all sinne both originall and actuall A Sacrament of that purgation wee have in Baptisme which we receive once for all our life though it bee not barely the externall act that cleanseth us but the answer of a good conscience to God To this is added another Sacrament of nutrition by which we are invited to a spirituall feast of the body and bloud of Christ To which our preparation must be a putting on of holinesse But as Iehoshus the high Priest was first stripped out of his filthy raiment and then had cleane cloathes put on So must wee lay aside the old man corrupt with the deceiveable lusts of the flesh before we can be renewed in the spirit of our minde and put on the new man in righteousnesse and holinesse I herefore for our better preparation to this Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ let me commend to you the holy example of David Let us beginne at a search and survey of our hearts for sinne even so deepe as our birth-sinne and originall uncleannesse Let us compare what we are in our inward parts with that which God desireth and the folly that possesseth us with the wisedome which God will give us if we aske it of him then shall we see what favour God hath done us in his holy Sacrament to offer us the benefit of his passion and the sprinkling of his bloud to keepe the destroying Angell from our houses This full example tendreth us all the ingredients in an holy preparation for Gods Table 1 Knowledge both of our disease and the remedy of it 2 Repentance of our sinnes as being sensible of the burthen and wearie of the annoyance of them 3 Faith depending upon God both for his tender mercies to pardon them and for his holy wisedome to prevent our relapsing after repentance into them 4 Charity to our brethren for David after promiseth to teach sinners and to direct them in good waies God can wash without hysope he can teach without the word he can cleanse without Baptisine he can nourish without the Lords Supper But having ordained outward types and signes and Sacraments and meanes for our purgation and nutrition David teacheth us hereto 5 To adde prayer to God not onely for the spirituall grace but for the outward meanes also Teach me by thy word wash me with thine hysope feed me with thy Supper So ought we to pray with David for the power of grace in the outward ordinance of God And that is the way to sanctifie our selves both to the Word and to the Sacrament There is nothing that doth more ineffectuate this blessed Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ to the receivers thereof then their uncleannesse for Pearles are not to be cast unto Swine And we must wash our hands in innocency before we compasse his altar Those corruptions which are within us in our heart are they that doe defile us for out of the heart proceed murthers adulteries drunkennesse strife and envying and these things pollute us These aske a great deale of hysope to sprinckle us with bloud to drench and steepe us in to fetch out the deep steines which they have made in our consciences These removed or our endeavour done to remove them wee may eate of this bread and drinke of this wine that he hath prepared 3 In resumption of this Petition we still see how weary David is of his filthinesse how ambitious of a purification For being yet in the stench and deformity and foulenesse of his sinnes he beleeveth that if he might be of Gods washing he should be whiter than snow Saint Paul biddethus desire the best gifts In things concerning this life wee have no warrant to desire above a competency Agur the wise sonne of Iakeh hath left us his prayer and it is part of our Canonicall Scripture Give me not riches give me not poverty feed mee with food convenient for me Christ hath limited our prayer for daily bread that is the necessaries of this life The Apostle biddeth if we have food and raiment to be therwith content but in the spirituall and eternall favours of God a greedinesse an ambition a covetousnes for the most and best highest of them doth best of all Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse There be degrees and measures of spirituall graces there be divers quantities of them As in the dye of sinne some are crimsin some scarlet so in the wash of repentance some attain to the whitenesse of wooll some of snow As David in the judging of himselfe findeth none so uncleane as he is so in his desire of purging he affecteth the whitest innocency They that have truely tasted the heavenly gift of holinesse here and the joyes of the life to come desire the uttermost of both and we cannot overdoe in coverousnesse of the one or ambition of the other But how doth David promise himselfe this whitenesse above snow Saint Augustine answereth that this innocency is but begun here it commeth not to any perfection in this life but his faith apprehendeth the complement of it hereafter 2 We may conceive in these sicuts these comparisons the fullest measure of innocency that wee are capable of here and hereafter 3 Or we may comfort our selves in dignatione divina in Gods approvement in whose gratious acceptation wee appeare so white because he accepteth us who calleth things that are not as if they were Or we may extend it to the full effect of the bloud of Christ which maketh a perfect work of our purification VERSE 8. Make mee to heare joy and gladnesse that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce 2. HE prayeth for comfort against the terror of his conscience for his sin wherein 1 We have his griefe his bones broken 2 His suit fac me andire c. Make me to heare 1 In his griefe consider 1 The affliction it selfe bones broken 2 The author hereof Thou 2 In his Petition observe 1 Where he seeketh remedy of God 2 In what way by prayer 3 What is his suit to heare joy c. 4 What effect ut ossa gaudeant that the bones may rejoyce 1 His griefe therein 2 Of his affliction ossa confracta the bones broken This is a figurative speech whereby extreame affliction is often in Scripture expressed Sathan to God of Job Touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face It was Iobs complaint My bones were pierced in me in the night season David useth often to complaine of his bones as there is no rest in my bones because of my sinne his meaning is that the vexation of his conscience for his sinne is as painefull to him as the breaking of his bones How are we deceived in the temptation to sinne in the pleasute of sinne when we drinke it downe like water and hide it under our tongue if ever wee come to repentance of it it will be bitternesse in
man in just accusation and now David saith Ego sum homo I am the man in humble confession Great Princes and persons in eminent ranke can take it upon them highly in termes of honour then ego I am the man They must do so here also 2 The trespasse Peccavi I have sinned David ever had a tender conscience for sinne he never slept in any of his trespasses so long before or after as in this For when he had opportunitie to come so neare to Saul as to cut off his skirt of his garment his heart smote him So did it after he had numbred the people now he feeleth the weight of sinne upon his conscience and cries Peccavi I have sinned Every true penitent doth so but every one is not a true penitent that doth so for Cain said more Mine iniquitie is greater then it can be forgiven Pharaoh said as much I have sinned this time The Lord is righteous I and my people are wicked for the thunder and haile mingled with fire After he said more upon the judgement of the locusts I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you Now therefore forgive I pray thee my sinne this once and intreat the Lord for me Judas went further I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent bloud He repented saith the Text he said with the price of his sinne in his hand in the act of restitution But Cain and Judas confessed in finall desperation Pharaoh shrunk onely at the punishment the sinne grieved him not Davids peccavi I have sinned had more in it he knew his sinne fully it was ever before him And he was more troubled with his fault then with his punishment he made the worst of it yet he had faith in the loving kindnesse and in the multitude of the tender compassions of God he had the spirit of supplications and prayed fervently His first suit is for his washing and his strong cries are like them of the Leper to Christ Lord that I may be clean and the further we go in this Psalme the more pregnant remonstrances he maketh of his true repentance the more cleare example doth he give for ours As feare shooke him and as shame covered his face so faith supported him and prayer to God sanctified his mortification Such a peccavi I have sinned so open in confession without so stinging with compunction within so quickened by a lively faith so winged with zealous prayer will soone finde the ready way to the throne of grace and finde mercie there in a time of need 3 Parslaesa the party offended Here the spirit of David is troubled he is