It is not said that Satan tempted David when he committed adultery with Bathsheba: he needed none of the Devil's temptations to this iniquity, because his own appetites inclined him -strongly enough without them. But when men do not restrain their lusts and passions from pursuing forbidden pleasures, it is but just in God to let their enemy, Satan, loose upon them. This is the most severe judgment that can possibly happen to any one; for it is suffering them to punish themselves, by committing one sin, because they have resolutely committed another. Nothing can be a severer punishinent, than to be given up to Satan, and to be led captive by him at his pleasure. You smile, my Lords; but it is indeed a sad case, and was, on this occasion, the case of the king of Israel. I wish it may be your case, either now or hereafter. If you have committed crimes wilfully, and contrary to God's law and the conviction of your own minds, you may expect that some such punishment as this will befall you. If once the adversary gets the direction of your minds, God knows where he may drive you. You see what a pass he brought David and Israel to.

But what could be David's real intention in numbering the people? There is one capital reason which might be a motive with him, and I shall submit it to your Lordships. He intended to raise money by a new tax, and wanted to know who were able to contribute towards it. He might mean a capitation tax, or perhaps a tax upon houses; and this was a sure method to know the whole extent of what could be raised. But this thing displeased the Lord, who does not desire king's officers to peep in at every one's door, to know the whole amount of what God has given them. It is always when monarchies are going backwards, or come to their summit, that such schemes are fallen upon. Virtuous and frugal nations need none of Satan's devices to help them. It is when the lusts of men are extravagant, that the Devil comes in to their aid, to help them to raise taxes. If men would live virtuously, there would be no more occasion for places and pensious about courts, than David, on this occasion, had for the adversary to stir him up to number the people.

But let us see what a figure the king of Israel makes, when the prophet came with a message from the Lord to him, desiring him to choose one of three things. Three terrible things indeed! but very suitable for the purpose of humbling the king's pride in glorying in the multitude of bis subjects:-seven years famine; to flee three months before the enemy;-or, three days pestilence. Which, my Lords, would you have chosen? Neither the first nor the last of these, I verily believe. Hunger you could neither abide nor endure, you have been so long accustomed to fulness and affluence; the pestilence you could not expect to ward off, for it carries away the great as well as the small. The chance of war would have been your choice, because you would have imagined that in three months time

thirteen

thirteen hundred thousand men would have made a good resistance, and you yourselves could have stayed away from the battle, and suffered the people to have taken their chance. It was, no doubt, my Lords, a pinching point. It truly was so; but David made the wisest choice. He knew the Lord was merciful, and that, when no second causes operated, he never went to extremities. Had David joined battle with some powerful enemy, an hundred, nay, four hundred thousand might have fallen in one day; and in three months how many, think ye, might have fallen? The Jewish month consisted of thirty days; now, suppose there had been thirty battles in three months, there might have been twelve millions of people slain, which are more than there were in all Israel.

When the passions of mankind are made use of by God as a mean to execute his judgments, such judgments are always more severe than if the Almighty had executed them himself. His mercies are great, and that David knew. The Lord took a small sample of the people, to let the king and the nation know that he was just, and would be obeyed. What were seventy thousand men to what might have been, and deserved to be, destroyed? Seven years famine, or three months war, might have depopulated the whole nation. The king of Israel knew too well what mischief war could do; he avoided war by all means:-and famine, being a lingering and wasting evil, in which even men might have some hand also, he did not choose it :-but, says he, "let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great." Thus he had no claim but mercy-a claim, of all others, the most strong, and in which the Almighty takes the greatest pleasure.

But let us now consider David's great strait, and see how he was delivered out of it. What pinched him hard was, that his heart smote him for his guilt in numbering the people; his conscience reproved him sharply, because somebody or other would certainly suffer by the choice the king should make. He had not only fallen into a scrape himself, but he had brought all the nation into it along with him. The nation appears to have given countenance to this foolish whim of the king. They seem to have been something like those people who are as proud of royal magnificence as kings are themselves. How many foolish subjects boast in the glory of their grand monarch, and, when he is treating them as mere slaves, rejoice in his greatness, and triumph in his magnificence. They glory in the armies he can raise, and boast in the number of his subjects. All Israel would probably be curious to know how many subjects, especially men of war, were in the nation; and every tribe would be glad to know his own strength. Thus the pride and vanity both of the king and the people would be mutual, though for different rea-sons but, with regard to both, it had the, appearance of trusting to an arm of flesh, and forgetting the extraordinary provi

