THese words were uttered by Da­vid in the bitterness of his soul, after hee had committed the two crying sins of Adultery and Murther: For David, a man after Gods own heart, [...], In Psa. 50. as S. Chrysostome speaks of him, a man that lived as strictly in his kingly palace, as in a cloister or monastery, fell notwithstanding into notorious and scanda­lous offences: Hee that, like an immoveable rock, had broken the waves of all temptations, was now broken himself. In a word; David, that victorious King, whom neither the lion, nor the bear, nor Goliah himselfe, the terrour of a whole army, could overcome, was conque­red [Page 2]by his owne passions, wounded by his own lust, and brought into that extremity, that neither the balm of Gilead, nor all the physi­cians there could heale those wounds. But al­though he sinned, yet he continued not long in his apostasie; as soon as the prophet Nathan mo­ved him to repentance, he confessed his fault, & began a repentance that ended not til his death. There came a traveller (saith the prophet Nathan) unto the rich man, and hee spared to take of his owne flock, but took the poor mans lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come unto him, 2 Sam. 12.4. Sinne is there stiled but a traveller, for it was none of his domestick followers; Transitus erat, non per­mansio, as S. Augustine: De doctr. Christ. lib. 3. cap. 21. hee did but lodge sin for a time, hee did not suffer it to dwell with him for ever; for as soon as he grew sensible of his own distemper, he makes his complaint to God, the onely physician of his soule, desi­ring him to restore and heal him. If there be any here then that have imitated Davids sins, learn also to imitate his repentance: Sin came to David but as a traveller; God grant it comes but as a traveller to you.

The parts of my Text are three: First, here is Designatio partis vulneratae, Davids discovery [Page 3]of the wounded part, and that was his soule; Heal my soule. Secondly, here is Petitio remedii, his prayer and petition for a remedy, and that was to be healed; Heal my soul. Thirdly, here is Confessio causae, his confession of the cause of those wounds, and that was his sin; For I have sinned against thee. I will begin with the first; that is, Designatio partis vulneratae, his discovery of the wounded part.

The part that was wounded, and that David desired to have healed, was his soul, the princi­pall and most excellent part of a man. The Pe­lagians affirme, that sin can no way wound the soul; for, being a bare privation, it cannot have, say they, a positive and naturall act: An errour directly opposite to my text. De natura & gratia, cap. 19. Quid sanatur, si nihil est vulneratum, nihil sauciatum, nihil debilitatum atque vitiatum? Why doth David desire to have his soule healed, if nothing in it were wounded, nothing debilitated, nothing corrupted? it is S. Augustines inference out of these words. The Polagians then were full of vain presumption, or else David was full of vain fears: But Da­vids fears were just, and he spake these words out of experience and a deep sense of his own miseries. For, if wee descend into particulars, [Page 4]wee shall see his soule had many wounds; it had some as old as it selfe, his soule was woun­ded as soon as it was created; God gave him life, and sin death, at the same instant: for Da­vid, together with all mankind, sinned in our first parents, and was wounded in his soule by that originall sinne which hee derived from them: Behold, saith hee, I was shapen in wicked­nesse, and in sin did my mother conceive mee, Psal. 51.5. Here was a sin, and therefore a wound at his first conception. Apol. Da­vid. lib. 1. cap. 11. Contra Ju­lianum l. 6. cap. 7. S. Ambrose calls it naturale contagium, a naturall contagion. S. Augustine, morbum & languorem naturae, the disease and lan­guishment of nature: And this wound was deep enough, had he had no other; for origi­nall sin hath not onely wounded the soule, but it hath wounded all her powers and facul­ties.

First, it hath wounded the affections; for whilest man stood in the integrity of his na­ture, all his affections were regulated and go­verned by reason: the superiour faculties of the soule exercised a kind of regall authority and jurisdiction over the inferiour, and the inferi­our did inviolably performe those duties that were required of them: Man was like a per­fect [Page 5]Common-wealth, like Jerusalem, that was built as a city that is at unity with it selfe: but sin hath now so wounded the affections, that they are no longer enclined, or naturally able to ex­ecute the decrees of reason; but as a ship is car­ried up and downe by the violence of the waves in a tempest at sea, so a man is carried by the violence of his owne affections: hee is driven by them, as by strong and impetuous windes, upon many rocks. Now the inferiour faculties of the soule resist the superiour, the af­fections (like seditious Tribunes) being alwayes ready to stir up commotions: I see another law in my members (saith S. Paul) [...], warring against the law of my mind, Rom. 7.23. The affections are at warre with reason, and force it oftentimes to stoop to their unreasonable and unjust commands. This is the first wound of the soule, which is called imbecilitas & naturalis infirmitas, imbecility and naturall infirmity.

Secondly, It hath wounded the vnderstan­ding, for the vnderstanding did naturally appre­hend truth without difficulty; and as the eye looketh upon a beautifull object, so the vnder­standing looked upon truth with delight and [Page 6]pleasure; and the more excellent and eminent the truths were, the greater pleasure had the vnderstanding in the contemplation of them: It was not subject to be deluded by the false insinuations of any affection, but could upon deliberation clearly discern all naturall truths; and as for those truths that were supernaturall and above its capacity, as many of them as were necessary to be known, were infused, or revealed by God when he first created it: But sin hath likewise so wounded the vnderstan­ding, as it can hardly apprehend its first princi­ples without difficulty. Now reason, like Achi­tophel, takes part with rebellious Absolom, the corrupt affections; and is apt to represent things to the will, not as they are in themselves, but as the affections please. Now the vnderstanding is filled with ignorance and obscurity, and hath lost that knowledge that was revealed to our first parents, and which should likewise have beene revealed to all their posterity, together with the light whereby it was able to judge and discern supernaturall truths. So that there is a double ignorance in the vnderstanding, ari­sing from a double defect and want in the soul. The first kind of ignorance ariseth from want [Page 7]of sufficient revelation; for, naturally, the vnder­standing cannot know the articles of faith. God hath given to every thing a certain circuit, and determinate sphere of activity beyond which it cannot passe; as fire can heate to a determi­nate distance, but cannot passe beyond that di­stance: The vnderstanding hath a sphere of acti­vity too, it hath a naturall sufficiency to under­stand some truths, such as are of the law of na­ture, and such as it can come unto by the knowledge of the senses; but cannot passe be­yond them to those that are supernaturall. The second kind of ignorance ariseth from want of evidence after sufficient revelation, and is al­wayes joyned with falshood, or doubt: Fals­hood ariseth from deception, when the vn­derstanding apprehends errour for truth in things speculative; or in things practicall, when it apprehends that goodnesse to be in some acti­ons which is not; and in others, that goodnesse to be wanting which is in them. Doubt ari­seth from irresolution: I speak not now of irresolution in matters of action, which be­long properly to the will; but of irresolution in matters of judgement, which belong to the vnderstanding: for, there is an irresolution in [Page 8]the will, and an irresolution in the vnder­standing; as a Judge sometimes knowes the law, and yet suspends judgement out of par­tiality and affection; and this is called suspen­sio facti, a suspension of fact: and sometimes when reasons are equall on both sides, hee knowes not to whom the lawes incline, and so suspends judgement for want of evidence; and this is called suspensio juris, a suspension of right. So it is likewise in the soul; sometimes a man knows what hee ought to doe, but yet, out of particular and private respects, resolves upon nothing; here the suspense is in the will, and is answerable to that which in a Judge is called suspensio facti: and sometimes, when ar­guments are equall on both sides, hee knowes not what to resolve upon for want of evi­dence; here the suspence is in the vnderstan­ding, and is answerable to that which in a Judge is called suspensio juris: In the first case there is a conflict of severall desires; in the last, a conflict of severall thoughts. And from this kind of irresolution proceed all doubts and scruples in matters of conscience, which al­though they be not joyned with falshood, because the vnderstanding hath made no con­clusion; [Page 9]yet they are alwayes joyned with ignorance. And this is the second wound of the soule, which is called Ignorantia & coecitas mentis, ignorance and blindnesse of mind.

Thirdly, It hath wounded the will, that su­preme facultie of the soul, and mistresse of all the other; for the will was once able to rule the affections, and to hold them all in subjection: it had a naturall power to love God, and a na­turall inclination carrying all her desires to­wards him: But sin hath now wounded the will also, and deprived it of those naturall per­fections wherewith it was created; it is now inclined to love the creatures, and to desire and long after them more then after God. Could wee but penetrate with our bodily eyes into the souls of men, and behold all the severall acts of their wills, wee should see an admirable di­versity and multitude of desires, but all fixt upon the creatures; wee should see some desi­ring riches, others honour, others to spend their dayes in lust and pleasure; we should see some transported with love, others with jea­lousie; wee should see an infinite number of desires, but all pointed downwards towards transitory and earthly things. How few are [Page 10]there whose desires fly upward? Who is there that will say, I desire to enjoy God, though it cost me my lust, my riches, mine honour, and all that I possesse? The name of happinesse is pleasing to our ears, but wee regard not the thing it selfe, or at least we pursue the shadow whilest the substance flies from us; our disor­dered passions do now so over-rule our wills, that wee preferre lies before truth, vice before vertue, the vain delights of the body before the true and solid contentments of the mind; wee preferre the spurious pleasures of our senses be­fore those which are legitimate, which vertue receives and approves: Whilest wee should moderate our affections, and establish a dura­ble and lasting peace within our selves, we ra­ther give way to their disorders, and suffer our happinesse to be interrupted by their excesse and riot. Our wils are full of inordinate and unsatiable desires, and are become soft and plyable to evill, but hard and impenetrable to every good motion. This is the third wound of the soul, which is called Malitia & duritas cor­dis, malice and hardnesse of heart.

And yet this is not all; Sin hath made ano­ther wound in the soule, which troubles it [Page 11]worse then all the rest, and that is in the consci­ence. In the spirituall conflict between sin and the soul, 1 King. 22.34. the conscience may say like Ahab, Take mee out of the battell, for I am wounded. There are two effects of sin, macula, & reatus, the stain of sin, and the guilt of sin; the stain of sin is that distemper and vitious inclination that sin leaveth behind it, and this adheres to the facul­ties before mentioned: The guilt of sin is the obligation to punishment that lies upon every sinner after hee hath committed it: for as hee that breaks the provinciall laws and customes of any common-wealth, is guilty of the pu­nishment which the sanction and penalty of the law provides in that common-wealth; so he that sins against God, is guilty of the punish­ment appointed by his law: and this guilt ad­heres to the conscience. Thus sin hath woun­ded all the powers and faculties of the soul; not by any positive acts, as the Pelagians supposed a necessity; but by depriving it of that originall justice wherewith it was created: as a man may overthrow a building as well by taking away a pillar, as by applying outward force. The want of originall justice hath made the soul lame and imperfect: hee that hath one leg [Page 12]shorter then another, cannot chuse but halt, and goe unequally in his naturall motion; and the soul that is moved by Reason & Affections, tan­quam à duobus pedibus inaequalibus, as by two un­equall legs, cannot chuse but halt and goe un­equally in its morall motion: for whilest it fol­lows the motion of its longer leg, Reason, it ri­seth towards heaven; but whilst it follows the motion of its shorter leg, the Affections, it falleth towards the earth: God, to supply this ine­quality and defect, created the soul with origi­nall justice, which did after a manner spiritua­lize the Affections, and kept the whole soul in such a frame and temper, that all her faculties moved towards heaven. But man sinned, and God, as a just judgement, took from him that originall justice that upheld his nature, for want whereof the soul is fallen into that decay, and become subject to those vvounds and de­fects that I have named. This is every finners condition, and this was Davids condition, hee was wounded in all the powers and faculties of his soul; he was wounded in his affections, in his vnderstanding, in his will, and in his consci­ence; and all these wounds were the effects of originall sin.