full of passion 1 He confesseth the wrong done to God Contra te against thee 2 He resumeth it with a duplication Against thee 3 He putteth it home with a soli Tibi tibi soli peccavi Against thee thee onely have I sinned 1 Contra te Against thee That is the sting and torment the rodde and scorpion of the conscience when we consider that our trespasse hath beene bent and aymed against God Si non Jehova pro nobis If the Lord had not beene on our side is Israels word we had perished Auxilium nostrum à Domino Oâ—r help is from the Lord In his favour is our life This makes every wilfull sinne we commit mortall because it trespasseth the majestie of God therefore no sinne in this nature is veniall and this makes every sinne of infinite merit because it is a sinne against an infinite majestie And for that our persons are finite and not capable of infinite punishment there is no way to satisfie this infinite majestie offended but by eternity of punishment This appeares in this sentence Go ye cursed into everlasting fire The smoke of their torment shall arise for evermore The worme never dyeth the fire never goeth out We have many great motives to make conscience of trespassing against this majesty of God 1 For the good that he is 2 For the good that he doth 1 For the good that he is He is one that hateth iniquitie no evill shall dwell with him He is all holinesse and righteousnesse 2 For the good that he doth 1 He is our faithfull Creator He made us not we our selves he fashioned us in the wombe he kept us there he took us thence 2 We came naked into the world he clothed us we came hungry he gives us daily bread we came ignorant he taught us weak and he strengthened us unclean and he washed us in the laver of regeneration 3 We were born children of wrath he adopted us heires of grace and glory and redeemed us with the deare cost and expense of his Sonnes bloud 4 He is the preserver of men he giveth us spirituall and temporall favours His loving kindnesse and mercie followeth us all the dayes of our life 3 We may adde for the evils that he doth For is there any evill or punishment which he sendeth not He is velox ultor a swift revenger and his right hand doth finde out all his enemies We would not willingly anger a person that hath power to do us hurt though we have no hope that he will ever do us good But our God is a father as well as a judge and with him is mercy that he may be feared that we may not runne our selves upon the edge of his sword Let us consider how all things else serve him but we onely and the Angels that sinned They unhappied their estates by sinning against God and of glorious Angels became unclean devils there is no part of the work of Gods hands so eternally cast away reserved in chains of darknesse for the judgement of the last day We had a way opened to us a new and living way 2 He therefore resumeth this against thee either doubling the consideration of his sinne or doubling the consideration of the party offended by it both which shews that he had laid it to heart and that lay heavy upon his conscience he had throughly considered against whom he offended We cannot think too much of it we cannot confesse it too often we cannot deplore it too bitterly that we have sinned against God For many are the pressures of this life but they are all comforted with a sure refuge to God He is our help in trouble Vana salus hominis the help of man is vaine But when we sinne against God we lop the tree that should shelter us from a storme We undermine the tabernacle of our dwelling Whither shall we go for our healing when we are wounded Whose counsell shall we aske when we are sick Who shall feed our hunger c. Who shall then have pitie upon thee O Ierusalem or who shall be moane thee or who shall go aside to aske how thou doest Thou hast forsaken me saith the Lord thou art gone backwards therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee and destroy thee I am weary with repenting
warie how we walk in the way of that roaring Lyon which goeth about continually seeking whom he may devoure But here remaineth a great scruple Was not David circumcised and hath not that Sacrament according to the intention of Gods holy ordinance this proper effect to remove and purge originall sinne And now in the time of the Gospell is not Baptisme the laver of our new birth doth it not wash away originall sinne Why then doth David yet complaine of it or why do we who are baptised stand daily yet in jeopardie of it To cleare this point we resolve that since the fall of man his infirmitie hath ever beene such as all the meanes of grace ordained by God have fallen short of working their full and perfect effect upon us in this life The word teacheth us and yet so long as we live here we know but in part The word begetteth faith yet so weak and so imperfect is our faith that Christ biddeth us to pray to God to encrease our faith The word of the Gospell is the power of God to salvation yet he doth magnifie his power in our weaknesse Our hope is imperfect for it is mingled with feare Our joy is not complete for we rejoyce in trembling The Sacraments of Circumcision and Baptisme were ordained against originall sinne yet for want not of efficacie in the gift but of capacity in the receivers thereof they fall short of the full effect here It is therefore farre from us to limit God by his ordinances to binde him to passe his graces no way but by them As farre is it from us to extend the force of his ordinance to that latitude that which way so ever his outward ordinance goeth his grace must necessarily follow the same We go in a middle way betweene these two extremes affirming that according to the good pleasure of his will so the Sacraments of our regeneration do work their effect more or lesse in his Church For my own judgement I have beleeved and taught that Baptisme doth so purge away original sinne as it doth regenerate us It worketh the same work at once the killing of sinne and the life of Christ in us As we perceive our regeneration imperfect so we must confesse our mortification imperfect Therefore after Baptisme there remaineth yet a â—ome of our originall sinne because Christ hath not the intire possession of us And yet there is a seed of grace because Christ dwelleth in us Both these seeds grow in us till the harvest Yet as Jacob and Esau they strive in the same wombe for the flesh lusteth the spirit sigheth and groaneth the flesh striveth against the spirit the spirit is contrary to the flesh From the seed of the flesh which we call originall sinne all our evill thoughts words and works do proceed From the seed of the spirit arise all good motions whereby we resist the flesh And if any of Gods people be overtaken with offence he is not straitway as a limbe cut off from the body but as a bone out of joynt for the time It is not a laxation from the bodie but a laxation in the body It is the Apostles word you that are spirituall restore such a one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put him in joynt againe So we denie not the grace of Circumcision or Baptisme we do not weaken the power of Gods ordinance but we allow it the efficacie of congruitie with the subject For it filleth secundum capacitatem vasis according to the capability of the vessell when God enlargeth our heart we shall receive his gifts more fully You now see how much cause David had to complain of his originall sinne as the seed remaining in him from whence these great offences grow I conceive the proper use of this point to be this To stirre us up by Davids example upon all occasions by our fallings into any sinne to look back upon this root of sinne in us that we may put the strength of our measure of grace to it to grubbe it It is such as that if there remain but a threed of it in our ground by the sent of water it will take in sap and gather strength and put forth and grow up as a plant as Job saith Therefore we know our spirituall growth in grace by the withering of this old man and the vegetation of the new man in us The Prophet here in the from of this confession setteth an Ecce Behold which may be directed two wayes 1 For he may divert his speech from God to whom his addresse is to the Church and to his fellow-members of that body as partners with him of the same nature of the same infirmitie See whence these â—oule evils came even from the sinne that came with me Peccatum oriens from the sinne that abideth in me Peccatum habitans from the sinne that encircleth me Peccatum circumstans from the sinne that defileth me Peccatum commâ—culans That every one of us may look to that breeder and keep it from teeming in us or if lust do conceive and bring forth sinne then to take the little ones and dash them against the stones We do not enough study this point we do not behold and see into it as we should to look for no good out of this Nazareth to confesse our weake and wicked beginnings of nature to amend by culture and industry our barren soyle impregnant of any good