do the law as to the substance of the act, but not as to the intention of the law-giver: seeing that, according to the intention of the law-giver, not the work only is required, but that disposition of the heart which is called grace.' This is as if I should say-that he who is able in both hands and feet can rightly perform his duty, but is hindered from so doing, because he is not at the same time clad in a black or white gown. According to this therefore they plainly say, that God requires something beyond the ten commandments; and is not contented with a man's fulfilling those ten commandments, but requires moreover a disposition of heart. But all these enormities have arisen from this-their not rightly knowing what sin is. And I have for this end mentioned these things, that we may see how wide a difference there is between our sound doctrine and that enormous and lying doctrine of the Pope.

What we say is—that things by nature are utterly corrupt. For Adam, when he was created, had a right will and understanding. He heard rightly, he saw rightly, and rightly managed all earthly things in faith and to the praise of God. But since the fall, the will, the understanding, and all the natural faculties are corrupt; so that, man is no longer upright, but warped by sin; he has lost his right judgment in the sight of God, and does every thing perversely and contrary to the will and law of God; he no longer knows God and loves him, but flees from him and dreads him, and saith in his heart that he is not God, that is, merciful and good, but a judge and a tyrant.

From this loss of the knowledge of God, arise other sins in numbers infinite; for men in their prosperity sin with all security; as do our adversaries, who persecute the Word of God from a confidence in their own power, and then imagine that God is of such a nature, that they can, by their diligence and devotion, gain him over and reconcile him to them

for that is what the Hebrew word signifies. It does not signify, as the Pope teaches, calling to your recollection what you have done or what you have omitted,' but feeling the intolerable burthen of the wrath of God. The knowledge of sin, is the very feeling of sin; and a sinner, is one who is distressed in his conscience, and stands anxiously alarmed, not knowing which way to turn himself.

We are not, therefore, here speaking of the philosophical knowledge of man, which defines man to be a rational animal, &c. These things are physical, not theological. It is in this way, that the lawyer speaks of man, as the possessor and lord of his property. It is in this way, that the physician speaks of man as sick and in health. But the theologian speaks of man as a sinner. This is the nature of man in theology, and the theologian treats of this nature as corrupted by sin, to the end that man might feel it. And when that takes place, desperation follows, which thrusts the man down to hell. For what can that man do in the sight of a just God, who feels that his whole nature is overwhelmed with sin, and no power left him whereby he can make himself better, but is reduced to a state utterly destitute of all righteousness?

When these things are thus truly felt in the mind, then ought to follow that other part of knowledge, which must also, not be speculative, but wholly experimental and sensibly felt-the man must hear and learn what grace is, what justification is, and what the will of God is concerning a man thus cast down to hell,-to raise him up and restore him through Jesus Christ. Here the mind that was cast down, is again raised up for according to this doctrine of grace, he with joy concludes thus-if I be a sinner in myself, I am not a sinner in Christ, who was made righteousness for such as me; but I am righteous and justified by righteous and justifying Christ, who is therefore

called the "justifier," because he is so to sinners, and was sent for sinners.

These are the two parts of theological knowledge, of which David treats in this Psalm. So that the subjectmatter of the Psalm, is the theological knowledge of man, and the theological knowledge of God; that no one might think of Majesty only, that is, what God can do and how powerful he is; and that no one might think of man as the lord of his possessions, as the lawyer does; nor of man sick or in health, as the physician does; but of man as a sinner. For the proper subject of theology, is Dan as guilty on account of sin and lost, and God the Justifier and Saviour of man as a sinner. Whatever is sought for, or disputed on, beyond or out of this subjectmatter in theology, is error and poison. For it is to this, that the whole scripture tends to commend the goodness of God towards us, who wills by his Son, to restore nature fallen into sin and damnation, to righteousness and life.