dence

dence of God that preserved both the king and the people. David soon became sensible of this, and his conscience smote him, because he had led the nation into a'snare. They ought to have opposed him and all his officers; for unless there had been some law for the deed, they were not obliged to obey. Subjects make the sins of princes their own, when they give them countenance. It pinched David sore when he found the dilemma he was in, and the alternative he was brought to. Whichever way he determined, death was the issue, and the king himself was equally in danger as any of his subjects. There is still something of generosity in the king's temper: he was neither hardened in sin, nor gloried in what he had done; but when he saw his error, he was sorry for it, not so much on his own account, as on account of his people. There is something great and noble in that sentence, my Lords-" Let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me and my father's house; but as for these sheep, what have they done? He could not endure the thoughts of the people suffering on account of his pride and ambition. O, my Lords! I wish you would infuse this sentiment into the mind of your master, as far as your influence can. It is really worthy of a king-it deserves to be written in letters of gold. Many princes would never have thought of such a thing as this; they would have imputed the whole affair to some maliguity in the season, or second cause, which happened in the course of nature. But David saw the true cause, and confessed it," I have sinned, and done wickedly." The strait that David was in was the greater, as there was no punishment. My Lords, there was an angel of Jehovah employed in this affair, which made himself visible to David. These ministering spirits can perform strange things; they can not only bring the pestilence, but destroy whole hosts. An angel of the Lord destroyed in the camp of the Assyrians, in one night, an hundred fourscore and five thousand men.

It is a sufficient reason why all men who engage in a cause should consider whether or no it is the cause of God, or whether it is contrary to his moral will; for that cause which God is against cannot prosper, and those who promote it will be punished. And these angels, my Lords, are always ready at the nod of their Lord, to execute his will, and, though not always visible, have great power. No force is able to oppose them; they care nothing for trains of artillery, nor hosts in battle array. But even without these servants the divine rebuke will overturn a thousand immoral schemes. Hear what the Psalmist says: "There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Thou art more glorious than mountains of prey. The stout-hearted are spoiled; they have slept their sleep, and none of the men of might have found their hands. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both their chariot and horse ure cast into a deep sleep." In a word, there is nothing but embarrassments at

Psalm lxxvi, 4.

tend

But

Per

tend an ill cause. This David found in his present case. how was he delivered out of his strait and embarrassment? haps, my Lords, you will scarcely light upon the true cause. He was directed to offer a sacrifice, and to flee to the blood of atonement. A view of an atonement resolved all his doubts, and removed all his fears. My Lords, would you, when you are embarrassed with difficulties arising from your own sins, turn your views to the cross of Christ, you would find more relief than from all the consultations in the cabinet. For if you have sinned, as you dare not say you have not, this view would be the most likely means to change your hearts, and dispel all your fears. If you once looked truly upon Him whom you have pierced, you would mourn for what you have done, and would do so no more; and you would find a reason of hope in the work of Jesus, that would deliver you out of all your straits. You will, perhaps think this strange doctrine: but, my Lords, I could not conclude this Discourse without bringing in this subject; it is worth all that you ever will be worth in the world; and if you do not consider it seriously, I would not be in your places for ten thousand times your pensions. The Apostle tells you seriously," that it is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanseth from all sin." David never was relieved from his straits till he was directed to take a view, through a typical sacrifice, of the atonement of the Messiah who was to come. You have an advantage over the king of Israel: "All things written in Moses and the prophets concerning Christ are fulfilled;"-and you can read these blessed words, " It is finished. Were you to study this glorious subject, it would make very different men of you, and deliver you both from your guilt and blunders; you would shake hands with the kingdoms of this world, and bid farewell to all wars and fightings. Amen.

SERMON

SERMON X.

2 CHRONICLES, iv. 2.

And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, O Lord, it is nothing with thee to help with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name go against this multitude. So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.

AS

SA, king of Egypt, was on this occasion in a great strait, but nothing like that which David was in. Asa had only a great host of Ethiopians to contend against; but David had the Lord for his enemy. When the Almighty is on the side of a nation, no host can subdue it. An host of a thousand thousand men, with three hundred chariots besides, came against Judah. What a prodigious army was this, my Lords? Your ten thousands, and five thousands, and twelve thousands, were nothing when compared to this host. Such a number of men were fit to eat up a whole continent. The king of Judah had scarcely half the number when he went out against them; and it would appear that he did not trust to the valour of his troops, or to their being better skilled in war than their enemies. He took a better method; he betook himself to the Lord of Hosts. This, in our times, would be accounted weakness in a prince; and his nobles would laugh at him, were he to whine and pray in the manner Asa did. It is highly probable he would be called a coward. But, what is very extraordinary, we do not read in all Scripture of a people who turned to the Lord, and put their trust in him, were ever defeated by their enemies; nor do we, in any one instance, hear of a people that put their trust in the Almighty till they were convinced of their sin and error. There are some instances of people performing acts of devotion when they were in distress, and yet at the same time they cleaved to their iniquities; but this was never attended with any good consequences. The people of Israel fasted and performed many acts of devotion in the days of the prophet Isaiah; but they continued to commit acts of oppression, and to live in pride and luxury. It was otherwise in the days of this king of Judah: the whole nation reformed, and turned to the Lord, and the Lord was with them. The state of the nation before the reign of Asa was very like some modern nations in Europe. Azariah, the son of Ŏbed, gives a melancholy account of the state of the nation before Asa came to the throne:

"Now