2 Samuel 12

A speech one would think savored of pride; but the Apostle pulls the crown from his own head and sets it upon the head of free grace, Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. As Joab when he fought against Rabbah, sent for King David that he might carry away the crown…

Quest. How and in what sense may we be said to partake and have a hand in the sins of others? Resp. 1. By decreeing unrighteous decrees, and imposing on others that which is unlawful: Jeroboam made the people of Israel to sin; he was accessory to their idolatry by setting up gol…

Pardon of sin is a mercy of the first magnitude; God seals the sinner's pardon with a kiss. This made David put on his best clothes, and anoint himself; his child newly dead, and God had told him the sword should not depart from his house, yet now he falls anointing himself; the…

If a Christian has any assistance in duty, any strength against corruption, he rears up a pillar, and writes upon it, Hitherto the Lord has helped me. As Joab when he had fought against Rabbah, and had like to have taken it, sent for King David, that he might carry away the hono…

Though the Ammonites' sword cut off Uriah, yet David's pen was the cause of his death. Therefore the Lord tells David by the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 12:9): You have killed Uriah. (5.) Murder is committed by plotting another's death.

How did David disdain that the rich man should take away the poor man's lamb! As the Lord lives he shall surely die (2 Samuel 12:5). What is the enclosing of commons, but robbing of the poor?

Now what is it makes way for pardon of sin, but repentance? When David's soul was humbled and broken, then the prophet Nathan brought him that good news (2 Samuel 12:13): the Lord has put away your sin. Objection: But surely my sins are so great, that if I should repent, God wou…

Let us look to our ends in obedience; though we shoot short, let us take a right aim; one may do God's will yet not with a perfect heart (2 Chronicles 25:2): Amaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart; the action was right for the mat…

King Pharaoh and his people sin, because they will not let the Israelites go; but the punishment of their sin, is laid upon their children and cattle. The like we read of 2 Samuel 12.14, when David had committed those grievous sins of adultery and murder, a part of his punishmen…

He forbade Adam's fall, as it was sin: for so in every commandment sin as it is sin is condemned and punished: and yet because it was in a new respect, a means of manifesting his glory, who is able to bring light out of darkness; therefore he willingly decreed the permission of…

Could you not, like Shem and Japheth, go backward with a garment to cover the shame of many professors? How is that worthy name blasphemed — James 2:7; 2 Samuel 12:13-14! The hearts of the righteous are saddened — Psalm 25:3; Ezekiel 36:20.

For the second, I would both weep and tremble, considering that they (so abiding) must be damned doubly (Matthew 24:51). And for the third, no less than any of the rest, because, though they themselves may and shall be saved, yet their examples make fast the bonds of death upon…

Time may come, that you may earnestly wish you had that health and strength again to spend for God, which you now so lavishly waste, and prodigally cast away upon your troubles to no purpose, or advantage. It was therefore a high point of wisdom in David, and recorded no doubt f…

Rule 7. In the day of your mourning for the death of your friends, seriously consider your own death as approaching, and that you and your dead are distinguished by only a small interval of time. 2 Samuel 12:23: I shall go to him. Surely the thought of your own death as also app…

And if one and the same temporary judgment in the two thieves that were crucified with Christ, be so differenced, that mercy is stamped on the same death to the one, and wrath to the other; we may well say there is a temporary vengeance and wrath, that befalls both the saints an…

He is in this respect 'the beloved' as he is called in Ephesians 1:6, on whom originally and primarily all the beams of God's love fall. Solomon (the type of Christ) was the beloved of God (2 Samuel 12:24) and had his name from this (namely Jedidiah, that is, beloved of the Lord…

No, these he assaults many times very sorely. Pirates venture on the greatest booty: these he seeks to draw off from Christ, as Pharaoh sought to bring back the Israelites after their escape; or to foil them by some scandalous fall, to do religion a mischief (2 Samuel 12:14). By…

Well then, anticipate that sad severe judgment, by judging yourselves, and deprecating his righteous judgment: I may say to you, Soul, as Solomon bespeaks Shimei, You know all the wickedness which your heart is privy to: and where are your prayers, and tears, and groanings in se…

When Moses went into Egypt to be the guide of the Israelites, the Lord would have destroyed him, by reason of the bad example in his own family, namely, the uncircumcision of his child. David, for his evil example, whereby he caused the enemies of God to blaspheme, is punished,…

And this must not seem hard. For even the Jews, when the theft was aggravated with other circumstances, might punish it with death (2 Samuel 12:6). And it is in the power of the magistrate, when sins are increased, to increase the punishment.

Albeit the case may so fall out, that those of another Church, professing the same religion with us, may be reproved, and censured: indeed one Church may admonish another; for they being members one of another, are to procure the good one of another, as Paul teaches by the simil…

To be short, where the feeling of God's love takes place, so as this principle be once fixed in our hearts, that he is our father, it shall not much dismay nor trouble us to be heaved up, or cast down, according as it pleases him: for faith will teach us that there is nothing mo…

Section 10. The first considerable thing in God's command to this purpose is the authority with which it is accompanied — it is indispensably necessary that we should be holy on account of the authority of God's command; God himself uses this argument (Malachi 1:6), and there ar…

What was that which pierced the heart of David with such a deep sense of the evil of his sin, which is so abundantly manifested in Psalm 51. throughout? Why, if you look into the Title you shall find, it was the effect of what Nathan had laid before him: and if you consult 2 Sam…

Psalm 130:3 But this I say, that it's Gods usual way, to visit the sins of his people with rods of affliction, and this in mercy to their souls. Upon this account it was, that the rod of God was upon David in a long succession of troubles upon his kingdom and family, after that…

You having received this, you ought to have served me with it. You see how God upbraids David (2 Samuel 12:7-8): I anointed you King of Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul, and I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your bosom, and if this ha…

