to know that God is always and everywhere present, should learn in our whole lives to fear Him, and keep His commandments, and observe His laws; not following our own ways, or doing our own wills. And above all we Christians, who are blest with the assurance that God will never leave or forsake us as members of His Church, and that He will cause all things to work together for good to them that fear God; and especially knowing, by the same sure promise of His Word, that where two or three are gathered together in His name, there is He in the midst of us,-above all should we, humbly confessing that for "our evil deeds we worthily deserve to be punished," nevertheless pray "that by the comfort of His grace we may mercifully be relieved, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth ever one God, world without end. Amen."

SERMON XXIII.

David an Example to Mourners.

2 SAM. xii. 23.

"I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”

HE history of King David, in that part to

THE

which the text relates, affords an instance of the abuse to which the Scripture is liable through the wickedness or indiscretion of persons who, if they were not too proud and too conceited to learn, might know better. But although the history itself tells us that great occasion was given by the things related therein for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, it is indeed from places of this sort that the truth and impartiality of the Scriptures is most apparent, and the fact most clearly established that the writers of them wrote not under the influence or fear of men, of whose evil actions they give a true and edifying account, too true, alas! in the letter of offence, and equally true in the sentence of a righteous Being concerning it, but at the same time sufficiently edifying to all who read and consider them aright. For God is just, and will not forgive iniquity, no, not even in His favoured servants, but will surely visit; so that (as the Prophet saith) though a man were sometime

found faithful, though like David he were, as it is said, a man after God's own heart, yet if he turn from his righteousness and commit iniquity, his righteousness shall be no more remembered, but in his iniquity that he hath committed he shall die. But, on the other hand, God is for Christ's sake merciful, and willeth not the death of a sinner. By His Spirit that was in the prophets, and is now for the same purpose in His servants, He calls all men to repentance, and proclaims His goodness thus,-" If the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive." All this was verified in King David, who is a type and an example unto us,-a type of God's universal dealing, and an example to be imitated in his humiliation and repentance. In his transgression, moreover, he is as a beacon set upon a hill, whereby we may discern the dangers that surround us, how that no attainments of human virtue are such as to be above temptation; no gifts, no advantages, can place a man out of the reach of danger; and that there is no kind or degree of sin, however abhorrent from our disposition, or however unlikely as we may think it, which, if we give way to the inclinations of a sinful nature, we may not be tempted to commit. Therefore, as weak and sinful creatures, not confidence and assurance, but humility and distrust, become us; distrust, not of God's Word and promise, but of ourselves lest we should fall; and the lesson we are to gather from the history is the same with

that which was delivered by our Lord, when He said, "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch;" "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation."

But the harvest of God's Word is manifold; and there is another lesson to be derived from the Scripture which I shall at this time endeavour to explain.

In the particulars which are related of the behaviour of the royal penitent in his grief, (and particulars we know are never related in Holy Scripture without some useful and important end,) we may behold his faith, and deduce a lesson which shall be applicable to every one of us in this the day when the evil consequences of sin generally are to be borne.

When the Lord had struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David and it was sick, the King went in and fasted, and lay all night upon the earth, beseeching God for the child's life. But when the child died, he arose and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord and worshipped. Then he came to his own house, and when he required they set meat before him, and he did eat. And the thing that David did seemed strange in the eyes of his servants, and they said, What is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was yet alive, but when it was dead thou didst arise and eat bread.

We, however, may observe here, that David's submission and humiliation had been accepted. He had confessed his sin, and his repentance was

sincere, and his conduct afterwards on the occasion was every way answerable and consistent with repentance and with a right faith. The account he gave of it was this:-"While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious unto me that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." In the case of the child's sickness the father's feelings were more than usually alive; for its sickness was known to the parent to be a visitation for his own sin. Therefore truly David fasted and wept. But when it was dead the affliction of the sufferer had ceased; and the father was the sooner comforted with the assurance of its being at rest by his very knowledge of the cause for which it died, inasmuch as he had been assured by the Prophet of God's forgiveness for that great offence.

The penitent, moreover, manifested his faith by the motive of his prayer, saying, "Who can tell whether God will be gracious unto me that the child may live ?"

It is certain that the divine judgments in this life are not always irrevocable, but that oftentimes what God threatens He remits upon the prayer and repentance of the offender. This David knew from the Law; and indeed it is a general law of grace, of which instances enough are recorded in various parts of Scripture, and of which there are few men, I believe, who, when they have turned by prayer to God in seasons of visitation, have not

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