St. Augustine also quotes from Politian a similar example of a Pretorian soldier, who, walking out with his comrade, found in a cottage into which he accidentally came, a book containing the life of the hermit Anthony, and when he had read a little in it, looking upon his friend, said, "To what are we taking so much pains to arrive? What do we seek? For what do we go through the fatigues of a military life? The highest of our hopes at court must be, to share some extraordinary degree of the emperor's favour; and how frail and dangerous that heart which holds the preference in I remember to have read of some military human nature, which may therefore be called officers, who crossing the Nile in the same the hyon, the governing part, there is boat with the two Macarii of Egypt, said nothing which gives light and gladness, be- to them, in allusion to their name, "You neath the eternal Father of lights and of are indeed happy who laugh at the world." spirits. He cherishes the languishing soul"Yes," said they, "it is evident that we with the rays of his love, and satisfies it are happy, not merely in name but in with the consolations of his Spirit, as with a reality; but you are unhappy, whom the kind of heavenly nectar or nepenthe, that world derides, as poor creatures whom it while it confides in his safety, lays all its sees entangled in its snares.' cares and fears asleep, and lulls it into deep peace, and calm sweet repose, without which, if the mind be a little agitated, no gentle breeze of harmony, no melody of birds or harp, can bring on the pleasing slumber, during which nevertheless the heart awakes. Oh happy man, who betakes his whole soul to God, and does not only choose him above all, but in the place of all, waiting only on him! Happy man who, having been chosen by him with preventing love and unmerited benignity, embraces his ample all-sufficient Creator for his inheritance, and his wealth; often repeating with sacred transport, Deus a situation is that! And through how meus et omnia! my God and my all! This is the man that has enough; and therefore, to allude to the words of the poet, "He is not disquieted by the raging of the sea, nor any severity of the seasons, whatever stars may rise and set. God fixes his gracious dwelling in the pure and holy soul, which has learned to despise the vanity of riches, and makes it calm in the midst of hurries, and secure in the deepest solicitudes. And not merely to find, but even to seek after God, is better to such a soul, inexpressibly better, than to possess the richest treasure, the most extensive empire, or to have all the variety of sensual pleasures waiting upon its beck. many other previous dangers must we pass to it; and how soon will all the advantages we can hope from it be over! But I may this moment, if I please, become the friend and favourite of God." And he had no sooner uttered these words, than they both resolved upon quitting the world, that they might give up all the remainder of their days to religion. Holy men in former ages did wonders in conquering the world and themselves; but we, unhappy, degenerate, drowsy creatures as we are, blush to hear that they did what we cannot or will not do. We are indeed inclined to disbelieve the facts, and rather choose to deny their virtues, than to confess our ovn indolence and cowardice. MEDITATIONS ON PSALM xxxii. VER. 1. Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, and whose sin is covered. 66 tween God and man, by our deplorable apostacy from him, there could not be the least OH! the pure, the overflowing, the in- hope of attaining that union, did not infinite comparably sweet fountain of Scripture ! goodness and mercy propose the full and free "Hence light we draw, and fill the Sacred cup; pardon of our offences. So that the true deterWhereas the springs of philosophy in human mination of this grand question about happiaffairs are not very clear, and in divine, they ness, is evidently this-Blessed and happy is are quite turbid and muddy; which one of that man whose transgression is forgiven, and whose sin is covered. Innocence was the greatest orators and philosophers among the first means of obtaining happiness; which them all freely confesses: "I think," says he, we are not only blind to true wisdom, being once violated, the only plank that can but are very dull and slow of apprehension save us after our shipwreck, is repentance even in those things which seem to be dis- and remission; which two things the whole cerned and understood." Nor is this to scripture assures us, that the Divine wisdom be wondered at; for there would be little has connected, as with an adamantine band. difference between things human and divine, And this Psalm which is now before us, is if the dim eye of our reason were sufficient a signal declaration of it, which since it in. to discover their secrets. One of the ancients culcates so grand a topic of religion, zugizs excellently says, “If you examine things, may well be styled as it is Maschil, ever so accurately, you will never be able to discover them if God keeps them veiled."