Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 51

Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms · Book 2 · Psalm 51

p. 261The Fifty First Psalm.

TO the chief Musitian, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the Prophet ‖‖had come foreigncame unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

Paraphrase. The fifty first Psalm was composed by David, after the commission of those many sins in the matter of Uriah, 2 Sam. xi. when by Nathan the Prophet his message to him from God, he was brought to a due humiliation for them, which he exprest in this penitential Psalm; and to make it the more publick, to remove the scandal of so many notorious sins, he commited it to the prefect of his Musick to be solemnly sung.

p. 2621. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy††mercy, or benignity foreign loving kindness: according to the multitude of thy**commiserations foreign tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

O thou Father of all mercies and compassions, permit me, thy most unworthy servant, foully guilty of many horrid crimes, to make mine humblest approach to thee; and out of the riches of thy benignity, out of the abundance of thy melting compassions to those that are in the greatest distresses, be thou gratiously pleased to look upon me, to be atoned and reconciled toward me.

2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

O let not any the least of these crimes, that I have been guilty of in this matter, be permitted to appear in thy sight, or rise up in judgment against me; but seal me thy perfect pardon for every one of them.

3. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is‖‖continually foreign ever before me.

For I doe most willingly confesse, that I have committed, in the compassing of one carnal pleasure, many horrid and odious sins. These are a perpetual terror to my conscience, an amazing prospect continually outfacing and tormenting me.

4. ††To thee, to thee only.Against thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight; that thou mightest be justified**in thy doings. when thou speakest, and‖‖overcome. bea. clear when thou††conten… est. judgest.

And though the dignity and office wherein thou hast placed me over thy people, leave me not liable to any humane process or judicature among men; yet am I most sadly culpable and liable to vengeance from thee the pure God of heaven, the transcendent Ruler over all the Kings of the earth. Thou mayest most justly proceed against me, as against the most criminous rebell, indite me, and arraign me of adultery, drunkenness, and murther also: and what ever suite thou wagest against me, thou art sure to cast me; whatsoever vengeance thou exactest to be inflicted on me, I must most deservedly and inevitably fall under it.

5. Behold, Ib. was**borne. shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

6. Behold, thou‖‖delightest in truth in the reins. desirestc. truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou††or makest me foreign shalt make me to know wisdome.

Lord, I am a most polluted creature: the corruption of my nature, the bare inclinations of my will to any unlawful object ought in any reason to be strictly watched, and industriously rejected by me, and thy grace continually sollicited, to inable me to overcome them, and not in the least degree favoured, or indulged, or yielded to; when I so well know, that thou requirest purity of the heart and affections, and forbiddest the very first thoughts of any unlawfull injoyment, and beside this revelation of thy will, that I should thus keep my selfe pure, art pleased to grant me thy grace to make me inwardly sensible of this part of my duty: and this is a great inhauncing of my sin, committed against all these obligations.

7. Purge me with hyssope, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Lord, be thou pleased to absolve me, and solemnly to declare and seal to me thy reconciliation, after the same manner‖‖so the Chald. as the priest is wont to do, when upon the unclean thing he sprinkles water mixed with the ashes of an heifer, and of cedar wood, and of hyssop, and of scarlet, Lev. xiv. 6, 7. Num. xix. 6. the solemn ceremony for the purification of sin, v. 9. and whereby the blood of the lamb of God, the death of the Messias, was praefigured: and then I shall again be restored to that blessed state, from which I have so sadly fallen by my outragious miscarriages.

8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce.

I am in a most sad and wretched condition; thy just displeasure and wrath for my sins, as long as it continues over me, is the setting my soul upon the torture, my own conscience being the executioner under thee: O be thou pacified and reconciled toward me, and it shall be the joyfullest news that ever came to any poor tortured suppliants ears, when he is taken off from the rack, and all his bones set, and restored to ease again.

9. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

Lord, pardon my sins, and return to thy wonted favour toward me.

10. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

I have sadly fallen from my wonted purity and sincerity; Lord, by the good work of thy grace upon my heart, restore me to it again, and renew me inwardly and throughly, my very thoughts as well as my actions, that I never fall into the least beginning of any such pollution again.

p. 26311. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Lord, it is just with thee to reject me from all spiritual commerce and communication with thee, who have resisted thy spirit, and wasted my soul by so many wilful commissions against thee; just that thou shouldest withdraw thy grace, to which I have done such despite: O do not thou thus severely punish me, by withdrawing that which now more than ever I stand in need of.

12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Without thy help and aids I am utterly unable to get out of this broken condition; the free and voluntary assistances of thy spirit are so perfectly necessary to me, that I can never think a good thought, make the least attempt toward recovering the purity from whence I am fallen, without them: O be thou pleased to restore them to me, and thereby to support and establish me.