But David had yet more vvounds, David had his personall and actuall sins; which, al­though they did not wound new faculties (for originall sin had vvounded all before;) yet they made new vvounds: but if I should undertake to shew you all those wounds, I should undertake that which himself was not able to performe, though more privie to his owne actions: Psal. 19.21. Who can tell (saith hee) how oft hee offendeth? His words have the forme of a question, but the force of a peremptory asser­tion; for there are [...], (as the Philosopher speaks) questions which have the force of affirmative or negative propositions, and so hath this here: Davids Quis intelligit? is as much as Nullus intelligit; and if no man can number his sins, then surely no man can number the vvounds of his soule, for eve­ry sinne is as deadly as the first, it vvounds as deep, though it vvounds not so many; and these wounds vvere dangerous, though but light in comparison of others: for David had sins of presumption also, sins against his know­ledge, and against his conscience; but those sins vvhich made the vvorst vvounds, and which he desires in my Text especially to have [Page 14]healed, were his adultery, and his murther. In the next Psalm to my Text he complains of the bitternesse of those wounds; Why art thou so full of heavinesse, O my soul, Psal. 42.11. (saith he) and why art thou so disquieted within mee? here was heavinesse and disquietnesse in his soul, and all this the effect of those wounds: His adultery and murther were sins of an high nature, and most of all destructive to the soule: Whoso committeth adul­tery with a woman (saith Solomon) lacketh under­standing; hee that doth it destroyeth his owne soul, Prov. 6.31. Adultery (you see) destroyes the soul, it wounds it mortally: and murther is no lesse destructive then adultery; Yee know (saith Saint John) that no murtherer hath eternall life abi­ding in him, 1 John 3.15. This sin doth not onely deprive the soul of health, but of life it selfe, it kils the soul outright: this made David com­plain, My wickednesses are gone over mine head, and are like a sore burden too heavie for mee to bear, Psal. 38.4. The cruell and unnaturall homicide sheds his brothers bloud, and it falls upon the earth, and the earth seems to drink it up; and yet the word of God saith, that it rest upon the head of the murtherer, and so it rested upon Davids head: that bloud that ranne in Uriah's [Page 15]veins to preserve his life, sits now heavie upon Davids head to procure his death; it was time for David to have his soul healed, it having so many deep and deadly wounds: And yet hea­ling was scarce sufficient; for, in another Psalm, hee seems to require more; Create in me a clean heart, O God, (saith he) and renew a right spirit with­in me, Psal. 51.10. All the faculties of his soul were so wounded by those sins, that he desireth not there a reparation, but a new creation. And these sins considered in abstracto, simply and by themselves, did deeply wound his soul; but if we consider them in concreto, with all their ad­juncts, we may find many circumstances that made his wounds the greater; for David was [...], both a King and a Prophet; and, as a Prophet, was bound to instruct; as a King, to protect the lives and chastity of his subjects. For Bathsheba, something may be said in her excuse, for it was hard for her to resist the im­portunity of a King: but all circumstances ag­gravate Davids sin; his holy profession, and the sword of justice which God had put into his hand to punish such offences, ought to have restrained himselfe from committing them. This sin in David did not onely wound his [Page 16]owne soul, but it wounded the whole Church, and laid it open to the calumnies and reproa­ches of the heathen: for, as S. Ambrose witnesseth, In the primitive times of the Church, when the contention was hot between the Christians and the heathen concerning the truth of religi­on, the heathen objected this against the Chri­stians; Ecce quomodo Christiani innocentiam sequun­tur, Apoleg. Da­vid. lib. 2. cap 3. fidem praeferunt, religionem venerantur, castita­tem docent, quorum principes homicidia & adulteria fecisse produntur: Behold (said they) how the Christians imbrace innocence, extoll faith, ho­nour religion, teach chastity, whose chiefest masters were both murtherers and adulterers. But I will insist no longer upon these particu­lars, neither will I speak of his other sins ap­pendant to these; of his making Uriah drunk, to conceal and palliate his adultery; of his ingra­titude, in rewarding Uriah with death, whose faithfull services ought to have been rewarded with honour; of his deep hypocrisie, in being present at the service of God, and offering sacri­fice for the space of nine moneths together, polluted in the mean time with these horrible crimes: these and the rest I will passe over, lest, as Shimei reviled him in his life, so I may [Page 17]seem to revile him after death. Saint Ambrose hath made an apologie in his defence; and, for my part, I will not make an invective a­gainst him: God himself hath justified him, and then who shall condemn him? I have only na­med his principall sins, that (according as my Text requires) I might shew you the wounds of his soul: Now therefore I will leave him, and come to our selves.

And first, since sin doth wound the soul, let us be carefull and watchfull over it; for the soul is the most noble and excellent part of a man. A man consists of two parts, a body, and a soul; and both these have their naturall beau­ty and excellency: The excellency of the body (if wee consider the outward forme and work­manship) is very wonderfull; I will praise thee, (saith David) for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, Psal. 139.14. He useth two termes here to expresse the rarity of this work, fearfully, and wonderfully; as if the structure of mans body were so artificially framed, that the sight there­of was not onely able to beget fear, but won­der and astonishment. And in the next verse he adds further; I am curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth: the Originall hath it, [...], [Page 18]that is, I am curiously imbroydered; as if mans body were made like a piece of Phrygian work­manship, being variously wrought with veins, and sinewes, and bones, and muscles: so that wee have reason to be carefull of our bodies, and if they be wounded at any time, to make provision for their health. How much more then ought we to be carefull of our souls, whose excellency, like Benjamins messe, is five times as much as the excellency of the body? The soul of man is a divine substance, a rich and noble possession, the greatest gift and most precious that a man ever received from the liberall hand of his Creatour; it is [...], as Gregory Nyssen: by it wee know the height, the breadth, and depth of the heavens, the number of the stars, their greatnesse, distances, & approaches. What should I speak of Divinity, Philosophy, the Mathematicks? What should I speak of Histo­ry, & Poesie, of all the Sciences and Arts, as well liberall, as mechanicall, the knowledge where­of wee attain unto by the benefit of the soul? By it, a man being but [...], (as Saint Chrysostome stiles him) a short creature, not above a yard and an halfe long, obtaines the [Page 19]government of the whole world: By it, the Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles spake unto God, received divine revelations, learned many secret and ineffable mysteries, and knew upon earth what things were done in heaven. Hee that knoweth not the worth of this jewell, may undervalue it; but a skilfull Jeweller that knowes the properties and excellencie of it, will prize it above the whole world. Such a Jeweller is God; who, for the desire he had to those jewels, assumed our humane nature; and when he could not have them at a cheaper rate, hee tooke them in exchange for his own bloud. Such Jewelers are the Angels, which watch continually over mens souls, that they may keep and preserve these jewels deputed to their custody. And such a Jeweller (if I may lawfully rank him in this place) is the Divell, who, to get these jewels, goes about continu­ally, and compasseth the whole earth. Seeing the soule then is of so great excellencie, let us be carefull and watchfull over it; let us not suffer such a divine, learned, noble and active creature to perish by our negligence.

Secondly, Seeing sin doth wound the soul, let it be our chiefest care to avoid sin; let [Page 20]us not set our affections upon it, but flye from it as from a deadly enemy. The world sets too high a price upon her owne beauty; for her fairest things are but imperfect and defe­ctive: her wisdome is but foolishnesse, her light but darknesse, her riches but poverty: What shall wee say then of her deformities? her pride, ambition, lust, and all her other vi­ces (which men falsly think pleasures, but are indeed the price of their souls) are so far from being good, as they are the worst of evils: for, how can wee reckon those among the num­ber of good things, which destroy the soul? God is the life of the soul, let us set our affecti­ons upon him: Why should wee turn from God, who is the substance, and run after crea­tures, which are but images and imperfect ad­umbrations of his beauty? Why should wee embrace the shadow, and let the substance go? It hath pleased God to condescend so much as to love the soul, and to contract it to himselfe in a sacred and spirituall marriage: the soul is Gods wife; and God, like an indulgent and loving husband, hath given her all the crea­tures to be her servants: but the soul often­times sets her affections upon the creatures, as [Page 21] Potiphars wife set her affections upon her servant Joseph; and the creatures, Gen. 39.7. as if they were sensible of the injury which the soul offers to God, fly from the soul, as Joseph fled from his mistresse: ri­ches, and honours, and worldly delights do of­tentimes fly from the soul that pursues them, as if they were unwilling to be the causes of her adultery: Let us not then fly after our owne destruction, or set our affections upon those things whose love brings death, not health to the soul. In heaven there are none of those de­lights which worldly men use most to admire, and for which they are wont most to hazzard their souls; and yet there is perfect and true hap­pinesse. Can wee not then want those things here for a little while, and not think our selves miserable, which in heaven wee shall want for ever, and yet be most perfectly and truely happy? Mee thinks wee should rather set our affections upon God, who is the bridegroom of our souls, and who loves us in that excesse, that it is impossible wee should return him e­quall love: yet, though wee cannot love him equally, let us love him again with the best affection that we can; and, as it did not grieve us to leave the delights of children after wee [Page 22]became men; so, let it not grieve us to leave the delights of worldly men after wee be ad­vanced to this sacred and holy union with God. And so much of the first part of my Text, which is Designatio partis vulneratae; Da­vids discovery of the wounded part. I come now to the second, that is, Petitio remedii, his prayer and petition for a remedy:

Heal my soule. I have showne you already that David was wounded in all the faculties of his soul; and therefore this petition must be applyed to all: and first, to the affections; Heal my affections: For, except the affections be healed, their distempers work upon the whole soul. A wound in any one part of the body infects the whole; if one member suf­fer, all the members suffer with it; not onely because of the sympathy which one part hath with another, but because the bloud, passing through the infected place, carrieth with it some of the corrupt humors: so it is likewise in the soule, if one faculty suffers, all the facul­ties suffer with it, not onely by reason of the sympathy which one faculty hath with ano­ther; but because there is a mutuall influence between them, by transfusion of their quali­ties [Page 23]into one another; for, Reason is corrupted by the affections, as bloud is corrupted by an ul­cerous part of the body, and infects both the Understanding and the Will by their contagi­on. David found this by experience; for the sensitive part made the rationall to transgresse; [...], as Saint Chrysostome: The first hurt which hee received was at the eye, and from thence it was derived to the heart; his affections corrupted his vnderstanding and his will, and therefore his affections must first be healed. Heal my soul, that is, change my affections; for the soul cannot be healed till the affections be changed. There is an outward healing, and there is an inward healing; the in­ward healing causeth a true and reall change in the affections, the outward healing causeth a change only in outward appearance, and doth not properly heal the wound, but cover it: for, after this outward healing, the wound is still as great, and the danger greater; as a wound which is healed in the outward skin and super­ficies of the body, if it bleed inwardly, is so much the more dangerous, by how much it is more inward and unsuspected. Now this out­ward healing is wrought divers wayes:

First, by time: In old age divers affections seem to be healed, the flame of lust seems to be extinguished; and yet in many it is not extin­guished, though it burne lesse violently, or seems not to burn at all. Tutò tractatur serpens dum riget frigore; non deest illi venenum, sed torpet: a serpent cannot sting whilest his members are numb with cold, and yet hee wants not poy­son, but strength to shoot it forth: and there are many, because of the coldnesse proper to old age, want strength to execute, but not vi­tious affections to move them to all unclean­nesse; had they sufficient heat to cherish their corrupt affections, they are not so healed, but that they would soon break into their former ex­travagancies and excesse of lust.