+ It would be a vain and ridiculous labour to light up a great number of lanthorns and torches, and go out and look for the sun in the night; but when the appointed hour of morning comes, he rises, as of his own accord, and freely manifests himself by his own The wisest of the lustre, to every beholder. Heathens undertook to find out the Supreme Being, and the Supreme Good; but wandering through the devious ways of multiplied errors, they could attain to neither. Nor was it the least of their errors, that they sought them as two different things, when it is most certain that both are united in One. For it is the only and ultimate happiness of man to be united to that first and supreme Being and Good, from which he drew his original. But since there has sad a distance and disagreement arisen be Hinc lucem haurire est et pocula sacra. so + Mihi non modo ad sapientiam cæci videmur, sed ad ea ipsa, quæ aliqua ex parte cerni videantur, hebe tes et obtusi. SEN. * Αλλ' ου γαρ αν τα θεια κρυπτοντος Θεού a lesson of instruction: for as St. Augustine well observes, "That is instruction indeed, which teaches us that man is not saved by the merit of his works, but by the grace of God." Blessed.] Or O! blessed man! or O! the felicity of that man! and to denote the most entire, supreme and perfect blessedness.+ He only has attained to complete felicity, whose numerous debts are remitted; though far from being able to pay them, he blessed is he that knows it, as the proverb could not so much as reckon them up; and is, "No man is happy but he who thinks himself so." As the word is nesevi, it might be rendered, The man whose iniquity is forgiven.] Blessed is the man who is eased of the heavy burden of his sin. A burden indeed too burden so dreadfully great, that God's anheavy for the strongest man upon earth; a gels are not able to stand under it: for many Qua intelligitur non meritis operum, sed Dei gratia hominem liberari. As the elephant, to denote its vast bulk, is spoken of in the plural number Behemoth. Non est beatus qui se non putat. of the chief of them were pressed down to sion is entirely free, our Sponsor having taken hell by it, and can rise no more. But though upon him the whole business of paying the no giant on earth or in heaven could bear it, a ransom. His suffering is our impunity, his lamb subjected himself to it: but it was a lamb bond our freedom, and his chastisement our without blemish and without spot, burdened peace; and therefore the Prophet says, The with no load of his own sin, nor stained with chastisement of our peace was upon him, and the least spot of pollution. The Lamb of by his stripes we are healed. Distracted God, the Son of God, who is himself God, creatures that we are, to indulge those sins is he ὁ αίρων την ἁμαρτίαν του κόσμου, who which brought death upon our dear Re takes away all the sins of the world, as one deemer, and to be so cold in our affections to sin; taking the burden upon himself, he that Redeemer who died for these sins! bears it and carries it away. This weighty sentence, of itself so admiraCovered.] That sinners may more clear-ble, Paul renders yet more illustrious, by inly apprehend, and more easily and firmly be-serting it into his reasonings on the topic of lieve a thing which seems so difficult to ad- justification, as a celebrated testimony of that mit, as the free and full remission of sin, it great article of our faith. David, says he, is painted out by various beautiful expres- thus describeth the blessedness of that man, sions and figures in the sacred Scriptures-saying, Blessed is he whose iniquities are for. washing, cleansing, blotting out, scattering given. So that this is David's opinion conlike a cloud, entirely forgetting, casting into cerning true happiness; he says not, blessed the bottom of the sea, and here by that of are those that reign over kingdoms; blessed taking away and covering, and by that are those generals who are renowned for their phrase which explains both, of not imput-martial bravery and success, though he himing them; and this expression of covering self had both these titles to boast of. It is them, is with great propriety added to the not the encomiums of the greatest multitudes, former phrase of lightening the sinner of nor the breath of popular applause, nor any the burden of them: and that there may be other degree of human honour, which entitles no fear of their returning again, or coming a