that supreme facultie of the soul and mistresse of all the other for the will was once able to rule the affections and to hold them all in subjection it had a naturall power to love God and a naturall inclination carrying all her desires towards him But sin hath now wounded the will also and deprived it of those naturall perfections wherewith it was created it is now inclined to love the creatures and to desire and long after them more then after God Could wee but penetrate with our bodily eyes into the souls of men and behold all the severall acts of their wills wee should see an admirable diversity and multitude of desires but all fixt upon the creatures wee should see some desiring riches others honour others to spend their dayes in lust and pleasure we should see some transported with love others with jealousie wee should see an infinite number of desires but all pointed downwards towards transitory and earthly things How few are there whose desires fly upward Who is there that will say I desire to enjoy God though it cost me my lust my riches mine honour and all that I possesse The name of happinesse is pleasing to our ears but wee regard not the thing it selfe or at least we pursue the shadow whilest the substance flies from us our disordered passions do now so over-rule our wills that wee preferre lies before truth vice before vertue the vain delights of the body before the true and solid contentments of the mind wee preferre the spurious pleasures of our senses before those which are legitimate which vertue receives and approves Whilest wee should moderate our affections and establish a durable and lasting peace within our selves we rather give way to their disorders and suffer our happinesse to be interrupted by their excesse and riot Our wils are full of inordinate and unsatiable desires and are become soft and plyable to evill but hard and impenetrable to every good motion This is the third wound of the soul which is called Malitia duritas cordis malice and hardnesse of heart And yet this is not all Sin hath made another wound in the soule which troubles it worse then all the rest and that is in the conscience In the spirituall conflict between sin and the soul 1 King 22.34 the conscience may say like Ahab Take mee out of the battell for I am wounded There are two effects of sin macula reatus the stain of sin and the guilt of sin the stain of sin is that distemper and vitious inclination that sin leaveth behind it and this adheres to the faculties before mentioned The guilt of sin is the obligation to punishment that lies upon every sinner after hee hath committed it for as hee that breaks the provinciall laws and customes of any common-wealth is guilty of the punishment which the sanction and penalty of the law provides in that common-wealth so he that sins against God is guilty of the punishment appointed by his law and this guilt adheres to the conscience Thus sin hath wounded all the powers and faculties of the soul not by any positive acts as the Pelagians supposed a necessity but by depriving it of that originall justice wherewith it was created as a man may overthrow a building as well by taking away a pillar as by applying outward force The want of originall justice hath made the soul lame and imperfect hee that hath one leg shorter then another cannot chuse but halt and goe unequally in his naturall motion and the soul that is moved by Reason Affections tanquam à duobus pedibus inaequalibus as by two unequall legs cannot chuse but halt and goe unequally in its morall motion for whilest it follows the motion of its longer leg Reason it riseth towards heaven but whilst it follows the motion of its shorter leg the Affections it falleth towards the earth God to supply this inequality and defect created the soul with originall justice which did after a manner spiritualize the Affections and kept the whole soul in such a frame and temper that all her faculties moved towards heaven But man sinned and God as a just judgement took from him that originall justice that upheld his nature for want whereof the soul is fallen into that decay and become subject to those vvounds and defects that I have named This is every finners condition and this was Davids condition hee was wounded in all the powers and faculties of his soul he was wounded in his affections in his vnderstanding in his will and in his conscience and all these wounds were the effects of originall sin But David had yet more vvounds David had his personall and actuall sins which although they did not wound new faculties for originall sin had vvounded all before yet they made new vvounds but if I should undertake to shew you all those wounds I should undertake that which himself was not able to performe though more privie to his owne actions Psal 19.21 Who can tell saith hee how oft hee offendeth His words have the forme of a question but the force of a peremptory assertion for there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher speaks questions which have the force of affirmative or negative propositions and so hath this here Davids Quis intelligit is as much as Nullus intelligit and if no man can number his sins then surely no man can number the vvounds of his soule for every sinne is as deadly as the first it vvounds as deep though it vvounds not so many and these