment There is better use to be made of it as here 2 Lingua mea my tongue God cannot want prayse and glory from his creatures for Coeli eâ—arrant gloriam Dei the Heavens declare the glory of God and one generation prayseth him to another But that is no thanke to thee Lingua mea tua sua thy tongue mine his As David Let every thing that hath breath prayse the Lord. So let every thing that hath a tongue sing aloude c. Thou God of my salvation let it be lingua mea my tongue that sings To say the truth why is it lingua mea my tongue but to serve mine own turn in offices of piety charity it hath not a better employment then the prayse of the Lord. When any thing of ours doth omit or slight duty to our maker our interest in it ceaseth For our bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost and our tongue is the Organ of the Church hee that made it tuned it to his prayse Christ cured the dumbe as well as the blinde deafe and lame c. 3 Shall sing This is the voice of joy and gladnesse in the tabernacles of the righteous These carry forth their seed with teares they sowe in teares their dwelling is in convalle laeâ—rymarum in the vale of teares Though they sit by the rivers of Babel they never hang up their Harps they can and do sing the song of the Lord in a strange Land For whatsoever their outward calamities are which often wash their faces with their teares they have upright hearts to God My soule doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour There is in every one of the Elect an outward man which negotiateth in outward things and hee hath his hande full There is also an inward man and he is willing but weak The calamities of life the dishonours done to Gods name and glory by others the failings on our own part in duty our fallings from it doall work our grief and turn our organs into the voice of them that weep Yet in the midst of these sorrowes wee may rejoyce in the Lord like Musique in the cabin when the ship is in a storm My song shall be alwayes of the loving kindnesse of the Lord. Amongst all the favours of God none tasteth stronger of his divine nature none happieth us more in the peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost then his pardon of our sin and deliverance from it Fils dimittuntur tibi peccata tua Sonne thy sinnes are forgiven thee answereth Davids suite Sana animam meam heale my soule for donation the Lord doth not magnifie himself so much in it seeing he hath power over all But to pardon sinnes which do so violate his Majesty and are so contrary to his holinesse and doe so abuse his bounty and free favour this may make us sing I never read that any thing which God gave away grieved him but the sins of men grieve him at the heart and make him repent his making of them Therefore no such provocation to sing as deliverance from sin by pardon Songs were in fashion of old the Church was full of Musique the old Testament full of songs Some of our curious Zelotes cry it down in Churches it did well when time was â— but every particular person receiving Gods gracious pardon of his sin in the spirituall comfort of his conscience shall doe well to declare his thankfull recognition of it and his singular delight in it the cheerfullest way he can Is any merry let him sing 4 Alowd This â— for God for himselfe for the Church 1 For God That his honour may be proclaimed therfore they borrowed the voice of still and lowd instruments David make the voice of his prayse to be heard Dicitâ— in gentibus tell it among the nations Sicut in Câ—lo as in Heaven there the quire of the new IerusaleÌ„ cease not day and night to voice
gold and pictures of silver 3 Ubi Where As there is a time so there is a place to open our lips Christ was like a Lambe non aperies es thou shalt not open thy mouth before Pilate 4 Cus to whom David refrained even from good words whilst the â—icked â—â—â— before him Counsell and reproofe are cast away upon fooles and mad men and scorners Saint Gregory addeth there must be 1 Gravitâ—â— in sensu Weight in the sense 2 Moâ—â—â— in verbis Measure in the words 3 Poâ—dâ—â— iâ— sermone Weight in the words Otherwise wee open our own mouthes God openeth them not It is Davids prayer to God Set a watch O Lord before my mouth keepe the doore of my lips Saint Augustine noteth that it is osâ—iâ—m â—riâ— ergo aperiatur claudatur Aperiatur aâ— confessioneÌ„ â— laudatur ad excusatione in peccati The door of the mouth therfore let it be opened and shut opened to confession shut to excusing of sin And Luâ—olphus faith Aperiri debet Deo clauci diabolo aperiri Deo in oratione claudi in vanalâ—cutione It must be opened to God shut to the Devill opened to God in prayer shut to the Devill in vain-speaking David for ten moneths together was mute sinne had shut up his mouth for as long as we live in impenitencie a spirit of dumbnes possesseth us we cannot neither pray or prayse God In this time his acultery did cry alowd so did Uriahâ— drunkennesse so did his letters to Joab to did the murther of Uriah Now hee prayeth that the mouth of accusation may be stopt and that God would open his mouth that he may speak for himself against these accusing sins that hee may magnifie the loving kindnesse of the Lord. 1 I conceive that this petition for the opening of his lips intendeth a â—itting preparing of him for the praise of God Wee advise well before wee put up a petition in the causes of our estate or good name to any superiour authority More ought wee to God he best knoweth himself how to accommodate us to his service and therefore Domine aperias Lord open thou The necessity of an holy preparation for any part of Gods Service doth admonish and exact an holy advice with God before we go about it Reading of his word meditation invocation of his Name by prayer that hee would put our hearts in tune and set our song of his prayses for us that wee may sing Canticum Domini the song of the Lord and then it will be Canticum Domino a song to the Lord. 2 We may also conclude from hence that though an inward worship of the heart be much commended to us in Scripture so Mary My soule doth magnifie the Lord and my spiâ—it rejoyceth â—n God my Saviour and David stirreth up his soule to this service My soule prayse thou the Lord c. Yet that menâ—all and animal service is not all that God requireth hee would have the service also of our lips of our tongue which is our glory And to make the voice of Gods prayse to be heard be saith I wil prayse God with my glory Awake Lute and Harpe awake my tongue of my glory And he calleth upon the Church to prayse him in the sound of the trumpet with timbrell and pipe with stringed instruments and organs Upon the lowd Cymbals upon the high sounding Cymbals For as we have our private Chappels for our private duties the secret of our heart and the closets of our conscience So we have our part in Choâ—â— in the Congregation of Gods Saints and there wee must sing cheerfully and lowd that God may be praysed according to his excellent greatnesse