works and word of God, he comes at last to peruse the third book, his
_conscience_; a book which though wicked men may keep shut up, and
naturally do not love to look in to it, yet will one day be laid open
before the great tribunal in the view of the whole world, to the
justifying of God when he judges, and to impenitent sinners’ eternal
confusion. And what finds he here? A foul, blurred copy that he is
puzzled how to read; “_who_,” says he, “_can understand his errors?_”
Those notions which God had with his own hand imprinted upon conscience
in legible characters, are partly defaced and slurred with scribble and
interlinings of “_secret faults_;” partly obliterated and quite razed
out with capital crimes, “presumptuous sins.” And yet this _manuscript_
cannot be so abused, but it will still give in evidence for God; there
being no argument in the world that can with more force extort an
acknowledgment of God from any man’s conscience than the conviction of
guilt itself labours under. For the sinner cannot but know he has
transgressed a law, and he finds within him, if he is not past all
sense, such apprehensions that though at present he “walk in the ways of
his heart and in the sight of his eyes” (as the wise man ironically
advises the young man to do, Ecc. xi. 9), yet he knows (as the same wise
man there from his own experience tells him) that “for all these things
God will bring him into judgment.” The _conscience_ being thus convicted
of sin, where there is any sense of true piety the soul will, with
David, here address itself to God for pardon, that it may be “_cleansed
from secret faults_;” and for grace, that by its restraints, and
preventions, and assistances, it may be “_kept back from presumptuous
sins_,” and if unhappily engaged, that it may be freed at least from the
“_dominion_” of them—“_Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous
sins; let them not have dominion over me_,” etc.—_Adam Littleton._
_Verse 12._—The prophet saith, “_Who can understand his own faults?_” No
man can, but God can; therefore reason after this manner, as Saint
Bernard saith: I know and am known; I know but in part, but God knows me
and knows me wholly; but what I know, I know but in part. So the apostle
reasons; “I know nothing of myself, yet am I not hereby justified.”
Admit that thou keepest thyself so free, and renewest thy repentance so
daily that thou knowest nothing by thyself, yet mark what the apostle
adds farther; “Notwithstanding, I do not judge myself I am not hereby
justified, but he that judgeth me is the Lord.” This is the condition of
all men; he that is infinite knows them; therefore they should not dare
to judge themselves, but with the prophet David, in Psalm xix., entreat
the Lord that he would cleanse them from their secret sins.—_Richard
Stock._
_Verse 12.—“Who can understand his own errors?”_ None can to the depth
and bottom. In this question there are two considerables:—1. A
concession; 2. A confession. He makes a grant that _our life is full of
errors_; and the Scriptures say the same, while they affirm that “All we
like sheep have gone astray” (Isa. liii. 6); “I have gone astray like a
lost sheep” (Psa. cxix. 176); that the “house of Israel” hath “lost
sheep,” Matt. x. 6. I need not reckon up the particulars, as the errors
of our senses, understandings, consciences, judgments, wills,
affections, desires, actions, and occurrences. The whole man _in nature_
is like a tree nipped at root, which brings forth worm-eaten fruits. The
whole man _in life_ is like an instrument out of tune, which jars at
every stroke. If we cannot understand them, certainly they are very
many.—_Robert Abbot, 1646._
_Verse 12.—“Who can understand his errors?”_ If a man repent not until
he have made confession of all his sins in the ear of his ghostly
father, if a man cannot have absolution of his sins until his sins be
told by tale and number in the priest’s ear; in that, as David saith,
_none_ can understand, much less, then, utter all his sins: _Delicta
quis intelligat?_ “_Who can understand his sins?_” In that David of
himself complaineth elsewhere how that his “sins are overflowed his
head, and as a heavy burden do depress him” (Psa. xxxviii. 4); alas!
shall not a man by this doctrine be utterly driven from repentance?
Though they have gone about something to make plasters for their sores,
of confession or attrition to assuage their pain, bidding a man to hope
well of his contrition, though it be not so full as is required, and of
his confession, though he have not numbered all his sins, if so be that
he do so much as in him lieth; dearly beloved, in that there is none but
that herein he is guilty (for who doth as much as he may?) trow ye that
this plaster is not like salt for sore eyes? Yes, undoubtedly, when they
have done all they can for the appeasing of consciences in these points,
this is the sum, that we yet should hope well, but yet so hope that we
must stand in a mammering[11] and doubting whether our sins be forgiven.
