devil's pleasure, it will bring forth twice by its own motion. A man by
"secret sins" doth but polish and square the hypocrisy of his heart: he
doth strive to be an exact hypocrite; and the more cunning he is in the
palliating of his sinnings, the more perfect he is in his hypocrisy.— Obadiah Sedgwick.
Verse 12. "Secret faults." Beware of committing acts which it will be
necessary to conceal. There is a singular poem by Hood, called "The Dream
of Eugene Aram"—a most remarkable piece it is indeed, illustrating the
point on which we are now dwelling. Aram had murdered a man, and cast his
body into the river—"a sluggish water, black as ink, the depth was so
extreme." The next morning he visited the scene of his guilt—
"And sought the black accursed pool,
With a wild misgiving eye;
And he saw the dead in the river bed,
For the faithless stream was dry."
Next he covered the corpse with heaps of leaves, but a mighty wind swept
through the wood and left the secret bare before the sun—
"Then down I cast me on my face,
And first began to weep,
For I knew my secret then was one
That earth refused to keep:
On land or sea though it should be
Ten thousand fathoms deep."
In plaintive notes he prophesies his own discovery. He buried his victim in
a cave, and trod him down with stones, but when years had run their weary
round, the foul deed was discovered and the murderer put to death.
Guilt is a "grim chamberlain," even when his fingers are not bloody red.
Secret sins bring fevered eyes and sleepless nights, until men burn out
their consciences, and become in very deed ripe for the pit. Hypocrisy is a
hard game to play at, for it is one deceiver against many observers; and for
certain it is a miserable trade, which will earn at last, as its certain
climax, a tremendous bankruptcy. Ah! ye who have sinned without discovery,
"Be sure your sin will find you out;" and bethink you, it may find you out
ere long. Sin, like murder, will come out; men will even tell tales about
themselves in their dreams. God has made men to be so wretched in their
consciences that they have been obliged to stand forth and confess the
truth. Secret sinner! if thou wantest the foretaste of damnation upon
earth, continue in thy secret sins; for no man is more miserable than he who
sinneth secretly, and yet trieth to preserve a character. Yon stag,
followed by the hungry hounds, with open mouths, is far more happy than the
man who is pursued by his sins. Yon bird, taken in the fowler's net, and
labouring to escape, is far more happy than he who hath weaved around
himself a web of deception, and labours to escape from it, day by day making
the toils more thick and the web more strong. Oh the misery of secret sins!
One may well pray, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults."— Spurgeon's Sermons (No. 116), on "Secret Sins."
Verse 12. The sin through ignorance (Heb.) is the same that David prays
against in Psalm 19:12, "Who can understand his errors (Heb.)? cleanse
thou me from secret things!" These are not sins of omission, but acts
committed by a person, when at the time, he did not suppose that what he did
was sin. Although he did the thing deliberately, yet he did not perceive
the sin of it. So deceitful is sin, we may be committing that abominable
thing which casts angels into an immediate and an eternal hell, and yet at
the moment be totally unaware! Want of knowledge of the truth, and too
little tenderness of conscience hide it from us. Hardness of heart and a
corrupt nature cause us to sin unperceived. But here again the form of the
Son of Man appears! Jehovah, God of Israel, institutes sacrifice for sins
of ignorance, and thereby discovers the same compassionate and considerate
heart that appears in our High Priest, "who can have compassion on the
ignorant!" Hebrews 5:2. Amidst the types of this tabernacle, we recognize
the presence of Jesus—it is his voice that shakes the curtains, and
speaks in the ear of Moses, "If a soul shall sin through ignorance!" The
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever!— Andrew A. Bonar, in "Commentary on Leviticus," ch. iv. v. 2.
Verse 12 ( last clause ). This is a singular difference between
pharisaical and real sanctity: that is curious to look abroad, but seeth
nothing at home: so that Pharisee condemned the Publican, and saw nothing in
himself worthy of blame; but this careful to look at home, and searcheth
into the secret corners, the very spirit of the mind. So did good David
when he prayed, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults." — Nathanael Hardy.
Verse 12. Our corruptions have made us such combustible matter, that
there is scarce a dart thrown at us in vain: when Satan tempts us, it is but
like the casting of fire into tinder, that presently catcheth: our hearts
kindle upon the least spark that falls; as a vessel that is brimful of
water, upon the least jog, runs over. Were we but true to ourselves, though
the devil might knock by his temptations, yet he could never burst open the
everlasting doors of our hearts by force or violence; but alas! we ourselves
are not all of one heart and one mind: Satan hath got a strong party within
us, that, as soon as he knocks, opens to him, and entertains him. And hence
it is, that many times, small temptations and very petty occasions draw
forth great corruptions: as a vessel, that is full of new liquor, upon the
least vent given, works over into foam and froth; so truly, our hearts,
almost upon every slight and trivial temptation, make that inbred corruption
that lodgeth there, swell and boil, and run over into abundance of scum and
filth in our lives and conversations.— Ezekiel Hopkins.
Verse 12. Sins are many times hid from the godly man's eye, though he
commits them, because he is not diligent and accurate in making a search of
himself, and in an impartial studying of his own ways. If any sin be hid,
as Saul was behind the stuff, or as Rahab had hid the spies, unless a man be
very careful to search, he shall think no sin is there where it is. Hence
it is that the Scripture doth so often command that duty of searching and
trying, of examining and communing with our hearts. Now what need were
there of this duty, but that it is supposed many secret and subtle lusts lie
lurking in our hearts, which we take no notice of? If then the godly would
find out their hidden lusts, know the sins they not yet know, they must more
impartially judge themselves; they must take time to survey and examine
themselves; they must not in an overly and slight manner, but really and
industriously look up and down as they would search for thieves; and they
must again and again look into this dark corner, and that dark corner of
their hearts, as the woman sought for the lost groat. This self-scrutiny,
and self-judging, this winnowing and sifting of ourselves, is the only way
to see what is chaff and what is wheat, what is mere refuse and what is
enduring.— Anthony Burgess.