this is heaven upon earth 3. The bold sinners say Our lips are our own who is Lord over us These assume to themselves both power and skill to menage their tongue and acknowledge no Lord above them to restrain or check them David in his Domine aperias Lord open thou confesseth a Lord above him And there is no such way to impudent freedome of speech as a bold contempt of autority It is one of the provoking sins of our time the over-bold liberty of speech and procacity of the pen censuring and depraving Superiours scandalizing all that our dislike hath set light The ground of this gall and worm-wood in the tongues and pens of the time is a vain opinion that there is no Lord over us to stop our mouth and to tongue-tie us Yet wee know the lash of the Law smarteth upon some that shoote for arrowes bitter words and some are made examples of terror to awe others But if men feare not those Lords and Lawes which take this petulancie of the tongue to talke David confesseth a Lord in my Text to whom he committeth the opening of his mouth Domine aperias Lord open thou Let us take heed how we rule our Lips and how wee open them before him for by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned And of every idle word that we speake we shall give accompt to him in the day of judgment Evill words corrupt good manners and such as doe evill are but hardned and exasperate by Libels and scandalous obloquies When Michael the Archangell disputed against the Divell about the body of Moses he durst not bring against him a rayling accusation True and just quarrels by intemperancie of the tongue may turne into rayling accusation and it is not reproofe but rayling so Aug. Quicquid lacerato animâ— dixeris malè dixeris Whatsoever thou speakest with a distructed minde thou speakest evill Beloved there is a Lord over us who hath dominion of all our parts if he open our eyes we shall see clearely if he open our earâ—s we shall heare quickly if he open our lippes we shall speake wisely and soberly This is our Master-piece to governe our tongue well to open and shut the doore of our lippes wisely and seasonably He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life but hee that openeth wide his lippes shall have destruction The wicked is snared by the transgression of his lippes but a man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth Who so keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soule from troubles We have no better way to decline the danger of the tongue to reape the good fruit of it then 1 To pray as here Domine labia Lord open thou my lips or as David Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable c. Set a watch O Lord before my mouth 2 To resolve as David to take heed ne peccemus lingua lest wee offend in our tongue To keepe our mouth bridled not to speak thine own words 3 The promise subjoyned setteth the tongue a work and giveth it matter of long and speech And my mouth shall shew forth c. Saint Gregory observeth the sequence of the text first
kind of Sacrifices God would rather have then burnt Offerings This is such a sacrifice as will never be out of fashion When hee comes of whom it is written in the volume of the booke and when all the sacrificeâ— of the Ceremoniâ—â— law cease as shadows of things to come giving place to the true substance and body of them then this kinde of sacrifice will last in season and fashion to the Worlds end This is the sacrifice which God accepteâ—â— in and for it selfe Such as the Apostle calleth of I beseeth you brethren by the 〈◊〉 of God 〈…〉 your 〈◊〉 a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service Consider here 1 The matter and substance of this Sacrifice a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart 2 The necessity of this sacrifice enforced from hence it is the sacrifice of God 3 The acceptation here of with God O God thou wilt not despise 1 Of the matter 1 Here is a double subject 1 The spirit 2 The heart 2 Here heare the work which must be wrought upon this subject 1 Breaking a broken spirit 2 Conâ—â—ition a broken and contrite heart 1 The Spirit 1 By the spirit it sometimes is meant in Scripture the holy Ghost in the regenerate man wherby he is sanctified in some measure This Spirit was in Christ in plenitudine in fulnesse and herewith he sanctified himselfe for our skes Of this Saint Iohn speaketh when he saith God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him 2 Sometimes the name of spirit is given to the breath of man So God breathed into Adam the breath of life 3 Sometime it is taken for the reasonable soul of man which actuateth and animaâ—eth the body and man thereby is anima vivens a living foule spiritus revertitur ad Deum qui dedit The spirit returns to God that gave it 4 Somtime â—â— is taken for the intellectuall part of man which we call the minde So the Apostle For what â—â—n knoweth the things of man save the spirit of â—â—in that is â—n him So I take it here This is the understanding and discuâ—sâ—ve power in man wherby hee comprehendeth the knowledge of things This spirit of it self is not capable of divine knowledge that is supernaturall Animal is hoâ—â— non percipiâ— quâ— sunt Dei nâ—que potest the naturall man understandeth noâ— the things of God neither can â—e For they are spiritually discerned that â—â— by the help of a nobleâ— and more excellent spirit then his is even the Spirit of God These divine mysteries are foolishnesse to the spirit of man For this spirit judgeth by sense and naturall reason and is blinde to behold things invisble which are the object of a regenerate mans spirit The eye of the naturall spirit seeth things present onely the eye of the spirit regenerate videt futura sees things to come 2 The heart The heart is the proper seat of our affections there dwell our hope and joy and love and desire our griefe and feare c. It is the saurus cordis the treasure of the hart if it do hold good things it is bonus the saurus a good treasure if it be the nest wherin Concupiscence hatcheth heâ— yong Then out of the heart come adulteries murthers c. The name of heart is often in Scripture extended to both these both understanding and affections here they be distinguished to make sure worke that both of them may be wrought upon in the oblation of this sacrifice So the name of spirit doth include the whole inward man yet it is here named single in his more peculiar sense Examples we have of both 1 Of the heart God saith The imagination of mans heart is evill from his youth Where hee understandeth not onely projections casting about but desires wishing and purposes resolving this or thaâ—â— wherin the whole inward man is contained 2 For the spirit so Malachie Therefore take heed to your spirit where the whole inward man is meant The subject then of this passion is the whole man for the passions of the spirit and heart do afflict the body and make a sacrifice of that also to God So here is nothing of man left out Sicut delictum it â— pâ—â—itenâ—iâ— As there is a