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SERMON LIV.

PREACHED UPON THE PENITENTIAL PSALMS.

PSALM XXXii. 1, 2.

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered; blessed is the man, unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

THIS that I have read to you, can scarce be called all the text; I proposed for the text, the first and second verses, and there belongs more to the first, than I have delivered in it; for, in all those translators, and expositors, who apply themselves exactly to the original, to the Hebrew, the title of the Psalm, is part of the first verse of the Psalm. St. Augustine gives somewhat a strange reason, why the Book of Enoch, cited by St. Jude in his Epistle, and some other such ancient books as that, were never received into the body of canonical Scriptures, Ut in authoritate apud nos non essent, nimia fecit eorum antiquitas, The church suspected them, because they were too ancient, says St. Augustine. But that reason alone, is so far from being enough to exclude anything from being part of the Scriptures, as that we make it justly an argument, for the receiving the titles of the Psalms into the body of canonical Scriptures, that they are as ancient as the Psalms themselves. So then the title of this Psalm enters into our text, as a part of the first verse. And the title is Daridis Erudiens; where we need not insert (as our translators in all languages and editions have conceived a necessity to do) any word, for the clearing of the text, more than is in the text itself, (and therefore Tremellius hath inserted that word, An Ode of David, we, A Psalm of David, others, others) for the words themselves yield a perfect sense in themselves, Le David Maschil, is Davidis Erudiens, that is, Davidis Eruditio, David's Institution, David's catechism; and so our text, which is the first and second verse, taking in all the first verse, in all accounts, is now David's catechism; Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, &c.

In these words, our parts shall be these; first, that so great a master as David, proceeded by way of catechism, of instruction in fundamental things, and doctrines of edification. Secondly, That the foundation of this building, the first lesson in this art, the first letter in this alphabet, is blessedness; for, Primus actus voluntatis est amor; Man is not man, till he have produced some acts of the faculties of that soul, that makes him man; till he understand something, and will something, till he know, and till he would have something, he is no man; now, the first act of the will is love; and no man can love anything, but in the likeness, and in the notion of happiness, of blessedness, or of some degree thereof; and therefore David proposes that for the foundation of his catechism, blessedness; the catechism of David, Blessed is the man. But then, in a third consideration, we lay hold upon St. Augustine's aphorism, Amare nisi nota non possumus, We cannot truly love anything, but that we know; and therefore David being to proceed catechistically, and for instruction, proposes this blessedness, which as it is in heaven, and reserved for our possession there, is in-intelligible (as Tertullian speaks) inconceivable, he purposes it in such notions, and by such lights, as may enable us to see it, and know it in this life. And those lights are in this text, three; for, The forgiveness of transgressions, and then, The covering of sins, and lastly, The not imputing of iniquity, which three David proposes here, are not a threefold repeating of one and the same thing; but this blessedness consisting in our reconciliation to God, (for we were created in a state of friendship with God, our rebellion put us into a state of hostility, and now we need a reconciliation, because we are not able to maintain a war against God, no, nor against any other enemy of man, without God) this blessedness David doth not deliver us all at once, in three expressings of the same thing, but he gives us one light thereof, in the knowledge that there is a forgiving of transgressions, another, in the covering of sins, and a third, in the not imputing of iniquity. But then, (that which will constitute a fourth consideration) when God hath presented himself, and offered his peace, in all these, there is also something to be done on our part; for though the forgiving of transgression, the covering of sin, the not imputing of iniquity, pro

ceed only from God, yet God whose spirit there is no guile. to the master, and his manner of teaching, David catechising; and all that belongs to the doctrine and the catechism, blessedness, that is reconciliation to God, notified in those three acts of his mercy; and all that belongs to the disciple, that is to be catechised, a docile, an humble, a sincere heart, In whose spirit there is no guile; and to these particulars, in their order thus proposed, we shall now pass.

affords these to none but him, In And so you have all that belongs

That then which constitutes our first part, is this, that David, than whom this world never had a greater master for the next, amongst the sons of men, delivers himself, by way of catechising, of fundamental and easy teaching. As we say justly, and confidently, That of all rhetorical and poetical figures, that fall into any art, we are able to produce higher strains, and livelier examples, out of the Scriptures, than out of all the orators, and poets in the world, yet we read not, we preach not the Scriptures for that use, to magnify their eloquence; so in David's Psalms we find abundant impressions, and testimonies of his knowledge in all arts, and all kinds of learning, but that is not it which he proposes to us. David's last words are, and in that David's holy glory was placed, that he was not only the sweet Psalmist', that he had an harmonious, a melodious, a charming, a powerful way of entering into the soul, and working upon the affections of men, but he was the sweet Psalmist of Israel, he employed his faculties for the conveying of the God of Israel, into the Israel of God; The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue; not the spirit of rhetoric, nor the spirit of poetry, nor the spirit of mathematics, and demonstration, but, The Spirit of the Lord, the Rock of Israel spake by me, says he; he boasts not that he had delivered himself in strong, or deep, or mysterious arts, that was not his rock; but his rock was the rock of Israel, his way was to establish the church of God upon fundamental doctrines. Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, says Stephen. Likely to be so, because being adopted by the king's daughter, he had an extraordinary education; and likely