Seventhly, sins that bring scandal, seldom suffer the soul to escape depths. Even in great sins, God in chastening takes more notice oft-times of the scandal, than the sin: as 2 Samuel 12:14. Many professors take little notice of their worldliness, their pride, their passion, th…

Beside, these promises, (Psalm 89:31-33) (which are the same with these, (2 Samuel 7)) are looked upon as special evidences of God's love, and peculiar promises of his saving covenant. 2. When he is born, the Lord gives him his name, indeed, sends Nathan, (2 Samuel 12) with this…

Indeed, an Allegory may be in precepts, as 'Muzzle not the mouth of the Ox,' and 'cut off the right hand,' etc., which have an Allegorical sense in them. 4. Types are only historical as such, and the truth of fact agreeing in the anti-type, make them up, it being clear in Script…

And yet besides this restitution, it seems that sometimes the offenders were to be put to death, especially if the circumstances of their theft added cruelty and oppression to it. This appears in the parable of Nathan (2 Samuel 12). When he had most artificially aggravated the c…

And these temporal punishments are many times very sore and heavy; languishing diseases, racking and tormenting pains, loss of estate, sometimes ravished from them by violence, sometimes melting away insensibly: the father possibly by his unjust oppression and extortion, entails…

As, First, those who command or counsel it to be done: thus David became guilty of the murder of innocent Uriah; and God, in drawing up his charge, accuses him with it (2 Samuel 12:9): You have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Secondly, those who consent to mur…

Now though it is certainly very unjust and unfair to impute the faults of professors to the religion they profess, and to reproach Christianity, because there are those that are called Christians who expose themselves to reproach; yet it is, without question, the sin of those wh…

And how was he slighted by his own Children and servants after he had committed this sin? Compare 1 Samuel 2:30. with 2 Samuel 12:10, 11. A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

But thereupon to infer, that because he is guilty of such vices as are in his wife, he ought not to reprove her though she be worthy to be reproved, is scarce sound and good divinity: for thus he makes himself guilty of a double fault, one of committing the sin himself, the othe…

He will come and inquire into our ways; are you provided with an answer? David's sin was secret; his plot for the destruction of Uriah closely carried: Nathan tells him (2 Samuel 12:12), You did it secretly — But, against you have I sinned. Many escape blame with men, but God's…

So, (1 Corinthians 7:5) lest Satan tempt you by your incontinency; sets lusts a boiling, either to vex the saints, or to ensnare them. It is possible he may sometimes prevail with God's own children, to draw them to some particular act of gross sin; as (2 Samuel 11:4) as when Da…

And Paul was a zealous instrument, that went up and down doing good; he labored more abundantly than they all: Yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me (1 Corinthians 15:10). In this case, if we would honor and glorify God, we must do as Joab did, when he was likely to…

In every sin we slight the Will of God, and set up our own. We despise the commandment (2 Samuel 12:9) — not grossly and formally; David did not slight the commandment, and say, "Tush, it is a foolish law" — but by necessary interpretation we slight the law of God, and set up ou…

This is not meant here, of every failing and slip, every sin of ignorance and incogitancy; no, nor every act of rebellion and perversness of affection which may be found in the children of God. Though there be a pride in all sins against knowledge and light; that kind of sinning…

Soul-troubles are the most pressing troubles; a child of God is as a lost man in such a condition. 2. In respect of the heavy weight of outward pressures: Thus David fasted, and lay all night upon the earth in his child's sickness (2 Samuel 12:16-17). David therefore besought Go…

So, a child of God when he has fallen into disorder, how will this furnish the triumphs of the uncircumcised? Blind Samson did not make such sport for the Philistines, as a child of God for a wicked man, when he has fallen into some notable excess (2 Samuel 12:14). By this deed…

No, no, we are to recover ourselves by repentance, to sue out the favor of God. When David humbled himself, and had repented, then says Nathan (2 Samuel 12:13), The Lord has put away your sin. Partly too, because their bent and habitual inclination is to do otherwise.

Use 2. It informs us of the heinous nature of sin; of sin in general, it is [in non-Latin alphabet], a transgression of the Law (1 John 3:4) — that is, a contempt of God's authority, it is an unlording of him, and putting him out of the Throne. Every sin is an affront to God's a…

It concerns princes to be instructed (Psalm 2:10): Be wise now therefore, you kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth. Few speak plainly and sincerely to them, as Nathan to David (2 Samuel 12:7): You are the man; and God to David (2 Samuel 24:13): Shall seven years of fami…

So (Joel 2:14): Who knows if he will return, and leave a blessing behind him? In this clause I put believers who have sinned away their peace and assurance (2 Samuel 12:22). Who can tell if God will be gracious to me, that the child may live?

Now though sinners do not say so in so many direct and formal words, yet this is the interpretation of their sinful actions. Whenever they sin, they despise the law which forbids that sin, and so by consequence the authority of him that made it; (2 Samuel 12:9-10). Why have you…

We are froward in our relations; Hagar was proud in Abraham's house (Genesis 16:4): her mistress was despised in her eyes; but very humble in the desert (Genesis 21:16). David's heart was tender and smote him when he cut off the lap of Saul's garment (1 Samuel 24:5), but how stu…

So again (Galatians 2:20), I live, and then presently, not I but Christ lives in me. Thus should we learn to be faithful and loyal to God, and deal with him as Joab did to David when he was like to surprise Rabbah and take it (2 Samuel 12:28): Encamp against the city, and take i…

But then the question returns, Is it a word of promise made to himself in particular, or God's servants in general? Some say the former (2 Samuel 12:13), the promises brought to him by Nathan; I incline to the latter, and it teaches us these three truths. 1. That God's servants…