Here, nothing is treated of concerning this corporeal life, what food we are to use, what employment we are to undertake, how our families are to be managed, how our land is to be tilled, &c. These things were all settled before, when man was in paradise, and were given into the hands of men, when God said, "Rule ye over the Eshes of the sea, and the fowls of the air." But here the subject is concerning a future and eternal life, concerning God the Justifier, the Restorer, the Reviver, and concerning man, fallen from righteousness and life, into sin and eternal death. He who keeps this in view in reading the Holy Scriptures, will read these sacred things with profit.

This theological knowledge therefore, is necessary that a man might know himself; that is, that he might know, feel, and experience, that he is guilty of sin and subject to death. And then, that he might know also and experience the contrary,-that God is the Justifier and Redeemer of the man who thus knows himself. As to all the rest of men who do not know. their sins, let us leave them to lawyers, to physicians, and to parents: for these

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treat of man in a different way from a theologian.-I now come to the Psalm.

VERSE 1.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy great loving-kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions..

Here, first of all, an observation must be made upon David's addressing God, and making no mention of Christ; lest you should imagine, that David addresses God as a Mahometan, or any other of the Gentiles, would do.-David is here addressing the God of his fathers as a promising God. For the people of Israel did not view God as an absolute God, (so to speak,) in the same way as the ignorant herd of Monks ascend into heaven in their speculative imaginations, and view God as absolute. From this absolute God all ought to flee who would not perish; because, human nature, and an absolute God, (I make use of this commonly used term for the sake of instruction,) are the most hostilely opposed to each other; and it cannot be, but that human infirmity must be overwhelmed with such awful Majesty; as the scripture continually teaches.

Wherefore, let no one here understand David as addressing an absolute God.-He addressess God as clothed and revealed in his Word and promises, that Christ might not be excluded from the name God, concerning whom God made the promise unto Adam and the other patriarchs. It is this God, not as naked, but as clothed and revealed in his Word, that we must apprehend, or certain despair will fall upon us.

And this distinction must ever be made between the prophets, and the Gentiles, addressing God. The Gentiles address God out of the Word and promises, according to the imagination of their own hearts. But the prophets address God as clothed and revealed in his Word and promises. This God, under so merciful a form, and (so to speak) wearing so sweet a mask, that is, his pro

es, can be apprehended and looked upon by us with jov and confidence. Whereas, on the other hand, an absolute God is as a brazen wall, upon which we cannot run without our destruction. And therefore, that which Satan aims at day and night, is, to put us upon going to meet a naked God; so that, forgetting the promises, and good-will of God revealed in Christ, we might think only of God and the judgments of God. And whenever that is the case, we are undone directly, falling into despair.

Hence it is, that David does not address an absolute God, but he addresses the God of his fathers; that is, the God of whose promises he had a knowledge, and whose mercy and grace he sensibly felt.-When therefore any Turk, hypocrite, or Monk says, "Have mercy upon me, O God," it is as if he said nothing at all; because, he does not apprehend God on whom he calls, in that view and under that form which is brought down to our conceptions, but he apprehends and runs upon God in his absolute power; whence follow, of necessity, despair and a fall from heaven down to hell like that of Lucifer. This, therefore, is the reason why the prophets so leaned upon the promises of God in their prayers; because, the promises include Christ, and render God not our judge, or our enemy, but a kind and favouring God; whose will is, to restore the condemned unto life, and to save them.

I thought it right to make this observation first of all, on account of many other passages in the prophets. And now, this is also to be considered, how that agrees where he saith, "Have mercy upon me, O God." -Here, if you consider the persons between whom this intercourse is going on, God, and the sinner David, there will appear to be the greatest dissimilitude and an unalterable contradiction. And is not this the sensible impression on the mind of all nature, and the judgment of all men-that God hates sin? As the blind man saith, John ix., "We know that God heareth not sinners, but he heareth them that fear him and do his will." It is written also in the Ten Commandments, "I am a jealous God." Nay, throughout nearly the whole