tern despot. But it is not
supposeable of a good man--"the man after God's own heart," though now
seduced into certain heinous sins. Surely he could not think on his
ways--on his then late transgressions, but remorse must have harrowed
up his soul! He must have been deeply affected, and led to cry, "God
be merciful to me a sinner!" The feelings of a good man, who had been
seduced into sin and reflected upon it with deep contrition, are
pathetically described by the pen of this same person, in the thirty
second psalm; and description is couched in the first person, as what
himself had experienced. "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old by
reason of my roaring all the days long. For day and night thy hand was
heavy on me; my moisture is turned into the drought of summer." There
is a strong probability that his feeling on this occasion, before he
confessed his sin, and obtained a sense of pardon, are here expressed.
They are the same which we should suppose he must feel while
tormentedwith a sense of such enormous guilt.

III. We are to consider his temper and conduct when reproved by the
prophet.

These are the same which we should expect, did we know him to have
been then a penitent. He was indeed taken by guile, and made to
condemn himself before he perceived that he was the guilty person of
whom the prophet complained. But had he till that time continued
impenitent, it is not probable that he would have been instantly
humbled, and immediately confessed his sin with true contrition. It is
much more probable that he would have resented the application to
himself, as an affront offered to royalty, and avenged himself on the
Lord's messenger.

God hath power instantly to change the sinner's heart without previous
awakenings; but this is not the method of grace. Convictions,
ordinarily, if not invariably, antecede conversion, prepare for it,
and lead to it.

Neither is this the method of grace, only with the sinner at the first
great change, termed the, new birth, but with the saint who falls into
heinous sins, and thereby resembles the sinner. When a good man yields
to temptation and falls from his stedfastness, God commonly hides his
face from him--for a term, and often for a considerable term, he sits
in darkness--is ready to give up his hope--to conclude that he hath
believed in vain--never loved God or hated sin--never passed from
death into life. In fine, he feels similar pains, and passeth in many
respects, a