13. Then will I teach transgressors thy wayes, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

And this thy exceeding mercy to a sinner, so sadly laps'd, may be a means to bring wicked livers home to repentance, I shall be able to incourage them to return, by proclaiming mine own success, who have fallen as sadly as any of them can have done. And being thus incouraged by my example and experience, many, I doubt not, by the assistance of thy grace, shall be brought home to thy service, and the practice of the duties of new life.

14. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

Oh, that sin of murther is an horrid and crying sin, of a black and deep dy; and though mine own hands have not been polluted with it, yet my conscience assures me the guilt of the murther of Uriah lies on me, who projected and contrived it by others: O thou blessed Lord, from whom all my deliverance must come, be thou pleased to deliver me from this one, as from those other soul Commissions, and it will be most joyful news to me, and with the greatest exultation of heart shall I proclaim thy abundant mercies to me.

15. O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

This work of grace from thee shall set my lips wide open, in praising and magnifying thee.

16. For thou desirest not sacrifice,‖‖that I should give foreign else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt-offerings.

'Tis not any the richest hecatombe or most chargeable oblation for my sin, that thou expectest or requirest of me. The truth is, my sins are of such a sort, as for which the Mosaical law allows no reconciliation, no sacrifice for such wilful sins, Heb. 10.26.

17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:a broken and contrite heart, O Lord, shalt thou not despise.

'Tis my sincere humiliation, confession, and renovation, which alone thou admittest, and even in this foulest condition, thou art mercifully pleased to have respect to them, and look on them, as the most acceptable oblation. And whensoever that is presented to thee from an honest heart, it is sure to finde a welcome and hospitable reception.

18. Do good in thy good pleasure to Sion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

O be thou thus merciful to me, and to all that love and fear thy name, and meet in the place by thee appointed for thy service: defend and succour all, and preserve them from falling into such wilfull presumptuous sins.

19. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thy altar.

And then our sacrifices of all sorts, and all that is typified by these shadows, and what is much more valuable then any of these, Mar. 12.33. our prayers, and our praises, our solemnest acts of the most ardent love and devotion, and the diffusion of that in acts of charity and mercy to our brethren, shall upon the altars of our very hearts be presented to thee in an humble, but cheerful, confidence to be ac…epted by thee.

p. 264Annotations on Psalm LI.

a.V. 4. Clear] The word foreign foreignis ordinarily rendred mundus fuit, clean, or clear, or pure; and so the Chaldee takes it here, and renders it by foreign, from foreign purgavit. But this, as the context evinces, must be understood in a forensick sense, as pure is all one with free from guilt; and so there is a second notion of the word for overcoming, meaning that sort of victory which belongs to him that carries the cause in judicature. Thus the Lxxii. render it here, foreign, and overcome; and thus the Apostle takes it from them, Rom. iii. 4. and the Syriack there renders that of the Apostle by foreign the same word which both the Hebrew and Syriack have here in this Psalm: which is a sure evidence, that the word here used doth certainly signifie as the Lxxii. rendred it, and was no way mistaken by them; and that very reconcileable with the notion of mundus fuit, for he that doth foreign, overcome in the fuite or contention, (so foreign signifies, to be a party in a suite) is fitly said to be cleared or quitted by the Law; and that is also the importance of foreign justified in the forensick sense also, as that is opposed to cast or condemned. The only remaining difficulty is, to what part of the antecedent speech this is to be connected, foreign foreignthat thou mightest be justified— This,See Paul. Fagius in Exod. 22.Exod 22 say the Jews, is not to be joyned to the words immediately precedent in the former part of this verse; but either to the prayer, Have mercy upon me, v. 1. or, I acknowledge my transgressions— v. 3. putting the beginning of this verse, Against thee,— in a parenthesis. But the former of these hath little of probability in it; and the latter, which is more tolerable, may very reasonably be rejected also, the immediate antecedents being very fit to bear this consequence, and indeed much fitter than either of those which are more remote. For if in the beginning of the verse, the emphasis be laid, as the thrice repeating shews it ought, on the foreign to thee, foreign to thee only, and foreign in thy sight, the importance of it will certainly be, what S. Ambrose and S. Chrysostome and others have observed, that David, being a King, was not liable to punishment from any but God: and though he had in this business highly offended against others, against Bathshebah, and especially against Uriah, whom he had caused to be made drunk, and afterwards slain, and in the next verse confesseth the guilt of his bloud, and therefore must not be understood, saith Chrysostome, as if he said, foreign, that he had not wronged Uriah; yet could not he be impleaded or judged by man for this, but only by God: foreign, saith Chrysostome, Tom. 1. p. 709. l. 8.Being a King I feared not him whom I wronged; he being my subject could not punish me: all my fear was for thee, lest thou shouldest call me to account. And then this most regularly introduceth this consequence, (for so foreign foreignis not foreign, but foreign a note of consequence only) foreign that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, or doings, (so foreign foreignordinarily signifies a deed, and not only a word or saying) and overcome when thou contendest. Thus, if any other p. 265but God should implead, or judge, or punish me for this, I should have just reason to complain, God having placed me in a condition of judging and punishing others, without being my self subjected to any other humane tribunal. But for all this I stand most justly chargeable, and punishable by God: To thee I have sinned, from thee I deserve, and may most reasonably expect punishment. In thy sight I have done this evil, i. e. so as to be most justly liable to thy vengeance; though foreign I am thus liable to thee only, to none else but thee; foreign, that (noting this to be the natural consequence) thou mightest be justified in thy doings, and overcome when thou contendest or impleadest me, i. e. whatsoever bill of indictment thou putrest in against me, though to charge upon me the highest rebellions against thee, and bring upon me the severest sentence of eternal rejection out of thy favour and presence, and infliction of the direfullest torments, thou art sure to overcome and cast me in the suite, I have nothing in the least to pretend, or plead against it. The only seeming objection to this rendring is fetcht from foreign,foreign which from foreign judicavit is thought to signifie, in thy judging. But there is another acknowledged notion of the word in Niphal, for litigare, contendere, causam agere, to contend, or plead, or goe to law with another: and though in Kal it ordinarily signifie to judge, yet 'tis evident the LXXII. and the Syriack took it here in the other sense; and so the former renders it foreign, i. e. in pleading or contending (so the word foreign signifies in the Hellenists dialect, see note on Rom. iii. b.) and not as the Latine, more to the word than idiome, render it, cum judicaris; when thou art judged. And so the Syriack render it foreign from foreign, which both in Hebrew and Syriack signifies to contend in judicature, to plead, and not only or so frequently to judge. And so the sense both here, and to the Romans best bears: here, for being justified in the forensick sense, as that is opposed to condemned, doth more properly belong to the litigants, or persons that contend in judgment, than to the judge, and so to be cleared also; but most necessarily so it is in the reciting these words to the Romans, where he that is said to overcome, must necessarily be one of the contendents, and not the Judge: And accordingly that which the text is there brought to prove is, Let God be true, and every man a liar: where God and man being supposed to have a controversie, in like manner as Mich. vi. 2. and so brought in as pleaders or contendents (and not as a judge and a delinquent) the verdict is given on Gods side, (Let God be true, which is a pronouncing that God is true, a clearing or justifying God) and against man, who is pronounced a liar, and so this text verified, God is justified and cleared, or overcomes in lite, in the supposed matter of debate between them; foreign, saith**Tom. 1. p. 709. l. 22. Chrysostome, the business being debated and brought before a judicature between God and me.