Secondly, by place: Hee that lives in a cloi­ster or call, where the affections want outward objects to vvork upon them, may think him­selfe healed, and the vvorld may think him a new man; and yet his affections may be still the same. That fire vvhich is buryed in ashes, shevves not the same fury vvhich another fire doth, that meets vvith fit matter to kindle it; not because it hath lost its naturall property, but because it vvants like nourishment: and [Page 25]many that live in retirement, sequestred from all worldly affairs, abstain from many wrongs and insolencies that other men commit; not because their affections are lesse furiously encli­ned to doe wrong, but because they want the same outward matter to incense and kindle them.

Thirdly, by the persons among whom we live: They that live in a well-ordered Com­mon-wealth, where the care and vigilance of the Magistrate suppresseth all vice; or they that converse daily with good men; may, in the former case for fear, in the later, for shame, ab­staine from all notorious and infamous sins; and may seem (both to themselves and others) to be just, patient, chaste, and temperate; and yet not have their affections healed. As stones that lie in the top of an high tower have not lost their weight and naturall inclination to descend downeward, but are sustained by the other parts of the building: so there are some supported by others, not by the soundnesse of their own affections.

But this outward healing is not here meant: David desired to have his affections changed and healed inwardly; which neither time, nor [Page 26] place, nor the persons that were about him could effect: it is onely grace can heal the affections in­wardly; and so grace is here the subject matter of his petition; for the wounds of sin are too deep to be healed by any means lesse powerfull then grace: And if man in his innocency, ha­ving supernaturall gifts, continued not long in the purity of his nature; how much lesse shall wounded nature, without supernaturall gifts, recover her former purity? Yet I deny not, but that a man may, by the help of na­ture, obtain habits that may have an inward operation upon the soule, and may change the affections in some degree; but in a degree so weak and imperfect as can never bring him to salvation. A man may by the strength of Rea­son, assisted only by the generall ordinary con­course, acquire habits of vertue, and those ha­bits may cause a readinesse in the affections to turn to vertuous actions: yet those acts of ver­tue will differ much from those that spring from grace. Actions that spring from nature, if they be done out of a love to honesty, and be without the mixture of all private respects, may have a morall goodnesse; and I think they may truely be called vertues: yet actions that [Page 27]spring from grace will as far excell them, as domestick fruits that are kept and fomented by an husbandman, excell those that grow naturally in the woods and open fields: for grace changes the affections more powerfully, and so makes the work, which is partly mea­sured by the affections, to be of greater value. Our Saviour Christ, having examined this matter by his infallible scrutiny, ascribes more worth to a small gift which a poor widow brought into the treasurie, then to the large gifts of many rich men; Of a truth (saith hee) I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more then they all, Luk. 21.3. They from their great heaps brought great gifts, shee from a small heap brought onely two mites; and yet our Saviour Christ, having weighed all their cha­rity against hers, found, that many graines would not make them equall: for, though their gifts were voluntary as well as hers, yet they were not so much voluntary, because their affections were not so ready; for the affe­ctions work upon the Will: when the affecti­ons are not ready, retardunt, si non impediunt vo­luntatem, they hinder and stop the Will, if they doe not divert her from a right course. There [Page 28]being then great difference between nature and grace in working upon the affections, their ef­fects must needs be different: Nature may cause some change in the affections, and perfect them in some degree; but grace changes the affections powerfully, and makes them as it were new affections: If any man be in Christ (saith Saint Paul) hee is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new, 2 Co­rinth. 5.17.

And yet grace doth not totally heal the affections in this world: there is but a partiall healing here, the flesh lusteth against the spirit in the best men; lustfull, ambitious, covetous, and an innumerable company of unlawfull thoughts and desires will sometimes arise in every man: they which have obtained the greatest mea­sure of grace, had never sufficient to exsiccate and dry up the streames of those impurities; yet this is our comfort, those wounds that re­maine are not left for our destruction, but our tryall; the danger and deadlinesse of them is taken away, although they be not perfectly healed. As God left the Egyptians, and the Jebu­sites, and the Ammonites amongst the people of Israel, not to consume his people, but to prove [Page 29]them; so hee leaves severall kinds of concu­piscence in his children, not to destroy us, but to try whether wee will abstain from sin for his sake, when our affections move us to the contrary: and as Joshua, Josh. 10.18. having overcome the five Kings that combined against the Israelites, did not presently put them to death, but kept them in a cave, that hee might put them to death afterwards in the sight of all the people with greater triumph; so God, having by his grace subdued the concupiscence and inordi­natenesse of the affections, doth not presently destroy them, but keeps them a while in bon­dage, deprived of their wonted liberty, that he may destroy them afterwards in the sight of all the world with greater glory. At the ge­nerall judgement, when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortall shall put on immor­tality, all inordinatenesse shall be destroyed, the affections shall be totally healed; then the soule, like the sick man in the Gospel, shall take up his bed and walk; it shall take the body, wherein it lay sick as in a bed, and carry it where it please; portabit lectum à quo ante por­tatus fuerat, it shall carry that whereby it selfe was carried; then the flesh shall yeeld to the [Page 30]spirit, and shall rejoyce to be overcome. In the mean time, the concupiscence and inordinate­nesse of our affections are so healed, that they cease to reigne, though they cease not to be; we may by the help of grace subdue our affecti­ons, though wee cannot keep them from rebel­lion. And this is the first thing to which Da­vids petition must be applyed; namely, to the af­fections.

Now in the next place, this petition must be applied to the vnderstanding, Heal my vn­derstanding: for the wound of Ignorance is as great as the wound of Infirmity, and therefore that must be healed too, or else the soul will be never the better. And here two things are re­quired; for, as I shewed you before, there is a double Ignorance in the vnderstanding, arising from a double defect and want in the soule; the first ariseth for want of sufficient revelation, the soul having lost the knowledge of those truths that were revealed by God to our first parents. The second ariseth for want of evi­dence after sufficient revelation, the vnderstan­ding being not able of it selfe to assent to re­vealed truths without some light given her by God, whereby it may discover the certainty of [Page 31]them. And therefore two things are required, I say, to heale these two kindes of Ignorance; The first is divine revelation. The second is di­vine illumination.

The first thing necessary to heal the wound of Ignorance is divine revelation: The articles of faith must be revealed immediately by God himselfe, as they were to the Patriarchs and the Apostles; or mediately by the working and administration of the Church, or else they can never be known; Thou art blessed, Simon Barjona, (saith our Saviour Christ unto Saint Peter) for flesh and bloud bath not revealed this un­to thee, but my Father which is in heaven, Matth. 16.16. The revelations of flesh and bloud doe ra­ther inlarge, then heal the wound of Ignorance. Whilest Solomon followed the revelations of flesh and bloud, hee lost that knowledge that was before revealed; and as formerly for wis­dome and knowledge, so afterward for sim­plicitie and foolishnesse, hee became a second time the wonder and amazement of the world. The mysteries of faith must be revea­led from above, or they can never be revealed; No man knoweth the Son (saith our Saviour Christ) but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, [Page 32]but the Son, and hee to whom the Son will reveale him, Matth. 11.27.

The second thing necessary to heale the wound of Ignorance is divine illumination: for, after the articles of faith be revealed, if there be not something else added to make the truth evident, the vnderstanding will either be decei­ved by falshood, or else perplexed by doubts and scruples. The eye cannot discern an object, though present, except there be light to make it visible: and although the articles of faith be sufficiently presented to the vnderstanding by supernaturall revelation; yet if there be not a supernaturall light too, to make the truth evi­dent, the wound of Ignorance cannot be healed. Naturall Reason is too weak to enlighten the soule sufficiently: for, as Noah's dove could find no rest in the air for the sole of her foot; so when the vnderstanding enters into con­templation of supernaturall truths, as in the thin and subtile air, it can find nothing to rest on: or, as Saint Peter had sunk when hee walked upon the sea, Matth. 14.30, 31. if our Saviour Christ had not upholden him with his hands; so the vn­derstanding sinks when it walks upon the deep ocean of supernaturall truths, if it be not up­holden [Page 33]by divine assistance. And yet, as Rea­son may move the affections in order to su­pernaturall goodnesse, but cannot heal their in­firmity; so it can likewise enlighten the vnder­standing in order to supernaturall truths, but cannot heal its ignorance. The light of Reason may make supernaturall truths so evident to the vnderstanding, that a man may think his faith perfect in all respects; and yet it may be perfect in nothing. The ancient Fathers of the Church, in their Apologies for Christian reli­gion, alledge many reasons which may make a naturall man beleeve the articles of our Chri­stian faith. The miracles which were wrought by the Apostles have given their do­ctrine such authority, that a naturall man can­not but assent unto it, unlesse his vnderstanding be carried away by some private respect and interest of his own: And hee that hath this assent may think his understanding is enlighten­ed and healed sufficiently; but hee deceives himself, like the Syrians, which thought they had been in the way to the Prophet, 2 King. 6.20. when they were in the midst of Samaria; or like Sauls messengers, 1 Sam. 19.16. which thought they had found David, when they found but an image [Page 34]in his place: For this faith that springs from naturall Reason is but imago & simulacrum fidei, the image and representation of true faith; it is like it in shew, but differeth much from it in essence. For there are two properties essentiall to true faith, which nothing but the light of grace can work in the soul. The first is cer­tainty: Nothing but the light of grace can work in us such a certainty as is essentiall to true faith. Hee that beleeves a thing certainly, must have some infallible motive, cui falsum subesse non potest, in which there can be no er­rour or delusion; for an uncertaine motive can give a man no assurance of that which he beleeves: Certainty of faith alwayes supposeth a certain and infallible motive upon which it is built. Now concerning the articles of our faith, nothing but the light of grace can give us an infallible motive of their truth; for ma­ny of them being above Reason, cannot by the light of Reason be made evident.

But some perhaps will say, A naturall man, by the light of Reason, may beleeve the Scri­ptures to be true, and to be the word of God, and so may have an infallible motive: For hee that beleeves the articles of faith because they [Page 35]are grounded upon the authority of Gods word, hath a sure and certain motive of their truth, it being impossible that any falshood should proceed from God.

To this I answer: Although a naturall man may beleeve the Scriptures to be true, and to be the word of God, yet his faith concerning this matter is but an historicall kind of faith, and is grounded upon deceitfull and uncer­tain motives: and therefore though the Scri­ptures be an infallible motive to those that have certaine grounds to beleeve them to be true, and to be the word of God; yet they can be no infallible motive to him that hath not such grounds: for they that are not sure that the Scriptures are true, and that they are the word of God, cannot be sure that any thing is true which they prove from them. Now a naturall man cannot, from the light of Reason, have any other but uncertain and deceitfull grounds concerning the truth of Scripture; for hee beleeves them to be true, and to be the word of God, either from the tradition of the Church, from the miracles which were wrought by the Apostles, or from some other humane motive; in which, although there [Page 36]be great probability, yet there can be no infalli­bility. Such grounds as these can give him no such assurance as excludes all possibility of de­ceit; he hath but an historicall faith of the truth of Scripture, and so can have but an historicall certainty. But the light of grace shewes us in­fallibly the truth of Scripture, it gives us an ex­perimentall knowledge of it, and makes us as it were to see it with our eyes: so that there is as great a difference between the faith that a man hath from the light of Reason, and that which hee hath afterward from the light of grace, as there was between the faith which the Samaritans had of our Saviour Christ from the speech of the woman, and that which they had afterwards when they saw him with their eyes.

