elivered his message before
witnesses. This took away the ground of temptation longer to hide his
fins, and cleared the way to a public renunciation, and return to
duty. And the fallen prince waited no exhortations--needed no
entreaties--"I acknowledged my sin unto thee; and mine iniquity have I
not hid; I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord;
and thou foregavest the iniquity of my sin." *

* Psalm xxxii. 5.

Thus the opinion of those who suppose that David remained impenitent
and secure, till awakened to consideration by the ministry of Nathan,
is devoid of proof, and even of probability. David's well known
character--the nature of renewing grace; and the temper and conduct of
this transgressor, when reproved by the prophet, concur to prove him
then already a penitent; which is confirmed by the consolations
forthwith administered to him by the Lord's messenger.

If in this instance God pardoned, and gave a sense of pardon, to so
heinous an offender, without a moment intervening sense of guilt, and
evidence of pardon and peace, it must have been a very singular divine
treatment of so vile a sinner!

And if David, after having been long eminent for piety, lived a year
of stupid unconcern, under such enormous guilt, it must have been a
very strange event! A phenomenon in the history of man, unequalled in
the annals of the world! Whether there is evidence to justify so
strange a conclusion, judge ye.

If we have not mistaken our subject, this affair gives no countenance
to those who pretend religion to be a thing of nought--that it doth
not change the heart and life, turning men from sin to holiness.
Good people may be seduced into sin, but they are soon renewed by
repentance--soon turn again to the Lord in the way of duty, confessing
their sins and renewing their purposes and engagements to serve the
Lord--"That which I know not teach thou me; and wherein I have done
iniquity, I will do no more."

Neither doth this affair yield comfort and hope to those, who while
they call themselves saints, live like sinners. If _here_, they find
no comfort and support, where will they find it? The only example
thought to have been found in "the footsteps of the flock," fails
them; and we are left to conclude that sanctification is the principal
evidence of justification--"that by their fruits we are to know men."

It is a dark omen when professors paliate their errors and deviations
from duty, by pleading those