fruits To plough up the fallow grounds of our hearts with discipline and mortification to sowe them with the precious seed of the Word Leaving them to the clouds of grace to raine upon them and to the Sonne of righteousnes to shine on them Eliâ—hs faith will open heaven for that raine Joshuahs prayer will make that Sonne stand still 2 Behold to God he may desire him to consider in his mercie that this mother-sinne came with him it was a corruption of his nature before he had either appetite or sense or will to embrace it yea that corrupted all these and reason it selfe and the conscience that defiled all I deny not but that it was sinne at first in the conception but David doth not say Formatus sum iniquus or Conceptus iniquus but In iniquitate I am not formed or conceived wicked but in wickednesse The matter that I was made of was unsound and unholy for David was not David till his reasonable soul was infused then was he sinfull So that I conceive this behold urged to God to move compassion in him that seeing he could not help it that he was so framed and surely God is mercifull to that sinne in us therefore David saith of him Like as a father pittieth his children so the Lord pittieth them that feare him For he knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are dust Therefore this Ecce behold to God doth move him to compassion of his most miserable condition in regard of the corruption and frailty of his frame and composition But
revealed in our flesh the service of God was full of typicall resemolances and representations both of his meritorious sacrifice for us and of our spirituall sacrifices to God The shedding of the bloud of the beasts c. did declare Christs bleeding for us The burning and consuming the sacrifice to ashes did declare the complete mortification of the elect I remember the speech of Abraham I am but dust and ashes Dust we are in respect of the matter of our creation For out of it werâ— thou taken because thou art dust But why ashes which is a burnt dust Because every faithfull servant of God is a burnt-offering his naturall and unregenerate part consumed to dust 1 By his owne zeale My zeale hath even consumed me 2 By his voluntarie mortification 3 By the manifold fiery trials of his holy patience Abraham had beene an idolater that Abraham was consumed to ashes Ex cinere redivivus to revive from the ashes Our lesson is that though these outward legall ceremonies be abolished which declared their observers willing to be at any cost in the worship and service of God and punctuall to do as they were bidden Yet in our way we must not retyre all Religion to the heart but such outward acts of Religion as remaine in force and use we may not omit as comming to Church reverent kneeling to make confession of our sinnes attentive hearing of the Word making the voyce of Gods praise to be heard humbling of our soules to God and lifting up our voyces to pray standing upright to make a publique joynt confession of our faith to shew that we are all of one common faith paying our due tythes and offerings These be holy farmes and services yet as the outward sacrifices of old were rejected without the inward spirituall service of the heart so all externall adoration without the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart before mentioned is short oâ— the duty that we owe to God Our great Zelotes the professors of Gods service in a purer way whose pride is that they are not like other men these do cry downe all outward expressures of devotion and say your wisedomes claime is My sonne give me thy heart True and the good affection of the heart is soone seene in the command that it exerciseth over all the body Cor paratuâ— est My heart is ready I will praise God with the best member that I have Levabo oculos I will lift up mine eyes Lavabo levábo manus c. I will wash and lift up my hands 4 He calleth these Sacrifices of righteousnesse So before Offer ye the sacrifices of righteousnesse So called 1 Because they are our debt to God Justitia dat suum cuique Iustice gives every one his owne his law requireth them our obedience oweth them Let no man thinke that he meriteth any thing at the hands of God by these duties of Religion yet such is the favour and bountie of God that he rewardeth the service done to him There is no man that shutteth the doore or kindleth a fire in Gods house for nought he hath his reward Let not his bountie over-value our duty to him Our obedience is our righteousnesse before God 1 We do God right in it for he challengeth it not of courtesie he is not beholding for it it is his due 2 Called Sacrifices of righteousnesse because they left nothing due to God uâ—offerod as here the burnt-offering and the whole burnt-offering Ananias and Sapphira supprest a part of their offering Totum Deo immolant omne quod habent omne quod vivunt omne quod sapiunt totum Deo offerunt They ofter all to God which they have all which they live all wherein they are wise 3 Sacrificia justitiae the sacrifices of righteousnesse in respect of Gods â—ie which was not so much upon the oblation as upon the righteousnesse of the offerer for Respexit Abelem primâ— pòst donum â—ius First he had respect to Abel then to his offering He findes it Honor it me labiis honours me with their lips Cor longè their heart is farre off 4 Sacrificia justitiae the sacrifices of righteousnesse for their representation for they are types of Christ our righteousnesse 5 Sacrificia justitiae the sacrifices of righteousnesse because offered in faith and we are just by faith The King here promiseth for his people so in former examples good and religious Kings have drawne their people into covenant with God It is much that a good King may do with his people Regis ad exemplâ—â— after the kings example Let him guide them so as well as by lawes No question but Davids loosenesse had corrupted his Subjscts much his holinesse may amend it Princes by good laws good counsell good example may prevaile farre being gracious and gentle They should in nothing more straine their strength then in the supportation of Gods worship In that God will joyne with them The force of opposition cannot resist that worke for light driveth away darknesse With what joy do we look on such examples of Princes as that of Nehemiah that of Joash that of â—oâ—iah we see good came of it then 2 He promiseth for God Accipâ—es thou shalt accept This is vox fiâ—â—i the voyce of Faith the faithfull are assured that God will receive their service in this kinde when they binde themselves to it We must bring all our offerings to God with this good pâ—râ—wasion that God will accept them This made Abels offering so acceptable to God and preferred before Cains he offered by faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fuller sacrifice and God testified of his gifts Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtaine mercy and finde grace to help in time of need For in Christ we have boldnesse and accesse with confidence by the faith of him FINIS Decemb 24. 1635. PErlegi haec tria volumina Commentariorum in Psal 51 ex concionibuâ— Samuelis Page SS Theol. Professoris quae continent in toto pagiâ—as 895 aut circiter in quibus non reperio aliquid sâ—â—â— doctrinae aut bonis moribus repugnans quo mâ—nùs cum publicâ utilitate imprimi queant sub eâ tamen conditione ut si non intra biennium proximâ— sequens typis mandentur haec â—icentia fit omnino irrita Guilielmus Haywood R. P. D. Archiep. Cant. Capell domest 1. 2. Sam. 12 9. 2. 3. Rom. 7. 1â— Ver. 13. Psal 38. 3. c. Lam 3. 22. 23. 32. Psal 38. 3. 1 2 3 Num. 19. 22. Tâ—â—â— 15. â—sâ—â— 38 5. â—oâ—â—h 36â— 1 Reg 2â— 29. 1 Reg. â—0 31. Rom. â—â—â— Ioh. 15. â— â—â—Sapnâ—â—â— 14. Psal â—4 â— 4 Aug. Iosh 7. Vers 20. 1 2 3 5 Iude 13. Iosh 7. 19. 1 2 3 4 5 Iob 13. 16. 3 1 Sam. 24. 5. 2. 24. 10. Gen. 4. 13. Marg. K. Bible Exod. 9. 27. Exo. 10. 16 17 Mat. 27. 3 4 5. Ier. 15. 5. Sol. 1. 2 3 4