The second property essentiall to true faith, which nothing but the light of grace can work in the soul, is a pious affection to faith, and to all the truths which it reveales: nothing but the light of grace can work this pious affection in us. The light of Reason, although it can­not make all truths evident that are to be be­leeved, yet (as I said before) there are many truths that may be discovered by it; namely, [Page 37]such as are of the law of nature; but then it cannot, like grace, work a pious affection in the soul towards them. The Divell sees many ex­cellent truths by the naturall light of his under­standing: hee sees that God is infinitely good, and infinitely wise, and infinitely just, and in­finitely mercifull, and infinitely happy; but hee can have no affection to these truths: hee sees them all in lumine coacto, in a forced and compelled light; and not in lumine jucundo, in a delightfull and pleasant light. A theefe may know by the light of reason, that theft is an unjust act, or an adulterer that adultery is un­lawfull; but they can have no affection to these truths: their faith is like the Divels, they be­leeve them by the force and compulsion of Reason, and not with delight and pleasure. But the light of grace doth not onely make truth evident, but it produceth also in the soul a pious affection towards that truth; it makes a man to be in love with it, and to delight in it: I have had as great delight in the way of thy te­stimonies, as in all manner of riches, (saith David) Psal. 119.14. And so say all they whose under­standings are enlightned by grace. He that hath the light of reason, can delight onely in such [Page 38]truths as entertain and second his humour: but hee that hath the light of grace, delights e­qually in all truths, though they seem directly to oppose his profit, honour, pleasure, and all his other desires. Hee that hath this superna­turall gift, can say, like David, of all divine truths; More to be desired are they then gold, yea then much fine gold; sweeter also then the honey and the honey-comb, Psal. 19.10. Whosoever then finds in himselfe this pious affection to faith, and to all the truths that it reveales, may assure himselfe, his vnderstanding is enlightened by grace: but hee that finds it not, whatsoever hee beleeves, his soule was never touched by the influence of this divine light. Men doe generally love such things as they possesse themselves; they which have faith cannot but love faith: it is our Saviour Christs manner of arguing with his disciples; If yee were of the world, the world would love his own: but ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you, John 15.19. The summe and abstract of our Saviours speech is this; The world loves not a spiritu­all profession, because spirituall things are none of their owne; if spirituall things were their own, they would love a spirituall pro­fession. [Page 39]So I may argue with others, If faith be their owne, they cannot but love faith, and the truths which it reveales. And this is the second thing to which Davids petition must be applyed; namely, to the understanding.

Now in the third place this petition must be applyed to the will: Heal my will. For, a­mong all the wounds which the soule hath received, there are none greater or more mor­tall then those that are in the will: the wound of Malice is worse then either the wound of Infirmity, or of Ignorance; and therefore that must be healed before the soule can be in a safe condition. The will indeed is in a better case after the affections and vnderstanding be healed, then it was before; for, being an indifferent fa­culty of it selfe, it is moved by the affections; and therefore when the affections are healed, it hath not such strong provocations to sin: and being a blind faculty of it self, it receives infor­mation from the understanding; and therefore when the understanding is healed, it hath not such false dictates to make it erre. Yet this is not sufficient to heal the will: the will hath his pro­per wound, and so must have his proper cure. And here the manner of healing is still by su­pernaturall [Page 40]grace: Grace hath heat for the will, as well as light for the understanding; otherwise it could not heal the soul sufficiently: For the Di­vell hath light, but he hath no heat: his name is Lucifer, which signifies a carrier of light; but it had been better for him (saith S. Bernard) si ignifer magis esset quàm Lucifer, Bernard de verb. Isai. proph. serm. 3. if hee had been a carrier of heat, rather then a carrier of light: light without heat doth him no good; to be­leeve, and not to love, doth but increase his mi­sery. But grace hath both light and heat; light, whereby it begets faith in the vnderstan­ding; and heat, wherby it begets love in the will: and this love is the chiefe of all the ver­tues, the best and most excellent effect of grace. I know there are some which give faith the precedency, whom I leave to enjoy their opi­nion: for my selfe, as in all other things, so for my part in spirituall graces, I submit my will to Gods will, as knowing the least is more then I am worthy of, yet my prayers shall alwayes be to have love in the excesse; which I will not onely desire above all other spirituall graces, but above all them and all the joyes of heaven together: Faith is the founda­tion upon which wee must build our love; [Page 41](for how can wee love God as we ought, if wee beleeve not in him as wee ought?) and yet love may exceed faith in dignity, as the su­perstructure may exceed the foundation in rich and costly materials. But I intend not to speak of the excellency of love in generall; love hath many operations in via, whilest we are in the way to heaven, besides the healing of the will; and it hath many operations in patria, when wee are in heaven, where the will shall be perfectly healed: but all these are out of my Text, and shall be out of my discourse. I will onely speak of the operation that love hath in healing the will; and love, when it flowes from grace, hath an operation in this respect above all other things: for that alone is able to work true repentance in the will, to melt it with sor­row for sin, to make it flexible, and to molli­fie that stiffenesse and that hardnesse that is in it. Yet, as Reason may work upon the affe­ctions, and upon the vnderstanding; so it may work also upon the will, but failes as much in healing this, as in healing the other faculties. There is a naturall repentance which springs from naturall reason; for hee that hath recei­ved many temporall blessings at the hands of [Page 42]God, cannot chuse (if hee followes the dictate of right reason) but love him; and if hee loves him, hee cannot but be grieved when hee sins against him; for hee that loveth, will grieve for the least offence committed against the thing beloved. Yet this sorrow that springs from naturall reason is not sufficient to heale the will: For first, it failes in the cause: A na­turall man may be sorrowfull for his sins, but hee hath not a fountain of sorrow that flowes and streames continually: that love that springs from naturall reason is soon extingui­shed; and when the cause ceaseth, sorrow, that is the effect proceeding from it, must needs cease. But that love that proceeds from grace is more durable, it is able to perpetuate sorrow; hee that is endued with this love, hath a constant habit of repentance, and if at any time hee sins through infirmity, his soule becomes immediately an house of mourning, an Hadad rimmon, a valley of lamentation. Se­condly, It failes in the effect: That sorrow that springs from naturall reason cannot con­vert the will, and make it turn from sin: a na­turall man may be sorrowfull for his sinnes past, and have a full resolution to abstain from [Page 43]sin for the time to come; but he cannot actu­ate and performe his resolutions; for reason may inable a man to make good resolutions, but onely grace can inable him to keep them. Now when amendment of life is not joyned with sorrow for sinne, it rather makes new wounds then heales the old: Qui plangit pecca­tum, & iterum committit peccatum, quasi si quis la­terem lavet crudum, quem quantò magis laverit, tantò magis lutum fecerit, saith Isidore; hee that mour­neth for his sin, and yet ceaseth not to commit sin, is like him that washeth a tile stone that is not well burnt, which is made more dirty by being often washed. Hee that is sorrow­full for sinne, and resolves to amend, begins well; but if his repentance end where it be­gun, it is a signe his will is not yet healed. When good resolutions vanish like the morning­dew, and are never put in execution, what fruit can they produce? but when resolutions and actions, like the former and the later rain, succeed one another in their due season, they cause a fruitfull increase of glory and happi­nesse; and it is an evident signe that the will is wrought upon by grace; for that love that springs from grace makes the soule affectio­nate [Page 44]to God, and carefull to abstain from all such actions as offend him: When Israel came out of Egypt, and the house of Jacob from among the strange people, the sea saw that and fled, Jordan was driven back, Psal. 114.1, 3. The Israelites depar­ture out of Egypt to worship God in the wil­dernesse, was a type of mans conversion to God by love; and the flight of the waters, was a type of the flight of sin that follows upon it: Ante retrorsum aquae conversae fuerunt, nunc retror­sum peccata conversa sunt, saith S. Ambrose upon that passage: there the waters, but here sins are driven backward; there the course of the floud was stopped within its channell, but here the course of sin is stopped in all the secret passages of the heart. And this is the third thing to which Davids petition must be applyed, namely, to his will.

But Davids soule is not yet perfectly healed, his conscience was wounded too, and therefore in the last place this petition must be applied to his conscience, Heal my conscience. And here the manner of healing is something different from the former: grace can heale the staine of sin, but it cannot heale the guilt; it can sanctifie, but it cannot justifie the soule: nothing can [Page 45]take away the guilt of sin but forgivenesse of sin; but sin being forgiven, the obligation to punishment is taken away, then the conscience is healed, and guilt is turned into innocence, fear into gladnesse. In the 102. Psalme David laments his own case very passionately; My dayes are consumed away like smoak, and my bones are burnt up as it were a fire-brand: my heart is smitten downe and withered like grasse, so that I forget to eat my bread. For the voice of my groaning my bones will scarce cleave to my flesh, &c. In the 103. Psalme hee seems to rejoice as much, and breaks forth into elogies of praise: Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. What was it that transported him so suddenly from one passion to another? If you read the Psalmes, you shall soon see the cause; his con­science was wounded when hee made the 102. Psalm, and healed when he made the 103. Psalm; his sins lay heavie upon his soule when hee made the one, and were forgiven him when hee made the other. As long as the guilt of sin disquieted his conscience, not all the glory of his Kingdome, nor the pomp of his Court, not all the delights of Canaan, though a land flowing [Page 46]with milk and honey, could content his mind: but when his sins were forgiven, hee found a sudden alteration; that heavinesse that posses­sed his heart vented it selfe, and gave place to joy: O Lord my God, (saith he) I cryed unto thee, and thou hast healed me, Psal. 30.2. And what ensued upon this? Thou hast turned (saith hee after­wards) my heavinesse into joy, thou hast put off my sack cloth, and girded me with gladnesse. That con­tentment of mind, that tranquillity of consci­ence, that circle of joy wherewith his soul was girt, followed immediately upon the healing of his conscience and forgivenesse of his sins: for­givenesse of sin is as proper to heale the guilt of sin, as grace to heale the staine: In the Scri­pture, to heal sin, and to forgive sin, are termini aequipollentes, termes which signifie the same things, and are promiscuously taken the one for the other: Return, ye back-sliding children, and I will heal your back-slidings, Jer. 3.22. Here you see, to heale their back-slidings, is to forgive their sin. And so again; I have seen his ways, and will heale him; I will lead him also, and restore com­forts unto him, and to his mourners, Isa. 57.18. I have seen his wayes, and will heale him: that is, I have seen his sins, and will forgive them. But [Page 47]was not David healed before hee made this Psalm? did not the Prophet Nathan tell him, The Lord also hath put away thy sin, 2 Sam. 12.13. He did: but David being assured by the Pro­phet, desired yet a greater assurance: The rich­est of Gods saints alwayes suspect their owne poverty, and think that which they have no­thing, in respect of that which they have not, and of that which they desire to have: David was healed, the Lord had forgiven him all his sins, and yet for all that hee desires still to be healed.

