sins; and then, for the gift to purify and cleanse from the dregs or remnants of sin. For these are the two things which make a man perfect (as righteous and holy before God), without any of our own preparations and satisfactions, and without that feigned repentance, which I have heretofore taught among the people, and which the Papists still teach. For there is only one ground of justification:-the merit of Christ, or free mercy: which, hearts touched with the fire of the Holy Spirit, apprehend by faith. But if any one will, he may consider the acknowledgment of sin as a secondary cause, or, as the learned say, a cause sine quâ non; because, it is a cause only in this way;-that the whole matter still depends on the mercy of God, or on the promise; seeing that, God has promised, that he will have mercy upon those who acknowledge their sins and thirst after righteousness. For, with respect to sin itself in its nature, there is nothing due even to the sensible sinner, (as we have before called him,) according to all law and nature, but punishment and the highest indignation. And that such escape punishment and wrath, is wholly of the mercy of God; who has declared in his promises, that his will is to revive, by a free remission of sin, those who feel their sins and the terrors of divine judgment.

There is nothing, therefore, that can in any way be alleged in behalf of merit. Because, even the acknowledgment of sin is nothing, but in proportion as the Divine promise revives. For when sin is brought home by conviction, and revealed by the Holy Spirit, so that David feels deeply in his mind, not his adultery only, but his whole nature utterly deformed by sin; in this state, if there be nothing to look to but our own satisfaction, David must be overwhelmed by a fear of the judgment of God, and with despair; as I have often learnt by my own experience in the monasteries. There were proposed to us satisfactions, and an accurate confession of all our sins, but still the conscience was not in peace. We were advised to take the hooded cloak, but the same agonies of mind remained even under the hooded cloak which we suffered before: we cast away the

hooded cloak again, but it was just the same. And I find by experience, through the tender mercy of God, that the most certain and most effectual remedy is this:-to know, or to believe, that God's good-will is, to pardon those who are terrified at their sins, and that he commands such to hope for the remission of sins. And David shews, by his own example, that this promise was the only ground upon which he implored mercy, and the gift of the Spirit by which he might be purified. Therefore, about the reasoning part of the matter there is here no mention made, viz. whether or not the knowledge of sin be the first ground, upon which the remission of sins is merited. For sin is sin, and in its nature merits punishment, whether you acknowledge it or acknowledge it not. But the acknowledgment of sin is a kind of accompanying requisite; because, God's will is to pardon those who acknowledge their sins, and he will not pardon those who do not acknowledge their sins. The promise, therefore, is the only ground, the first, the medium, and the ultimate ground; that is, it is the whole ground of our justification. It is to this promise that David looks, when he saith, "For I know my iniquity." As though he had said, I do not allege it as any merit that I acknowledge my sin, but I confess before thee, that I therefore acknowledge my sin, &c., because thou hast promised grace to those who do acknowledge their sin.

The term "to know" is, in the Hebrew, of a far more extensive signification than in any other language: for it signifies, to feel and to know by experience what a thing is in its nature. Hence, the scripture saith of Adam, that he "knew his wife;" that is, he knew her by sensible and actual intercourse. So, it is said of God, that he knoweth not the proud: that is, he does not intimately regard, he does not promote them.

So it is used here, "For I know my iniquity." As though he had said, I am come into that state, that it is time for mercy and help: for I am become, from an insensible a sensible sinner, who now know sin and the judgment of God; that is, I truly feel them. And this

feeling sense is the very death of nature, unless thoughts of peace and a knowledge of the mercy of God, be handed in by the Holy Spirit - that God does not will to destroy such sinners.

Here it is that we have need of those scriptures, which, without doubt, the holy Fathers had in continual meditation:—that the Lord saith, Deuteronomy ix., although he there speaks of temporal mercies, "Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess the land of the nations," &c. Again, "I am the Lord who blotteth out thy iniquities," Isaiah xliii. And again, "As I live, I desire not the death of a sinner, &c." Ezekiel xxxiii. Here it is that we have need also of examples :-that God, when the Ninevites repented, that is, when they humbled themselves under an acknowledgment of their sins, recals his sentence, and says, "I will not destroy them," Jonah iii. Again, that he pardons Ahab, whom he had threatened with the destruction of his family, and says to the prophet, "Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself?" From these histories arises this theology and knowledge of God:-that God is the God of the humble, the afflicted, and the

poor, who know themselves that they are sinners, and who so fear God as yet to have a hope in his mercy stronger than their fears. Such scriptures and examples as these, the holy Fathers under the law no doubt knew very well and held them very dear.