man to this character. It is not said, into sight, when God has not only taken the blessed is he who ploughs many thousand heavy load from our shoulders, but for ever acres of land, or who has heaped together hidden it from his own eyes, and the veil of mountains of gold and silver; not he who mercy has taken it away; that great covering has married a beautiful and rich woman, or, of divine love, which is large enough to over- which in his age, or even now in those eastspread so many and so great offences. Thus ern countries might be the case, he who was it does as it were turn away the penetrating possessed of many such; nor blessed is he eye of his justice, which the most secret ini- who understands the secrets of nature, or quity could not elude, did not he himself in even the mysteries of religion: but, Oh! pity voluntarily avert it. happy man whose sins are pardoned, and But you will know what is our propitia- to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, tory, what the covering of the mercy-seat, and in whose spirit there is no guile; even Jesus who was typified by that Caporeth whose breast is full, not of feigned repentin the temple, which the Septuagint renders ance, but of a fervent love of holiness, and Πλαστήριον επιθημα. a propitiatory cover-hatred of sin. This makes life happy, nay ing; by which title our great Redeemer absolutely blessed but alas! when we inis marked out, Rom. iii. 25, as the same Hebrew word Caphar signifies both to cover and to expiate.* But that the thing may be more evident and certain, the thought is repeated again in the second verse. culcate these things, we sing to the deaf. The ignorance and folly of mankind will not cease to pronounce the proud and the covetous happy, and those who triumph in successful wickedness, and who, in chase of these VER. 2. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord im-lying shadows of happiness, destroy their puteth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no days and their years, and their souls. guile. "Alas," says the wise Roman, "how little Aben-ezra paraphrases it, of whore sins do some who thirst most impatiently after God does not think, does not regard them, so glory, know what it is, or where to be as to bring them into judgment; reckoning sought!" which is equally applicable to them as if they were not, ou un λoyira, that true calm and serenity of mind which does not count or calculate them, or charge all pursue, but few are able to attain. But them to account; does not require for them as for us who enjoy the celestial instruction the debt of punishment. To us the remis- of this sacred volume, if we are ignorant of It is to be observed, the Hebrew words Eschol it, our ignorance is quite inexcusable, obstihaccopher, which some render a cluster of camphire, nate and affected, since we are wilfully blind Cant. i. 14, may with a little variation in the reading, i e. reading it, Ish col haccapher, be rendered, a man in the clearest and most refulgent light. This of all kinds of redemption, or of all expiation: so the points out that good which can completely Targum interprets it by expiation, and, by the way, some assert that this Psalm used to be sung on the day • Quam ignorant homines gloriæ cupidi, quæ ea sit of expiation. aut quemadmodum petenda! SEN fill all the most extended capacities of the ed as constituting any part of our justifying human soul, and which we generally seek righteousness before God, nor as only the for in vain on all sides, catching at it where condition or sign of our felicity, but truly it is not to be found, but ever neglecting it and properly a part of it. Purity is the acwhere alone it is But is it then possible at complishment of our felicity, begun on earth, and to be consummated in heaven: that pu rity, I say, which is begun here, and, shall there be consummated. But if any one think he can divide these two things, which the hand of God has joined by so inseparable a bond, it is a vain dream. Nay, by attempting to separate these two parts of happiness, he will, in fact, only exclude himself from the once to be solidly and completely happy? You have not merely the ideas of it, but the thing itself, not only clearly pointed out, but most freely offered, with divine munificence; so that if you do not obstinately reject the offer, it must be your own; and this happiness consists in returning to the favour and friendship of God, who most mercifully grants us the free pardon of all our sins, if we do whole. Jesus, our victorious Saviour, has with unfeigned repentance, and a heart free snatched us from the jaws of eternal death; of all guile, not only humbly confess and la- but to be delivered from the cruel tyranny ment them, but entirely forsake, and with and bonds