Let us then learn, by Davids example, to be thus carefull and solicitous to have our soules healed. Pharaoh desired to be delivered from the plagues of Egypt, but not from his hard­nesse of heart: Let us rather desire the last, for the wounds of sin are the worst wounds. The Scripture hath in many places very artificially painted out the nature of sin; but it alwayes borrowes colours from noxious and hurtfull creatures: it compares it to the basilisk, to the viper, to the asp, whose poysonous qualities are destructive to the life of men: And it hath also in many places allegorically expressed the nature of sin by many deadly diseases; by the [Page 48]leprosie, by the palsie, by the bloudy-flux, and sometimes by death it selfe in the abstract. By these, and many other expressions in the Scri­pture, yee may learn the nature of sin, and see how dangerous her wounds are if they be not healed. Let us then doe as David did, let us seek unto the Lord, who is the Physician of our souls; hee onely is able by his grace to heale the staine, and by his mercy the guilt of our sins.

The time will not permit mee to enter into the last part of my Text, I will therefore con­clude all with that of the Prophet Jeremiah; Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed: save us, and we shall be saved; for thou art our praise.

I Have formerly begun to speak of these words in this place. I divided my Text then (as you may remember) into three parts; First, here is De­signatio partis vulneratae, Davids discovery of the wounded part; and that was his soul: Heal my soul. Secondly, here is Peti­tio remedii, his prayer and petition for a remedy; and that was, to be healed: Heal my soul. Thirdly, here is Confessio causae, his confession of the cause of those wounds; and that was sin: for I have sinned against thee. I have al­ready spoken of the two first parts; where I shewed you the wounds of his soule, and the manner how they were to be healed. I come now to speak of the last part, which is, His [Page 50]confession of the cause of those wounds, in these words, For I have sinned against thee.

The right method of healing requires that wee shew the cause of the malady, as far as we are able; for, the cause being removed, the ef­fect will cease: that David doth here in these last words, For I have sinned against thee. And this last part of my Text is that which we are chief­ly to look upon, and to take into considerati­on. For before (as I have shewed you) hee gave occasion to those that were of the Church, to sin; to those that were out of it, to blas­pheme: first, he commits adultery; and after that, as if adultery were to be purged by mur­ther, or as if Uriah's lost honour had been to be repaired by the losse of his life, hee com­mands him to be unjustly murthered: But here you may see him marking out the way to repentance, and going himselfe before to direct us. For, as hee was not ashamed to commit sin, so hee was not ashamed to confesse it, and to make publick satisfaction to the whole world; for my Text, and many other places of the Psalmes, remaine as it were so many publick registers of his sins; hee sighed, and wept, and lamented day and night, and [Page 51](in a word) shewed all the marks and tokens of an humble and contrite heart, broken with the sense of his sins, and the apprehension of Gods anger against them. If a gold ring be broken, it loseth part of its grace and lustre; but if ye set a diamond, or a saphyr, or a ruby in the broken place, it gives a greater lustre then it did before: so David, by his sins, lost part of that grace and lustre that made him shine so brightly in the Church of God; but his confes­sion, humility, repentance, and other vertues (like so many precious stones set in a gold ring in the place where it was broken) hath made him shine brighter after his fall, then in his former times of innocence; for, as his sinnes were great, so was his sorrow and repen­tance: and I would to God that all men which have eyes to see the one, had eyes also to see the other; and could learn, not to love that in Da­vid, which David hated in himselfe.

This generall confession containeth in it three particular confessions, which are the heads I pur­pose at this time, by Gods help, to insist upon. First, here is a confession in respect of the subject. Secondly, here is a confession in respect of the act. Thirdly, here is a confession in respect of [Page 52]the object. The subject, I. The act, Have sinned. The object, Against thee. I will begin with the first; that is, his confession in respect of the subject.

I have sinned: that is, I alone; not as a parti­all and lesse principall cause, necessitated and compelled by a cause more active and power­full then my selfe; but by the free and full con­sent of my will: I have so sinned, that these sins are properly and onely mine. It is the cu­stome of many to excuse themselves, and im­pute their sins to others; or at least, they will charge others to have had such a causality and influence upon them, that they will seeme themselves to be but partiall causes at the most. In Solomons time two mothers contended for one child, and both of them challenged it to be their owne; but when sinne is borne and brought into the world, the contention is, who shall not have it: in this case the true mother would have the child divided; as in that, the false: the Will, whose child it is, will not acknowledge it for her owne; and when shee cannot wholly impose it upon others, shee desires at least to have it divided between them.

Some impute their sins to the Devill, and to [Page 53]the violence of his temptations, as if hee did forcibly and irresistibly procure them to sin: and this is a kind of hereditary disease, which we take from our first parents; for after Eve had transgressed the commandement of God by eating the forbidden fruit, to excuse the matter, shee laid the fault upon the Divell, The Serpent (said shee) beguiled me, and I did eat. But David here useth no such evasions; I have sin­ned, saith hee: hee condemnes himselfe, and not the Divell; and yet the Divell sinned as well as David: and, if Saint Augustines opinion be true, the Divell sinned worse then David; Lib. 3. de libero arbi­trio, cap. 10. Gravius est peccatum alteri per invidentiam dolúmque suadere, quàm ad peccandum alterius suasione tradu­ci, saith hee, speaking of the temptations of the Divell. But yet David accuseth not the Divell, who did only tempt, but could not constrain him to sin; for all that the Divell can doe, is to allure and induce men by morall perswasi­ons, hee cannot physically determine their wils to evill; hee may [...], Tom. 6. Ho­mil. 91. (as Saint Chrysostome speaks) supplant, cozen, and deceive a man, but he cannot force him to doe evill. When the Divell tempted our Saviour Christ in the wildernesse, without question [Page 54]hee imployed all the power hee had to make him sin; and yet hee could not force him to it, nay, hee did not so much as offer to make him sin by force; for, if yee consider all the passa­ges between them, yee shall find great Bold­nesse, great Pride, and great Malice in his temptations, but no force at all: his first temp­tation (as they are writ in order by Saint Luke) was this, Luke 4.3. If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread: Here is great bold­nesse in this temptation; What, will nothing but a miracle serve the turne? Must Christ turn stones into bread to satisfie his curiosity? This was a bold request indeed; but yet you see hee doth not force his consent, but beg it. The second temptation (after hee had set him upon a mountaine, and showne him all the kingdomes of the world) was this; All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them; for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will, I give it: if thou therefore wilt worship mee, all shall be thine. Here is great pride in this temptation, a pride greater then that that made him fall from heaven; for then hee said, Ascendam super excelsa nubis, similis ero Altissimo: I will ascend a­bove the highest of the clouds, I will be like the most [Page 55]High, Isa. 14.14. but here his pride reacheth a de­gree higher, hee desires to be greater then God, and requires of him, that hee would fall down and worship him; but yet you see here is no force in this temptation, If thou wilt worship mee (saith hee) all shall be thine: hee leaves him here to his own free choice, if hee will, hee may; if hee will not, hee offers not by any violent as­sault to make him. His third temptation (af­ter hee had set him upon the pinnacle of the Temple) was this; If thou be the Son of God, cast thy selfe down from hence. Here is great ma­lice in this temptation; for if hee would have cast himselfe down, the Divell thought that in all probability hee should perish by the fall: but yet you see no force in this temptation; Per­suadere potest, praecipitare non potest (saith S. Jerome upon this passage,) the Divell might perswade him to throw himselfe head-long, but could not throw him head-long by force: and this is all that the Divell can doe; if wee will not cast our selves head-long, the Divell cannot. For sins are [...], (as St. Cyrill calls them) they are plants set by the Will, and are not planted by the Divell in the soile where they grow. For God hath not onely given a [Page 56]man the government of the world, but also the government of himselfe, and hath made him so independent in respect of all other crea­tures, that if all the powers of hell should set themselves in opposition against one single man, they could not force his Will: the Will, like Sampson, cannot be bound either with ropes or withs; her liberty sits on her like a coat of male, and like the scales of the Levia­than, it is impossible to offend her or hurt her by force. It is true, I confesse, that humane nature is corrupted and depraved, and cannot, without the help of supernaturall grace, per­forme a good action: it cannot work out of faith or love, which are necessary qualificati­ons required in all that wee doe; but yet it is free in evill, it is flexible to this or that object, and can doe or not doe any naturall action, ac­cording to the outward substance and matter of it. No man is bound to follow the sugge­stions of the Divell, but may follow the dictate of his own reason; all that the Divell can doe, is, by applying his temptations, to move the Will to this or that object; hee cannot deter­mine or fix her upon it: the Will indeed doth usually goe as it is moved by outward objects, [Page 57]being wonne with the charmes and delights which it hopes to find in them; but yet her election is free in this case, and not wrested from her by force. There is a difference be­tween men and beasts: beasts are carried a­way with the outward bravery of every ob­ject that presents it selfe unto them, and can­not refuse their appetite those things which it requireth: but men are moved by inward rea­son, as well as by outward objects, and may, by the help of the one, beat back the impulsi­ons of the other. Wee must not therefore make the Divell the authour of our sins, for his temptations doe onely move, but cannot determine the Will to this or that evill: The Divell is a suiter to the Will, and not her ravi­sher; Non enim cogendo, sed suadendo nocet, nec ex­torquet à nobis consensum, sed petit, saith Saint Au­gustine: the Divell hurts us by perswasion, not by constraint; and when wee commit a sin, hee doth not ravish our consent, but sues for it. No man is driven by the Divell to despe­rate courses, but goes willingly and of his owne accord; the Divell drives no man, but makes use onely of our owne corruption to perswade us.

Secondly, there are some that impute their sins to destiny; that is, to a necessary concatena­tion of second causes, which are so subordi­nate one to another, that all things happen by necessity; inferiour causes, and amongst them the wils of men, being carried and moved ir­resistibly by their superiour: and this force of moving mens wils irresistibly they attribute chiefly to the planets, and to severall constellati­ons of the heavens; as if men were necessitated to evill by their malignant influences, or as if the starres ruled over mens wils (as Dionysius over the Syracusians) by an arbitrary and ty­rannicall kind of government. Saint Augustine, in his Commentaries upon the 31. Psalme, makes mention of some that were of this o­pinion, which did undertake to fore-tell the sins that any man should fall into, by looking upon the starres that ruled at his nativity; Et dicunt, quis quando vel peccet, vel bene vivat, & quando Mars faciat homicidam, & Venus adulte­rum: they took upon them to declare who should be good or bad, when Mars should force a man to commit murther, or Venus to commit adultery. But David here accuseth not the starres; hee clears them, and condemns [Page 59]himselfe. Uriah might have growne gray­headed in the chaste imbraces of his wife; hee might have long enough enjoyed his breath, and shee her honour, had David done no more but what the influence of the heavens compel­led him to; for the heavens force no man to sin: Had they the conduct of our wils, there would not be so many sins committed as there are; they would govern us better then wee doe our selves. When our Saviour Christ was cruci­fied, the sunne and the starres withdrew their light, and were ashamed to looke upon the cruelty and ingratitude that was committed by men. Can wee think then the starres were the authors of those evils which they blushed to behold? Can deeds of darknesse spring from the fountains of light? Without doubt, the stars are so farre from constraining any to sin against God, that they would sooner with­draw their vertue from the world, then af­ford a sinner either light or influence, had not God commanded them to shine upon the un­just, as well as upon the just. Let no man then accuse the starres, for their influence is not hurt­full, but good; they are the cause of all action and motion, the spring of joy and delight; they [Page 60]shed abroad their vertue through all inferiour bodies, and adde strength and vigour to all things living; and if at any time they stirre up our inclinations to any excesse or defect, yet they offer no violence to the Will, but leave her in possession of her full liberty: And in­deed, if the Will were necessitated by the hea­vens, it were in vaine to consult, in vaine to search reasons and motives for those acts whereunto wee are violently carryed by desti­ny. In this constraint, as there should be no place left for liberty; so there could be none for vertue or vice: all punishments, how e­quall soever in outward appearance, yet in substance and truth should be unjust, seeing they could not reach the principall authour of any sin. What can be more unjust, then that a man should beare the punishments of those sins which are committed by the heavens? If the stars be the principall cause of sin, the stars should beare the punishment; heaven should go to hell, and men, which are but subordinate instruments, whose wils are over-ruled and over-topt by those superiour powers, should be dismissed and freed.

