me according to my righteousness ; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord ; and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judg- ments were before me ; and I did not put away his statutes from me. I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mme iniquity."
It is my intention to inquire,
I. What is that iniquity which we may properly call our own ?
There are in every individual of our fallen race the seeds of all sin. But, as in different soils some plants will flourish more than others, so in different men are different propensities, which, growing to maturity, become prominent and characteristic features of the different individuals. There is, more or less, in every one some " sin which more easily besets him'' ;" and which, therefore, may be justly called his ozmi, as having taken the fuller possession of his soul, and as serving to distinguish him from others. That may be called our ow7i,
1. To which, from outward circumstances, we are most exposed —
[This I suppose to be the precise case with David in my text. He was persecuted by Saul with most unrelenting cruelty : and was strongly tempted, both by his friends and by a regard for his own safety, to avail himself of the opportuni- ties which were afforded him of destroying his enemy '^. Now, hy birth and education, men are exposed to widely different temptations ; as Agur intimated, when he prayed, " Remove far from me vanity and lies : give me neither poverty nor riches : feed me with food convenient for me ; lest I be full, and deny thee, and say. Who is the Lord ? or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain*^." Men also are subjected to evils incidental to their different vocatio?is in life. Those who move in a higher sphere, under the influence of proud and ambitiovis thoughts, are led to seek their own advancement at the expense of others. Those of the middling classes, who are engaged in mercantile transactions, are but too
^ Heb. xii. 1, ^ i gam. xxiv. 2 — 15. and xxvi. 6 — 12.
^ Prov. XXX. 8, 9.