wounds vvere dangerous though but light in comparison of others for David had sins of presumption also sins against his knowledge and against his conscience but those sins vvhich made the vvorst vvounds and which he desires in my Text especially to have healed were his adultery and his murther In the next Psalm to my Text he complains of the bitternesse of those wounds Why art thou so full of heavinesse O my soul Psal 42.11 saith he and why art thou so disquieted within mee here was heavinesse and disquietnesse in his soul and all this the effect of those wounds His adultery and murther were sins of an high nature and most of all destructive to the soule Whoso committeth adultery with a woman saith Solomon lacketh understanding hee that doth it destroyeth his owne soul Prov. 6.31 Adultery you see destroyes the soul it wounds it mortally and murther is no lesse destructive then adultery Yee know saith Saint John that no murtherer hath eternall life abiding in him 1 John 3.15 This sin doth not onely deprive the soul of health but of life it selfe it kils the soul outright this made David complain My wickednesses are gone over mine head and are like a sore burden too heavie for mee to bear Psal 38.4 The cruell and unnaturall homicide sheds his brothers bloud and it falls upon the earth and the earth seems to drink it up and yet the word
if his repentance end where it begun it is a signe his will is not yet healed When good resolutions vanish like the morning-dew and are never put in execution what fruit can they produce but when resolutions and actions like the former and the later rain succeed one another in their due season they cause a fruitfull increase of glory and happinesse and it is an evident signe that the will is wrought upon by grace for that love that springs from grace makes the soule affectionate to God and carefull to abstain from all such actions as offend him When Israel came out of Egypt and the house of Jacob from among the strange people the sea saw that and fled Jordan was driven back Psal 114.1 3. The Israelites departure out of Egypt to worship God in the wildernesse was a type of mans conversion to God by love and the flight of the waters was a type of the flight of sin that follows upon it Ante retrorsum aquae conversae fuerunt nunc retrorsum peccata conversa sunt saith S. Ambrose upon that passage there the waters but here sins are driven backward there the course of the floud was stopped within its channell but here the course of sin is stopped in all the secret passages of the heart And this is the third thing to which Davids petition must be applyed namely to his will But Davids soule is not yet perfectly healed his conscience was wounded too and therefore in the last place this petition must be applied to his conscience Heal my conscience And here the manner of healing is something different from the former grace can heale the staine of sin but it cannot heale the guilt it can sanctifie but it cannot justifie the soule nothing can take away the guilt of sin but forgivenesse of sin but sin being forgiven the obligation to punishment is taken away then the conscience is healed and guilt is turned into innocence fear into gladnesse In the 102. Psalme David laments his own case very passionately My dayes are consumed away like smoak and my bones are burnt up as it were a fire-brand my heart is smitten downe and withered like grasse so that I forget to eat my bread For the voice of my groaning my bones will scarce cleave to my flesh c. In the 103. Psalme hee seems to rejoice as much and breaks forth into elogies of praise Praise the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy name Praise the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits What was it that transported him so suddenly from one passion to another If you read the Psalmes you shall soon see the cause his conscience was wounded when hee made the 102. Psalm and healed when he made the 103. Psalm his sins lay heavie upon his soule when hee made the one and were forgiven him when hee made the other As long as the guilt of sin disquieted his conscience not all the glory of his Kingdome nor the pomp of his Court not all the delights of Canaan though a land flowing with milk and honey could content his mind but when his sins were forgiven hee found a sudden alteration that heavinesse that possessed his heart vented it selfe and gave place to joy O Lord my God saith he I cryed unto thee and thou hast healed me Psal 30.2 And what ensued upon this Thou hast turned saith hee afterwards my heavinesse into joy thou hast put off my sack cloth and girded me with gladnesse That contentment of mind that tranquillity of conscience that circle of joy wherewith his soul was girt followed immediately upon the healing of his conscience and forgivenesse of his sins forgivenesse of sin is as proper to heale the guilt of sin as grace to heale the staine In the Scripture to heal sin and to forgive sin are termini aequipollentes termes which signifie the same things and are promiscuously taken the one for the other Return ye back-sliding children and I will heal your back-slidings Jer. 3.22 Here you see to heale their back-slidings is to forgive their sin And so again I have seen his ways and will heale him I will lead him also and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners Isa 57.18 I have seen his wayes and will heale him that is I have seen his sins and will forgive them But was not David healed before hee made this Psalm did not the Prophet Nathan tell him The Lord also hath put away thy sin 2 Sam. 12.13 He did but David being assured by the Prophet desired yet a greater assurance The richest of Gods saints alwayes suspect their owne poverty and think that which they have nothing in respect of that which they have not and of that which they desire to have David was healed the Lord had forgiven him all his sins and yet for all that hee desires still to be healed Let us then learn by Davids example to be thus carefull and solicitous to have our soules healed Pharaoh desired to be delivered from the plagues of Egypt but not from his hardnesse of heart Let us rather desire the last for the wounds of sin are the worst wounds The Scripture hath in many places very artificially painted out the nature of sin but it alwayes borrowes colours from noxious and hurtfull creatures it compares it to the basilisk to the viper to the asp whose poysonous qualities are destructive to the life of men And it hath also in many places allegorically expressed the nature of sin by many deadly diseases by the leprosie by the palsie by the bloudy-flux and sometimes by death it selfe in the abstract By these and many other expressions in the Scripture yee may learn the nature of sin and see how dangerous her wounds are if they be not healed Let us then doe as David did let us seek unto the Lord who is the Physician of our souls hee onely is able by his grace to heale the staine and by his mercy the guilt of our sins The time will not permit mee to enter into the last part of my Text I will therefore conclude all with that of the Prophet Jeremiah Heal us O Lord and we shall be healed save us and we shall be saved for thou art our praise FINIS PSALM 41.4 Heal my soul for I have sinned against thee I Have formerly begun to speak of these words in this place I divided my Text then as you may remember into three parts First here is Designatio partis vulneratae Davids discovery of the wounded part and that was his soul Heal my soul Secondly here is Petitio remedii his prayer and petition for a remedy and that was to be healed Heal my soul Thirdly here is Confessio causae his confession of the cause of those wounds and that was sin for I have sinned against thee I have already spoken of the two first parts where I shewed you the wounds of his soule and the manner how they were to be
and that David desired to have healed was his soul the principall and most excellent part of a man The Pelagians affirme that sin can no way wound the soul for being a bare privation it cannot have say they a positive and naturall act An errour directly opposite to my text De natura gratia cap. 19. Quid sanatur si nihil est vulneratum nihil sauciatum nihil debilitatum atque vitiatum Why doth David desire to have his soule healed if nothing in it were wounded nothing debilitated nothing corrupted it is S. Augustines inference out of these words The Polagians then were full of vain presumption or else David was full of vain fears But Davids fears were just and he spake these words out of experience and a deep sense of his own miseries For if wee descend into particulars wee shall see his soule had many wounds it had some as old as it selfe his soule was wounded as soon as it was created God gave him life and sin death at the same instant for David together with all mankind sinned in our first parents and was wounded in his soule by that originall sinne which hee derived from them Behold saith hee I was shapen in wickednesse and in sin did my mother conceive mee Psal 51.5 Here was a sin and therefore a wound at his first conception Apol. David lib. 1. cap. 11. Contra Julianum l. 6. cap. 7. S. Ambrose calls it naturale contagium a naturall contagion S. Augustine morbum languorem naturae the disease and languishment of nature And this wound was deep enough had he had no other for originall sin hath not onely wounded the soule but it hath wounded all her powers and faculties First it hath wounded the affections for whilest man stood in the integrity of his nature all his affections were regulated and governed by reason the superiour faculties of the soule exercised a kind of regall authority and jurisdiction over the inferiour and the inferiour did inviolably performe those duties that were required of them Man was like a perfect Common-wealth like Jerusalem that was built as a city that is at unity with it selfe but sin hath now so wounded the affections that they are no longer enclined or naturally able to execute the decrees of reason but as a ship is carried up and downe by the violence of the waves in a tempest at sea so a man is carried by the violence of his owne affections hee is driven by them as by strong and impetuous windes upon many rocks Now the inferiour faculties of the soule resist the superiour the affections like seditious Tribunes being alwayes ready to stir up commotions I see another law in my members saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 warring against the law of my mind Rom. 7.23 The affections are at warre with reason and force it oftentimes to stoop to their unreasonable and unjust commands This is the first