fault so there must be repentance where the fault stained repentance â—â—â—st wash God loveth not unrighteousnesse neither shall any evil dwell with him from iniquitâ—â— cordis the iniquity of the heart to iniquitâ—â— calcanâ—i the iniquitie of the heele 2 How this subject must â—e wrought upon Here are two words used 1 To the spirit breaking 2 To the heart breaking and contrition 1 Of breaking The word signifieth such a breaking as commeth of smiting which lameth and maketh the body unable to performe the offices thereof Or such as threshing which quasheth and breaketh the straw 2 Contrition That is a word of more force and betokeneth grinding These words are used to expresse the mortification of the inward man David spake before of Gods breaking his bones which is used to declare 1 The inward vexation of the soule for sin and feare of the indignation of God due for it 2 The outward afflictions which God doth put upon sinners to bring them to repentance Gods breaking of us thus is not enough to make us a sacrifice to God We must also thresh and smite and grinde our owne spirits and hearts by a serious and unfeined and full repentance and then our spirit and our heart is a sacrifice acceptable to God 1 For the breaking of the spirit that is performed when wee take away by strong hand our intellectuall powers and faculties from all impertinent and vain speculations and studies when wee bestow them all in the search of that excellent knowledge of Christ crucified who is our way to heaven So the Apostle esteemed to know nothing else 1 Knowledge puffeth up it is windy and swelling in many This bladder must be prickt and such as over-ween their knowledge must be taught to know that they yet know nothing sicut opâ—rtet as they ought Augustine amongst the hereticks in his time notorious nameth the Gâ—ostiâ—i who took upon them singular knowledge The wise sonne of Iâ—kâ—h did not finde this in himselfe for he said Surely I am more bruâ—ish then any man and have not the understanding of a man I neither 〈◊〉 wisdome nor have the knowledge of the holy If wee cannot be sensible of our defect this way but will needs over-esteeme our knowledge the Prophet thresheth and breaketh such spirits with this universall elogie Every man is brutish by his knowledge when God looked down from heaven he found non est intelligent there is none that understandeth Wisdome had much adoe shee called for audience in the street on house-tops much and lowd shee cried for audience Yet they that think they know som what more then their neighbours exalt themselves This spirit must be broken â—in us The Devils
break our spirits from these plausible and delightfull streins of wit though wee know that it was the fall and ruine of man he sought many inventions The taste that hath bin long used to the Onions and Garlick of Aegypt cannot like Manna the food of Angels a long time But as Physicians for the body finding their intemperate patients disease do forbid them all kinde of meats that fewell their disease and limit them to a diet with which they thrive well and recover health so must our soules for cure of these diseases be strongly kept from such studies and knowledge as do but encrease vanity and restrained to the Manna of Gods holy Word the most wholsome bread and sincere milke and strong meate of the inward man Custome will wean us and the sweet wholsomnesse of this better diet and the experienced vegetation and spirituall battening of the soule by it will in the end approove vaine studies to be no better then the husks of the swine in a farre Country But the Word of God to be the bread of our own fathers house even the bread wher with he feedeth his owne family sufficiently the bread that strengtheneth mans heart And when we have once fed of this heartily that wee desire some drink to it hee will bring us to his house of wine for whom he admitteth to eat of his bread he inviteth also to drinke of the wine that hee hath mingled Yong stomacks affect raw and unripe fruits do charge their bodies with diseases therby It is a breaking and extreme pain to them to be restrained from them So doe yong wits exercise themselves and consume time in the raw fruits of green heads and feed the appetite of their yet undiscerning spirit All this must be unlearnt and forgotten to make room for saving knowledge though wee part with this as Hannibal did from Italie or Lots wife from Sodome 2 A broken heart The heart is the first-born in us Natures eldest sonne in the production of man It is soveraigne in the body it rules and commands all the rest In the Creation of it in Adam it was Cormundum cor perfectum A clean heart a perfect heart for all that hee made was exceeding good Since the fall of man it hath gotten an ill name The heart is deceitfull above all things and desperatly wicked who can know it I the Lord search the heart And you shall see how he found it generally in men God saw that the wickednesse of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart were onely evill continually the margent of the Kings Bible rendreth the word in full signification Every desire and purpose of the heart 1 God promiseth his people to take the stony heart out of their flesh Here iâ— cor durum an hard heart Our hearts are hardned by the custome of sin 2 There is cor pravum an evill heart Take heed that there be not in any of you an evill heart of unbelief to depart away from the living God This is an heart infected with the corrupt love either of falshood to forsake the truth of God as Hereticks or of vanity to preferre the pleasures of this life before the good old way This is the sin of filii saeâ—uli the children of this world 3 Cor perversum a froward heart hee that hath a froward heart findeth no good This is a peevish and contradictory evill nature that cannot live under awe and rule but resisteth the good motions of the Spirit You have alwayes resisted the Holy Ghost 4 Cor laquâ—us the heart which is a snare as the adulterous womans Salomon saith Her heart is snares and nets Such hearts have all flatterers that gloze with us and break our heads with their oile Such have all impostors and deceitfull fair-spoken pretenders of love who secretly lie in wait to undermine us and do us hurt Such as face it for shew to be religious and have seven abominations in their hearts 5 There is also a plaguy heart So Salomon What prayer or supplication shall be made by any man or by all thy people Israel which shall know every man the plague of his own heart In the diseases of the body the venome and malignity of the disease hasteth all it can to the heart to destroy that and there it endeth But in spirituall diseases the heart hatcheth and spawneth sin the issue of concupisence and seminateth it in the affections and desires For out of the heart come adulteries murthers c. These be those painfull swellings and ulcerous sores which sin breedeth in the heart of man a very plague in the heart Yet for all this our God saith to us My sonne give me thy