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