V. 5. Shapen] For the understanding b.of this verse 3. things must be observed. 1. What is meant by the two verbs foreign foreignand foreign. The former of them, from foreign, and foreign which signifies sorrow or labour, but especially that of the woman in travail, signifies the birth of a childe; and so is rendred by the Chaldee foreign I was born, (and though the Syriack foreign from foreign venter, may signifie conception or carrying in the womb, and so may agree with the LXXII. foreign, p. 266and the Latine conceptus sum, I was conceived; yet it signifies bringing forth also.) So Isa. Liv. 1. foreign travailing with childe is but the explication of foreign going before, bearing or bringing forth the childe. So Jer. iv. 31. I heard the voice foreign as of one that travaileth or bringeth forth; and frequently elsewhere. And so 'tis best here to be rendred, I was born, or brought forth. And the vulgar Latine, that reads otherwise, hath made a gross tautologie, Conceptus sum, & concepit me— I was conceived, and my mother conceived me; which even those Antients that follow them saw necessary to avoid. Then for the latter, it is from foreign incaluit, foreignand is ordinarily taken for the act of conception (see Gen. xxx. 38, 39, 41.) and cannot reasonably be applyed to that of cherishing in the womb after conception, as some would have it. And so that is the meaning of the verbs, I was born, or brought forth into the world, and not only so, but even conceived by my mother in iniquity, and in sin: and accordingly**in Psal. cxix. Bas. ed: p. 522.Ps 19 S. Hilary, that with the vulgar reads in the first place conceptus sum, I was conceived, reads in the latter, peperit me mater, my mother brought me forth: and so doth††de Poen. l. 1. c. 11. S. Ambrose also. Secondly then, for the conjunction of the verbs and nouns, or the notion of his being born and even conceived in sin, instead of setting down the surmises of some modern Interpreters, it will not be amiss to inquire, what the antient Fathers of the Church have said. And herein we shall finde, that they have with some, though but small, variety delivered themselves. For as most of them have lookt on it as a Text whereby to confirme the Catholick doctrine concerning Original sin, so one of them being prest with it by hereticks for the maintenance of a foule error, hath been thought to interpret it otherwise. S. Paul the Apostle tells us of the hereticks of the first times, (the abominable Gnosticks) that they interdicted marriages, 1 Tim. iv. 3. The same heresy, saith Irenaeus, l. 1. c. 30. was continued and propagated first by Saturninus and Marcion, then by the Encratitae or followers of Tatianus. Now for the confirming of this their interdict, they affirmed that none could be saved but unmarried or single men and women, saith Epiphanius; foreign, saith Clemens, Strom. l. iii. that generation was simply an accursed thing; foreign, saith Irenaeus l. 1. 31. that marriage was pollution or corruption, and fornication: and they brought several places of Scripture to prove this, (most of them those very texts that are brought from the Old Testament to affirm the doctrine of our corruption of nature) and among them this of the Psalmist, In sin hath my mother conceived me. These their objections are toucht on by**Strem. l. iii. ed. Sylburg. p. 201. Clemens Al…xandrinus, and the account he gives of them is by the learned Author of the Pelagian History, l. 11. par. 1. p. 160. interpreted as an evidence Clementem non satis intellexisse, that Clement did not sufficiently understand the doctrine of Original sin. For having applied the Psalmists words of mater mea, my mother, to Eve, the mother of all living, (a sense which Aben Ezra cites from some of the Jews foreign &c. some say Eve is hereby understood, who did not bear till after she had sinned) he addes, foreign, and if he were conceived in sin, yet he was not himself in sin, nor indeed was he himself sin. And somewhat less obscurely some few lines before, (on occasion of the words of Job, There is none pure from filthiness, though he be but one day old) he hath these words, foreign p. 267foreign· Let them tell us where the new born childe did fornicate, or how that which hath acted nothing is fallen under the curse of Adam. Instead of a larger examination of his words (which indeed have too much of obscurity in them, to be a testimony of much force to prejudice or establish a point of doctrine) this one consideration may, I suppose, suffice, that being not there ingaged by his businesse in hand to give the full interpretation of that place, any farther than was usefull to refute the objectors before him, the Pseudonymous Gnosticks and Encratites, it cannot be just any farther to extend his words, than the refuting of them makes it reasonable to extend them: viz. first, that by his mothers conceiving him in sin, he meant not his immediate mother, as if her conception were an act of sin in her, (which indeed had been for the Encratites turne, who detested generation as sinfull, and so condemned marriage) but rather Eve, who had sinned before she conceived Cain, and so all mankinde after her were conceived in sin. Secondly, that as by his foreign conception and birth, his mother commited no sin in conceiving him, so neither the childe it selfe being conceived committed any fault. Thirdly, that neither doth any childe of Adam, by the bare pollution of birth, fall into that accursed state wherein the Encratites thought Adam to be involved, and all that were propagated from him by generation, and thereupon profest to detest generation and marriage. For this was one special part of the heresy of these Encratites, that Adam was certainly damned, foreign, they resist Adams salvation, saith Irenaeus l. 1. c. 30. 