heart being so bad as it is it is not worth the giving or receiving Therefore to make it a sacrifice to God we must break it A broken and a contrite heart God will not despise Wee must thresh and breake and melt and grinde our hearts to make them a present for him Two wayes may the heart of man be thus broken 1 By outward afflictions 2 By inward compunction 1 For outward afflictions These are of great force to break an hard heart to melt an iron heart to humble a proud heart to tame a rebellious heart to recover a stray heart God often worketh upon the hearts of sinners this way And David found this physick very healthfull to him Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I keep thy Word It was good for me that I was afflicted Saint Paul being to part with his friends and seeing them all teares for the grief therof saith What meane you to weep and to break my heart The heart of man is easily broken with griefe Elijah grew weary of his life So did Jonah both desire of God that they may die Job and Jeremy had their hearts so broken with sorrows that they abhorred life and never did any more earnestly desire to live then they did to be cut off from the land of the living Many of these fits and sharpe agonies come upon us wee find the Romane stories full of examples of those whom the outward crosses of life have so wearied that they have preferred to die by their own hand rather then to live out the furious assault of temporall disgrace or pain Wee have losses in our goods grief for our friends heavinesse for the losse of children or their unthriving courses in the world manifold sicknesses molestation by suites and such like grievances store God is pleased to use these as meanes to breake our hearts and they doe worke with some for in the day of their affliction they will seeke God diligently And when the judgements of God are upon the earth the inhabiters of the world will learne righteousnesse But an heart thus broken onely with outward tribulations is not alwayes a sacrifice for sinne For murmurers and male-contents and
for his works were evill The foolish Israelites did offer their sonnes and daughters unto Devils Many of the Heathen were so transported with superstition and reverence of their false gods that they spared not to offer up their children in burnt Sacrifices to them They have burned their sonnes and daughters with fire to their gods Israel hath warning not to do so Yet they took no warning For not onelâ— the King of Moab did this For hee offered his sonne the heire of his kingdome for a burnt-offering upon the wall But Ahaz King of Judah made his sonne to passe through the fire And wee finds it one of the provocations which incensed the Lord against Israel to give them into deportation Some thinke that this evill custome grew out of the Commandement given to Abraham to offer his Sonne From whence was concluded that the greatest expressure of obedience put upon him did teach it the exaltation and fulnesse of zeale in them that could find in their hearts to offer up their beloved children in sacrifice Therfore in the consultation before urged in Micah for the means of reconciliation to God this was one Shall I give the fruit of my body for the sin of my soule But Abraham did not kill his sonne hee would have done it by vertue of Gods speciall Commandement and God approved his willing obedience but held his hand from the act For he will have mercy and not sacrifice I denâ— not but there is a strong demonstration of servent zeale in those that can afford to God such Sacrifices But that which he requireth is more excellent and toucheth us much more neer the quick as S. Austine In to habes quod occidas noli extrà thura quâ—rere Thou hast what thou mayst kill in thy selfe seeke not Frankincenâ—e without thy selfe This breaking of the heart and contrition of the spirit is a sacrifice for God Have wee not heard of some whom the conscience of sinne hath so afflicted as they have not thought themselves worthy of any more life but have died by their own hand These courses are desperate and damnable that is not it which God requireth of them hee doth not desire our bodies a dead sacrifice I beseech you brethren that you give up your bodies a living Sacrifice This is his will Ut perâ—ant crimina non homines that the faults perish not the men We shall find that a work of more sorrow and af-fliction then to kill the body Wee have full examples in the books of time of many that have made nothing of it to die by their own hand But it is a Sacrifice onely for God to destroy the body of sin in our selves and to preserve life for Gods better service For our sinnes be deerer to us then our children then our life then our good name which should be valued more then life then our precious soules Doth not the drunkard preferre his drunkennesse before his health who knoweth that drunkennesse destroyeth health Doth not the covetous man love his wedge and heape more then Heaven Doth not the Wanton undo his body his posterity his very soule for the fulfilling of his lust Do not all sinners â—ell Heaven and eternall life for the feeding and fewelling of their darling sinnes Of all the lessons that wee are taught in the house of God none is so hard to learn none so uneasie to practise as the doctrine of Repentance Men are either transported with gluttony and drunkennesse and all they can get goeth that way their bellie is their God and they make all these means Sacrifices to that devouring Idoll If they feed the hungry and quench the thirst of their brethren their meats and drinks are sacrifices to God Especially when wee deny them to our selves to relieve such or we are transported with pride and our back is our god and Fashion is our Idoll and wee consume all in vain adornings of our houses of clay hanging them with the costly garish trappings of vanity If wee give one of our coâ—â—â— to cover the nakednesse of our brethren and spare our wooll to keep them warm that their souls may blesse us for it this garment so bestowed is a sacrifice to God Or we are transported with ambition and all our study is how to rise higher our cares and desires and our wealth are all sacrifices to that Idoll of Ambition but if we raise the poor out of the dust take him up from the ground it is sacrificium Deo a sacrifice to God Was Sauls a sacrifice to God when against Gods Commandement he spared the best of the spoile of Amalek to offer it to God Is not obedience better then sacrifice Doth the Church of Rome offer God a sacrifice when she presenteth the Shrines of the dead and the Images of our Lady and the Saints with rich gifts They did so who kneaded their dough and made cakes to offer them to the Queen of Heaven and powred out drink-offerings to other gods Be there not many that sacrifice to their not and burne incense to their drag because by them their portion is fat and their â—eâ—â— plenteous These make themselves their owne Idols and kisse their owne hands and thank their owne wits for all the