thus faith the Lord, Behold, I will raife up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the fight of this fun : for thou didst it fecretly; but I will do this thing before all Ifrael, and before the fun * HERE he paused And David, overwhelmed with fhame, flung with remorse, and oppreffed with a dreadful sense of the divine vengance, impending, and ready to fall down upon himself, and his family, could only give utterance to this fhort fentence I have finned against the LordTo which Nathan immediately fubjoinedThe Lord alfo hath put away thy fin† ; thou * Here is a long train of temporal calamities and chaftifements to be inflicted upon David, on the score of his guilt; but the candid reader will pleafe to observe, that they are all to be inflicted upon him in this world that there is not the leaft hint of any part of his punishment's being deferred to the next: even mortal guilt (the eternal vengeance due to it being remitted) had all its remaining punishment in this world and fhall what fome call venial guilt be chaftifed in the next? The inference is obvious: Nathan knew nothing of purgatory! or, if he did, he flipt the faireft occafion of revealing it to the world, that ever offered itself. : That is the mortal guilt, and eternal punishment; together with the temporal punishment of death due to that offence by the Mofaic law. fhalt fhalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occafion to the enemies of the Lord to blafpheme, the child alfo *, that is born unto thee, shall surely die. THERE is fomething unspeakably gracious in this fudden fentence of pardon pronounced by the prophet, in the instant of David's confeffion of guilt, and humiliation before GOD. But I think we may fairly infer from it, that this pardon was not purchased by that inftantaneous fubmiffion; but that in truth it was now only declared, but purchased at the price of a long preceding penitence. Nor is it otherwise to be accounted for, confiftently with God's innate abhorrence of guilt, and established extraordinary methods of reconciliation and forgiveness: which they would do well seriously to revolve, who imagine that David was in a state of impenitence, from the day of his first commerce with Bathsheba, till this inftant. A supposition (in my apprehenfion) as injurious to David, as it is dangerous to true religion. *The chastisement of this guilt fhall be feen alfo in the child who was the offspring of it. THAT 4 THAT he had in fact forrowed for thèse fins, confeffed to Almighty GoD, and earneftly implored forgiveness, before the pardon pronounced by Nathan, is to me evident from Pfalm xxxii. in which, now reinstated in the favour of GOD, and happy beyond expreffion upon that account, he most beautifully and feelingly defcribes the distressed condition he was in, before that pardon was pronounced; his body diftempered, and wafted with grief, and his mind upon the rack. When I kept filence*, my bones waxed old, thro' my roaring, all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me—I acknowledged my fin unto thee: and mine iniquity have I not hid: Ifaid I will confefs my tranfgreffions unto the Lord. And thou forgaveft the iniquity of my fin. And what was the confequence? His moisture was turned into the dry Selah Some have inferred from these words, That David continued fome time impenitent; but, for my own part, I can only infer from them, that he was for fome time under fuch a sense of guilt, as would not let him prefume to pray and such a filence is the best proof of true compunction of confcience. Had he been long impenitent, it were impoffible for him to fay; Mine iniquity have I not hid. nefs .. nefs of fummer · The change was, as if he had been removed at once from the depth of winter, into midfummer; as if all the ftorms, and rains, and clouds of that gloomy feason, (the fineft emblems of grief) were changed, at once, into ferenity and funshine all heaven clear, unclouded, and fmiling upon him. THE fame thing is also evident, as I apprehend, from Pjalm cxxx. plainly written in the spirit of a penitent who trusted in the infinite mercy of Gop, and hoped for forgiveness, but had not yet obtained it *. BUT to proceed DAVID, being now fully fatisfied, that his guilt was too well known to the world, and that GOD would purfue it with public vengeance, found it high time to do every thing + So the word fhould be tranflated. * 3. If thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amifs: O Lord, who may abide it? 4. For there is mercy with thee: therefore Jhalt thou be feared. 5. I look for the Lord, my foul doth wait for him: in his word is my trust. 6. My foul fleeth unto the Lord: before the morningwatch, I fay, before the morning-watch. 7. O Ifrael, trust in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption. 8. And he shall redeem Ifrael from all his fins. that that in him lay, to wipe off the reproach 'he had brought upon his holy religion, and make all poffible reparation for the offence he had given to GOD and man; and (I doubt not) rejoiced in the occafion of taking public fhame to himself, for fuch complicated and aggravated guilt; and making a public confeffion of it before the whole world. And to this purpose, he then composed and published the fifty-firft Pfalm, directing it To the chief musician; and, without doubt, commanding it to be publicly fung in the tabernacle, in the presence of all his people : himself attending, and proftrate before the throne of mercy. It is furely matter of uncommon curiofity to contemplate upon David, in this condition. Behold the greatest monarch of the earth, thus humbled for his fins before God! confeffing his fhame, with contrition, and confufion of face! calling out for mercy, and imploring pardon, in the prefence of his meanest subjects! There is fomething in such an image of penitence, more fitted to strike the foul with a dread and abhorrence of guilt, than it is poffible to exprefs: fomething more edifying, more adapted to the human infirmities, |