For to believe _remissionem peccatorum_, that is to be certain of
“forgiveness of sins,” as our creed teacheth us, they count it a
presumption. Oh, abomination! and that not only herein, but in all their
penance as they paint it.—_John Bradford (Martyr) 1510-1555._
_Verse 12.—“Who can understand his errors?”_ By “_errors_” he means his
unwitting and inconsiderate mistakes. There are sins, some of which are
committed when the sun shines—_i.e._, with light and knowledge; and
then, as it is with colours when the sun shines, you may see them; so
these, a man can see, and know, and confess them particularly to be
transgressions. There are other sins which are committed either in the
times of ignorance, or else (if there be knowledge), yet with
unobservance. Either of these may be so heaped up in the particular
number of them, that as a man did when he did commit them, take no
notice of them; so now, after the commission, if he should take the
brightest candle to search all the records of his soul, yet many of them
would escape his notice. And, indeed, this is a great part of our
misery, that we cannot understand all our debts. We can easily see too
many, yet many more lie, as it were, dead and out of sight. To sin is
one great misery, and then to forget our sins is a misery too. If in
repentance we could set the battle in array, point to every individual
sin in the true and particular times of acting and re-acting, oh, how
would our hearts be more broken with shame and sorrow, and how would we
adore the richness of the treasure of mercy which must have a multitude
in it to pardon the multitude of our infinite errors and sins. But this
is the comfort; though we cannot understand every particular sin, or
time of sinning, yet if we be not idle to search and cast over the
books, and if we be heartily grieved for these sins which we have found
out, and can by true repentance turn from them unto God, and by faith
unto the blood of Jesus Christ, I say that God, who knows our sins
better than we can know them, and who understands the true intentions
and dispositions of the heart—that if it did see the unknown sins it
would be answerably carried against them—he will for his own mercy sake
forgive them, and he, too, will not remember them. Nevertheless, though
David saith, “_Who can understand his errors?_” as the prophet Jeremiah
spake also, “The heart of man is desperately wicked, who can know it?”
yet must we bestir ourselves at heaven to get more and more heavenly
light, to find out more and more of our sinnings. So the Lord can search
the heart; and, though we shall never be able to find out all our sins
which we have committed, yet it is proper and beneficial for us to find
out yet more sins than yet we do know. And you shall find these in your
own experience; that as soon as ever grace entered your hearts, you saw
sin in another way than you ever saw it before; yea, and the more grace
hath traversed and increased in the soul the more full discoveries hath
it made of sins. It hath shown new sins as it were; new sins, not for
their being, not as if they were not in the heart and life before, but
for their evidence and our apprehension. We do now see such wages and
such inclinations to be sinful which we did not think to be so before.
As physic brings those humours which had their residence before now more
to the sense of the patient, or as the sun makes open the motes of dust
which were in the room before, so doth the light of the word discover
more corruption.—_Obadiah Sedgwick._
_Verse 12.—“Who can understand his errors?”_ Who can tell how oft he
offendeth? No man. The hairs of a man’s head may be told, the stars
appear in multitudes, yet some have undertaken to reckon them; but no
arithmetic can number our sins. Before we can recount a thousand we
shall commit ten thousand more; and so rather multiply by addition than
divide by subtraction; there is no possibility of numeration. Like
Hydra’s head, while we are cutting off twenty by repentance, we find a
hundred more grown up. It is just, then, that infinite sorrows shall
follow infinite sins.—_Thomas Adams._
_Verse 12.—“Cleanse thou me from secret faults.”_ It is the desire of a
holy person to be cleansed, not only from public, but also from _private
and secret sins_. Rom. vii. 24. “O wretched man (saith Paul), who shall
deliver me?” Why, O blessed apostle! what is it that holds thee? What is
it that molests thee? Thy life, thou sayest, was unblamable before thy
conversion, and since thy conversion. Phil. iii. Thou hast exercised
thyself to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and
toward men. Acts xxiv. 16. And yet thou criest out, “O wretched man,”
and yet thou complainest, “Who shall deliver me?” Verily, brethren, it
was not sin abroad, but at home: it was not sin without, but at this
time sin within; it was not Paul’s sinning with man, but Paul’s sinning
within Paul: oh! that “law of his members warring (secretly within him)
against the law of his mind;” this, this made that holy man so to cry
out, so to complain. As Rebekah was weary of her life, not as we read
for any foreign disquietments, but because of domestic troubles: “The
daughters of Heth” within the house made her “weary of her life;” so the
private and secret birth of corruption within Paul—the workings of
that—that was the cause of his trouble, that was the ground of his
exclamation and desires, “Who shall deliver me?” I remember that the
same Paul adviseth the Ephesians as “to put off the former conversation”
so “to put on the renewed spirit of the mind” (Eph. iv. 22, 23);
intimating that there are sins lurking within as well as sins walking
without; and that true Christians must not only sweep the door, but wash
the chamber; my meaning is, not only come off from sins which lie open
in the conversation, but also labour to be cleansed from sins and
sinning which remain secret and hidden in the spirit and inward
disposition.—_Obadiah Sedgwick._
_Verse 12.—“Cleanse thou me from secret faults.”_ Learn to see thy
spots. Many have unknown sins, as a man may have a mole on his back and
himself never know it. Lord, cleanse me from my secret faults. But have
we not spots whereof we are not ignorant? In diseases sometimes nature
is strong enough to put forth spots, and there she cries to us by these
outward declarations that we are sick. Sometimes she cannot do it but by
the force of cordials. Sometimes conscience of herself shows us our
sins; sometimes she cannot but by medicines, arguments that convince us
out of the holy word. Some can see, and will not, as Balaam; some would
see, and cannot, as the eunuch; some neither will nor can, as Pharaoh;
some both can and will, as David.... We have many spots which God does
not hear from us, because we see them not in ourselves. Who will
acknowledge that error, whereof he does not know himself guilty? The
sight of sins is a great happiness, for it causeth an ingenuous
confession.—_Thomas Adams._
_Verse 12.—“Cleanse thou me from secret faults.”_—The law of the Lord is
so holy that forgiveness must be prayed for, even for hidden sins.