good that commeth to them they never look up so high as God to give him thanks for any thing But when all is done this onely is a sacrifice to God when wee break our hearts and spirits and grinde them with sincere contrition for sin destroying the nest wherin lust teemeth her brood of iniquity This putteth away the leaven which sowreth all our actions and devotions and turneth our very prayers into sin The excellency of this sacrifice will more cleerly appeare in the following portion of my text These broken-hearted persons are such as God delighteth to dwell with that he may revive the spirit of contrite ones To such onely is the Gospel sent Hee hath sent me to binde up the broken-hearted These be mourners they not onely bewaile their own sins but their eyes do run rivers of waters for those that â—â—ep not the Law They are grieved for transgressours One of these is health to a City all fare the better for him Loâ—s righteous soule was vexed with the ungodlinesse of Sodome God warned him out his Angell pulled him out and he desiring a place to retire to the Angell hastned him thither saying Haste thee escape thither for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither These mourners are priviledged from the fury of Gods destroying Angell his marke is upon them they must be spared in the day of Gods visitation Come not neere any man upon whom is the mark They have eyes pickled in their teares they have voyces hoarse with crying upon God for mercy they have soules cloven to the pavement they have soules heavy unto death their countenance is cast down Their Harps are turned into mourning and their organs into
his recantation you shall see how hee declareth himself against them pronouncing them all vanity and vexation of spirit It is an old Proverbe Fortis in bello sapiens in ira amicus in adversis Strong in warre wise in anger a friend in adversity This is the Purgatory in which these are tryed If they comefairly off in these probations we esteeme them approved I may adde hereunto that a true Christian is tryed also in temptatioÌ„s of pleasure Ioseph was not so put to it either in the pit wherinto his brethren let him down or in the hands of the stranger Merchants into which he was sold not in the prison where his feet were in the stocks and the irons entred into his soule as in the hand of his Mistris when she laid hold of him and said lie with me Pleasures corrupt our understanding and cast our reason and judgment into a dead sleep They steale away the heart There is none that understandeth and seeketh after God Non est Deus in viis corum God is not in their wayes God sends Ezech. to Ierusalem on this errand Sonne of man cause Ierusalem to know her abominations For as Eliphas saith in Iob Man beleeveth not that hee erreth in vanitie therefore vanitie shall be his change His branch shall not be green but shall be cut off before his day Epaminondas is recorded a rare example of stayednesse that was able to walk sadly and gravely nothing moved with the vain delights of the people whose hearts were all set upon a merry pin on their wanton holyday It is a great example of Israel being in pursuit of the Philistines when Saul had cursed him with a curse that should eat any food till night that hee might be avenged on his enemies The story saith The men of Israel were pressed with hunger And all they of the Land came to a wood where honie lay upon the ground And the people came into the wood and behold the hony dropped and no man moved his hand to his mouth for the people feared the oath Wee are in pursuite of three dangerous enemies the Flesh the World and the Devill We have taken an oath in our Baptisme to fight strongly and constantly against these Fasting is one of our weapons we shall not want the sweet temptation of hony that is of pleasure dropping before us entisements to break our fast Let us remember our early oath sworne to God in our Baptisme Let us keep a devout fast from all sinfull delights what though it cost us a pinching and pressing bunger This is the way to get victory of our enemies before night for when night commeth we can no longer work Pleasant to the eye and delectable to the taste was the forbidden fruit But nakednesse and the losse of Paradise the sweat of the face and the multiplyed sorrows of Child-birth followed eating our first parents were no longer happy then whilest they were fasting It will be a very hard matter to perswade a man in the vanitie of his pleasure to offer God a sacrifice of a broken heart For in our full dishes and overflowing cups wee cannot remember Ioseph's affliction we shall hardly then arise from our banquet to visit him and suffer with him There is nothing in the world that so dimmeth the sight to behold the course of Gods judgments in the World nothing so deafeth the eare against the Word that runneth very swiftly nothing that fatteth the heart to slaughter so much as pleasure doth If Iobsâ—onnes â—onnes feast Iob feareth and sacrificeth least they should offend God in their mirth It is a spirituall kinde of martyrdome to absteine from pleasures when they are in our power as Bernard Inter epulas esurire To be hungry amidst banquetâ— as Israel did when the hony dropped and lay on the ground to tread upon it and passe over it Naturall death doth not spare us for our businesse for our delights and Iobs children were surprized with a violent death when they were feasting Mortification which iâ— the breaking of our hearts the thrashing grinding of our spirits should be so willing so 〈◊〉 so peremptorie as to do execution even upon the body and soule at a short warning not regarding the present delights of the world lâ—st another giâ—d us and carry us whither wee would net least like Haman wee be harried from the Queenes Banquet to the tree of execution A third impediment of this Sacrifice is a natural slothfulnesse in us to do those things that have any painfulnesse in them S. Pauls precept is Not slothfull to doe service The slothfull will not plough because of Winter therfore he shall beg in â—ummer but have nothing Ever since our first parents tasted the forbidden fruit that sweet meate had sowre-sawce Man was made for travaile and hee that would not labour might not eat So when we pray panem nostrum our bread wee mean not the bread of idlenesse for there is no â—read ours but what wee labour for so they go together in the sentence Insuâ—ore vultus tui vescêris pane tuo In the sweat of thy race shalt thou eat thy bread And we must labour for the bread that endureth for ever We must work out our salvation It is an idle prâ—tense to cry out Leâ— est in vsae There is a Lion in the way We know that our adversary the Devill goeth about like a roring Lion there is no way out of his walk Hee compasseth the earth to and fro we must resist him The Apostle hath fitted a Panoply to arme us against him We must fight a good fight Vincenâ—i dabitur To him that overcommeth shall be given If we be so idle that we will not stirre or so