And David discovered his own sin, though it was a very scandalous one, in the matter of Uriah, Psal. li. the title, compared with ver. 14. and prays, _Deliver me from blood guiltiness_; which is a confession of his being guilty of murder. The apostles also discover their infirmities. Thus Paul discovers his furious temper, in persecuting the church, before his conversion, and ranks himself amongst the chief of sinners, 1 Tim. i. 13, 15. And how willing is Matthew to let the world know, that, before his conversion, he was a publican: thus he characterises himself, Matt. x. 3. and says, chap. ix. 9. that when Christ called him, he sat _at the receipt of custom_, though the publicans were reckoned among the vilest of men for extortion, and other crimes, and were universally hated by the Jews. Moreover as the penmen of scripture expose their own crimes, so they do those of their nearest and dearest friends and relatives, which carnal policy would have inclined them to conceal. Thus Moses tells us how Aaron his brother made the golden calf, and so was the encourager and promoter of the people’s idolatry; that it was he that _bid them break off the golden ear-rings, which he received at their hand, whereof he made a molten calf, and then built an altar before it_, Exod. xxxii. 2-5. Though the Jewish historian[42] was so politic, as to conceal this thing, for the honour of his own nation; and therefore when he tells us, that Moses went up into the mount to receive the law, he says nothing of the scandalous crime, which the people were guilty of at the foot of the mountain at the same time. Moreover, as they do not conceal their sins, so they sometimes declare the meanness of their extraction, which shewed that they did not design to have honour from men. Thus Amos tells us, Amos i. 1. _He was among the herdmen of Tekoa_: and that he was not bred up in the schools of the prophets, which he intends, when he styles himself, _no prophet, neither a prophet’s son_, chap. vii. 14. And the evangelists occasionally tell the world how they were fisher-men, when called to be Christ’s disciples, and so not bred up in the schools of learning among the Jews.[43] 3. They were very far from being crafty or designing men; neither did they appear to be men that were able to manage an imposture of this nature, or frame a new scheme of religion, and, at the same time, make the world believe that it was from God. For,