Thirdly, there be some that impute their [Page 61]sins to God: Saint Augustine (in the place before quoted) makes mention of those too; affir­ming, that there were divers that gave them­selves free scope and liberty to sin, and then said, they committed those sins, quia Deus sic voluit, because God would have it so; ma­king God the first mover and principall actor, and themselves onely his under agents in sin­ning: and this indeed hath alwayes been a common custome, as Solomon (long before St. Augustines time) complained; The foolishnesse of man (saith hee) perverteth his way, and his soul fretteth against the Lord, Prov. 19.3. But David here accuseth not God, hee clears him as well as others; and indeed, it had been the most in­tolerable and unjust excuse that he could have invented: for, doe but look upon the world, and yee shall see it the summe of perfection; it is as a table whereon the divine Wisdome hath expressed many rich inventions, and displayed them all in such colours, as it is impossible a­ny thing should be more compleat, absolute, and perfect: if there be any disorders, or any thing imperfect in it, they are the effects of se­cond causes, and were not made so by God; and if no disorder or no imperfect thing can [Page 62]come from God; then surely no sin, which is nothing else but disorder and imperfection. Let no man then pin his sinnes upon God, or thinke within himselfe, that God constrained him to sin; Say not thou, It is through the Lord that I fell away: for thou oughtest not to doe that which hee hateth. Say not thou, Hee hath caused me to erre: for hee hath no need of the sinfull man, Ec­clus 15.11, 12. God created not the world, be­cause hee wanted a place to be in; neither did he create men, because hee wanted some to set forth his goodnesse by their praises, and others to under-prop his glory by their sins: for God was in himselfe before hee created the world, and was both the Theater and the Judge of his owne action; his owne applause and ap­probation of himselfe was sufficient to his own happinesse, though men had never been created. God was as happy before hee made the world, as hee hath been since; and should be as happy if it were turned into nothing, as hee is. Let no man therefore think, that God hath need of the sinner, or that it is hee which procures his fall; for whosoever sinneth, puls down ruine upon himselfe; hee is not Gods in­strument, but the principall cause of his owne [Page 63]wickednesse: Loe, this onely have I found, (saith Solomon) that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions, Eccles. 7.29. Da­vid therefore here layes all the fault upon him­selfe, hee cleares God, nay, hee cleares all the world: I have sinned; not God, nor the stars, nor the Divell, but I alone: It is onely I that have sinned.

And this is the first part of Davids confession, wherein hee confesseth his sin to be his owne: and thus must wee doe too. The first thing that wee are to confesse, is, that our sins are our own; wee must not seek to another authour for them, nor ascribe them to any predomi­nant cause: if our souls be wounded as Davids was, the fault is our own. Other things may hurt our bodies, but they cannot hurt our souls; the soule hath an immunity and priviledge in this respect above the body, nothing can hurt it but it selfe: Therefore now thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, Wherefore commit you this great evill against your soules, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling out of Judah, to leave you none to remain? Jer. 44.7. Wherefore com­mit you this great evill against your souls? The Pro­phet condemns them here (you see) as the one­ly [Page 64]causes of their owne ruine, they were the contrivers of their own destruction, they com­mitted evill against their own souls, and were not subservient instruments to another. Let us not then strive to excuse our sins: our sins are our owne, committed willingly and freely by us; and therefore wee must not blame o­thers, but our selves. Yea, our sins are so tru­ly our own, that there is nothing in the world so much our owne as they: for, in respect of all other things wee are stewards, not owners; the dispensation is ours, but not the propriety: but our sins are truly ours, we are the owners and proprietaries of them. Other things are none of ours; wee our selves are not our own, our bodies and soules are none of ours, 1 Cor. 6.19, 20. but Gods, and hee may dispose of them as hee pleases: and when our bodies, or souls, or any thing that wee possesse are called our owne, it is not in respect of an absolute and indepen­dent, but in respect of a limited and depen­dent right which we hold under him; for we gave not our selves a being, but received it of God; yea, we were so farre from giving our selves a being when wee were not, that wee cannot continue our being now wee have it: [Page 65]the world hath no lesse need of his assistance now, then at the first creation; and when it shall have lasted ten thousand yeers, it shall be still in its minority; it must be no lesse sustai­ned by God when it is old, then in its first in­fancy. And, as wee our selves are not our owne, but Gods; so our actions are none of ours, but his: he co-operates with all his crea­tures, and gives them vertue and strength to performe their actions. Had they not a conti­nuall supply and contribution of power and strength from him, the starres would lose their light, the heavens their influence, all things would become naked, disarmed, and stript of all their qualities; all the old elements would be dissolved, and in stead of them darknesse, silence, horror, and confusion would be the new elements of the world. Wee cannot so much as eat, or drink, or move, or speak with­out him; for in him wee live, and move, and have our being, Acts 17.28. not onely our being, but our life and motion; that is, all our actions are from him. Now, if we be neither owners of our selves, nor of our actions, then surely those things which are without us, as riches, honours, and whatsoever else is in the world, [Page 66]is none of ours, wee cannot call our selves the proprietaries of them: But for our sins, they are truly our own, God hath no right at all in them; wee produce them, and give them a being of our selves, and therefore they are as truely ours, as any thing is his which hee crea­ted. But some perhaps will say, that God concurres as well to evill actions as to good; and therefore if our good actions must not be imputed to our selves, but to God; our evill a­ctions ought likewise to be imputed to him. To this I answer, that God concurreth to evill actions in such a manner, as they cannot with­out injustice be imputed to him. Its true, when a man sins, God assists the sinner, and con­curres with him in all subservient actions that are requisite to the sin; yet the concourse of God is so innocent, so pure, so void of all ma­lice, that no man can (without execrable blas­phemy) call God the authour of that sin. For there are two different things to be considered in every evill act; the first is the substance and matter of the act, and this (considered apart by it selfe) is neither morally good nor evill: The second thing to be considered in every act is the obliquity and defect which accompanies [Page 67]it; that is, the disorder which is in it, which makes it an evill act, and which doth as it were set a byas upon it, that drawes it awry: For the substance and matter of the act, God goes along with it, hee gives it the free contri­bution of his help and concourse; but for the obliquity and defect of the act, to that he doth not contribute at all; for it hath no efficient cause, but a deficient onely. When a lame man goes, there are two things in that act, his go­ing, and his lamenesse; his going proceeds from his soule, but his lamenesse from some defect in the matter: And so it is in evill acti­ons; the actions themselves proceed from God, as motion proceeds from the soule; but the obliquity of the actions proceeds from some defect in men, as lamenesse pro­ceeds from some defect in the matter. So that Gods concourse to our actions doth not (as you see) suppose his concourse to the obli­quity and defect which is in them; the evill of every action is our own, though the action it selfe be Gods. And this is the first thing wee are to acknowledge when wee make our con­fession; namely, that our sins are our own, and that wee are not necessitated to commit them [Page 68]by any over-ruling power. And so much of the first part of Davids confession, which is his confession in respect of the subject. I come now to the second, which is his confession in respect of the act.

I have sinned: David proceeds here (you see) to confesse the act. Before hee confess'd the effici­ent cause of his hurt, and that was himselfe: he goes forward now, and confesseth the instru­mentall cause, and that was sin; hee wounded himselfe by sin, For I have sinned. And in this confession hee layes open the nakednesse of his soule, without using vain excuses to defend himselfe: For although this confession be deli­vered in generall terms, so that he seems not by it to acknowledge himselfe so notorious and scandalous a sinner as hee was: yet if yee read over the whole Psalme, and consider it well, you shall find, that this confession must have re­ference of necessity to his worst sins; namely, to those particular and individuall sins of A­dultery and Murther, and it is generally by Ex­positors chiefly applyed to them: For those sins which this confession hath reference to, are those which were publickly knowne, and which made him be evill spoken of amongst [Page 69]his enemies, as wee may read in the rest of the Psalme; now those were chiefly his Adultery and Murther: so that though they be not na­med in expresse termes, yet if yee consider the reference my Text hath to other things contai­ned in the Psalme, there is enough expressed to make them known. And this must wee doe also in our confession; it is not enough for us to confesse our sins to be our owne, but wee must confesse the act also; wee must lay open, as far as we are able, every particular and indi­viduall sin which wee commit. There are two wayes, as it hath been observed by some, to procure the favour of a Judge in civill Courts and Consistories of justice, [...], either an open confession, or else some colou­rable excuse: but in Gods court there is but one of these wayes availeable; we may make him propitious and favourable by confessing our sins, and relating all circumstances that do aggravate them; but not by using colours to ex­tenuate and lessen them: they that deny or ex­cuse their sins, must look for no favour at the hand of God; Behold, (saith God) I will plead with thee, because thou saist, I have not sinned, Jer. 2.35. Behold, I will plead with thee; that is, I will [Page 70]alledge all that I can against thee, I will give thee the very extremity and rigour of justice, I will prove thee faulty, and convince thee to thy face. But on the other side, if men confesse their sins, then is God ready to acquit and par­don them; If wee confesse our sins, God is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse, 1 Joh. 1.9.

