SERMON X. THOU ART THE MAN.

2 Sam. xii. 7.

And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man.

The parable, of which these words are a part, is admired, even for its elegance and simplicity, by every one who is capable of appreciating its merit. It serves also to illustrate, in the clearest manner, the advantage of this mode of instruction; which is intended, in the first place, by a lively representation of the productions of nature, or the incidents of common life, to convey an adequate notion of a truth or doctrine in easy and familiar terms; and to leave a more striking impression of it upon the memory and the heart. The parable has a further advantage: the instruction it affords is not at once unfolded to the mind; the attention and the feelings are first awakened, by the relation of some interesting occurrence, apparently unconnected with the object in view; by which means, an assent is gained over to the side of truth, before the understanding has had time to be prejudiced, by the workings of self-love, or the disinclination to religious admonition.

Such was precisely the case with the parable before us. Had Nathan addressed to David a direct and formal expostulation, it is probable that the king would have considered his interference as intrusive and impertinent; would have either driven him from his presence, or have been prepared, by some plausible excuse, to cast a veil over the hideousness of his crimes. But the royal offender, though he could readily palliate his own atrocity, could not bear to hear of cruelty in another. When it was reported to him, that there were two men in a city, the one rich and the other poor; that the rich man, when there came a traveller unto him, spared to take of the abundance of his own flock, and of his own herd, and took from the poor man a little ewe lamb, which was all he had in the world; took it from him under the most affecting circumstances; “for he had bought and nourished it up, and it grew up together with him and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.” When the king heard all this, his feelings were violently excited, “his anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, as the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die.” [174] This was the moment for making the application: and judge of David’s shame and confusion of face, on finding that all his pity, and all his anger, and all his condemnation, had in truth been directed against himself: “Thou art the man.” He could not help perceiving, that great as was the cruelty, which he had been reprobating in the case laid before him, he had been guilty of still greater himself: though he had the whole kingdom for the exercise of his legitimate choice, he would rather deprive an humble servant of the only object of his conjugal affection, deprive him, by becoming, in the first instance, accessary to his murder.

We may here observe, how terrible is the infatuation of sin. It might have been thought that David, if he had not immediately perceived the full intention of the prophet in laying this parable before him, would at least, from an instantaneous recollection of his own notorious guilt, have treated, with some degree of lenity or forbearance, the barbarity of which Nathan appeared to be complaining; that he would not so soon have denounced against a delinquent, so much less heinous than himself, the utmost severity of punishment. But, as if his own conscience were clear, he immediately exclaimed against the imagined offender, as a wretch unfit to live; he does not appear to have been awakened to a sense of his own crimes, till he heard the overwhelming application, “Thou art the man.”

Such is generally the fascination of sin; it darkens the understanding, and deadens the conscience, and renders men insensible to their real condition. It is the great object of the enemy of our souls, an object in which he too often fatally succeeds, to make us blind, not only to the heinousness and danger, but also to the very existence of guilt: so that, however acute we may be in perceiving the transgressions of others, and however severe in reprobating and condemning them, we are, in very frequent instances, utterly regardless of our own. Many, it is to be feared, there are, who persist in a course of sin day after day, and year after year, without once feeling any lively or serious compunction; while they have frequently, in that time, been reproachfully animadverting upon the mote which they have detected in their brother’s eye.

Perhaps of all the temporal consequences of sin, the operation of this evil habit is one of the most calamitous; for it not only prevents us from a repentance of the past, but serves as an encouragement to our reckless perseverance in sin; it destroys the very principle of vital religion; removing entirely from our hearts the love and fear of God; and filling us with “envy, hatred, and malice and all uncharitableness.” Let David’s infatuation be a warning to us, let it induce us to take diligent heed, lest we be irreclaimably “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin;” lest the conscience be at length so entirely seared, as to become callous to the very perception of iniquity; as to make us “call evil good, and good evil; to put darkness for light, and light for darkness; to put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” [177]

Before, however, we further proceed to the practical inferences which may be drawn from this subject, it may be proper to notice some irreverent and reproachful remarks, which have been made on the flagrant crimes of a person so distinguished as David. Is it possible, some have urged, that such guilt, and such hardihood in guilt, could have been found in the “man after God’s own heart?” [178] But this honourable appellation, be it observed, was given to David, not on account of his moral or spiritual purity, but on account of the excellence of his character as a king; he was so named in opposition to Saul, who had acted in wilful disobedience to the divine commands, and therefore, in the administration of his government, was not a man after God’s own heart; that is, he did not (as David did, in this particular,) perform God’s will.