faint-hearted that we dare not see our own bloud or so pitifull that wee cannot finde in our hearts to destroy such an enemie our own idlenesse is our ruine It is one of the greatest tasks that ever thou undertookest by thy repentance to breake thine owne heart Thou hast armies against thee within thy selfe to preserve it from contrition and breaking 1 All thy imaginations of thy thoughts for they are onely evill these are an innumerous armie the miâ—â—tia warfare of the brain 2 All thy affections and passions which proceed from the heart these are all Cardiacall 3 All thy sins which Concupiscence hath brooded in thy heart the nest of them all These are the militia warfare of the heart Nate Deo potes hoc sub casu ducere somnos ô born of God in troubles deep and midst of anguish canst thou sleep The man of God that fighteth these battailes must not be idle The true cause of this spirituall idlenes in us is the reluctation of our corrupt nature to the work of our own salvation for our progression of our nature is easie the way lieth all down-hil our sayling is with winde and tyde and he that maketh his voyage for Hell may ship his oares and never needeth
cut saile But to stemme the tyde of nature asketh more it comes to Hic labor hoc opus est This is pains-taking with a witnesse and requireth Multa tulit fecitque even to sudavit alsit Hee suffered much and sweat endured cold and heat Me thinks I heare the Master of the Vineyard say to us Quid statis hîc otiosi Why stand you here idle How easily did God make man and a paradise for man But for his Vineyard we read of digging and fencing and building and weeding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thinke on it A fourth impediment our tendernesse of our selves Every man is his own Satan and saith parce tibi spare thy selfe No man ever hated his own flesh All the work of mortification which belongeth to the breaking of the heart is very grievous to flesh and bloud For behold this thing that ye have been godly sorrie 1 What carefulnesse it hath wrought in you 2 Yea what cleering of your selves 3 Yea what indignation 4 Yea what feare 5 What vehement desire 6 What zeale 7 What revenge Here is a great burthen to be born and here is a crosse that flesh and bloud hath no heart to take up 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 study this word doth comprehend 1 Great inward carefulnesse to please God in absteining from sin 2 Earnest endevour to doe that which may be acceptable in Gods sight 3 Speed and cheerfull expedition to accomplish this We need go no further in this duty then that care that we take for our temporali good let our soules be as precious in our sight as our bodies are and let us do as much for God as for the World So the Apostle As you have given your members servants to unrighteousnesse c. 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this signifieth defence to plead our cause with God not in the Court of justice for our merits will not justifie us but in the Court of mercy for our true Repentance will exonerate us 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sorrow of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 valdè greatly and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onus We must groan under the burthen of sin for Repentance doth not satisfie of it self and our excuse and defence of our selves doth not take away our just vexation of our selves for our sins Considering 1 Who we are 2 Against whom we sin 3 How much and long 4 For how small gain 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feare this extendeth both to 1 The judgment following our sins committed 2 The conscience of our fraile condition and propension to sin which must make us fearful of Relapses and temptations to new sins 5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vehement desire the indignation before mentioned and the feare serve to pluck us back this desire is a spur to put us on Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee Here sin beginneth at a vehement desire of evill and this must be changed the same earnestnesse reteined onely the object therof better chosen 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 zeale this is that fire from heaven which consumeth the light crash of our vanities and enflameth the desire before named this carries up our prayers and almes and all our good affections and operations as high as heaven This breedeth in us an holy emulation of our brethren whereby we strive to exceed one another in the duties of Religion The Apostle would have us servent in spirit 7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 selfe-revenge this is judging and punishing our selves that we may escape the hand of God Castâ—gâ— corpus â—ncum I chasten my body This is done by watching fasting and depriving our selves of the pleasures of sinne God who cannot endure us to revenge our owne quarrell against others likes our revenge taken against our selves The true penitent doth afflict his soule and is all bitternesse of heart for sinne he taketh up his crosse and followeth Christ This amounteth to a great deale more then Lord have mercy upon us And it is so much that when we come to examine whether our hearts be truly broken we shall very few of us finde this worke done for feare of the griefe and paine that are in true repentance For it is truth that there is no such affliction in the world as a true breaking of the heart is 5 Impediment the cares of life These breake the heart the wrong way for we have many feares which much disquieâ—us 1 From our selves lest our own improvidence should undo us if we should take so much time from our necessarie businesses as the duties of Religion do exact this makes many keepe home when they should be at Church and the world will not give them leave to serve God 2. From our brethren for every man commonly is so much for himselfe as abateth the help we should have one from another And so many lye in secret await to mend their owne heaps by lessening and impairing their neighbours that a curious warmesse is necessarie And this it is that maketh our life a continuall watch to save our owne from the injury of men of Christians There is a contentious sort of men that are ever vexing their brethren with molestation of suits There be base people that are prying what they may pilfer And there are cunning cheaters that practise upon their brethren by frauds The truth is here is enough for us all for the earth God hath given to the children of men If they that have most of it would know that their full cups should overflow to the use of their brethren and would so dispose the over-measure there could be no want God is much displeased 1. Because we generally do want the faith of his providence not caring for him onely and casting all our other cares upon him 2. Because we walk inordinately for we should first seeke the kingdome of God and then all these things 3 Because we distract our hearts with immoderate care as if God had set us here to feed our selves Christ disswadeth and forbiddeth this 4. Because often enough doth not content us we do love to have to look upon 5 Because in the use of these outward things many take more then their share wasting and consuming more then needs There may be found for use enough which waste will soone consume Christ chose a poore condition of life such as required other mens charitie to relieve it The bagge that Judas bore was not of rents but of almes he sent to a fish in the sea for money to pay tribute He fed many by his miraculous power he shewed his power upon himselfe rather in fasting then in feasting himselfe Yet having nothing his followers could confesse they wanted nothing 1 I confesse that too much love of the world and the iches thereof 2 And too many wayes for expense pride gluttonie drunkennesse ambition contention luxurie spend apace 3 But the poore do harden the hearts of the rich against them 1 By their