Our devoted ones, however, have made up an excellent simile out of Moses, Deut. xxiv.; where he commands, that no one shall take at the same time the nether and apper millstone to pledge, lest the debtor should be in danger of being deprived of his food. This they have applied thus; that God does not will that nothing but wrath should be felt; but wills, that the sense of wrath should be intermingled with the sense of grace; according to that scripture, "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in his mercy : : " and that it in this way, that David prays to be pardoned, when he says, "For I know my iniquity."-What is that to e! God might say. If thou knowest thy sin, and there

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fore sorrowest in thy heart, thou hast the fruit of thy doings. And it is in this way that the law would answer, and would leave the man to perish under the sense of his sins. For the judge acts thus, who always joins the punishment with the confession of the crime. But the will of God is, not to be a judge; and therefore, he has taken away the Law by the preaching of the Gospel; in which he declares, that for him, the punishment is enough, when the heart, which was before secure under sin, is afflicted and in self-despair. Not because there is any merit in acknowledging sins, but because he has in his promises declared it to be his will to pardon those who do acknowledge their sin, and to be wrath with those sinners only who do not feel their sins, but who either presume upon their own strength and desire to be justified by their own merits, or sin in security according to the desires of the flesh, without the fear of God. But these gross sinners are yet better than those, who cover their sins with a double cloak by trusting in their own powers and rejecting mercy.

David here acts far differently. He prays for pardon for no other reason, than because he is a sinner and sees his own helplessness. Even as a beggar who comes to any rich man, in whose liberality he has cherished a hope. That rich man, if he give any thing to the beggar, does not give it as the reward of any merit, for what can he merit who deplores his poverty? but he gives it of his own free liberality being moved with mercy.

And my sin is ever before me.

That is, it lays heavy upon my heart, it presses me down, I cannot get entirely free from it.-But here, take care that you understand him not as speaking of his actual sin. The prophet has his whole life, together with all his most holy works and righteousness in his view; and feels, that all these are of no service to him whatever unless mercy reach him. So they say of Bernard, a man of eminent piety, that he uttered these as his last words, I have lived to no purpose!' This is to have

sin in view indeed, not one or the other evil action, but sin universally, the whole nature with all its powers, together with all the righteousness and wisdom of the flesh; because, all these, in the judgment of God, are nothing; and Bernard with David, and David with all the saints, may say, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord."

Sadoletus understood this as referring to the actual sin: but this was, because he did not know how to set forth any better the great righteousness taught by the true theology. For these things do not stand in elegant language, but in exercise and experience, as the illustrious examples of David and of other saints in the holy scriptures abundantly show; of which things, Sadoletus knew nothing at all. But I enforce these things the more diligently, because I know by experience, how difficult it is to beat them into those who have been brought up in that scholastic theology. And we have need of this experience, not for ourselves only, but for others also, who require consolation under a like sense of sin. For when sin is thus placed in view, the mind does not dare to lift itself up, but always sings to itself this strain-Thou art a sinner, therefore God hates thee. This conclusion is true in nature, in the court of civil law, and in all human matters. Here, truly, the conclusion is just, when you say, Thou art a sinner in this and that crime, therefore the king and the judge hate thee, &c. But of this thou must beware as the most deadly poison and pestilence of Satan,-that thou transfer not this conclusion from the civil court to the tribunal of Christ. For there the conclusion is not just, Thou art a sinner, therefore God hates thee: for the right conclusion is this, Thou art a sinner, therefore trust: for God's goodwill is towards such sinners who feel their sins. Were it not so, no one could be saved, not even the apostles and the prophets; because, "God hath included all under sin;" but for this end, "that he might have mercy upon all."

If, therefore, thou acknowledge that thou art under sin, if thou tremble, if thou art troubled with a sense of

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