Again, it has been said, could an inspired person possibly fall into such a complication of evil? Miraculous inspiration, we answer, was not given to the sacred pen-men, as a certain preservative from the corruption of sin, but to enable them to reveal the will of God; to guard them, in this respect, from error; and to “guide them into all truth:” their carnal appetites and passions were not supernaturally overruled; they still had their choice between good and evil; though revealing to mankind the holy law of God, they might themselves neglect the duties which it injoined: many instances are recorded of the abuse of spiritual gifts, many examples of their consisting with unholiness and transgression. The very chief of the apostles intimates to us the personal care and watchfulness and labour which were necessary, “lest, having preached to others, he himself should be a castaway.” [179]

Not but that David’s guilt was most deplorably inconsistent with his high character and office, and was a dishonour to religion itself; I am only shewing, that it was not incompatible with the appellation which he had received, and the high and holy functions which he was called to discharge. And be it remembered, to David’s honour, that though his sin was aggravated, his confession of it was full and unreserved; that he most humbly and religiously submitted to the penal retribution of his offended God; that his repentance was bitter and sincere: it was “a repentance indeed never afterwards repented of:” continually was his harp attuned to the bewailing of his own depravity; continually was he descending from the lofty strains of thanksgiving and joy, and pouring forth in the abasement of his soul, the doleful notes of mourning and lamentation.

And, in truth, there was abundant cause; for the crimes of David afford one of the most melancholy instances of the violation of conscience, of a departure from the service of the Most High. Let it fill us with humility and fear. If so eminent a servant of God could fall into such abominations, how deeply concerned, how “instant in prayer,” how vigilant and careful should we be, lest our feet be betrayed into evil! We see to what criminal and dangerous excess human nature may be led, if we fail to cherish the grace of God; and are abandoned to the government of our own corrupt desires, and the tyranny of our spiritual adversary. To the lukewarm and the wavering I need scarcely say, that without greater seriousness and circumspection, they will assuredly be overthrown: but let me also admonish the faithful Christian; him, who appears to be safely pursuing the even tenour of his way; who may be led, by the regular and habitual discharge of religious duties, into a state of presumptuous confidence and slumbering security; him I would admonish, from the instance of David, “that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;” [181a] that it may, when most implicitly trusted, most dangerously betray; let David teach “him that thinketh he standeth to take heed lest he fall.” [181b]

Some perverse and worldly-minded persons have made a very different use of the lamentable case before us; it has encouraged them in wilful transgression; it has served them as a “cloak for their sin.” Surely, say they, if David could so flagrantly transgress, how can we be expected to preserve our integrity? If he was accepted of God, indulgence would readily be extended to the comparatively trifling offences of inferior servants. True; we cannot be perfect; we may hope for pardon; but we are not, on that account, to sin presumptuously; not to offend, because God is merciful: this did not David. Whoever deliberately sins from the hope of God’s mercy, is taking the surest was to deprive himself of that mercy. There is frequently great error in the notion of trifling offences: no offence is trifling in the sight of an infinitely holy God: much less any wilful offence. The magnitude of a fault chiefly depends upon the circumstances under which it is committed; much more readily could we urge an excuse for him, who is heedlessly or suddenly borne away by impetuous passion and carnal desire, than for him, who presumes deliberately to trample upon the law of God, because another has been forgiven. Shall we thus abuse the mercies of redeeming love? “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” [183] Would we find the favour that David did, we must seek it, like him, in the true spirit of penitence and devotion; we must “confess our wickedness, and be sorry for our sin:” we must hate the works and workers of iniquity: we must imitate David, not in his crimes, but in his repentance and reformation.

