And, in truth, there was abundant cause; for the crimes of David afford one of the most melancholy instances of the violation of conscience, of a departure from the service of the Most High. Let it fill us with humility and fear. If so eminent a servant of God could fall into such abominations, how deeply concerned, how “instant in prayer,” how vigilant and careful should we be, lest our feet be betrayed into evil! We see to what criminal and dangerous excess human nature may be led, if we fail to cherish the grace of God; and are abandoned to the government of our own corrupt desires, and the tyranny of our spiritual adversary. To the lukewarm and the wavering I need scarcely say, that without greater seriousness and circumspection, they will assuredly be overthrown: but let me also admonish the faithful Christian; him, who appears to be safely pursuing the even tenour of his way; who may be led, by the regular and habitual discharge of religious duties, into a state of presumptuous confidence and slumbering security; him I would admonish, from the instance of David, “that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;” [181a] that it may, when most implicitly trusted, most dangerously betray; let David teach “him that thinketh he standeth to take heed lest he fall.” [181b]
Some perverse and worldly-minded persons have made a very different use of the lamentable case before us; it has encouraged them in wilful transgression; it has served them as a “cloak for their sin.” Surely, say they, if David could so flagrantly transgress, how can we be expected to preserve our integrity? If he was accepted of God, indulgence would readily be extended to the comparatively trifling offences of inferior servants. True; we cannot be perfect; we may hope for pardon; but we are not, on that account, to sin presumptuously; not to offend, because God is merciful: this did not David. Whoever deliberately sins from the hope of God’s mercy, is taking the surest was to deprive himself of that mercy. There is frequently great error in the notion of trifling offences: no offence is trifling in the sight of an infinitely holy God: much less any wilful offence. The magnitude of a fault chiefly depends upon the circumstances under which it is committed; much more readily could we urge an excuse for him, who is heedlessly or suddenly borne away by impetuous passion and carnal desire, than for him, who presumes deliberately to trample upon the law of God, because another has been forgiven. Shall we thus abuse the mercies of redeeming love? “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” [183] Would we find the favour that David did, we must seek it, like him, in the true spirit of penitence and devotion; we must “confess our wickedness, and be sorry for our sin:” we must hate the works and workers of iniquity: we must imitate David, not in his crimes, but in his repentance and reformation.
Let us learn another lesson from the history before us; let it teach us the importance of being always disposed and ready to receive spiritual counsel; of being in the habit of applying to ourselves every opportunity of improvement, with which we may be blessed. Too many, like David, are extremely backward to receive an intimation of their own errors, and to avail themselves of the benefit of reproof. They are sufficiently quick-sighted in discovering the applicability of reproach, to their neighbour; without even suspecting that it may suit their own case and condition. How many have acknowledged the propriety and force of admonitions and rebuke, which they have heard in the house of God, without ever taking them home to their own breasts; and this undoubtedly is one cause, why the voice of public instruction produces, in general, so little effect upon the characters and conduct of men. While they are pleased to imagine, that the representations and censures of the preacher are suited to others rather than to themselves, no wonder that they retain their neglectful, sinful, unprincipled habits, in defiance of every remonstrance, and every warning. Instead of torturing their ingenuity, to discover to what particular persons in the congregation a discourse may be most fitly and beneficially applied, let them rather be anxious to inquire, how far it may be accommodated to their own case; and to all those, who presume to make a further inquiry, who are looking around for the delinquencies of their neighbour, we would say, restrain thy wandering eye, and look within, “Thou art the man.”
A readiness to take advantage of religious instruction, is one of the surest evidences of a christian spirit, and one of the greatest blessings that a Christian can enjoy. It manifests a christian spirit, inasmuch as it shews an humble sense of our own failings and imperfections, and an anxious desire to recover from them all; to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” [185] It is one of the greatest blessings to the Christian, because there is seldom a day, seldom an hour that passes, from which he may not derive some spiritual benefit. While the reckless and self-conceited, who dwell with complacency upon their state and character, perceive not any counsel adapted to their wants, the humble-minded are gathering edification from every thing around them; from all they hear and all they see: doubtless, it must be so; for how can they, who think themselves whole, discover the need of a physician, how can they apply a remedy?
Suffer me to entreat you, in conclusion, that whenever you are seriously impressed with a conviction of evil, or the neglect of any christian duty, you will carry home the impression, to have its full effect upon the heart. For want of this care and this habit, many a salutary lesson, that strikes for the moment, is afterwards thrown away, unheeded and forgotten: and thus the very means of grace, which are ordained to recover us from sin, and enable us to “work out our salvation,” become the instruments of confirming us in error and guilt. The mind, which is continually accustomed to receive and to neglect religious instruction, may be thereby brought into a heedless and torpid state, from which it is well nigh impossible to be roused. Not that any thing “is impossible with God:” but I appeal to experience, and ask, whether it is not a notorious matter of fact, that many amongst us have for years uniformly persevered, in the same neglect of christian duties, the same worldly principles, the same evil courses, the same habits of intemperance and licentiousness and profaneness; and it will not be denied, that they have, in these years, frequently heard the voice of expostulation, and perceived the justice, the force, and the importance of it. Then why are they still unreclaimed?—because they have never followed up the conviction of “Thou art the man.”
God grant, that this admonition may have its full effect upon us; that we may go and meditate, and pray; pray daily for the blessing of an humble and a teachable heart; pray for God’s grace, to correct all our sinful follies, and supply all our deficiencies. Probably, my brethren, we have been “leaning too little upon the hope of this heavenly grace;” we have been relying upon our own perception of right and wrong, our own choice and decision, our own feeble resolutions; if so, no wonder that we have failed, in our work of repentance and spiritual change. “Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned:” [188] here lies our hope and our strength, in the renewing influence of the Spirit of God. As we do desire, so let us fervently pray, that we may, in our course of penitence, imitate the example of the royal psalmist, and let contrition “have its perfect work;” that we may, here below, with heart and soul, join in the pious and repentant strains of David’s harp, and thus may be admitted to sing to other harps hereafter, in the chorus of the Redeemed above.
SERMON XI.
THE WAY OF THE LORD EQUAL.
Ezek. xviii. 25.
Ye say, the way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?
The main purport of this chapter was, to obviate some objections which had been groundlessly entertained against the dealings of God with His people. They were at that time suffering in a state of captivity; and the calamities attendant upon it had been threatened long before, as a punishment for the sins of their ancestors. The Jews, therefore, assuming that this was the only cause of divine vengeance; imagining, in the blindness and pride of their hearts, that there were no delinquencies of their own to deserve such retribution, presumed to charge the Almighty with injustice, for this visitation of His wrath.
The prophet, in the opening of the chapter, thus remonstrates with them: “What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel?” (concerning the evils with which it is afflicted,) that ye say, in the language of accusation and reproach, “the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge?”—thereby meaning, that the present generation are unjustly punished for the transgressions of their forefathers. “As I live, saith the Lord, ye shall not have occasion to use this proverb any more in Israel.” I will make so visible a discrimination between the righteous and the wicked, between those who tread in the steps of their wicked progenitors, and those who take warning by their examples, that you shall not have any further occasion to use this proverb amongst you.