Now, confession is either publick, or private: publick confession is when the people at a publick congregation confesse their sinnes together; or, when some Minister of the Church confesseth in the name of all the people: and this may be either ordinary, or extraordinary; ordinary confes­sion is at ordinary times, as upon Sabbath or festivall dayes, when the people meet together to confesse their sinnes: extraordinary confession is when the people meet together at extraordina­ry times, upon speciall emergent occasions; and wee have divers examples in the Scripture of both these kinds of confession, which I can­not now stay to mention. Private confession is when a private man confesseth his sins; and it may be done publickly at a solemn assembly, or in private before a Minister of the Church, or to a friend, or before God. The first kind of [Page 71] confession was much in use in the primitive times of the Church; and it was performed many severall wayes, which are frequently mentioned by the Fathers. The second kind of confession is exacted by the Church of Rome with great strictnesse and severity, and impo­sed upon mens consciences as a thing abso­lutely necessary to salvation. The third kind of confession hath been alwayes practised by good Christians, as a thing conducing to the glory of God. The last kind of confession is of absolute necessity, and is generally exercised in the Church. As for our Church, wee allow all these kinds of confession: for the first kind of confession, which is to be made before a pub­lick assembly, our Church in many cases com­mands it, and enjoineth publick and scanda­lous sinners (which cause the Church wherein they live to be evill spoken of) to do penance, to make an honourable amends, and to give a publick testimony of their sorrow and re­pentance for it. For the second kind of confes­sion, which is to be made privately before a Mi­nister of the Church, wee enjoine it not; but yet our Church in some cases counsels it: as namely, when the conscience is distressed and [Page 72]perplexed, and cannot free it selfe from feares and doubts. For the third kind of confession, that is to be made to a friend, it is approved also and commended by our Church, and is counselled by the Apostle Saint James, who admonisheth the children of God to confesse their sins one to another. For the last kind of confession, (as I said) it is of absolute necessity, and is taught by our Church as a doctrine fundamentall, and necessary to salvation. Now if I should speak of all these kinds of confessions, first, of publick confession, both ordinary and ex­traordinary; and then of private confession, and all the severall kinds of it; if I should speak of the manner how they are to be performed, and of the profit and benefit that is in them, I should too much exceed the limits of the time: I will speak therefore onely of the last kind, that is, confession before God; because that is necessary to salvation, and is a duty that cannot be di­spensed with. Whosoever looks to have his soule healed, must first confesse his sin to God, and lay open the cause of his distemper. And surely wee cannot desire a more cheap, or a more easie remedy: wee shall not need to re­present our spirituall diseases in plates of gold, [Page 73]as the Philistines did their emerods; 1 Sam. 6.4. that was a costly remedy, and yet they thought it cheap enough, when they considered what an hap­pinesse it was to have their health. But wee shall not need (I say) to use such a costly re­medy, wee shall not need to represent our spi­rituall diseases in plates of gold; let us but re­present them in words, and wee shall be heal­ed: David did but confesse his sin, and present­ly obtained pardon; the prodigall child did but confesse his sin, and presently the cloud of his fathers anger was dissolved into a milde showre of teares; the theefe upon the crosse, confessing his sins, was canonized before hee was dead, and found a better paradise by con­fession, then Adam lost by sin: Let us then ac­knowledge our sins, and wee shall have par­don; let us lay open and discover the cause of our wounds, and wee shall be healed.

But some perhaps will say, All this is done already; I have and doe confesse my sins before God every day. It is well done: yet take heed thou dost not content thy selfe with the sha­dow of confession. What if thy confession be no­thing else but an empty sound of words? What if it want substance? What if it be but a [Page 74]meer formality? then thou art miserably de­luded: Yet such is the confession of most men; for there is a formall verball confession, which is but a meer shadow; a man may confesse his sins every day, and yet be never the better, for there are divers conditions necessary to a true confession, which, if they be absent from thine, it will not be available.

The first condition necessary to a true con­fession, is a due examination of our selves, and of our former life; all the kinds of sin, and all the cir­cumstances that doe aggravate them, are to be discussed: wee are not to take our sins in the grosse, and so to make a light perfunctory con­fession, and say, that wee are miserable and wretched sinners; but wee must take a per­fect view (as far as we are able) of all our parti­cular and individuall sins. It is for want of this examination that many a mans confession is inva­lid; they confesse only such sins as come sudden­ly into their minds, and make no reflection up­on their former life. But whosoever desire to make such a confession as may be pleasing to God, must take more paines, and do it more exactly; Stand in awe and sin not, commune with your own heart, and in your chamber, and be still, (saith [Page 75] David) Psal. 4.4. As if hee should have said, In the silence of the night, when thou enjoyest thine owne privacie, when thou art free from the cares and distractions of worldly imploy­ments, enter into secret communication with thine owne heart, examine thine owne wayes, and search out thine own corruptions. And, lest hee should seeme to exact that of others, which hee did not perform as rigorously him­selfe, hee shewes it in another Psalme to be his owne practice; I call to remembrance (saith hee) my song in the night, I commune with mine owne heart, and my spirit made diligent search, Psal. 77.6. The Prophet Jeremiah likewise exhorts his bre­thren the Jewes, in the time of their captivity, to the performance of this duty; Let us search and try our wayes (saith hee) and turn again to the Lord, Lam. 3.40. Saint Paul also (writing to the Corinthians) layes this as a necessary injuncti­on upon them, that no man should have ac­cesse to the holy Sacrament, without diligent examination of himselfe; But let a man examine himselfe (saith hee) and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup, 1 Cor. 11.28. As if he should have said, It is not sufficient to make a generall confession of your sinnes when yee receive the [Page 76]holy Sacrament; but every man must search accurately, that, if it be possible, hee may see the very bottome of his corruption, and con­fesse all his sins, and be humbled for them in that measure that their number or quality doe require. It is for want of this examination, that many men think themselves better then they are, they take no notice of their sins; or, if they doe take notice when they commit them, yet, for want of a timely examination, they forget them afterwards: so that when they would confesse, their sins (like Nebuchad-nezzars dream) are quite gone out of their mind; and if some Daniel doe not bring them back again to their remembrance, they shall never be confessed. But this slight and superficiall kind of confession is not availeable; they that would confesse their sins effectually, must be intentive and diligent in examination of themselves, that so they may discover the whole masse of their owne cor­ruption: and as divers artificers examine all their work by the line and plummet, so they must examine all their actions by the exact rule and straight line of Gods word. And here (would the time permit) I would a little en­large my selfe, because there are many that ne­ver [Page 77]yet performed this duty; and many others that know not how to do it: there are many that never yet performed this duty, which are so farre from taking any strict account of their owne wayes, and from searching diligently into their owne lives, that so they might discover their own imperfections, and judge and con­demn them in themselves, that they are not very well content when others would take the paines to doe it for them, and to lay open their sins and corruptions before their eyes; but if their pastor or teacher (whose office it is to doe it, and who shall answer God for not doing it) take notice of any sin, and discover it to them, they think him too uncivill and importunate. If there be any here that have been thus negligent in confessing their sins, and examining their owne lives, be exhorted, I be­seech you, to begin this duty before your souls be too far over-spread with sins: I went by the field of the slothfull (saith Solomon) and by the vine­yard of the man void of understanding, and loe, it was all growne over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone-wall thereof was broken down, Pro. 24.30, 31. His words are allegori­call, and imply thus much, that they which [Page 78]neglect this duty, and doe not seriously exa­mine, and often confesse their sins, their soules will soon be over-growne with vices, as the field or vine-yard of a fool or slothfull person useth to be over-grown with weeds. There are some again that know not how to per­form this duty, which are subject to deceive themselves, to let many sins passe undiscerned, and oftentimes to mistake them for vertues. If there be any such here, (as I am afraid there are too many) let mee desire you to observe these two rules for your direction: First, when yee examine your actions, take heed you weigh them not by a false balance; that is, by a defi­led conscience, for a defiled conscience is as a false balance; it is impossible to weigh an a­ction rightly by it. The Jewes having a defi­led conscience, preferred Barabbas before our Saviour Christ. And this is that which de­ceives many, when they examine themselves, and find they doe nothing against their con­science, they think themselves very upright and just; but they know not that their con­science is defiled, they consider not that their affection swayes their conscience, and can make it judge any thing lawfull or unlawfull, [Page 79]as it please. But you will say, How shall I know when my conscience is defiled? The Apostle Saint Paul will resolve that doubt; Unto the pure (saith hee) all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbeleeving nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled, Titus 1.15. Whosoever therefore lives in any habituall sin; whosoever alloweth himselfe to doe wickedly in any thing, his conscience is defiled, and it is in vain for him to consult with it concerning the lawfulnesse or unlaw­fulnesse of any action. Secondly, when you examine your actions, favour not your selves, but give the same judgement upon your own sins, and pronounce the same condemnation a­gainst your selves, which at other times ye have pronounced against others that have commit­ted the like offences. There are many, for want of observing this rule, which think themselves to be much better then they are; they will cen­sure and scoffe at others for those sins and in­firmities which they commit every day with­out seeing them in themselves. Would these men but look upon their owne actions with the same impartiall eye that they looke upon others, they would be able to judge better of [Page 80]their owne wayes, and would discover the same corruptions in themselves, which they can so easily discern in another. And this is the first condition necessary to a true confession; that is, a due examination of our selves, and of our former life.

The second condition necessary to a true confession, is, sorrow and contrition of heart: They that confesse their sins, and are not grieved for them, may be said rather to relate or to describe their sins, then to confesse them. Sorrow is a con­dition so inseparable from this duty, that where it is wanting, it is as good to deny our sins, as to confesse them: and this condition is expresly required Levit. 26.40. where God makes a promise to the Jewes when they shall be in captivity, saying, If they shall confesse their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespasse which they trespassed against mee, and that they also have walked contrary unto mee; And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their un­circumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I re­member my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I [Page 81]remember, and I will remember the land. This promise (you see) which God made to the Jewes upon their confession, is a conditionall promise, and the condition expressed is this, If their uncircumcised hearts be humbled; that is, if they be broken and rent with sorrow for their sins: he doth not promise to remember them whensoever they should formally confesse, but if their uncircumcised hearts were humbled when they made their confession. And there­fore wheresoever you find the children of God confessing their sins in Scripture, yee shall find them usually in an humble and mournfull posture: In such a posture shall you find Da­niel, at the ninth chapter and third verse of his own Prophecie; where you may see, that hee first humbled himselfe, and, by putting on sack-cloth and ashes, expressed deep signes of sorrow and contrition, and then hee proceeded to make confession of his sins. In such a posture shal ye find Ezra, at the 9 ^th chapter and 5 ^th verse of his own book; where you may see, that he al­so, by the outward gesture of his body first testi­fied the inward heavinesse and affliction of his mind, and then proceeded to make his confessi­on to God. And this is the true manner of con­fessing [Page 82]sin; our confession is then available, when our hearts are ready to break with sorrow: wee may be confident the Lord will not despise us, when our tears lift up our confession as the waters lifted up the Ark. I will not here dispute the question concerning the quality of sorrow, whether a sensible sorrow be alwaies ne­cessary, or whether an appreciative rationall sorrow will serve the turn, as our Romish Doctors do generally affirme. For my part, I take their ap­preciative rationall sorrow to be a meer figment, a fained and forged invention of their owne, as many other of their distinctions are: Sorrow is a passion of the mind, and I think an apprecia­tive rationall passion is a new kind of passion, that was never known to any but themselves. True sorrow, without doubt, hath alwayes some sensible motions, some convulsions of heart to attend it; it could not be a passion of the mind, if it did not inferre passionem animo, some wayes or other sensibly affect the soule. I will also omit the question concerning the quantity of sorrow which wee ought to have; namely, whether sorrow for sin ought to be the greatest sorrow. Bellarmines determination is, that it ought to be the greatest appreciative, but [Page 83]not intensive. I will not at this time examine this determination; I say only in generall, that true sorrow, proceeding from the grace of God, and not from the fear of punishment, or any other sinister respect, in what degree or quan­tity soever it be, is sufficient to make our con­fession available before God. Many, when they compare their owne sorrow with the sorrow of David, or with the sorrow of divers other holy men and women which are mentioned in the Scriptures, are much troubled in mind, because they cannot equall them. What are my tears (say they) compared with Davids tears? What is my griefe, compared with the griefe of Mary Magdalen? Thus they discourse within them­selves, and are ready almost to dispaire, because they cannot arrive at their perfection. But such comparisons as these, beloved, are offensive and unprofitable; for why should every one com­pare himselfe with David, or Mary Magdalen, which were Gods especiall favourites, and had a greater measure of grace conferred upon them, then is ordinarily conferred upon others? Every one cannot hope to be so perfect as they were. I speak not this to dishearten any, or inclining to an opinion, that it is not lawfull [Page 84]for you to desire to equall those worthy ex­amples of repentance; for I think it not onely lawfull, but commendable for every one to desire the best gifts: wee may desire to equall, and (if wee can) to excell David, Mary Magda­len, or any other, provided alwayes, that wee submit our wils to the will of God; and when wee see that it is not his pleasure to conferre upon us such gifts as he conferred upon them, wee must not therefore murmure against him, nor work our owne disquiet and trouble by making such unprofitable comparisons, but giving thanks to God for what wee have, let us comfort our selves with that; considering alwaies, that all sorrow, whether it be in a great or small quantity, if it proceeds from grace, is able to save our souls. And this is the second condition necessary to a true confession; that is, sorrow and true contrition of heart.