idlenesse 2 By their dishonesty and falshood 3 By their waste 4 By their unthankfulnesse To settle the heart against this distraction of cares 1 Thinke how these cares came first in â— for God placed man in a Paradise in full possession of all things necessarie for him sinne shut him out thence and lodged him where Luctus ultrices posuere cubilia curae Sorrow and care residents are Let us labour by repentance to remove sinne and cares will give way presently 2 Let us see how farre by the sentence of the Iudge upon man our â—â—re is extended We shall finde that the tartnesse and acrimonie of the sentence is sweetned with a blessing for in judgement God remembreth mercie The sentence is In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eate bread till thou returne to the ground Here is 1 In sudore in sweat this sweat that cometh of labour and exercise is wholsome and preserveth health labour is now enjoyned Qui non laborat ne manducet He that labours not let him not eate This is no such great affliction for we can be well content to sweat at our pleasures 2 In sudore Faciei in the sweat of thy face he saith not In angore cordis in sorrow of thy heart Omni custodia custodi cortuum With all keeping keepe thy heart Mi fili praebe mihâ— cor My son give me thy heart Christ ne turbetur cor vestrum let not your heart be troubled 3 Vescêris thou shalt be fed if we go not further A small matter may serve for food Nature is no great demander here is no gluttonous waste allowed 4 Pane with bread this is all we may aske of God Panem nostrum Our bread And no further should our care streine then the necessaries of life and no other way then in the way of our calling 5 Donec untill for we shall not be alwayes drudges to the flesh we have our donec untill and then all the cares of life determine They that will studie and labour for bread for posteritie may overdoe Fathers are allowed to lav up for their children but let them take heed they cast them more upon Gods providence then their owne provisions for them lest God blow upon them You may observe it that commonly such as rise to wealth from low beginnings are commonly most carefull to heape up for their children None trust God lesse then they and no estates are sooner blasted then theirs God never intended when he placed us in the world to make us for the world he set our face a better way Many have found the cares of this world such hinderances to repentance of sinnes such encreasers rather of sinne such remora's to godly life that they have freely abandoned the world and embraced a necessitous poverty rather then they would teare themselves with these thornes 3 The acceptation of this sacrifice with God O God thou wilt not despise There are none more despised in the world amongst the braves and gallants of the earth then those who go mourning all the day long for their sinnes But O God thou wilt not despise such How many great adulteries murthers and soule sinnes have beene committed by Kings and great persons But what say the books of time or what can our observation of our time testifie of broken and contrite hearts for them Our comfort is if grace do so farre prevaile against corrupt nature to sanctifie it to true repentance God will accept it we shall do well to see some examples of broken hearts and how they have beene accepted with God 1 Of Solomon who after his surfeit of all temporall pleasures made a whole booke of recantation and repentance wherein he calleth all those pleasures of life which had carried him away from God Vanitie and Vexation of spirit vanitie of vanities and concluded that the end of all things is to feare God and keep his Commandments How God accepted him we need no other proofe then that book of the Preacher received into the Canon of holy Scripture 2 Of Manasseh king of Judah for his sinnes were high growne and like an harvest of corne yellow for the sickle of divine vengeance He did evill in the sight of the Lord like to the abhominations of the heathen What his Father Hezechiah had done to remove idolatry he undid built up againe the abhominations which he had ruined He made his children passe through the fire he used witchcraft erected an Idoll in Gods house wrought much evill in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger A greater sinner I read not of theÌ„ Manasseh was And when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himselfe greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him and he was entreated of him and heard his supplication and brought him againe to Jerusalem where he brought forth fruits worthy of Repentance For he fortified the City of God he removed the Idols which he had set up and he repaired the Altar of the Lord and offered peace-offerings thereon 3 Of Mary Magdaleno the sinner whose broken and contrite heart had comfort in the pardon of her sinnes and Christs first appearance to her 4 Of the poore Publicane who came his owne accuâ—er into the Temple and went away justified more then the proud Pharisee 5 Of Simon Peter upon whom Christ looked and that looke sent him forth to weepe bitterly And his Master forgave him and imployed him in his Church Such is the unlimited loving-kindnesse of God to broken hearts For Christ was sent of purpose to binde up the broken-hearted The Apostle saith that there is breadth and length depth and height in the love of God 1 For breadth The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord. 2 For length His mercie is for them that feare him from generation to generation 3 For depth Where sinne aboundeth grace superaboundeth 4 For height Thy mercies are exalted above the heavens 1 In breadth like the garment of Sem and Japhet which covered their Fathers nakednesse 2 In length like the ladder of Jacob whose foot on earth whose top reached heaven 3 In depth like the Red-sea which swallowed Pharaoh and his hosts 4 In height like the ascension of Christ into heaven seene till a cloud involved him For our God is gentle milde and gracious and passeth by offences Let Jacob repent and he seeth no iniquitie in him Gods pardon healeth broken hearts for it removeth sinne In those dayes saith the Lord the iniquitie of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none and the sinnes of Judah and they shall not be found for I will pardon them whom I reserve Sinners converted joy him how welcome was the Prodigall to his Father he had not so much as a chiding for all his loosenesse and waste There is joy in heaven over every convert David hath done for himselfe here he endeth his suit for himselfe By this