Verse 12. Sin is of a growing and advancing nature. From weakness to
willfulness, from ignorance to presumption, is its ordinary course and
progress. The cloud that Elijah's man saw, was at first no bigger than a
hand's-breadth, and it threatened no such thing as a general tempest; but
yet, at last, it overspread the face of the whole heavens; so truly, a sin
that at first ariseth in the soul but as a small mist, and is scarcely
discernable; yet, if it be not scattered by the breath of prayer, it will at
length overspread the whole life, and become most tempestuous and raging.
And therefore, David, as one experienced in the deceitfulness of sin, doth
thus digest and methodise his prayer: first against secret and lesser sins;
and then against the more gross and notorious; as knowing the one proceeds
and issues from the other: Lord, cleanse me from my secret faults; and
this will be a most effectual means to preserve and keep thy servant from
presumptuous sins. — Ezekiel Hopkins.
Verse 12, 13. That there is a difference betwixt infirmities and
presumptuous sins is not to be denied; it is expressly in the holy
Scripture. Papists say that the man who doth a mortal sin is not in the
state of grace; but for venials, a man may commit (in their divinity) who
can tell how many of them, and yet be in Christ for all that! I hope there
is no such meaning in any of our divines as to tie up men's consciences, to
hang on such a distinction of sins; since it is beyond the wit of man to set
down a distinct point between mortal and venial sins. Now when it is an
impossible matter punctually to set down to the understanding of man which
is, and which is not a venial sin, they must pardon me for giving the least
way to such divinity as must needs leave the conscience of a man in a maze
and labyrinth. I find that the nature of infirmities doth so depend upon
circumstances, that that is an infirmity in one man which is a gross sin in
another; and some men plead for themselves that the things they do are but
infirmities. He that will sin, and when he hath done will say—not to
comfort his soul against Satan, but—to flatter himself in his sin, that
it is but an infirmity; for aught I know, he may go to hell for his
infirmities. Besides, if that be good divinity, that a man who is in the
state of grace may do infirmities, but not commit gross sins, then I would I
could see a man that would undertake to find us out some rule out of the
word, by which a sinner may find by his sin, when he is in Christ and when
out of Christ; at what degree of sinning—where lies the mathematical
point and stop—that a man may say, "Thus far may I go and yet be in
grace; but if I step a step farther, then I am none of Christ's." We all
know that sins have their latitude; and for a man to hang his conscience on
such a distinction as hath no rule to define where the difference lies, is
not safe divinity. The conscience on the rack will not be laid and said
with forms and quiddities. The best and nearest way to quiet the heart of
man is to say, that be the sin a sin of infirmity when we strive and
strive but yield at last; or, of precipitancy, when we be taken in haste,
as he was who said in his haste, "All men are liars;" or, a mere gross sin
in the matter: ay, say it be a presumptuous sin, yet if we allow it not,
it hinders not but we are in Christ, though we do with reluctancy act and
commit it. And I say that we do resist it if we do not allow it. For let
us not go about to deny that a godly man during his being a godly man may
possibly commit gross and presumptuous sins; and for infirmities, if we
allow them and like them that we know to be sins, then we do not resist
them; and such a man who allows himself in one is guilty of all, and is none
of Christ's as yet. Be the sin what it will, James makes no distinction;
and, where the law distinguisheth not, we must not distinguish. I speak not
of doing a sin, but allowing; for a man may do it, and yet allow it not;
as in Paul (Romans 7:15, 16), "That which I would not, that I do;" and he
that allows not sin doth resist it. Therefore, a man may resist it, hate
it, and yet do it. All the difference that I know is this: 1. That a man
may live after his conversion all his days, and yet never fall into a gross
sin. By gross here I mean presumptuous sins also. So David saith not
"cleanse," but "KEEP BACK thy servant from presumptuous sins." We may,
then, be kept from them. I speak not that all are, but some be; and,
therefore, in itself all might be. 2. For lesser sins, "secret faults,"
we cannot live without them—they are of daily and almost hourly
incursion; but yet we must be cleansed from them, as David speaks. Daily
get your pardon; there is a pardon, of course, for them; they do not usually
distract and plague the conscience, but yet we must not see them and allow
them; if we do our case is to be pitied, we are none of Christ's as yet. 3.
Great staring sins a man cannot usually and commonly practise them, but he
shall allow them. So Psalm 19:13, "Keep back thy servant from presumptuous
sins; let them not have dominion over me," implying that except we be kept
back from them they will have dominion over us. It follows, "then shall
I be upright;" so that the man in whom gross or presumptuous sins or sins
have no dominion , he is an upright man. — Richard Capel.
Verses 12, 13. The psalmist was sensible of sin's force and power; he was
weary of sin's dominion; he cries unto God to deliver him from the reign of
all the sins he knew; and those sins which were secret and concealed from
his view, he begs that he might be convinced of them, and thoroughly
cleansed from them. The Lord can turn the heart perfectly to hate the sin
that was most of all beloved; and the strength of sin is gone when once 'tis