The excellency of a gracious spirit Delivered in a treatise upon the 14. of…The excellency of a gracious spirit Deliuered in a treatise upon the 14. of…

An insulting spirit over those that we have at advantage, is far from true generousness, howsoever men may bless themselves in it.

An insulting spirit over those that we have at advantage, is farre from true generousnesse, howsoever men may blesse themselves in it.

Rehoboam was a man of an exceeding imperious, insulting disposition; My little finger, saith he, shall be thicker than my fathers loins; My father put a heavy yoke upon you, but I will put more to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with Scorpions: O, what a spirit was here! Surely he, and those who put him on, rejoiced in this as a brave commanding spirit indeed; But the holy Ghost saith of Rehoboam, that he was a poor, weak, childish-spirited man; yea, he calls ⟨p. 46⟩him a child, though he was above forty years old, 2 Chron. 13. 7. he was young, the word is a child, and tender-hearted, that is, of a poor, soft, effeminate spirit. True generousness and cruelty are exceeding opposite, one destroys the other. When Davids spirit was distempered, when he had lost much of his generousness, by that sin of uncleanness, as appears in the 51. Psalm, where he prays to God for his free spirit, which word signifies, a royal Princely spirit, as you heard before, much of the royal princeliness of his spirit, was lost by that sin, and David was never so rigid as he was at this time, which appears out of the 2 Sam. 12. 30, 31. where he commanded the people whom he had overcome, to be brought forth, and put them under saws; and under harrows of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln, and thus did he unto all the Cities of the children of Ammon. This was exceeding harsh and rigid; we never ⟨p. 47⟩read of him, that ever he dealt thus with any before; now this is observable, that this act of his, was at that time, wherein he lay in his sin: for Joab had besieged that City before David saw Bathsheba, and it was at that siege, that Uriah was slain: And although this fact be related after Nathans coming to him, and after Solomons birth, yet it is probable it was before, even while he lay in his sin, for two reasons;