delight and expiate it at short warning But such pardons were not afoot in Davids time he confesseth to Nathan and undergoeth a sore penance after Nathan had absolved him Good use might be made of this in the Church If a true Penitent revealing his wounded conscience to some learned and godly Physitian of his soul and declaring his true griefe did establish his repentant heart with the comfort of the Word and receive the benefit of Gods gracious pardon in the way of Gods holy ordinance In businesses of our estate we may heare wise men speak out of experience and reading and observation but it is safest to trust such whose profession and practise in the laws may give us more full satisfaction in all our doubts In diseases of the body reading experience and observation may accommodate men unprofessed to speak rationally and to advise wisely but health is a deare commoditie they do most safely that consult the learned studied and practised Physitian he is the likeliest to direct for our good In the occasions of the soul although many great Scholars have profited to ability to informe the judgement in the truth to convince errour to instruct and comfort yet seeing God hath ordained some in his Church to do this ex officio and hath sent them to teach to baptise to commend the prayers of the Church to him to absolve penitents our using of their ministery in these things is strengthened with warrant and in this case Nathans absolution is as good as on Angels 2 We finde David confessing here to God his wickednesse Nathan hath used all the good and discreet wayes that may be to bring David to a sight and sense of his sinne 1 He shewed him his sinne in a parable borrowing another person to represent to him his sinne 2 He shewed it in the commemoration of Gods manifold favours to him which cannot but shew that God had better deserved of him then to be answered with transgression of his commandments For he might plead Do you thus unkindly requite my love 2 He came to the point and opened his wounds and shewed him the rottennesse and stench of them in an hoc fecisti Thus hast thou done and I held my peace all this while 3 He revealeth to him the purpose of God for his correction by a severe punishment of his faults divers wayes as you have heard This made him cry God mercie and crave aid of Gods tender compassions to wash him For I acknowledge my wickednesse Which teacheth That true repentance ariseth from a knowing and beginneth at confessing our sinne They pray but faintly and weakly for mercy to wash them that do not well discerne and confesse their wickednesse The woman of Canaan that came to Christ for her daughter cries loud for his help the disciples cannot still her Blinde Bartimeus runnes hard and cryes lowd for his sight The woman with the issue of bloud pressed through the crowd as neare as she could to Christ to touch the hemme of his vesture David sometimes cryed till his throat was hoarse Moses prayed till his hands fell All that feele need of help from God and know it no where else to be had will ply him heartily and give him no rest So forceable is the knowledge of our sinnes to put us upon God in importunate eâ—â—lagitations of mercy Such know that there is no state here on earth so unhappy as the state of a sinner Let us never hope for peace in our conscience or favour with God till we come to see and confesse our wickednesse Oh that there were such an heart of piety and holy zeale as to search and try our own wayes and to detect our own sinnes as we have hearts of malice and curiousitie to dive into the transgressions of others I would we could discerne our own beams as clearly as we see the motes in our brothers eye I acknowledge my wickednesse I search no further Let me now turn your eyes upon your own hearts and put you to the search of them to the bottome that you may confesse your wickednesse to God betweene you and him alone For wounds must be searched before they can be cured And then shall you be prepared to heare the story of Christs bitter passions that he susteined for you which shall shortly be recounted to you out of the Gospell by appointment of the Church There you shall see the loving kindnes of God and the multitude of his tender compassions you shal see what need your wounds had of his stripes what need your voluptuous lives had of his dolorous throws and pangs what need your crown of pride had of his crown of thornes what need your crying sinnes had of his strong prayers and supplications what need your deserved curse had of his undeserved crosse If all tears were wiped from our eyes for our selves and that our mouthes were filled with laughter and our tongues with joy yet if we did consider in what liquour we were washt the precious bloud of a Lambe without spot Pilates Ecce homo Behold the man shewing us our Redeemer newly come from his cruell whipping his pretious body the glory of humanity ploughed up with scourges into deep furrows to save our skinnes whole Uox sanguinis the voyce of bloud speaking better things then the bloud of Abel crying for our purification and his dying plea even for his enemies Father forgive them for they know not what they do These and a thousand more considerable passages in his dolorous passion were enough to turn all our harps into mourning and all our organs into the voice of them that weep to make our heads fountains of tears to melt us into passion to distill us into spirit of compassion for him that payed so deare for our souls Sic Deus dilexit mundum misit filium suum dedit unigenitum as August dedit unicum ut non esset unicus So God loved the world He sent his Sonne He gave his onely begotten Sonne He gave his onely Sonne that he might not be his onely Sonne And in the manner of giving Non pepercit filio suo he spared not his sonne he layd upon him the iniquitie of us all Will you finde the cause of all this the roote of bitternesse the gall and wormwood that made his potion so corroding Search your heart for sinne and wash the bloudy wounds of your Redeemer in a bath of compassionate tears your own putrified soars in a bath of penitentiall tears And as Israel brought forth Achan and put him in sight who had trespassed in the accursed thing so let our confession put our transgressions in sight saying with David I acknowledge my wickednesse And with Achan I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and thus and thus have I done That which undoes Religion and destroyes the fear and service of God and hindereth our repentance and evacuateth all our acts of piety that which maketh the word to us a dead
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
foule shame In the Apostles time it was a modest sinne he saith They that are drunke are drunke in the night Now day and night are both guilty of it it is a sinne in fashion meetings of purpose called and intended for it The farewels of friends parting the welcomes of friends returning the celebration of great Festivals as if Bacchus had washt us in the bloud of the grape from our sinnes But God will be justified in his sayings he will declare his justice in his severe punishment of this sinne here and if it be not sincerely repented he hath told us home what he will do No drunkard shall enter into the kingdome of heaven I should lay your sinne to my own charge if I should not let you know the terrour of the Lord in this case The defence of it by the societie of sinners aggravateth the sinne God hateth it so much the more Malum quo communius Sinne the more common the worse 2 He declareth his justice in the performance of his mercie to his elect For even in these examples in my text alledged 1 To Adam he shewed mercy who sinned having onely a Law for his obedience with a penalty threatned in case of disobedience but there was no promise a foot if he should trespasse that Commandment And that made Adam when he had sinned hide himself from the presence of God ashamed and afraid to come in sight But God in free favour did seek him out and before he called him to his answer for his sinne he reveiled mercie in the promised seed When he laid his curse upon the Serpent that tempted him and therefore ever since his time sinners have a way of grace opened in that promise and no sinnes if sorrowed for can evacuate the force of that promise it standeth good to all that truly and sincerely repent So as David saith In judgement he remembreth mercie There he did so in the very sentence of judgement upon the Serpent was the first revelation of mercie to man He had no Obligation of a former promise to binde him to it but it was a free and voluntarie tender of favour growing out of his own perfect and absolute goodnesse In the tender whereof he hath given us strong assurance that if in free favour he would do so much much rather when he had put us in securitie thereof by promise 2 The example of favour to Noah doth justifie God in his sayings for he shewed him much favour after his fatherly correction of his fault 1 In verifying his blessing upon his two sonnes Sem of whom Abraham came and the twelve Patriarches and David and Christ Iesus And to whose tents in the fulnesse of time he invited Japhet and brought in the fulnesse of the Gentiles 2 In accomplishing his curse upon his yongest sonne many yeares after by giving away their Land from them and rooting them out with a violent destruction This performed upon the repentance of Noah which thought it be not in expresse and full termes set forth in the storie yet we may take it so signified when Moses saith And Noah awoke from his wine that is not onely recovered after sleep to sober judgement but to a penitent recognition of his sinne And by the spirit of prophecie he was enlightned to looke into times to come and to foresee the future estate of his posteritie and by the spirit of supplication to desire God for his eldest sonne and by the spirit of faith to beleeve in the resolved goodnesse of God to his second sonne And in all the story of holy Scripture we finde that the sinnes of repentant men though chastened with some temporall roddes of