(_Note_—This was a principal text of the Reformers against the auricular
confession of the Roman Catholics.)—_T. C. Barth’s “Bible Manual,”
1865._
_Verse 12.—“Secret faults.”_ Sins may be termed “_secret_” either, 1.
_When they are coloured and disguised_—though they do fly abroad, yet
not under that name, but apparelled with some semblance of virtues.
Cyprian complains of such tricks in his second epistle, which is to
Donatus. 2. _When they are kept off from the stage of the world_; they
are like fire in the chimney; though you do not see it, yet it burns. So
many a person, like those in Ezekiel, “commit abominations in
secret”—that is, so as the public eye is not upon them. He is sinful,
and acts it with the greatest vileness; all the difference betwixt
another sinner and him is this—that he is, and the other saith he is, a
sinner. Just as ’twixt a book shut and a book opened; that which is shut
hath the same lines and words, but the other being opened every man may
see and read them. 3. _When they are kept, not only from the public eye,
but from any mortal eye_; that is, the carnal eye of him who commits the
sins sees them not: he doth, indeed, see them with the eye of
conscience, but not with an eye of natural sense. Even those persons
with whom he doth converse, and who highly commend the frame of his
ways, cannot yet see the secret discoursings and actings of sin in his
mind and heart. For, brethren, all the actings of sin are not without,
they are not visible; but there are some, yea, the most dangerous
actings within the soul, where corruption lies as a fountain and root.
The heart of man is a scheme of wickedness; nay, a man saith that in his
heart which he dares not speak with his tongue, and his thought will do
that which his hands dare not to execute. Well, then, sin may be called
“_secret_” when it is sin, and acted as sin, even there, where none but
God and conscience can see. Methinks sin is like a candle in a lantern,
where the shining is first within and then bursting out at the windows;
or like evils and ulcerous humours, which are scabs and scurvy stuff,
first within the skin, and afterwards they break out to the view on the
outside. So it is with sin; it is a malignant humour and a fretting
leprosy, diffusing itself into several secret acts and workings within
the mind, and then it breaks abroad and dares adventure the practice of
itself to the eye of the world; and be it that it may never see the
light, that it may be like a child born and buried in the womb, yet as
that child is a man, a true man there closeted in that hidden frame of
nature, so sin is truly sin, though it never gets out beyond the womb
which did conceive and enliven it.—_Obadiah Sedgwick._
_Verse 12.—“Secret faults.”_ “_Secret sins_” are more dangerous to the
person in some respects than open sins. For _a man doth, by his art of
sinning, deprive himself of the help of his sinfulness_. Like him who
will carry his wound covered, or who bleeds inwardly, help comes not in
because the danger is not descried nor known. If a man’s sin breaks out
there is a minister at hand, a friend near, and others to reprove, to
warn, to direct; but when he is the artificer of his lusts, he bars
himself of all public remedy, and takes great order and care to damn his
soul, by covering his “_secret sins_” with some plausible varnish which
may beget a good opinion in others of his ways. _A man does by his
secrecy give the reins unto corruption_: the mind is fed all the day
long either with sinful contemplations or projectings, so that the very
strength of the soul is wasted and corrupted. Nay, _secret actings do
but heat and inflame natural corruption_. As in shouldering in a crowd,
when one hath got out of the door, two or three are ready to fall out
after; so when a man hath given his heart leave to act a secret sin,
this begets a present, and quick, and strong flame in corruption to
repeat and multiply and throng out the acts. Sinful acts are not only
fruits of sin, but helps and strengths, all sinning being more sinful by
more sinning, not only in the effects but in the cause: the spring and
cause of sin will grow mad and insolent hereby, and more corrupt; this
being a truth, that if the heart gives way for one sin, it will be ready
for the next; if it will yield to bring forth once at the devil’s
pleasure, it will bring it 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 Sermon_
(No. 116), on “Secret Sins.”
_Verse 12._—The sin through ignorance (שְׁגָגָה) is the same that David
prays against in Psalm xix. 12, “Who can understand his _errors_
(שְׁגִיאוֹת)? 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 cast 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 to 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_!” Heb. v. 2. Amidst the types of this tabernacle, we recognise
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
secrets 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
wilfulness, 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 overspreads 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 discernible; 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._