31. and consequent to that, that his sin being imputed (as they had learnt from the Orthodoxe) to all his posterity, the same damnation devolved upon all, and that all that were thus born, had not only some sinfull corruption born with them, but were themselves foreign in sin, i. e. either guilty of some actual sin, by being begotten (as his question foreign; imports) or else were spread all over with nothing but sin, (in a sense somewhat proportionable to that of the Pharisees of him that was born blind, Joh. ix. 34. Thou wert altogether born in sins) and foreign themselves sin in the abstract, and nothing but sin. Now none of these would that learned Father allow to be conclusible from these texts; but on the contrary he thinks it most ridiculous, that either the child should be said to sin, or that every child should be said to be thus wholly immerst in sin, as to be himselfe sin, and nothing else, when yet he hath committed no sin, or that the foreign the curse of Adam (not in Origens sense, Contra Cels. l. iv. where he saith foreign, the curse of Adam is the common curse of all, but in the notion of the Encratites, as that was, in their opinion, certain damnation to Adam who committed it) should fall on all that ever were born from him. The falseness and ridiculousness of which, in all the parts, may well be granted, and yet the doctrine of Original sin, as it was believed by the Antients, remain true, and this text of this Psalm be one testimony of it, viz. that though Adam sinned, and thereby lost the image of God, in which he was created, deforming it into Satans image, whose temptations he hearkened to; and though this he did, as a common Father, & representative of all mankind, and so in him all his posterity were concluded under the breach and penalty of the first Covenant, and all being begotten after the Image of laps'd Adam, were begotten p. 268in a corrupt, polluted sinfull state, and had many sad effects of Adams fall connatural, and born with them; yet Christ was given for all, and by that gift, first Adam himself was redeemed from so much of the curse belonging to sin, as concerned his eternal state, and so also all others of his posterity, that did not by their own actual and habitual sins and impenitence (their redemption notwithstanding) bring down that curse upon them. That this doctrine of Original sin, as it was maintained against Pelagius, is very remote from the Doctrine of the Encratites, is most certain and visible, and cannot be doubted by any. The Encratites thought generation could not be without sin, that Adam was damned, and all were born heirs apparent to that curse, and so detested generation and marriage: but the doctrine of Original sin supposes marriage to be honourable, and that the conjugal bed may be kept pure and undefiled, and that neither is sin committed by the parents in begetting, nor by the child which is begotten; and though the childe be borne in sin, after the image of laps'd and sinfull parents, yet allows a medicine as universal as the disease, and so acknowledges this corruption of our nature not only reconcileable with, but useful and contributive to our eternal good. And this Clemens in that place seems to acknowledge, and to make another part of his answer to those Hereticks: for having mentioned foreign, the first incitations, which proceed from our natural corrupt state, and those as foreign impieties, or aversions from God, foreign, in respect of which we are ignorant of God, (which shews him to be no enemy to the doctrine of Original sin) he addes, foreign, but if any man in this respect calls nativity ill, let him in that other respect acknowledge it good, because thereby we come to the knowledge of the truth. In which words he seems to referre to the following verse in this Psalm, Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdome:] which, by the way, as it is an aggravation of every wilfull actual sin committed by any child of Adam, (because though it be committed in compliance with natural corruption, yet 'tis in opposition to grace, and the both outward and inward directions of Gods Spirit, which were given to mortifie our natural corruption, and to beget us to a new spiritual life;) so it is full matter of conviction to the Encratites, that generation and marriage is good, and not evil, because it brings forth children to the grace and mercies of Christ, to Baptism that foederal rite of receiving every the tenderest Infant into the Covenant of grace, whereby the original stain or corruption shall be disabled from bringing any eternal misery upon them, that do not call it on themselves by those wilfull acts of sin, that might have been resisted by them, if they had not been foully wanting to themselves. Which consideration being so much more proper to the point which Clemens had in hand, (the refuting of the Encratites) than the insisting on the doctrines, and aggravations of original corruption, we cannot reasonably wonder, that he should there confine his discourse to that which was only pertinent (and so he goes on to shew grounds of mercy and pardon, from the very nature of our temptations, foreign, and the way to contend and overcome in our Christian p. 269agones, by S. Pauls foreign, as he reads it, and foreign, subduing, and bringing under the flesh, and not absteining wholly, but foreign, temperately using those things which we judge fit for us, and so atteining the incorruptible crown, foreign, but so as not to be crowned without fighting) and not inlarge to that which was more then granted by his adversaries, with whom he had then to doe, even improved into dangerous heretical doctrine: for so Tatianus having learnt from Scripture, and the doctrine of the Church, and of his teacher**foreign— Dial. cum Tryph. p. 316. A. Justin Martyr, that by Adams fall all mankinde were ingaged in sin and death, he thinking the act of generation was the committing the same fault that lay so heavy on Adam, and by not considering well the benefits of the Second Adam, prepared for all that were lost in the first Adam, fell into a dislike and detestation of marriage and propagation; which heretical improvement of the Catholick doctrine Clemens refuting, had no occasion, at least necessity, to speak of the