affliction yet never failing of mercie Davids children that transgressed were threatned with the roddes of men but with reservation of favour not to take his mercie utterly from them as from Saul 2 We shall now see how David did beare himself in the wise consideration of these two things 1 When he confest his sinne whereby God was justified in his threatnings of judgement He declareth his own humble patience submitting himself to the holy hand of God q. d. I confesse all my sinnes this my horrible and crying sinne that the world may see thy justice in punishing me and my patience in bearing it Stripes were ordained of purpose for the backs of fools I am one of them and I put my self under thy punishing hand He is content that as he hath made himself an example of a grievous sinner so God should declare in and upon him an example of his severe justice and so be justified in his sayings If God did forbeare all other punishments of our sinne in our own persons in our house and familie in our goods in the necessaries of life in which kindes he ordinarily avengeth himself upon offenders yet if the sinner shall but truly repent him of his sinne repentance it self is a greater punishment then all these There is more in it when it is said of Peter that he went forth and wept bitterly then in the disciples Reliquimus omnia We have left all And Saint Paul felt more smart in the thorne in his flesh and the Angell of the Lord bufferring of him then in all his dangers by Sea and Land his stripes shipwracke imprisonment When our own consciences are upon torture our souls upon the rack when we judge and take vengeance upon our selves it is judgement without mercy We ever feare we underdo Therefore the conscience of his sinne doth beare witnesse to the justice of God and he findeth no fault with his punishment Surely murmurers that repine at the punishing hand of God and think much of his judgements enflame the anger of God more by their resisting his right hand which hath found them out If they went in Davids way to take a just dimension of their sinne and did confesse it contritely to God they would be content that he should declare his justice in their punishment and they would see that he would overcome if he came to be judged Speak thy conscience when thou abusest thy drink to drunkennesse if God punish thee with thirst hast not thou well deserved it If thy meat to surfet if thy strength to wantonnesse c. 2 He sheweth faith For notwithstanding these many and this foule great sinne he beleeveth that God will be justified in his sayings that is declared just in his gracious promises of mercie The sinnes of the elect cannot outgrow the mercies of God nor our offences make his truth faile David is so full of this faith that as he spendeth part of this Psalme in a deploration of his sinnes so he bestoweth also part of it in supplications whereby he declareth his faith VERSE 5. Behold I was shapen in iniquitie and in sinne did my mother conceive me 4. HE recounteth his originall sinne the corrupt fountaine of all his impurities he makes way to it with an Ecce for now he is at the
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
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
we possesse When provender pricketh us the way to checke our wantonnesse is to set us a while at a leane manger and to take from us the good which we cannot tell well how to value at the true price It was the sinne first of the Angels then of man they kept not their first estate neither were content with the joy of their creation The Angels affected to be like God in omnipotencie and became divels Man affected to be like God in his omniscience and turned sinner they lost heaven by it he Paradise When they bethought themselves it is no question but they would have beene both glad to have beene where they were and would then have beene content with it I remember Iob in his extreame affliction remembring times past and complaining in the bitternesse of his engrieved soule O that I were as in moneths past in the daies when God preserved me When his candle shined upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkenesse When I washed my steppes with butter and the rocke poured me out rivers of water It were great wisedome in us to know when we are well and keepe us so 4 This petition putteth us in comfort that though by our folly wee have provoked God to take away our joy from us in his just judgement yet it is not so lost but there is hope left of restoring it againe to us for else Davids suit were cold And truely God is so full of compassion so free from passion so open handed to give so loth to take away so ready to forgive and so easily perswaded to restore what we have forfeited into his hands by our sinne that wee may comfort our soules with hope even when our joy is gone that he will not continue long in his anger but will returne to us and visite us with his favour That is it which maketh the divels so spightfull and malitious to man so rebellious to God they have no hope nor meanes left to restore them to the joy that they have lost because they being in fulnesse of grace and intellectuall light did corrupt themselves and were their owne tempters But man being overtaken with the surprize of a sudden temptation when being good he suspected no evill fell from the obedience but not from the pitty of God he fell from the possession but not from the restitution of his joy The time of our life is called spatium poenitendi a season for us to worke our repaire A lamentable change it is that sinne hath wrought in us that man created in the image of God in holinesse and righteousnesse should now spend all the dayes of his appointed time here in recovering some measure of that joy of his creation and when he hath attained to it insome degree may lose it by sinne and be to beginue againe The way to recover it is here opened in this example repentance faith and prayer Repentance to remove sinne faith to apprehend mercy and grace prayer to obtaine these of God and to sanctifie them to us In this way David sought the recovery of the joy of his salvation 2 His suit is for confirmation Uphold mee with thy free spirit some reade spiritu principall with thy chiefe spirit as desiring a full measure of the holy Ghost so the Apostle biddeth us to desire the best gifts of all for wee shall have need of them all against our owne corruptions and the manifold temptations of Sathan But the Prophets phrase of a free spirit doth well expresse the holy Ghost which hee desireth for Christ calleth him the spirit of truth and promiseth that he shall leade us into all truth And he saith The truth shall make you free David had lived in the chaines and bonds of iniquity a long time and his repentance had recovered him againe to liberty and now he desireth to be confirmed and established in that liberty Christ directeth our prayers so for after dimitte nobis forgive us we pray ne inducas leade us not which is for confirmation that we doe no more so Such is the corruption of our nature that we have cause to feare our selves for all sinnes For what sinne hath any man committed but wee may fall into the like seeing our originall corruption yet remaining in us is the seed of all sinne and our naturall impotencie to all good disableth us to resist and the perpetuall watch that our enemie doth keepe upon us to take advantage of us doth facilitate his temptations to our hurt And we see great examples of men falling into sinnes which their hearts have abhorred to thinke of being by surprize overtaken as adulterie murther theft and such like opportunity the pandor of sinne inviting thereto And what sinne have we ever committed and be wailed and repented but we may relapse into the same and double the transgression and the anger of God thereby This petition of David doth declare that wee have no strength of our selves either to abstaine from new sinnes or to keepe us from relapse into our former sinnes without the holy Ghost whose office is 1 To shew us the right way and to put us into it 2 To underprop and support us in the same that we fall not For from our naturall propension to evill proceedeth an easie sequence of our owne corrupt inclinations and a ready harkening to Sathans subtile temptations against which we need corroboration from the spirit of God Amongst all the sinnes that defile our conscience and corrupt our manners and displease God and hazard our soules those are most dangerous which bring with them the most sensuall delight for these have a sweetnesse and lushiousnesse which maketh them for the time very tastfull and delectable and when the bitternesse of repentance is over Sathan will renew to us the remembrance of the pleasure that we had in them and there by â—â—-engage us often in the fresh persuit of them We are as little children that cannot goe alone wee need a stronger arme to carry us a loving bosome to hugge us a 〈◊〉 â—and to supportus In all these things our God relieveth us 1 For the arme of God that shoreth us up so hee promised David with whom my hand shall be established mine arme also shall strengthen him 2 God said to Moses of his Israell Carry them in thy besome as a nursing father carrieth a sucking childe unto the land that God sware to give their fathers Moses was but a figure and type of a greater and more tender shepheard of whom I say prophecied saying He shall feed his flocke like a shepheard be shall gather the Lambes with his arme he shall carry them in his bosome and shall gently leade those that are with yong 3 I taught Ephraim also to goe leading them by the armes Thus the grace of corroboration is described by which we are not left to our selves but supported in our waies therefore David saith By thee have