12 Sam. xxiii. 1.

2

2 Sam. xxiii. 2.

3 Acts vii. 22.

also, because he brought so good natural faculties, for his masters to work upon, Ut reminisci potius videretur, quam discere', That whatsoever any master proposed unto him, he rather seemed to remember it then, than to learn it but then; and yet in Moses' Books, we meet no great testimonies, or deep impressions of these learnings in Moses: he had (as St. Ambrose notes well) more occasions to speak of natural philosophy, in the creation of the world, and of the more secret, and reserved, and remote corners of nature, in those counterfeitings of miracles in Pharaoh's court, than he hath laid hold of. So Nebuchadnezzar appointed his officers, that they should furnish his court with some young gentlemen, of good blood and families of the Jews; and (as it is added there') well-favoured youths, in whom there was no blemish, skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science; and then farther, To be taught the tongue, and the learning of the Chaldeans. And Daniel was one of these, and, no doubt, a great proficient in all these; and yet Daniel seems not to make any great show of these learnings in his writings. St. Paul was in a higher pædagogy, and another manner of university than all this; Caught up into the third heavens, into Paradise, as he says; and there he learnt much; but (as he says too) such things as it was not lawful to utter; that is, it fell not within the laws of preaching to publish them. So that not only some learning in humanity, (as in Moses' and Daniel's case) but some points of divinity, (as in St. Paul's case) may be unfit to be preached. Not that a divine should be ignorant of either; either ornaments of human, or mysteries of divine knowledge. For, says St. Augustine, Every man that comes from Egypt, must bring some of the Egyptian's goods with him. Quanto auro exivit suffarcinatus Cyprianus, says he, How much of the Egyptian gold and goods brought Cyprian, and Lactantius, and Optatus, and Hilary out of Egypt? That is, what a treasure of learning, gathered when they were of the Gentiles, brought they from thence, to the advancing of Christianity, when they applied themselves to it? St. Augustine confesses, that the reading of Cicero's Hortensius, Mutavit affectum meum, began in him a con

version from the world, Et ad teipsum, Domine, mutavit preces meas, That book, says he, converted me to more fervent prayers to thee, my God; Et surgere jam cœperam ut ad te redirem, By that help I rose, and came towards thee. And so Justin Martyr had his initiation, and beginning of his conversion, from reading some passages in Plato. St. Basil expresses it well; They that will die a perfect colour, dip it in some less perfect colour before. To be a good divine, requires human knowledge; and so does it of all the mysteries of divinity too; because, as there are devils that will not be cast out but by fasting and prayer, so there are humours that undervalue men, that lack these helps. But our congregations are not made of such persons; not of mere natural men, that must be converted out of Aristotle, and by Cicero's words, nor of Arians that require new proofs for the Trinity, nor Pelagians that must be pressed with new discoveries of God's predestination; but persons embracing, with a thankful acquiescence therein, doctrines necessary for the salvation of their souls in the world to come, and the exaltation of their devotion in this. This way David calls his, a catechism. And let not the greatest doctor think it unworthy of him to catechise thus, nor the learnedest hearer to be thus catechised; Christ enwraps the greatest doctors in his person, and in his practice, when he says, Sinite parvulos, Suffer little children to come unto me; and we do not suffer them to come unto us, if when they come, we do not speak to their understanding, and to their edification, for that is but an absent presence, when they hear, and profit not; and Christ enwraps the learnedest hearers, in the persons of his own disciples, when he says, Except ye become as these little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven; except you nourish yourselves with catechistical, and fundamental doctrines, you are not in a wholesome diet. Now in this catechism, the first stone that David lays, (and that that supports all) the first object that David presents, (and that that directs to all) is blessedness; David's catechism; Blessed is the man.

Philosophers could never bring us to the knowledge, what this summum bonum, this happiness, this blessedness was. For they considered only some particular fruits thereof; and it is much easier, how high soever a tree be, to come to a taste of some of