shutting up of Davids penitentiall supplication in a broken and contrite heart I conclude 1 That in an arraignement for sinne there is no plea of good workes David had the conscience within him and the testimony without him of God and the Church that he had served the Lord and had walked in all the wayes of the Lord with all his heart save onely in this matter Yet this one matter cannot be answered without the exact fulnesse of repentance Here is no setting off of any sinne for some singular good worke before done The sinne that he hath committed doth extinguish the light of all his former righteousnesse as if it had never beene But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquitie all his righteousnesse that he hath done shall not be mentioned The Pharisâ—e might have past with us for a devout and an holy man if Christ had not detested him 1 He went up to the Temple to pray which was an exercise of devotion 2 I here he prayed with himselfe though in a publike place he had a private prayer here was no vaine ostentation in sight 3 He rejoyced in two things which have reference to the two duties of Repentance 1 Cease to do evill for he saith I am not as other men extortioners unjust adulterers nor as this Publicane not like them in their sinnes But I thanke thee for it 2 Learne to do well I fast twice I give tythes c but we referre this also to I thanke thee The Publicane had another bearing which became humble repentance well But the Pharisee for any thing I can discerne might have past for an holy man if Christ himselfe had not detected him I tell you this man went downe to his house Yet observe the Text He went justified more then the other the other not altogether unjustified 2 This directeth me in the deduction of a second conclusion that a broken and a contrite heart for sinne is as safe rest for the soule as the conscience of a good life This appeareth in the direction betweene the state of our innocent creation and our costly redemption For our creation set us in a way of happinesse rather in possession and fruition of happinesse but such as might be lost but our redemption bought us a never-withering crowne of glory Our holinesse of life may be corrupted as Davids was but our contrite and broken spirit none can heale but God onely and because it is his sacrifice he will not despise it In all the examples of repentance above-mentioned we see how firmly the Penitents stood upon that ground for that put away all their former sinnes and established them in the good favour of God Therefore David having this sacrifice ready and now tendring the same to his God doth cease further solliciting of God for himselfe and beginneth as one fully reconciled to God to sollicite him in the behalfe of his Church as followeth From whence we draw this exhortation Let us all labour our repentance as the most needfull worke of all We must charge all our afflictions upon our sinnes and we have but this one way left to repaire us to redeeme the favour of our God to us even our repentance One joynt sacrifice of broken hearts and whole hecatombes of contrite spirits would mend all that 's amisse Let us therefore commence a just warre against our owne corruptions and sinnes it is not enough to conquer the weake Island to destroy the vines the fewell of our drunkennesse to possesse the towns and villages the habitations of sinne in the outward members of the body There is in every one of us a strong Fort an hard and stonie heart fortified against all piety and holinesse where Sathan as a strong armed man holdeth possession this Fort and strong hold this propugnacle of sinne this heart must be broken Let us bend all our batterie against that and see to it that the world the flesh the devill may not supply it and then the day is ours and to him that overcometh shall be given a crowne of life Nothing overcometh this Fort of sinne in our hearts nothing breaketh them so soone as 1 A good watch kept that they may take no rest 2 Fasting to sterve the body of sinne 3 Weeping to open the sluces and drowne it with our teares 4 Praying for our Amaleth within us cannot stand if our soules like Moses hold up their hands in prayer to the God of our lives 5 An holy implacable furie against it never to give over the assault till we have brought it to subjection This fort thus conquered the Island is ours VERSE 18. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Sion build thou the walls of Ierusalem HEre beginneth the second part of this Psalme containing the prayer of David for the Church From the sequence of this prayer observe When we have by true repentance made our peace with God for our selves we have accesse with boldnesse to the throne of grace to put up petitions to God The Reason is Our sinnes do separate our God and us So Isaiah But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sinnes have hid his face from you that he will not heare David confesseth If I regard wickednesse in my heart the Lord will not heare me God treating with a sinfull Nation a people laden with iniquitie sheweth them the way into his favour 1 Wash you make you cleane 2 Come now let us reason together saith the Lord. David confesseth because of his iniquities which are an heavy burthen to him I am troubled I am bowed down greatly When we should lift up our heads our eyes our hands to God our sins confound us with shame wee â—ile from the presence of God they shake us with feare wee are afraid of his judgements But true Repentance doth wash us so clean and reconcileth us so perfectly to our God that wee dare come in fight we dare present God with our requests We sâ—cke the face of God when we ayle any thing every griefe of our persons or of the state in which wee live sendeth us presently to God for remedy In affliction wee seeks God early We secke him but we finde him not alwayes we aske of him but hee granteth not our requests wee cry lowd to him but he heareth us not and we take it ill to be denied to be delayed Saint James gives us the reason Ye aske and receive not because you aske amisse There is mors in olla death in the pot there is sinne in the heart our fountain is impoysoned the waters of it are corrupt Hose directeth a speeding way ô Israel returne to the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thy iniquitie Take with you words and turn to the Lord say unto him Take away all inquity and give good so will we render the calves of our lips In this course of removing our sin first we