to Angels and to man And to make them complete creatures images of himselfe he gave them free will to continue their own happy condition for their own good or to forsake it to their ruine They both by their owne fault forfeited their present estate and by affecting more of the glory of God than hee had communicated them lost that which they had and so this good spirit did forsake them But it is replyed if they had this good spirit why did it not confirme them in their estate that they might not fall I answer man had not beene led by this spirit but forced and necessitated if this spirit had limited him it had beene a spirit of compulsion not of confirmation Man was not content with the state of his creation the Angels were not content they resisted they grieved this spirit The Angels therefore having sinned never found a Mediatour to relieve them because it is plaine that their trespasse was against the holy Ghost For man he had this spirit also but he hearkened to the voyce of his wife against this spirit Let me adde also that after the fall of man Christ was promised Where God giveth or offereth his Sonne he offereth his spirit also these are tendred to all universally Grace is offered Christ promised the Holy Ghost to teach to leade to comfort to confirme we have all the meanes of grace that may be to put this talent to use and we may charge our perdition upon our selves if we miscarry For in the creation when we were yet but in matter rudis indigestaque moles unfashioned formelesse if God had made us crooked lame deformed disproportioned or any way ill featured we had suffered no shame of it for he made us and not we our selves Thy hands have made mee and fashioned me But God doth not now worke upon us as hee then did upon earth a dead and â—ensâ—lâ—sse element We haue vitall animall intellectuall parts and faculties we doâ— know the want â—â— tâ—is spirit we know where it may be had it is spiritus Dei the spirit of God we know how potentâ—â—â— to them that aske shall be given wee know how he must be used not grieved and if we have it not or be not confirmed it is our fault We see in the story of the Bible and in continuall experience in others and feele it in ourselves how many defections in us and desâ—rtions of God doe â—ollow the want of this confirming spirit to establish us For what is it that maketh the often relapsâ—â— into the sâ—â—e sinnes for which wee have so often cryed God mercy â—â— wanton against defiling his body after repentance thâ— drunkard like a dogge returning againe to his vomit the covetous like a swine to his mire for so basely and contemptibly are such relapses resembled by the spirit of God Many whose consciences within them convince them touched with the sword of Gods spirit the word of God and with the reproofe of their friends and the shame of the world are heartily sorry for these sinnes and bewaile them with teares and aske God forgivenesse for them and purpose and promise never to returne to them yet for want of this spirit to confirm them relapse and make their latter end worse than their beginning 2 On the contrary those who have this spirit are proofe against temptations all the sinnes in example all the evill counsels of the old world cannot infect or corrupt Noah all Sodome cannot taint Lot Josephs Mistresse cannot allure Joseph Daniel cannot be tempted to â—ate of the Kings delicates yet at some other time this spirit may leave even some of these to themselves and then they shew by what strength they were kept from falling and knowing their owne weakenesse they doe more earnestly desire as David here â—c tollas spiritum take not away thy spirit and confirma me strengthen me We see Davids good example praying to him that is able to keepe us that wee fall not and desiring him who hath begun a good worke in us to perfect it to the end This spirit is oyle in our lampes to keepe them light against the bridegroome commeth It is a wedding garment to admit us guests to his bridall feast They that truely and unfainedly repent will more desire this spirit for it is but halfe a repentance plangere commissa to bewaile sinnes committed this accomplisheth it in keeping us â—â— committamus plangenda that we commit not sinnes to be bewailed VERSE 13. 3 PRomittit he promiseth Then will I teach transgressors thy wayes and sinners shall be converted unto thee This was Peters charge tâ— cum conversus fueris confirma fratres when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren In this verse first promittit he promises secondly prophetat he prophecies or I promittit Deo quid pro eo facturus est he promiseth to God what hee will doe for him secondly promittit vicino quod â—i he promises to his neighbour what he will doe for him thirdly promittit sibi successum he promises successe to himselfe 1 Promittit Deo hee promises to God David had done God wrong to scandalize religion and by his evill example to corrupt many for great and eminent persons sinne infectiously their iniquities are catching He now promiseth that he will make amends to God in becomming a teacher to convert others to righteousnesse exemplo consilio authoritate regia prophetica by example counsell authority royall propheticall For as we are accountable to God for such sinnes as are done in others by our occasion so we doe owe God a dutie of endeavour to keepe others as neare him and draw as many to him as we may 2 Promittit vicino he promiseth to his neighbour He is sensible how farre his corrupt life hath extended to corrupt others he oweth them an amends also and promiseth himselfe a teacher of them This is one of the fullest expressions of pious charity that we can make one to another to communicate to each other the knowledge of salvation and the way to it and to put one another in that way and to put them on with cheerefulnesse to runne in it 3 Promittit sibi he promiseth to himselfe He is confident that he shall have good successe in this way and holy course and that sinners shall turne for the example of repentance in so potent a King cannot but worke strongly upon such as he shall undertake to teach Our lesson from this example is in sight for when God hath wrought a good worke upon us in turning us from sinne to true repentance it is our duty to labour the conversion of other sinners to God A perfect convert is the best teacher of the wayes of God that can be for he knowes these three things which will most move to conversion 1 He knowes the foulenesse the foolishnesse the burthen and vexation of sinne he hath seene the danger of it and hath by wofull experience found how uncomfortable a
thing it is to live in the displeasure of God and to be deprived of the comfort of the holy Ghost He feeles how the conscience is oppressed with sinne and how wee are made to remember all our evill wayes from the first sinne We see all this in David for the filthinesse of his sinne he doth earnestly desire to be washed and washed cleane washed with hysope that he may be whiter than snow For the burthen of sinne it lay so heavy upon him that he desireth to be made to heare of joy and gladnesse for his sinne and the feare of Gods judgements had broken his bones For the departure of God from him he was so sensible of it that he prayeth the spirit of God not to depart from him For his former sinnes they all lay upon his oppressed conscience that he remembred them from his conception and birth and he saw the danger of temptations and therefore desireth the confirming spirit of God to keep him from falling into new or relapsing into old sinnes 2 A true Convert knoweth the bitternesse of true repentance he that hath kept an ill dyet and thereby lost his health and is put to it to sweate to purge to bleed to abstaine from all toothsome and pleasing eates and is kept to a dyet and enforced to live medicé miseré in physicke in misery for the time till his health be repaired such a one will give warning to others to abstaine from such things as hazard our health He can tell how deare it doth cost the purse how much it restraineth a mans liberty what paines he suffereth in his body how much his minde is disquieted in his bodily distemperatures and all to repaire what some ill dyet hath corrupted in his body So is it with the