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all sinners are misled, by that transformed angel of light. The action is that we must regard, not the person. Let the mover be never so glorious, if he stir us to evil, he must be entertained with defiance.

The God, that knows how to raise good out of evil, blesses an adulterous copulation with that increase, which he denies to the chaste embracements of honest wedlock. Bathsheba hath conceived by David; and now at once conceives a sorrow and care, how to smother the shame of her conception: he that did the fact must hide it.

O David, where is thy repentance? Where is thy tenderness and compunction of heart? Where are those holy meditations, which had wont to take up thy soul? Alas! instead of clearing thy sin, thou laborest to cloke it; and spendest those thoughts in the concealing of thy wickedness, which thou shouldest rather have bestowed in preventing it. The best of God's children may not only be drenched in the waves of sin, but lie in them for the time, and perhaps sink twice to the bottom. What hypocrite could have done worse, than study how to cover the face of his sin from the eyes of men, while he regarded not the sting of sin in his soul?

As there are some acts, wherein the hypocrite is a saint, so there are some, wherein the greatest saint on earth may be a hypocrite. Saul did thus go about to color his sin, and is cursed. The vessels of mercy and wrath are not ever distinguishable by their actions. He makes the difference, that will have mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth.'

It is rare and hard to commit a single sin. David hath abused the wife of Uriah; now he would abuse his person, in causing him to father a false seed. That worthy Hittite is sent for from the wars; and now, after some cunning and far-fetched questions, is dismissed to his house, not without a present of favor. David could not but imagine, that the beauty of his Bathsheba must needs be attractive enough to a husband, whom long absence in wars had withheld all that while from so pleasing a bed; neither could he think, that, since that face and those breasts had power to allure himself to an unlawful

Just, it could be possible, that Uriah should not be invited by them, to an allowed and warrantable fruition.

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That David's heart might now the rather strike him, in comparing the chaste resolutions of his servant with his own light incontinence, good Uriah sleeps at the door of the king's palace; making choice of a stony pillow, under the canopy of heaven, rather than the delicate bed of her, whom he thought as honest as he knew fair. The ark,' saith he, and Israel, and Judah, dwell in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, abide in the fields; shall I then go into my house to eat, and drink, and lie with my wife? By thy life, and by the life of thy soul, I will not do this thing.'

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Who can but be astonished at this change; to see a soldier austere, and a prophet wanton! And how doth that soldier's austerity shame the prophet's wantonness! O zealous and mortified soul, worthy of a more faithful wife, of a more just master, how didst thou overlook all base sensuality, and hatedst to be happy alone! War and lust had wont to be reputed friends. Thy breast is not more full of courage than chastity; and is so far from wandering after forbidden pleasures, that it refuseth lawful.

'There is a time to laugh, and a time to mourn; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embracing.' Even the best actions are not always seasonable, much less the indifferent. He, that ever takes liberty to do what he may, shall offend no less, than he that sometimes takes liberty to do what he may not.

If any thing, the ark of God is fittest to lead our tunes. Accordingly as that is either distressed or prospereth, should we frame our mirth or mourning. To dwell in ceiled houses, while the temple lies waste, is the ground of God's just quarrel. How shall we sing a song of the Lord in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning; if I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem to my chief joy.'

As every man is a limb of the community, so must he be affected with the estate of the universal body, whether

healthful or languishing. It did not more aggravate David's sin, that, while the ark and Israel was in hazard and distress, he could find time to loose the reins to wanton desires and actions, than it magnifies the religious zeal of Uriah, that he abandons comfort, till he see the ark and Israel victorious. Common dangers or calamities must, like the rapt motion, carry our hearts contrary to the ways of our private occasions.

He, that cannot be moved with words, shall be tried with wine. Uriah had equally protested, against feasting at home, and society with his wife; to the one, the authority of a king forceth him abroad, in hope that the excess thereof shall force him to the other. It is like, that holy captain intended only to yield so much obedience, as might consist with his course of austerity. But 'Wine is a mocker.' When it goes plausibly in, no man can imagine how it will rage and tyrannise. He, that receives that traitor within his gates, shall too late complain of surprisal. Like unto that ill spirit, it insinuates sweetly, but in the end 'it bites like a serpent, and hurts like a cockatrice.' Even good Uriah is made drunk. The holiest soul may be overtaken. It is hard gainsaying, where a king begins a health to a subject.

