afflicted, but offending people.

Though God

t;

withhold the rod of his chastisement for a time, though he prevent them by many ostensible mercies, to make them secretly and inwardly ashamed-though he sustain them under inward conflicts-soothe the anguish of their spirits, by the hope of pardon, by the testimony of Christ. yet at the appointed time, and he knows the most fit season, he visits their transgressions with stripes-and though he metes out the full measure of affliction in outward providences, to humble them, and shew his indignation against their sins; he supports them by the inward consolations of his Spirit, and a good hope through grace, that he will surely have mercy upon them, as he had on Ephraim, in the day of his rebukes. "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed, yea even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord." (Jerem. xxxi. 18-20.)

216

SERMON XV.

A SENSE OF PARDONING LOVE, THE ONLY SOURCE OF TRUE HAPPINESS IN GOD.

2 SAMUEL XV. 25, 26.

And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and shew me both it and his habitation. But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee, behold, here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him.

IN our last discourse from these words, we deposed, that the afflictions of David were twofold. He was chastened from within and from without; by the rebukes of God's providence in outward calamities-by the rebukes of God's Spirit in his inward trouble and anguish of soul. The tribulations of David, and his submissive conduct under them, have already been laid before you. We are now to consider his inward sorrows, from whence we shall learn, that a gracious soul, when

sin has made a breach thereon, is not more humbled under a sense of the guilt of it, than pierced by the demerit of it, and grieved for the loss of God's favour by it.

Afflictive though they may be, the providential visitations of God for sin are not so heart-rending, so peace-wasting, as the stings of a guilty conscience! A guilty conscience who can bear? By the outward rebuke, we see the righteous indignation of the Lord against sin; but by the inward torment, we are made to feel the evil and the bitterness of it. I speak here of the household of faith. The believer's happiness consists in the favour of God, in the love of Christ shed abroad in the heart, and the more advanced he is in the divine life, the more necessary it becomes to his peace-the more jealous he is over it, the more uneasy he is without it. And this will be more especially discovered when there has been any breaking out of sin, by his grief evinced at the loss of it, his anxiety to regain it, and the disconsolateness that prevails till it revive again. There is nothing that marks more unequivocally the genuine character of grace in repentance than this. Here that divine principle may be discerned from the inward workings of it-here is grace in its most lovely and powerful operations! It will not suffer a child of God to rest in his sin! neither will it allow him to settle in his

sorrow.

Time was, when minor evidences might suffice; but now nothing short of the peace of reconciliation, and a sense of healing mercy will satisfy the mind. Here is David with the assured promise, that God had put away his sin; that he should not die, but live eternally, an assurance at all times precious to the saints of God; but under present circumstances, not enough for David. Here is David, under a heavy weight of affliction, the rebukes of the Lord for the dishonour brought upon his holy name, yet subdued in his spirit, humble, passive, patient under the rod; but here is David also under the hidings of God's face, deprived of a sense of his favour, without the recognition of the love of God in his soul, without the joys of the divine complacency and delight. This he cannot endure; here he manifests a holy impatience of soul, a godly jealousy.

If a mere professor of religion under the pangs of a wounded conscience could be assured that God had put away his sin, and he should not be cast into hell, he would ask no more--it is all he covets as for the joys of pardoning love and healing mercy, the delights of God, he knows nothing of them, he heeds them not. For the pardon, he is anxious enough; for the healing, he cares little enough. But David will have healing as well as pardon: if he cannot find hap

piness in God, and that on the testimony of God himself, he refuses to seek it elsewhere, therefore says he, "Carry back the ark of God into the city"—if I have not the presence of God with me, the ark is to me nothing worth. "But if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord," then he will bring me back again to the ark, to the enjoyment of divine communion with him, in the tabernacle of God; but if not, "if he say, I have no delight in thee"-if the Lord will not receive me yet once again to his favour, and look upon me with complacency and delight, "let him do to me as seemeth good unto him," let him take my crown and my kingdom, lay mine honour in the dust. If by my humiliation, yea if by any the lowest degradation, I may justify the conduct of the Lord, vindicate his honour, shew forth his praise, and exemplify his righteous indignation against such sin and guilt as mine; let him do to me as seemeth good unto him. Here am I content to drain the cup of its bitterest dregs, ready to give up all, to bear all, to endure all, let me have only sealed upon my heart, the loving-kindness of the Lord.

But it may be here objected, when God pardons sin, does he not take away all iniquity? How then is it? When all iniquity is taken out of the way, does the displeasure of God remain behind? If God put away David's sins, why does he thus