true doctrine which was more then granted by those Hereticks. This being the only testimony out of antiquity which is thought to be less favourable to the doctrine of Original sin in general, and particularly to the interpreting this text of the Psalmist to that sense, I have thus largely insisted on it. And for the farther clearing of it, shall adjoyn the interpretation of S. Chrysostome, which seems to me to proceed in the same way as Clements did, but withall to give us a much more perspicuous understanding of the full designe of it. Clemens interpreted the mothers conception to be understood of Eve; and so saith**Tom. 1. p. 709. l. 42. Chrysostome, In sin hath my mother— foreign— From the beginning sin prevailed, for the transgressing of the commandment was before the conception of Eve; for it was after the sin, and ejection from paradise, that Adam knew his wife, and she conceived, and brought forth Cain. This therefore was the Psalmists meaning, foreign, that sin prevailing over our first parents, wrought a way and path through mankinde. Then, whereas Clemens indeavours to free the text from favouring the Encratites, by shewing the good and benefits of propagation, out-weighing the evil that was inseparable from it, and by insisting, that as the child new born did not commit fornication, so he fell not under Adams curse; S. Chrysostome proceeds also on that matter, but much more perspicuously, and so, as is visibly most agreeable to the Catholick Doctrine: foreign, (**foreign foreign, But by all this we learn that the act of sin is not natural (for if it were we should be free from punishment) but that nature inclines to falling, being disturbed by a tumult of passions: but yet resolution making use of industry overcomes. Adding, in reference particularly to the Encratites, foreign, They are therefore foolishly mistaken, that suppose David to accuse marriage here, thus understanding those words, I was conceived in iniquities (as if his mother sinned, when she conceived him;) That is not his meaning, but p. 270he mentions the transgression of old committed by our first fathers, and saith of that, that it was the fountain of these streams. foreign, for, saith he, if they had not sinned, they had not undergone the punishment of death, but not being mortal, had been above corruption, and then to incorruption apathie, absence of passions, had been concomitant; and apathie being admitted, sin had had no place. foreign, But seeing they sinned, they were delivered to corruption; being become corruptible they begat children like themselves, and to such, desires and fears and pleasures were together consequent. Against these reason contends, and if it overcomes, is pronounced or proclaimed to be rewarded; but if it be overcome, it is a debtor of shame, is punished with reproach. Thus farre this holy Father in that place, expresly giving us his own opinion (and, I suppose, sufficiently clearing Clements doctrine) in this matter: that though David impute not any of his foule, actual transgressions to nature, or the force of Original sin, because he had those other aids from God which might have resisted successfully, if he had not been wanting to himself; yet he here mentions Adams fall, as the fountain of all vitious corrupt streams, as that which shewed sin the way into the world, brought tumultuous passions (which he**in Rom. vi. Hom. xi.Rom 6 elsewhere calls foreign, a large swarme of passions) together with mortality after it, and so an inclination and tendency in our nature to stumble and fall: which inclination, or foreign, is all one with the foreign, the first incitations from our nativity, in Clemens, which he mentions as impieties, and therefore sins; though, saith Chrysostome, foreign reasoning, such discourse as a Christian is capable of, and foreign resolution, with industry making use of the means that God hath given us (he addes elsewhere foreign the spirit helping us Christians, in Rom. vi. Hom. xi.Rom 6and foreign, baptism able to mortifie) may not only oppose and incounter this swarme and rout of passions, but overcome them also. What the Latine Fathers thought of this place is visible from‖‖Basil. ed. p. 522. Hilarie, in his Enarration on Psal cxix.v. 175. Vivere se in hac vita non reputat, quippe qui dixerit, Ecce in iniquitatibus conceptus sum— Scit se sub peccati origine & sub peccati lege natum esse; meditationem autem legis Dei ob id elegit ut vivat, He accounts not himself to live in this life, as having said, Behold I am conceived in sin— He knows he was born under the beginning of sin (i. e. Original sin, for he calls it elsewhere,Ibid. p. 50…. as originem carnis the beginning of the flesh, so more expresly, originis vitium, the vice of his beginning, and peccata humanae naturae, the faults of his humane nature) and under the law of sin; but he therefore chooseth to meditate in the law of God, that he may live. And to the same purpose † S. Ambrose, ‖‖de Poenit, l. 1. c. 11.Omnes homines sub peccato nascimur, quorum ipse ortus in vitio est, dicente Dauid, Ecce in iniquitate— All men are born in sin; our very birth is in fault, as David saith, Behold, I was conceived in sin—. And many others concur to the same sense, in their Scholia on this Psalm. As for the doctrine it selfe of Original sin, as it is founded on many other places of Scripture, as p. 271well as on this, the concordant testimonies of the Antient Church are set down at large by the Author of the Pelagian Hist. l. 11. Par. 1. from Justine, Tatianus, Irenaeus, Origen, Macarius Hierosolymit. and Macarius Aegyptius, Athanasius, Cyrill of Jerusalem, Basil, Gregorie Nazianzen, Chrysostome, Leontius, Olympiodorus (of the Greek Church;) and from Tertullian, Cyprian, Arnobius, Reticius, Olympius, Hilarie, Ambrose, Optatus, Hilarius Diaconus, Hierome (of the Latine;) as well as from S. Augustine, and those that followed him. And‖‖adver. Haer. c. xxxiv. Vincentius's words are remarkable, Quis ante prodigiosum discipulum ejus Caelestium reatu praevaricationis