true Convert he can relate the bitternesse of repentance which is the soules physicke for sinne there is nothing in the world so smarting and a king as true repentance is In the generality of men the most presume upon this remedy they sinne on and flatter themselves that a miserere have mercy at last will set all to rights It is true that repentance doth amend all it purgeth us and restoreth us to the favour of God but they consider not the bitternesse thereof for the soules of the penitent are heavy within them even to death their eyes runne rivers of waters their throats are hoarse with roring and crying for mercy their teares are their drinke day and night they have sighes and grones which cannot be exprest The sorrowes of hell so David doth call them doe compasse them round about they call upon God and he will not heare them they doe seeke him and he will not presently be found like Mariners in a storme their cunning is gone they are at their wits end Sometimes they cry quid feci what have I done and remember all their sinnes Sathan then comes in to helpe their memory upbrayding them with those very sinnes to which he enticed them with a non est salus tiâ—i in Deo tuâ— there is no safety for thee in thy God God saith but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thee The word of God scourgeth us that when wee heare it preached and finde our owne sinnes detected and threatned we thinke the Sermon intended against us The contrary good life of others walking in good wayes reprovesth us and cryeth shame on us that we have not done as they doe that we might have had peace but especially our conscience within us is a thousand witnesses against us and is a record written within and without like Ezekiels scrowle with lamentations mourning and woe sometimes we cry like Saint Peters auditours quid faciemus what shall wee doe or as Iob quid faciam tibi what shall I doe unto thee hide our selves from God wee cannot we cannot goe out of the reach of that right hand which findeth out all his enemies excuse our selves we cannot for who can answer God one for a thousand his spirit searcheth hearts and reines nothing is hid from the eye of his jealousie He is wise to discerne holy to hate just to punish A soule thus anguished and embittered with remorse of sinne is emblemed in Prometheus his Vulture ever feeding upon the heart wretched man that I am who shall deliver me David hath many very excellent expressures of penitentiall fits which doe lively set forth the paine that true repentance doth put a man to but one amongst the rest to my opinion doth render it in the heighth of bitternesse and makes it a non ficut no such I remembred God and was troubled for what refuge hath a sinner but God and what comfort can a sorrowfull soule have but in him yet sinne is so contrary to him that a guilty soule cannot thinke upon him but as an enemy You see it in the first sinners the first thing they did after they had sinned was to flye away from the presence of God Let a true Convert tell sinners all this and see what joy they can take in sinne when it is like to cost them all this breaking of the heart confusion of face confession of mouth confession of soule A true penitent must keepe a session within himselfe he must give in evidence against himselfe his conscience must accuse him his memory must beare witnesse against him he must judge himselfe that he be not judged of the Lord he must after sentence be avenged on himselfe by a voluntary penance afflicting his soule chastening his body restraining it from pleasures humbling it with fasting wearying it with labour weakening it with watching and by all means bringing it into subjection Beloved sit downe and cast up the cost and paine of this spirituall physicke for a sinne-sicke soule and if there be any of you that hath past this course of physicke and kept you to it without shrinking or shifting from it I dare say such a one can say Nocet empta dolore voluptas Pleasure hurts that 's bought with pain and docet teaches too he will scarce eate of the forbidden fruit it is faire to the eye it is delicious in taste But it is the dearest bargaine that ever we bought a momentany short delight with many weary dayes nights of penitential remorse anguish of soule 3 None so fit as true Converts to teach transgressors the sweet benefit of reconciliation to God the comfort of the holy Ghost and the peace of conscience Such perceive the difference betweene the bondage of sinne and the freedome of the spirit They know what it is to lose the cheerfull light of Gods gratious countenance they can say that in his favour is life light and delight As their longing desire was great to come and appeare before God and as they thirsted after the full river of his pleasures so the recovery of that joy over-joyeth them When thou turnedst againe the captivity of Sion wee were like those that dreame Our mouthes
omnia sanguinem filii ejus His food apparell the use of his time above all the bloud of his Sonne Would these severall seeds of grace yeild him no harvest 2 Our sins our folly trespassing his wisdome our vanity offending his holinesse our falshood his truth our unrighteousnesse his justice our presumption his mercy and our rebellion his power Saint Bernard in meditation of the account for this is all broken heart and all Paveo gehennam paveo judicis vultum ipsis angelicis potestatibus tremendum horreo vermâ—m rodentem ignem torrentem fumum sulphur tenebras exteriores Quis dabit capiti meo aquam oculis meis fontem laâ—hrymarum ut praeveniam fletibus meis fletum stridorem dentium c. Heu me mater mea ut quid genuisti me filium doloris amaritudinis indignationis plorationis aeternae natum in combustionem cibum ignis I feare hell I feare the countenance of the judge to be feared by angelicall powers I feare the worme gnawing the fire broyling the smoke the brimstone the outer darknesse Who will give water to my head and a fountaine of teares to my eyes that I may prevent by my weeping the weeping and gnashing of teeth O my mother why hast thou begotten me a sonne of sorrow of bitternesse of wrath of eternall wayling born to be burnt and to be meat for the fire We are here convicted in two tryals and receive sentence of condemnation in both 1 In the judgement of the Law which wee have broken 2 Of our conscience which pronounceth us children of darknesse and heires of condemnation When the sad consideration of these things hath broken our hearts and ground them to dust then the nest of sinne will be destroyed and concupiscence shall not have where to lay her yong Observe the difference of true Religion from false The gods of the Heathen doe never exact such breaking of hearts of their worshippers Let them have your eye your tongue your knee your gifts and keep your hearts to your selves For they know not whether you give them hearts or no. But our God will have our hearts and hee will have them thus broken and there is no delaying or dallying with him hee searcheth us to the bottome and tryeth hearts and reins We cannot deceive him with unreall semblances The way to heaven is not so easie as most men deem it We must suffer with Christ if we will reigne with him his soule was heavy and he was broken for our sins when the 〈…〉 of our peace lay upon him And we must rent our hearâ—◠〈…〉 not our garments when wee turne to the Lord if we will have mercy and forgivenesse There is nothing that flattereth sin more in us then an opinion of the easinesse of repentance But if we observe David in this Psalme we shall discern that there is no such tribulation as true repentance it is a washing throughly a rubbing and scowring with hysop it will cost hote and scalding water to purge the stains and blemishes of our life It will cost the breaking of our bones strong cryes and supplications that wee may heare of joy and gladnesse It will cost us a breaking first then a new making of our hearts to fill them a present for him who saith My sonne give me thy heart And now what shall I say and what shall I doe unto thee thou preserver of men My heart is not worth the giving to thee If we should search Ierusalem with candles should we finde such a heart O that there were such a heart saith our God in them that they would feare me and keep my Commandements alwayes that it might go well with them and with their children for ever Our broken heart is such an heart when our stubborne will is corrected and made pliant and obedient to the wil of God when our love is taken away from the world and the things therof and fixed on the Lord. When our vast desires are limited to the seeking of the Kingdom of God and the righteousnesse therof When our flattering hopes are taken off from things temporall which profit not and reach out to the promises of God which concern better things When our â—uscious delights are no longer grazed on the green pastures of vain pleasure which saginate them to slaughter but our delight is in the law of God and in that law we do exercise