wound of the soule which is called imbecilitas naturalis infirmitas imbecility and naturall infirmity Secondly It hath wounded the vnderstanding for the vnderstanding did naturally apprehend truth without difficulty and as the eye looketh upon a beautifull object so the vnderstanding looked upon truth with delight and pleasure and the more excellent and eminent the truths were the greater pleasure had the vnderstanding in the contemplation of them It was not subject to be deluded by the false insinuations of any affection but could upon deliberation clearly discern all naturall truths and as for those truths that were supernaturall and above its capacity as many of them as were necessary to be known were infused or revealed by God when he first created it But sin hath likewise so wounded the vnderstanding as it can hardly apprehend its first principles without difficulty Now reason like Achitophel takes part with rebellious Absolom the corrupt affections and is apt to represent things to the will not as they are in themselves but as the affections please Now the vnderstanding is filled with ignorance and obscurity and hath lost that knowledge that was revealed to our first parents and which should likewise have beene revealed to all their posterity together with the light whereby it was able to judge and discern supernaturall truths So that there is a double ignorance in the vnderstanding arising from a double defect and want in the soul The first kind of ignorance ariseth from want of sufficient revelation for naturally the vnderstanding cannot know the articles of faith God hath given to every thing a certain circuit and determinate sphere of activity beyond which it cannot passe as fire can heate to a determinate distance but cannot passe beyond that distance The vnderstanding hath a sphere of activity too it hath a naturall sufficiency to understand some truths such as are of the law of nature and such as it can come unto by the knowledge of the senses but cannot passe beyond them to those that are supernaturall The second kind of ignorance ariseth from want of evidence after sufficient revelation and is alwayes joyned with falshood or doubt Falshood ariseth from deception when the vnderstanding apprehends errour for truth in things speculative or in things practicall when it apprehends that goodnesse to be in some actions which is not and in others that goodnesse to be wanting which is in them Doubt ariseth from irresolution I speak not now of irresolution in matters of action which belong properly to the will but of irresolution in matters of judgement which belong to the vnderstanding for there is an irresolution in the will and an irresolution in the vnderstanding as a Judge sometimes knowes the law and yet suspends judgement out of partiality and affection and this is called suspensio facti a suspension of fact and sometimes when reasons are equall on both sides hee knowes not to whom the lawes incline and so suspends judgement for want of evidence and this is called suspensio juris a suspension of right So it is likewise in the soul sometimes a man knows what hee ought to doe but yet out of particular and private respects resolves upon nothing here the suspense is in the will and is answerable to that which in a Judge is called suspensio facti and sometimes when arguments are equall on both sides hee knowes not what to resolve upon for want of evidence here the suspence is in the vnderstanding and is answerable to that which in a Judge is called suspensio juris In the first case there is a conflict of severall desires in the last a conflict of severall thoughts And from this kind of irresolution proceed all doubts and scruples in matters of conscience which although they be not joyned with falshood because the vnderstanding hath made no conclusion yet they are alwayes joyned with ignorance And this is the second wound of the soule which is called Ignorantia coecitas mentis ignorance and blindnesse of mind Thirdly It hath wounded the will
not how to perform this duty which are subject to deceive themselves to let many sins passe undiscerned and oftentimes to mistake them for vertues If there be any such here as I am afraid there are too many let mee desire you to observe these two rules for your direction First when yee examine your actions take heed you weigh them not by a false balance that is by a defiled conscience for a defiled conscience is as a false balance it is impossible to weigh an action rightly by it The Jewes having a defiled conscience preferred Barabbas before our Saviour Christ And this is that which deceives many when they examine themselves and find they doe nothing against their conscience they think themselves very upright and just but they know not that their conscience is defiled they consider not that their affection swayes their conscience and can make it judge any thing lawfull or unlawfull as it please But you will say How shall I know when my conscience is defiled The Apostle Saint Paul will resolve that doubt Unto the pure saith hee all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbeleeving nothing is pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled Titus 1.15 Whosoever therefore lives in any habituall sin whosoever alloweth himselfe to doe wickedly in any thing his conscience is defiled