Adae omne genus humanum negavit astrictum? Before Caelestius, Pelagius's prodigious scholar, who ever denied that all mankind was bound by the guilt of A…ams sin? This I suppose sufficient to assure us of the sense of the Universal Christian Church in this Article. And what from this and the like places of the Old Testament the old Jews doctrine was, may be concluded from these words of S. Chrysostome, Tom. iii. p. 72. l. 8.foreign; The reason of S. Pauls phrase so oft repeated [as by one] Rom. v. was, that when a Jew shall aske, how the world should be saved by the well-doing of one, the righteousness of Christ; thou mightest be able to say to him, How should the world be condemned by one Adams sinning? By which words of his it appears, that this doctrine of the whole worlds being under condemnation for the sin of Adam, was such, as he thought no Jew would doubt of; for else it could be no fit means to silence his objection against the redemption of the whole world by Christ. To this of the Jews belongs their ordinary style of foreign the evill formation, (which the C…al…ee lightly vary into foreign meaning our evil affections, or concupiscence) and foreign the formation of sin, or proclivity to sin from their frame or fabrick. So Eccl. x. 1. foreign the flyes of death are by the Chaldee rendred foreign evil concupiscence, which abiding at the gates of the heart, brings the cause of death into the world: and Psal. ciii. 14. where we read foreign our frame, the Chaldee have foreign the evil concupiscence which impells us to sin. So Psal. cxix. 70. foreign the figment of the heart. So say the Rabbins, three men subdued foreign their concupiscence; Joseph Gen. xxxix. Boaz Ruth iii. Phalati 1 Sam. xxv. 44. Where by the example of Joseph &c. it is evident, that the desire of carnal forbidden objects, such as another mans wife, is comprehended by them under this style of foreign formation: And this from Gen. viii. 21. where of the foreign imagination, or formation, or figment of the heart of man, it is said, that it is foreign evil from the youth. So in the Midras Tehillem, on Psal. xxxiv. foreign &c. Now the evil figment is born with a man, and goes about with him all his dayes, as 'tis said, the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth; and if it can finde occasion to overthrow him, when he is twenty years old, or forty, or seventy, or eighty, it will do so. And this the††Tract. Succa fol. 52. 1. Talmudists, saith Buxtorfe, observe to be called by seven names in Scripture: 1 foreign evil, 2. foreign foreskin, 3. foreign unclean, 4. foreign the enemy or hater, 5. foreign a stumbling-block, 6. foreign, a stone, 7. foreign the hidden thing. What they say of these is much of it indeed phansifull and Talmudical, and their writings are too full of such stuff to be here set down. See Buxtorf Lex. Rabbin. who farther referres the reader to Caphtor fol. 55. 1. Cad. hahkemach fol. 35. 2. Afcat Rochel p. 272fol. 12. 1. In the forecited place of Succa they adde, that foreign &c. in time to come God shall bring the evil figment, or evil concupiscence, and slay it before the just and unjust; and that as long as the just live, foreign they fight with their concupiscences, Berish. Rabba sect. 9. Elsewhere 'tis given for a rule, that this concupiscence is not foreign in that (i. e. the future) world. See Basra fol. 58. 1. So the question being asked in Sanhedr. fol. 91. 2. from what time this evil figment obteins dominion on a man, whether from time of his birth, or of his formation in the womb; the answer is, foreign from the time of his formation, &c. The like dispute is in Beresh. Rab. sect. 34. Elsewhere they say, that in the beginning 'tis like a thred of a spider, but in the end foreign 'tis like a cart-rope; and again, that at first it is as a stranger, afterward as a guest, and at length foreign a Master of an house. See More Neu. par. 3. c. 22. and Vaiikra Rabba Sect. 17. The beginning of foreign is sweet, foreign and the end bitter. So R. Solomon on Psal. Lxxviii. 39. for the winde that passeth away, and cometh not again, reads foreign the evil figment hidden in the heart, which foreign goes when a man dyes, and returns not again. And Midras Tehill. to avert the argument drawn from that text against the resurrection of the dead, sayes, foreign the evil figment is meant in this place (not the soule) foreign which goes with a man at the hour of death, foreign and returns not with him at the hour of the resurrection of the dead. So when Ps. xvi. 3. there is mention of the saints that are in the earth, Midras Tehill. understands the words, as of those that lye buried there, adding, God calls not here the righteous foreign Saints till they be buried in the earth; foreign because the evil figment is in a man in this age; and (as it follows) God doth not fully confide in man, till he be dead. So Kimchi on Ps. ciii. 14. and Aben Ezra on this very verse of Psal. Li. where he resolves the Psalmists meaning to be, that in the hour of his nativity the evil figment was planted in his heart; and on ver. 10. that this evil concupiscence had drawn him to sin, and therefore he prays to God, that he would help him against the evil figment, that he might no more be mislead by it, or admit sin. To conclude, the Talmud it self tract. Berach. hath a very sober and Orthodox account of this matter. And so this may suffice for the second thing, the notion of Davids being born and conceived in sin. Thirdly then, it may be demanded, how this mention of his conception and birth in sin comes in here? or how it is a fit ingredient in a penitential Psalm, the humbling himself for so many gross actual sins, as he stood guilty of at this time? And the reason of the doubt is, because the sin of our conception and birth, being no act of our own wills, and yet farther a spring of all our corrupt streams, a strong tendency to our actual sins, the mention of that might seem rather a means of extenuating, than aggravating our actual guilts. To this I answer, 