our selves day and night When our strong endevours and labours are not for bread that perisheth but for that which feedeth to everlasting life When our high flowne ambition ceaseth to affect the false and unconstant honors of the world and reacheth forth an hand to the never-withering crown of glory When our feare is not of them that can kill the body and there an end but of him who can deliver soule and body to death eternall When our griefe is not for the punishments we suffer but for the sins that deserve them These be broken and contrite hearts You see to what all that I have said driveth even to stirre up my selfe and you to a true repentance which the Prophet calleth the breaking up of the fallow ground of our hearts Why should our hearts lye fallow and receive no seed and bring forth nothing but weeds It asketh culture digging and ploughing to make it capable of good seed No man casteth away seed upon fallow ground If we would bring forth fruit to God we must suffer the plow the renting and tearing of the share this is repentance John began his preaching at repentance So did Christ And he sent forth his Disciples admonishing men every where to repent If destruction were within forty dayes of us repentance would stand in the gap and keep it out If the Decree were ready for birth repentance would make an aborcement If wee be nailed to the crosse of shame and pain wheron we suffer justly repentance will open Paradise to us If our sins were grained in crimson or scarlet repentance would wash us whiter then snow If our iniquities had hid the face of God from us repentance would uneclipse it and our eies should see our salvation Our sins breake the hearts of others David weepeth for transgressors here is sanguis vulnerati cordis the bloud of a wounded heart O weepe for your selves and your children 2 Sacrifices of God This title given to these Sacrifices called Sacrificia Dei the Sacrifices of God doth shew 1 The necessity 2 The excellency of them 1 The necessity No Nation was ever so irreligious but it acknowledged and worshipped some God Nemo simpliciter atheos No man is simply an Atheist And they thought him that they worshipped worthy of some oblations and gifts It is one of the honors that inferiors do to their superiours to present them with gifts It is recorded of Israel that when God had set Saul over them for their King that the children of Belial said How shall this man save us And they despised him
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
shall make way into the favour of God Gods people lost their costs and labour in their Sacrifices and solemne worship of God and nausâ—ated the soule of God with them because of their iniquities These returne our prayers empty handed from God yea these do turn our prayers into sin When the Prodigall sonne returneth penitent to his father all is for given and forgotten and his father now rejoyceth more in him then he did before He was al rags he needed not to aske raiment his father called for it stolam primaÌ„ the best robe he came home hungry hee demaÌ„ded not food his ambition was but bread the fat Calf was killed for him he was received with musique and dancing The bent of the Parable and the other two of the lost sheep and the lost groat is to shew that repentance putteth us into a better state of favour then we had before For where sinne aboundeth grace doth superabound I may give two reasons of it I Here God taketh occasion to open the bowels of his tender compassion and to declare his mercy which is over all his works 2 True Repentance is an act of so much anguish and bitternesse it is for the time a frying in the flames of hell that no man would have the heart to undergoe the torments of it if he did not by the cleere eye of faith looke beyond it to the joy and comfort of Gods recovered favour The point teacheth its own use for if we would have any audience with God for our selves or our brethren we must first present God with a Sacrifice of contrite and broken hearts and then God will meet us upon our way to him and prevent us with his free favours Surely goodnesse and mercie shall follow us all the dayes of our life There is no service to the service of the King The Lord is our King of old let it be our glory and our fence that we are the servants of the living God All Gods enemies will be daunted at the sight of us and the feare of us will be upon all the Nations of the World And as all Nations feared the face of Israel because God had led them through the Red Sea and given them victory all the way c. So will they say Let us flie from the face of this people Is not this the Nation that under the Rule of a Virgin Queen expelled superstitious Religion out of their Land That to a people that sate in darknesse and in the shadow of death a great light shined even the cleer light of the holy Gospel Is not this the state against which so many damnable treasons were plotted under a Womans government and all were by the singular favour of God happily but wondrously defeated Is not this the Nation for whom God himselfe fought against Sisera and Iabin the winds and the Seas fought against the supposed invincible Armado of Spain nothing more verifying the prediction Octogâ—simus octavus mirabilis annus 1558 a yeer which wonder at we might Is not this the Nation whom God preserved from the powder treason the bloudiest the closest stratageme that ever was contrived and ripened even to the season of dismall execution All these favours wee have had our many crying sins have lost us this glory this defence our repentance may yet recover our God to us and restore us to his favour and replant us in our former strength Nothing but repentance can call us again the servants of the living God and that were our safety There is a certaine Majesty and power in the faces of Gods servants to daunt the courage of Gods enemies when God pleaseth to have it so It was a bold resolution of Iaddus but suggested by Almighty God in a dreame When Alexander set on toward Ierusalem to conquer it and all his people followed him with expectation of all that force and fury could worke against their City Iaddus the high Priest and all the Priests of the Lord came forth to meete him in their Sacerdotall Vestments followed by the people in white garments The chiefe Priest carrying the name of God on his Mitre Alexander durst not lift up his hand against that name hee fell downe and worshipped it The reverence of the servants of the living God awed him and softened him to such good respect as caused all hostilitie to cease and produced gracious favours from him For God can make them that leaâ— his children captive to pittie them This state we may gain by Repentance and being the knowne servants of the living God the feare of us will be upon all the Nations of the earth This shall be a greater safety to us then our Armes and Fortifications then our Walls of stone ashoare of wood at Sea It is the voice of joy in the tabernacles of the righteous The Lord of hosts is with us the God of Iacob is our refuge We have a sure word for it For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his eares are open to their prayers but the face of God is against them that do evill And who is he that will harme you if ye be followers of that that is good 2 Observe his prayer here is for the Church for wee must enquire why he addresseth his prayer next after his Repentance for the state of the Church I conceive the reason this David being an eminent person a mighty King and an holy Prophet had by his great sinne done wrong to the state of the Church of God and therefore after his peace made with God by repentance he pleadeth the cause of the Church with God by petition Sin generally is of a contagious nature the first sin brought a curse upon the whole earth And Hagge hath told us that the sinne of the Iewes in their neglect of building Gods House did bring upon their land barrennesse unfruitfulnesse upon their trees their wages did not prosper for the works of their hands nothing thrived with them But especially the wickednesse of their Kings did ever bring great evill upon the Church and Common-wealth Rehoboams sin rent the Kingdome and lost the Church ten Tribes at once and divided the State into two Kingdomes The Kings of Israel and of Iudah were the ruine of their Kingdomes And Davids sin crimsoned his house with bloud The pollution of Thamar the death of Amnon the Rebellion of Absolon as these were the great sorrows of David s they were the disquiet and vexation of the whole State and these were the effects and fruits of Davids sinne Therefore David doth well to repaire the ruines of Sion by his prayers to solicite the peace of the Church which his sin had so much endangered In the later end of his Reigne hee displeased God in the numbring of his people and the whole Kingdome suffered for it God sent â— pestilence amongst the people which in three dayes consumed of that great number threescore and ten thousand plectuntur