of sin, and to be brought into the implacable hatred, for ever renounce them. blessed liberty of the sons of God, was anoΩ μακαρ, ευδαίμων τε na oλos-all the ther essential part of our redemption; and if names, all the variety of felicities, bliss, any one does not embrace this with equal and happiness, are accumulated on that alacrity and delight as the other benefit, he man who has known this change of the right is a wretched slave of the most mean and hand of the Most High, on whom this ignoble spirit; and being equally unworthy bright day of expiation and pardon has beam- of both parts of this stupendous deliverance, ed. He easily looks down from on high on he will justly forfeit and lose both. And all the empty titles and false images of earth- this is the epidemical Antinomianism of the ly happiness; and when he is bereaved of Christian world, because they who labour them all, yea, and beset on every side with under it have nothing but the name of Chriswhat the world calls misfortunes and afflic- tians; they gladly hear of the pardon of tions, ceases not to be happy. In sorrow he their sins and the salvation of their souls, is joyful, in poverty rich, and in chains free; while they are averse to the doctrine of holi. when he seems buried deep, so that not oneness and repentance. It is a disagreeable ray of the sun can reach him, he is surround- message, a hard saying, and who can bear ed with radiant lustre; when overwhelmed it? But oh! the incomparable charms of with ignominy, he glories; and in death it- holiness! to be desired not only for the sake self he lives, he conquers, he triumphs. of other benefits, which come in its train, bat What can be heavy to that man, who is eased of the intolerable burden of sin? How animated was that saying of Luther, "Smite, Lord, smite; for thou hast absolved me from my sins!" Whose anger should he fear who knows that God is propitious to him, that supreme King, whose wrath is indeed the messenger of death, but the light of his countenance is life; who joys all by the rays of his favour, and by one smile disperses the darkest cloud, and calms the most turbulent tem-pest? especially for itself: so that he who is not transported with a most ardent love to it, is blind, and deserves to be thrust into the mill, to tread that uncomfortable round, and to grind there; deserves to be a slave for ever since he knows not how to use liberty when offered to him. Shall the Stoic say, "The servant of philosophy is truly free;”• and shall we scruple to assert the same concerning pure religion and evangelical holiness? Now this freedom from guile, that fair simplicity, of which the Psalmist speaks, is deBut we must now observe the complica- servedly reckoned among the chief endowtion of a two-fold good, in constituting this ments of a pure soul, and is here named infelicity; for we have two things here con- stead of all the rest, as nothing is more like nected, as conspiring to make the person to that God who inspects the very heart; in spoken of blessed: The free remission of nothing do we so much resemble him; and sin, and the inward purification of the heart. therefore it is most agreeable to him, because This simplicity, apiλorns, is a most ex-most like him. He is the most simple of cellent part of purity, opposed to all wicked- all beings, and is indeed truth itself, and ness and arts of deceit : and, in common therefore he desires truth in the inward speech, that which is simple, and has no parts, and hates a heart and a heart, as the foreign mixture, is called pure. Pardon Hebrew phrase is to express those that are presents us as just and innocent before our double-hearted. And how much our blessJudge; and that sanctity is not to be regarded Redeemer esteems this simplicity, we may Alluding to Ps. lxxvii. 10, where the vulgate renders Seuih change, mutatio destræ Excelsi, and seve ral other versions nearly agree with it. + Feri, Domine, feri; nam a peccatis absolvisti me. learn from the earnestness with which he inculcates it upon his disciples, that they should be simple as doves, Matth. x. 16. * Qui philosophie inservit, est verè liber. We may also learn it from the honourable ing of dogs; according to that expression of testimony he bears to his character in Na-Hosea vii. 14, They have not cried unto thanael, when he pronounces him, John i. me with their heart, when they howled upon 47, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is their beds. A dog howls when he is hungry, no guile; and especially from his own per-cr when he is lashed: but from a son, when fect example, as it is said of him, 1 Pet. ii. he is chastened, acknowledgments of his 22, He did no sin, neither was guile found fault, and deprecations of his father's disin his mouth. Perhaps the