1. that if Christ, the second Adam, had not repaired the errors of the first Adam, if original corruption had inevitably betrayed David to his adultery and murther, &c. if he had not had power to resist his corrupt inclinations, or represse them from breaking out, as they did, into those gross sins, there would then be reason in the objection. But the doctrine of Original sin supposes not any such inevitable necessity, but on the contrary acknowledges the gift of Christ to be an antidote fully proportioned to p. 273the poison of our nativity, and his grace a sufficient auxiliarie to inable men not only to resist, but overcome temptations, and in some degree to mortifie corruptions. The Philosopher was said to overrule his nativity and starres: and sure Davids divine Philosophie had thus inabled him, if he had not sinned against grace and strength. And so to him that was thus inabled, the consideration of his natural corruption could be no competent matter of extenuation. The more turbulent his passions were, the stronger his inclinations to sin, the more he was obliged to devotion and watchfulness: the one, constantly and frequently to pray for grace, which he stood so much in need of; and the other, to imploy his utmost industry, not to betray, but make the best use of those aids, to secure him from so visible and imminent a ruine. And to this sense some of the Antients understand the next verse, Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and (as the Lxxii. read) foreign, thou hast manifested to me the secret and hidden things of thy wisdome; Though by nature I am corrupt and unclean, yet thou, by thy special grace, and revelation and communication of the secrets of thy wisdome, thy Christ unto me, hast elevated me above that low pitch of my natural corruption. And thus 'tis not extraordinary in Scripture for two things to be mentioned one after the other, when the latter only is principally intended, and to the purpose; and the former only as it is preparative and introductory to the latter. And if this be the meaning of the place, then the account is clear, that the former verse taken alone, as it cannot be an extenuation, so neither need it be lookt on as an ingredient in the aggravation of Davids present actual guilts; but only as an introduction to the latter verse, Gods divine revelations to him, which were very proper to aggravate his sins, as being committed against special grace and illumination, and so neither of weakness nor ignorance. But then Secondly, though his natural inclination to sin were no ground for the aggravation of his actual sins, yet being not, as hath been shewed, usefull for the extenuation of them, it may fitly come in to bear its part in a penitential Psalm, eo ipso as it is a sin, though but of our nature. For he that is truly sensible, and humbled for his grosser actual enormities, will, and ought to confess to God his lesser and inferior guilts, even his sins of ignorance and infirmity, and by no means to omit his natural corruptions, and all the branches thereof; First, the darkness of his understanding, Secondly, the unruliness of his affections, and Thirdly, the crookedness of his will, the bending down of that toward the carnal part, and great proneness to gratifie it: Which last, as it differs very much from the complacency of the senses in their proper objects, or the inclinableness of the flesh to that which is prohibited, which were in our first parents in Paradise (the beauty and sweetness of the apple were then grateful to two of their senses, and fit to be desired by them) and therefore no sins; so is it a degree of aversion from God, and so contrary to that degree of love with all the heart, which is commanded us by the Law, and consequently an foreign or breach of Gods Law, and a sin. And being so, and wi…hall so connatural to the will, since the fall, that it is not perfectly rooted out of us in this life, it may sure be very fit to be put into the Catalogue, and fill up the number, and increase the weight of those sins for which men are to humble themselves p. 274before God at all times, but especially upon conviction of any one or more gross actual sins. For then the more truly sensible we are, the more wounding will every the least obliquity, or but inclination of the will to evil, appear to us; the least weight adding to his pressure, that is so much overladen allready. And so this is a second use of this reflexion on his natural corrupt state, in the work of his repentance. But S. Chrysostome hath another notion of this passage, that it was used by David to introduce his prayer for that pardon which is promised sinners by Christ. For this he makes the meaning of the next verse, that God had revealed Christ unto him, enabled him to praedict his birth, passion, resurrection, and ascension; and therefore as these were means of cure for the corruption of our nature, and of obteining pardon for the infirmities thereof, so the Psalmist prayes to God, who desireth and loveth truth, that knowing foreign,Tom. l. p. 710. l. 18. the weakness of our nature, he will communicate his foreign medicines of pardon to them that beg them of him by prayer; and††p. 711. l. 34. again, that he that had been taught this mystery of our redemption before-hand by the holy Spirit, prayed that he might obtain his part in that grace which he praedicted to others, and therefore cried out v. 8. Thou shalt purge me with hyssope—And in this understanding of it, as a part of a plea for pardon in Christ, it will be perfectly fit also for a penitential Psalm, (though it tended not in the least to his humiliation) Deprecation of punishment being as proper a part of such an office, as aggravation of sin can be supposed to be. But the former seems to me the more probable designe of the Psalmist in this passage, and that in either part is matter of aggravation of sin; and to that I have confined the Paraphrase, though the other being honoured with so great an Author, was not wholly to be forgotten or omitted.

