Let it be remembered too, that the offences of David were by no means paffed over with impunity; that he was feverely punished for them by the remorfe of his own confcience, by the deep affliction into which they plunged him, by the wretched confequences they drew after them, and by the heavy and positive penalties denounced and inflicted upon him by God himself.

Hear how the repenting monarch bemoans himself in the anguish of his foul, and then fay, whether his fituation was an enviable one; whether you would chufe to imitate his mifconduct, and take the confequences. "Have mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness, according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences. Wafh "me thoroughly from my wickedness, and "cleanse me from my fin; for I acknowledge my fault, and my fin is ever before me. Make me a clean heart, O God, and renew "a right spirit within me. Caft me not away "from thy prefence, and take not thy Holy "Spirit from me. Thy rebuke hath broken "my heart, I am full of heavinefs; I looked "for fome to have pity on me, but there was

VOL. II.

K

no

"no man, neither found I any to comfort me.

My God, my God, look upon me: why haft "thou forfaken me, and art fo far from my "health and the words of my complaint. I "cry in the day-time, and thou hearest not "and in the night-feafon alfo I take no reft. "Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon

me, for I am defolate and in mifery. The "forrows of my heart are enlarged, O bring "thou me out of my troubles. Look upon

46

my

a

my adverfity and mifery, and forgive me all fin. Thine arrows ftick faft in me, and thy hand preffeth me fore: for my wicked"neffes are gone over my head, and are like "fore burthen, too heavy for me to bear. I "am brought into fo great trouble and misery, "that I go mourning all the day long. My "heart panteth, my ftrength faileth, and the "fight of mine eyes is gone from me *."

It is hardly in the power of language to express greater agony of mind than this; and no one, furely, that reads these paffages, can wish to undergo the mifery there defcribed. It is impoffible for him, if he is of a found mind, to make fo wretched a bargain for himself, as to

Pf. li. Ixix. xxv. xxxviii. &c. &c.

plunge

plunge voluntarily into the crimes of the royal penitent, that he may afterwards taste the bitter fruits of his contrition and remorse; or, (what is still worse, and what no finner can be fecure againft,) that he may die without repenting at all, and rush into the unceafing torments of "a worm that never dies, and a fire that is "never quenched."

SERMON

VI.

JAMES i. 27.

PURE RELIGION, AND UNDEFILED BEFORE GOD AND THE FATHER, IS THIS, TO VISIT THE FATHERLESS AND WIDOWS IN THEIR AFFLICTION, AND TO KEEP HIMSELF UNSPOTTED FROM THE WORLD.

IT

fhould feem as if Religion was here made to confist only of two parts; CHARITY OF BENEVOLENCE respecting others, and PURITY or SELF-GOVERNMENT refpecting ourselves. The first of these, Benevolence, is characterized to us by fingling out one of the strongest of our focial affections, compaffion towards the diftreffed, which, in the beautiful language of Scripture, is called vifiting, that is, relieving "the fatherlefs and widows in their affliction;" a mode of expreffion very common to the faK/3 cred