Psalmist might pleasure, are expected; and when the son the more willingly mention this virtue, as he thus acknowledges his offence, and intreats reflected with penitential distress on his crafty for pardon, it is the part of a compassionate and cruel attempt of covering that adultery father to forgive, and to spare. Nor do we which he had committed with the veil of indeed confess our offences to our Father, as murder. But, however that was, it is cer- if he were not perfectly acquainted with tain, that this guileless sincerity of heart them, but we fly to him who requires we holds the first rank in the graces that attend should repent, that he may not shew us by true repentance. It may be sometimes our punishment, those things which we avoid duty to open our sins to men, by an ingenu- shewing to him by confession. "I confessous confession; but it is always our duty to ed unto the Lord," says Augustine, "to do it to God: who promises to cover them whom all the abyss of my sin and misery lay only on this condition, that we do sincerely open so that if I did not confess whatever uncover them ourselves. But if we affect was hidden in my heart, I should not hide that which is his part, he will, to our un-myself from him, but him from me."* speakable damage, do that which he had as- Thy hand was heavy upon me.] That signed to us. If we hide them, he will bring them into open light, and will discuss and examine each with the greater severity. "He," says Ambrose," who burdens himself, makes his error so much the lighter." "In proportion to the degree," says Tertullian, "in which you are unwilling to spare yourself, God will spare you."+ But what madness is it to attempt to conceal any action from him, from whom, as Thales wisely declares, "you cannot so much as conceal a thought!" But, not now to insist upon the impossibility of a concealment, a wise man would not wish to cover his wounds and his disease from that physician, from whose skilful hand he might otherwise receive healing; and this is what the Psalmist present-deed cruel to himself; and when he has ly after, for our instruction, confesses. VER. 3. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long. WHILE he suppressed the ingenuous voice of confession, the continually increasing weight of his calamity extorted from him a voice of roaring; "while I would not speak as it became a guilty man, I was compelled even to bellow like a beast."§ Nevertheless, this wild roaring did not move the Divine compassion, nor atone his displeasure. VER. 4. For day and night thine hand was heavy upon me; my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. hand, which when pressing is so heavy, when raising, is so sweet and powerful, (Psalm xxxvii. 24,) and when scattering its blessings, so full and so ample, Psalm civ. 28. cxlv. 16. He would not at first be humbled by the confession of his iniquity, and therefore he is humbled by the weight of the hand of God. Oh powerful hand! beyond all comparison, more grievous than any other hand to press down, and more powerful to raise up. He who suppresses his sins without confessing them, HITHERTO that voice was wanting, to which the bowels of the father always echo back, the voice of a son full of reverence, and a ready to confess his errors; without which, cries and lamentations in misery, are no more regarded in the sight of God, than the howl Allevat errores ille qui se onerat. + Quantum tibi non peperceris, tantum tibi parcet Deus. † Ον ου λανθάνεις ουδε διανουμενος. Dum nolui loqui, ut hominem reum decet, mugire coactus sum ut brutum. Vulnus alit venis et cæco carpitur igne, Conceals an inward wound, and burns with secret fire. " Under the appearance of sparing, he is in drunk down iniquity, and keeps it within, and it is not covered by the Divine forgiveness, it is like a poison, which consumes the marrow in the midst of his bones, and dries casion more present pain to draw out the up the vital moisture. It may, perhaps, ocbut to neglect it, will occasion greater danger, point of the weapon which sticks in the flesh; and more future torment: nor will the dart fall out by his running hither and thither, but, on the contrary, as the poet expresses it with respect to the wounded deer, it fixes deeper and deeper.+ But the only healing herb that the sinner can find is true repentance and humble confession, not that which acknowledges sin in few slight words, when it has hardly lookproceeds from a previous, true and vivid comupon it and known it; but that which punction of soul, and is inseparably attended with renovation and purity of heart and ed Et tibi, Domine, cujus oculis nuda abyssus, quid occultum esset in me si non confiterer, non me tibi absconderem, sed te mihi. +- -Illa fuga sylvas saltusque peragrat |