and it is in vain for him to consult with it concerning the lawfulnesse or unlawfulnesse of any action Secondly when you examine your actions favour not your selves but give the same judgement upon your own sins and pronounce the same condemnation against your selves which at other times ye have pronounced against others that have committed the like offences There are many for want of observing this rule which think themselves to be much better then they are they will censure and scoffe at others for those sins and infirmities which they commit every day without seeing them in themselves Would these men but look upon their owne actions with the same impartiall eye that they looke upon others they would be able to judge better of their owne wayes and would discover the same corruptions in themselves which they can so easily discern in another And this is the first condition necessary to a true confession that is a due examination of our selves and of our former life The second condition necessary to a true confession is sorrow and contrition of heart They that confesse their sins and are not grieved for them may be said rather to relate or to describe their sins then to confesse them Sorrow is a condition so inseparable from this duty that where it is wanting it is as good to deny our sins as to confesse them and this condition is expresly required Levit. 26.40 where God makes a promise to the Jewes when they shall be in captivity saying If they shall confesse their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers with their trespasse which they trespassed against mee and that they also have walked contrary unto mee And that I also have walked contrary unto them and have brought them into the land of their enemies if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember and I will remember the land This promise you see which God made to the Jewes upon their confession is a conditionall promise and the condition expressed is this If their uncircumcised hearts be humbled that is if they be broken and rent with sorrow for their sins he doth not promise to remember them whensoever they should formally confesse but if their uncircumcised hearts were humbled when they made their confession And therefore wheresoever you find the children of God confessing their sins in Scripture yee shall find them usually in an humble and mournfull posture In such a posture shall you find Daniel at the ninth chapter and third verse of his own Prophecie where you may see that hee first humbled himselfe and by putting on sack-cloth and ashes expressed deep signes of sorrow and contrition and then hee proceeded to make confession of his sins In such a posture shal ye find Ezra at the 9th chapter and 5th verse of his own book where you may see that he also by the outward gesture of his body first testified the inward heavinesse and affliction of his mind and then proceeded to make his confession to God And this is the true manner of confessing sin our confession is then available when our hearts are ready to break with sorrow wee may be confident the Lord will not despise us when our tears lift up our confession as the waters lifted up the Ark. I will not here dispute the question concerning the quality of sorrow whether a sensible sorrow be alwaies necessary or whether an appreciative rationall sorrow will serve the turn as our Romish Doctors do generally affirme For my part I take their appreciative rationall sorrow to be a meer figment a fained and forged invention of their owne as many other of their distinctions are Sorrow is a passion of the mind and I think an appreciative rationall passion is a new kind of passion that was never known to any but themselves True sorrow without doubt hath alwayes some sensible motions some convulsions of heart to attend it it could not be a passion of the mind if it did not inferre passionem animo some wayes or other sensibly affect the soule I will also omit the question concerning the quantity of sorrow which wee ought to have namely whether sorrow for sin ought to be the greatest sorrow Bellarmines determination is that it ought to be the greatest appreciative but not intensive I will not at this time examine this determination I say only in generall that true sorrow proceeding from the grace of God and not from the fear of punishment or any other sinister respect in what degree or quantity soever it be is sufficient to make our confession available before God Many when they compare their owne sorrow with the sorrow of David or with the sorrow of divers other holy men and women which are mentioned in the Scriptures are much troubled in mind because they cannot equall them What are my tears say they compared with Davids tears What is my griefe compared with the griefe of Mary Magdalen Thus they discourse within themselves and are ready almost to dispaire because they cannot arrive at their perfection But such comparisons as these beloved are offensive and unprofitable for why should every one compare himselfe with David or Mary Magdalen which were Gods especiall favourites and had a greater measure of grace conferred upon them then is ordinarily conferred upon others Every one cannot hope to be so perfect as they were I speak not this to dishearten any or inclining to an opinion that it is not lawfull for you to desire