V. 6. Truth] From foreign to cover c.is foreign foreignkidneys or reins, because they are covered over with fat. So once more 'tis used in Scripture, Job xxxviii. 36. where, as here, our English renders it inward parts, somewhat too generally. The Chaldee expressing it more particularly by foreign in the reins, and these in the Scripture stile being frequently taken for the seat of the affections, the purity whereof is most contrary to the natural corruption or inbred pollution, in the preceding verse. As for foreign foreigntruth, that ordinarily signifies sincerity, uprightness and integri…y: and so truth in the reins is aequivalent to an hearty sincere obedience, not only of the actions, but of the very thoughts and affections to God; and so, in things of this nature, wherein this Psalm is principally concerned, denotes the purity of the heart, the not admitting any unclean desire or thought, the very first degree of indulgence to any lust. And this God is said to will or desire, or delight in, (so foreign foreignvoluit, frequently signifies) and so to command, and require of us. Then though foreign foreignbe in the future tense, yet in reason that is to be rendred in the past or the present, thou makest, or hast made me know wisdome secretly; by wisdome meaning the knowledge of his duty, and by making known, instructing in it, and by secretly, the inward work of Gods grace (added to the outward of his law) upon the heart, by which he 1. assureth him of this being his will, 2. incites him to the practice of it, and 3. instructs him in the advantages of this obedience, of this purity of the heart, rejecting the first motions of lust, the entertaining of which had brought this sad ruine on Davids soule, ingaged him in so many sins.