Let us learn another lesson from the history before us; let it teach us the importance of being always disposed and ready to receive spiritual counsel; of being in the habit of applying to ourselves every opportunity of improvement, with which we may be blessed. Too many, like David, are extremely backward to receive an intimation of their own errors, and to avail themselves of the benefit of reproof. They are sufficiently quick-sighted in discovering the applicability of reproach, to their neighbour; without even suspecting that it may suit their own case and condition. How many have acknowledged the propriety and force of admonitions and rebuke, which they have heard in the house of God, without ever taking them home to their own breasts; and this undoubtedly is one cause, why the voice of public instruction produces, in general, so little effect upon the characters and conduct of men. While they are pleased to imagine, that the representations and censures of the preacher are suited to others rather than to themselves, no wonder that they retain their neglectful, sinful, unprincipled habits, in defiance of every remonstrance, and every warning. Instead of torturing their ingenuity, to discover to what particular persons in the congregation a discourse may be most fitly and beneficially applied, let them rather be anxious to inquire, how far it may be accommodated to their own case; and to all those, who presume to make a further inquiry, who are looking around for the delinquencies of their neighbour, we would say, restrain thy wandering eye, and look within, “Thou art the man.”

A readiness to take advantage of religious instruction, is one of the surest evidences of a christian spirit, and one of the greatest blessings that a Christian can enjoy. It manifests a christian spirit, inasmuch as it shews an humble sense of our own failings and imperfections, and an anxious desire to recover from them all; to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” [185] It is one of the greatest blessings to the Christian, because there is seldom a day, seldom an hour that passes, from which he may not derive some spiritual benefit. While the reckless and self-conceited, who dwell with complacency upon their state and character, perceive not any counsel adapted to their wants, the humble-minded are gathering edification from every thing around them; from all they hear and all they see: doubtless, it must be so; for how can they, who think themselves whole, discover the need of a physician, how can they apply a remedy?

Suffer me to entreat you, in conclusion, that whenever you are seriously impressed with a conviction of evil, or the neglect of any christian duty, you will carry home the impression, to have its full effect upon the heart. For want of this care and this habit, many a salutary lesson, that strikes for the moment, is afterwards thrown away, unheeded and forgotten: and thus the very means of grace, which are ordained to recover us from sin, and enable us to “work out our salvation,” become the instruments of confirming us in error and guilt. The mind, which is continually accustomed to receive and to neglect religious instruction, may be thereby brought into a heedless and torpid state, from which it is well nigh impossible to be roused. Not that any thing “is impossible with God:” but I appeal to experience, and ask, whether it is not a notorious matter of fact, that many amongst us have for years uniformly persevered, in the same neglect of christian duties, the same worldly principles, the same evil courses, the same habits of intemperance and licentiousness and profaneness; and it will not be denied, that they have, in these years, frequently heard the voice of expostulation, and perceived the justice, the force, and the importance of it. Then why are they still unreclaimed?—because they have never followed up the conviction of “Thou art the man.”

God grant, that this admonition may have its full effect upon us; that we may go and meditate, and pray; pray daily for the blessing of an humble and a teachable heart; pray for God’s grace, to correct all our sinful follies, and supply all our deficiencies. Probably, my brethren, we have been “leaning too little upon the hope of this heavenly grace;” we have been relying upon our own perception of right and wrong, our own choice and decision, our own feeble resolutions; if so, no wonder that we have failed, in our work of repentance and spiritual change. “Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned:” [188] here lies our hope and our strength, in the renewing influence of the Spirit of God. As we do desire, so let us fervently pray, that we may, in our course of penitence, imitate the example of the royal psalmist, and let contrition “have its perfect work;” that we may, here below, with heart and soul, join in the pious and repentant strains of David’s harp, and thus may be admitted to sing to other harps hereafter, in the chorus of the Redeemed above.