Where, oh where, will this wickedness end? David will now procure the sin of another, to hide his own. Uriah's drunkenness is more David's offence, than his. It is weakly yielded to of the one, which was wilfully intended of the other. The one was as the sinner, the other as the tempter.

Had not David known that wine was an inducement to lust, he had spared those superfluous cups. Experience had taught him, that the eye debauched with wine will look on strange women. The drunkard may be any thing, save good. Yet in this the aim failed. Grace is stronger than wine: while that withholds, in vain shall the fury of the grape attempt to carry Uriah to his own bed. Sober David is now worse than drunken Uriah. Had not the king of Israel been more intoxicate with sin, than Uriah with drink, he had not in a sober intemperance climbed up into that bed, which the drunken temperance of Uriah refused.

Div.

No. XXXI.

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If David had been but himself, how had he loved, how had he honored, this honest and religious zeal, in his so faithful servant; whom now he cruelly seeks to reward with death! That fact which wine cannot hide, the sword shall. Uriah shall bear his own mittimus unto Joab; 'Put ye Uriah in the fore-front of the strength of the battle, and recoil back from him, that he may be smitten and die.' What is become of thee, O thou good spirit, that hadst wont to guide thy chosen servant in his former ways? Is not this the man, whom we lately saw so heartsmitten, for but cutting off the lap of the garment of a wicked master, that is now thus lavish of the blood of a gracious and well-deserving servant? Could it be likely, that so worthy a captain could fall alone? Could David have expiated this sin with his own blood, it had been but well spent; but to cover his sin with the innocent blood of others, was a crime above astonishment.

Oh the deep deceitfulness of sin! If the devil should have come to David in the most lovely form of Bathsheba herself, and at the first should have directly and in plain terms solicited him to murder his best servant, I doubt not but he would have spit scorn in that face, on which he should otherwise have doted; now, by many cunning windings, Satan rises up to that temptation, and prevails: that shall be done for a color of guiltiness, whereof the soul would have hated to be immediately guilty. Even those, that find a just horror, in leaping down from some high tower, yet may be persuaded to descend by stairs to the bottom. He knows not where he shall stay, that hath willingly slipped into a known wickedness.

How many doth an eminent offender draw with him into evil! It could not be, but that divers of the attendants, both of David and Bathsheba, must be conscious to that adultery. Great men's sins are seldom secret. And now Joab must be fetched in, as accessory to the murder. How must this example needs harden Joab, against the conscience of Abner's blood; while he cannot but think, David cannot avenge that in me, which he acteth himself!

Honor is pretended to poor Uriah; death is meant. This man was one of the worthies of David. Their cou

rage sought glory, in the difficultest exploits. That reputation had never been purchased, without attempts of equal danger.

Had not the leader and followers of Uriah been more treacherous, than his enemies were strong, he had come off with victory; now, he was not the first or last that perished by his friends. David hath forgotten, that himself was in like sort betrayed in his master's intention, on the dowry of the Philistines' foreskins.

I fear to ask, Who ever noted so foul a plot in David's rejected predecessor? Uriah must be the messenger of his own death; Joab must be a traitor to his friend; the host of God must shamefully turn their backs on the Ammonites; all that Israelitish blood must be shed; that murder must be seconded with dissimulation; and all this to hide one adultery! O God, thou hadst never suffered so dear a favorite of thine to fall so fearfully, if thou hadst not meant to make him a universal example to mankind, of not presuming, of not despairing. How can we presume of not sinning, or despair for sinning, when we find so great a saint thus fallen, thus risen!2 Sam. xi.

NATHAN AND DAVID.

YET Bathsheba mourned for the death of that husband, whom she had been drawn to dishonor. How could she bestow tears enough on that funeral, whereof her sin was the cause! If she had but a suspicion of the plot of his death, the fountains of her eyes could not yield water enough to wash off her husband's blood. Her sin was more worthy of sorrow, than her loss. If this grief had been right placed, the hope of hiding her shame and the ambition to be a queen had not so soon mitigated it; neither had she, on any terms, been drawn into the bed of her husband's murderer. Every gleam of earthly comfort can dry up. the tears of worldly sorrow. Bathsheba hath soon lost her grief at the court. The remembrance of a husband is buried in the jollity and state of a prin

cess.

David securely enjoys his ill-purchased love; and is content to exchange the conscience of his sin, for the

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