The third condition necessary to a true con­fession, is, amendment of life: Although a man confesseth his sins every day, yet if hee forsakes them not, his confession is but a meer formality; and this condition is required in many places of the Scripture; but I will onely name a place or two: In the 28 ^th chapter of the Proverbs [Page 85]and the 13 ^th verse, it is said, Hee that covereth his sinnes shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and for­saketh them shall have mercy. Not every hypocrite that makes a formall confession, but he that con­fesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy. And again, Ezra 10.11. Ezra saith unto the peo­ple, Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers, and doe his pleasure, and separate your selves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives. Hee doth not onely stirre up the people to confesse their sins to God, but to doe his pleasure also, and to separate themselves from the people of the land with whom they had contracted affinity, and to put away their strange wives, without which their confession had been but vain. It is (I know) a common opinion at this time, that an actuall amendment of life is not necessary and essentiall to confessi­on; but that a purpose of amendment, with faith in Christ Jesus, is sufficient: and although they commit the same sins every day, yet, if they resolve to amend after they have committed them, many think themselves (if they should die after such resolutions) in a good and safe condition. But this, beloved, is a grosse and manifest delusion, and contrary to those pla­ces [Page 86]of Scripture that have been already alledg­ed, and to many other which might be al­ledged to this purpose. It is true indeed, that faith in Christ Jesus, if it could be in any man without an actuall amendment, is able to save him: but herein they deceive themselves, in that they think true faith consistent with bare and naked resolutions, and not alwayes ac­companied with an actuall amendment; for true faith will shew it selfe in action, and cannot be perfected and known by bare and naked resolutions: Whatsoever is born of God (saith Saint John) overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, 1 John 5.4. By true faith therefore a man overcometh the world: now, how can hee be said to over­come the world, that hath not forsaken his sins? for a victory is won by action, and not by bare and naked resolutions. Have drun­kards (think you) overcome the world? Have adulterers, unclean persons, swearers, and usu­rers overcome the world? No, they are over­come themselves, and have not overcome the world. Take heed therefore yee deceive not your selves; think not yee have faith, before yee find the fruits of faith in your life and conver­sation. [Page 87]I presume there are none here but will say they have faith; but I pray God many a­mongst you be not deluded. Should I demand of you, whether you beleeve in God, or whe­ther ye beleeve an heaven, and an hell, and a re­surrection from the dead; I dare say, you would all answer, Yes: But then, if I could look into your lives, and see your secret practi­ces, I am afraid I should find many of you to be such, as if yet beleeved no such matter. I say, If I could look into your lives, I am afraid I should find many of you to be such, as if yee beleeved neither heaven, not hell, nor the re­surrection of the dead, nor any other article of faith: for wherein doe many amongst us ex­ceed an infidell, that beleeves none of these things? Is it possible that infidelity should pro­duce as good effects in them, as faith in you? Is faith so sluggish a vertue, that it can he still, and not be active? No, be sure, if thy faith breaks not into action, it is but a dead faith. In the 11 ^th chapter to the Hebrews there are many commended for faith; but they are all said to have done something by it: It is said, By faith Abel offered a better sacrifice then Cain; and so of all the rest: it is said, they did something by [Page 88] faith; but there are none which are said to have made good resolutions by faith, and to have kept none of them. True faith therefore must be known and perfected by action, and not by bare and naked resolutions. And this is the third condition necessary to a true confessi­on; that is, amendment of life.

The fourth condition necessary to a true confession, is, satisfaction. I shall not need to prove this condition necessarie, because it is manifestly included in the former; for there can be no amendment without satisfaction: he that doth wrong another, and doth not repair the injury, cannot be said to amend, but sin­neth against justice; for justice giveth to every one his due, which he refuseth to doe, that will not restore his neighbours goods, or his neigh­bours credit, when hee hath wrongfully depri­ved him of them. Now therefore let every one examine his confession, and see whether it hath all these conditions or no: First, whether hee hath made a diligent examination of his whole life, and confessed all his particular and individuall sins, as far as hee is able. Secondly, whether his confession be joyned with true sor­row and contrition of heart. Thirdly, whether [Page 89]hee hath for saken the sins which hee hath confes­sed. Fourthly, whether hee hath made satisfa­ction (as far as hee is able) for all the wrongs and injuries he hath done: if his confession hath all these conditions, it is good; but if it want any of them, hee hath but plaid the formall hy­pocrite. And so much of the second part of Davids confession, which is his confession in re­spect of the act. I come now to the last part, which is, his confession in respect of the object.

I have sinned against thee. The object against whom this sin was committed is not exprest in the words of my Text, but is implied in this word thee: yet wee shall not need to goe farre to seek it, for it is expressed in the same verse; I said, Lord, be mercifull unto mee; beale my soule, for I have sinned against thee. It is the Lord God (you see) to whom this petition was di­rected, hee it is to whom this thee hath refe­rence: God then was the object against whom hee sinned; and this is that wherein hee doth most of all set out his owne ungratefulnesse: for if they that partake of the favours of Prin­ces, cannot dispence with their service, if chil­dren owe great respects to their parents, scho­lers to their master; then how could David [Page 90]neglect this service, withdraw this respect, and sin against God, without committing (in one act) all the ingratitudes that can be committed. This is that which did most of all increase his guilt, and which (without question) did most of all increase his sorrow, who, like a zealous penitent, inflamed with divine love, and ha­ting sin in many respects, was yet most of all enraged against it, because it was committed a­gainst God, who had obliged him to himself by many speciall and extraordinary favours: for it was hee, that (like a father) brought him up of a little child, and which had many times (as it were) carried him in his armes; it was hee, that pulled the crowne from off the head of Saul, to set it upon his, and entailed it upon him and his posterity for many generations; it was hee, that (like a master) instructed him in the law, and (like a King) protected him in all danger; and therefore, to sin against him, was to stain his soul with the deepest colours of ingratitude.

But why did David confesse onely that hee sinned against God? Did he not sin also against Uriah, who (by his secret practices) lost his life? Did hee not sin also against Bathsheba, [Page 91]who (by his subtle perswasions) lost her ho­nour? Did he not sin also against Joab, whom he had made confederate to his purpose? And did hee not sinne also against the whole army, whose lives were all exposed to the sword of the children of Ammon? I answer, that hee sinned against God, both in respect of himselfe, and in respect of all these: for sin is against God in a double respect, respectu sui ipsius, & respectu communitatis, as the School speaks, both in re­spect of himselfe, and in respect of the com­munity; that is, in respect of all the creatures. First, sin is against God respectu sui ipsius, in re­spect of himselfe, for it is against his chiefest attributes; against his wisdome, and against his justice, and against his mercy: first, it is against his wisdome, for wisdome enjoynes order; but sin is alwayes accompanied with disorder and confusion: Secondly, it is against his justice, for justice commands that every one should have his due; but sin is also joyned with wrong and injury: Thirdly, it is against his mercy, for mercy desires the preservation of the world; but sin tends to the ruine and destruction of it: to dishonour our parents, to commit murther, or adultery, or to beare false witnesse against [Page 92]our neighbours; what doe all these sins, but tend to the subversion of mankind? Men sub­sist by observation of the morall law, and would soon perish without it: and therefore sin, which tends to the ruine of mankind, is as much against Gods mercy, which wils their preservation, as against any other of his attri­butes; so that the malice of a sinner is termina­ted immediately upon God himselfe, hee is the object against whom sin is committed, respectu sui ipsius, in respect of himself. But that I may make this reason a little more cleare then the Schoole hath made it, I will lay downe this ground, That every sinner wisheth that it might be lawfull for him to commit those sins whereunto he is addicted, and that there were no eternall punishment prepared for them. This that I have laid for a ground, I think, will be easily granted; for all men desire happinesse: the Will, that is free in the means, is not free in the end; it cannot but desire happinesse, and abhorre all things that are destructive of it, and consequently, cannot but abhorre an eternall punishment, which it knows to be incompa­tible with happinesse. Now then, if every sin­ner wisheth that it might be lawfull for him [Page 93]to commit those sins whereunto hee is addi­cted, and that there were no eternall punish­ments provided for them; what is this, but to wish that God were not so wise, or so just, or so mercifull as he is, (for sin, as I said, is contrary to wisdome, justice, and mercy) and consequently, to wish that hee were not God; for it is impos­sible hee should be God, and not be infinitely wise, and infinitely just, and infinitely merci­full. They that would have God want those perfections, would have him want his being, for his being is made up of those perfections: so that all sinners doe inclusively (though not expresly) desire Gods ruine, and that his very na­ture and being were destroyed; for it is all one in substance, to desire a thing directly, or by way of consequence: As for example, he that desires that it were night, doth in substance, and inclusively desire the sun were downe, al­though he doth not expresly and actually think upon the sun. In like manner, they that desire it might be lawfull for them to sin, and that there were no eternall punishment appointed for sinners, doe in substance and inclusively desire, that God were not so wise, or so just, or so mercifull as hee is, although expresly and [Page 94]actually they do not think upon his wisdome, or justice, or mercy.

Secondly, sin is against God, respectu communi­tatis, in respect of the community, or in respect of all the creatures; for the whole world is one community or incorporation, whereof God is the governour and protectour: the crea­tures are as it were the members, and hee is the head; and therefore whatsoever is done a­gainst the community, or against the creatures, is done against God. Our Saviour Christ is the head and protector of the Church, and there­fore whatsoever is done against the Church, is done against him: Saul persecuted the Church, and our Saviour Christ esteemed that persecution as an injury offered to himself; Saul, Saul, (saith hee) why persecutest thou me? Act. 9.4. In the ge­nerall carriage of affaires in all Common­wealths, that which is done against the Com­mon wealth in generall, or against any parti­cular member thereof, is done against the King: if one man kill another, the King will presently be plaintiffe, and take the injury done unto himselfe, because the party slain was under his protection, and was a member of that body whereof he is the head: As Christ is in respect [Page 95]of the Church, and a King in respect of his kingdome; so is God in respect of the whole world: and therefore what injury soever is of­fered to any of the creatures, is an injury to God; so that David sinning against Uriah, and against Bathsheba, and against Joab, and against the whole army, may be said in that respect also to have sinned against God. And thus you have seen all the parts of Davids confession, both in re­spect of the subject, in respect of the act, and in respect of the object.

Now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the holy Ghost, three persons, and one God, be ascribed all glory, and honour, and power, and wisdome, now and for ever. Amen.