begin; you must begin at this Sun of righteousness; you must be wings, beams, angels, emanations from him, if you will bring help and healing to his people. From him all your wisdom and counsel, all your love and zeal, all your fidelity and sufficiency, is derived. "We are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God;" who alone makes able counsellors in the state, as well as ministers in the church. And as he is the Father of all your light and counsel, so by his blessing alone, they operate. Without him, you can do nothing.' As man liveth not by bread alone, so he recovereth not by physic alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God. He is the Lord that healeth us. (Exod. xv. 26) He that gave his disciples power to cure diseases, (Luke ix. 1) must do the same for you, if you be our healers. And therefore you must begin at him, and say as the prophet did, "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for thou art my praise." (Jer. xvii, 14) And as you have his sufficiency to enable you, and his blessing to give success unto you; so you have him as a great exemplar to lead and teach you, whom you may imitate in this great work: for he went about teaching and healing; (Matth, iv, 23) and he healed, 1. Freely; and so he commanded his disciples to heal. (Matth. x. 8) He did not enrich himself by any of his cures and miracles. By how much the less of reward, by so much the more of honour, for a free cure. Not but that it is worthy the bounty of a parliament to acknowledge great and noble services, with proportionable returns of favour; but the less internal and domestical those returns are, they will appear the more noble. t "Tu civem patremque geras: tu consule cunctis, Non tibi; nec tua te moveant, sed publica damna." (Claudian) 2. Bountifully. He was at cost and charges to heal others; his blood was our balsam; he was content to be smitten, that we might be healed. (Isai. liii. 5) He looked not on his own things, but on the things of others. (Phil. ii. 4, 5) "He gave his life for his sheep." (John x. 11) A good man is Jerome ad Ctesiphontem adversus Pelagianos. willing to spend and to be spent, for the good of those unto whose service he is devoted; (2 Cor. xii. 15) 'Nec sibi, sed toti genitum se credere mundo.' It is recorded for the honour of Nehemiah, that though former governors had been chargeable to the people, yet he and his brethren did not eat the bread of the governor; (Neh. v. 14, 15) and of Esther, that she would venture perishing for the service of her people. (Esther iv. 16) 3. Universally, without exception; he healed all' that came to him for healing. (Matth. xii. 25. Luke iv. 40, and vi. 19) He is an ill physician that will cure his patient of a sore finger, and use no means against his fever or consumption, for an aching heart, or a bruised head. We may say of England, as the prophet of his people. (Isai. i. 5, 6) That "our sickness is from head to foot ;"—some parts sick with sorrow and sufferings, others sick with sin and wickedness. Let your endeavours of cure be impartial. Any one part, unhealed, will create pain and danger to the whole : and as you may not neglect any integral, so let your principal care be for the vital and architectonical parts, to reduce them unto health and safety. But let your providence extend to all; the least and lowest member hath a right in the common soul, in the good of the whole. Render to all their dues ";' tribute, custom, fear, honour, are due to some; love, liberty, property, safety, protection, peace, are due to others. lance all interests with so equal and righteous a poise, that rulers may govern a free people, and the people obey illustrious and noble governors; that the people may be comforted by the justice and clemency of their princes, and princes honoured by the loyalty and obedience of their people : that love may be the soul of the body politic, the bond, the joint, the sinew that holds together all the members in the unity, and for the good of the whole. * Ba 4. Meekly, humbly, compassionately: there is a feigned meekness, as that of Absalom and Otho, Omnia serviliter pro Imperio': but Christ was meek and lowly in heart. (Matth. xi. 29) We read of the gentleness of Christ. (2 Cor. x. 1) So Christ taught men, as they were able to hear. (Mark iv. 33) So he healed them, took the lambs into his bosom, and u Rom. xiii. 7. Col. iii. 15. Eph. iv. 15, 16. y Tacit. Hist. gently led the rest. (Isai. xl. 11) Considers our mould; (Psalm ciii. 14) will not break a bruised reed; (Matth. xii. 20) stays with a poor blind beggar in the way. (Mark x. 49, 51) And thus he requireth us to heal and restore disjointed members with a spirit of meekness; (Gal. vi. 1. Phil. iv. 5) shew all possible tenderness and indulgence towards the infirmities, especially the consciences of men of humble and sober, of quiet and peaceable spirits: the strong are taught to bear the infirmities of the weak. (Rom. xv. 1) Be careful to secure and settle the fundamentals, the vitals, and essentials, of doctrine, worship, and duty, that you may be sure of sound and orthodox ministers, to go in and out before the flock and if, in smaller and more problematical things, men cannot be all of one mind, (as we never shall have perfection of judgement till we come to heaven) "Let not the strong despise the weak," nor the weak judge the strong: whom God receives into his favour, let not us shut out of ours. (Rom. xiv. 3) 5. Perfectly. As many as touched him in order unto healing, were perfectly cured. (Matth. xiv. 36) Endeavour as much as is possible, such a total oblivion and obliteration of our sad divisions, and the distemper arising therefrom, that no dregs of the disease, no scars of the wound may remain; but that all the members may coalesce into a perfect unity and fraternity again. And as this must be your first care to begin at the Sun of Righteousness, and to imitate him; so you must be careful of the two wings which are the vehicula of healing; be sure that the wings of the Sun of Righteousness do carry him into all places of the land. 1. The wing of light,'-sound doctrine, pure ordinances. The more the people agree in divine truths, the more they will be disposed for moral and for civil unity. Religion is a cementing thing. Lactantius and Jerome derive ità Religando,' "Quod eâ quasi in fascem vincti sumus." Discourage and discountenance dangerous and false doctrines; bear up, speak comfortably to, an able, orthodox, faithful, and learned ministry; procure brotherly reconciliation amongst men of sober minds, but different judgements. The breaches (I hope) • Lactant. Instit. lib. 4. cap. 28. Jerom. in Amos 9. are not so wide, but that if animosities and prejudices were removed, they might, by amicable and fraternal debates, be closed up again. 2. The wing of righteousness,'-able, faithful, religious judges and magistrates, wholesome, healing, and righteous laws, are the vehicula of justice: by the sanctuary and prudence of these, your healing will shed itself abroad into all parts of the land. a In one word, Go forth,' have your eyes in every place, Πολλοὶ βασιλέων ὀφθαλμοὶ καὶ πολλὰ ὦτα. Let the wheels of your providence have eyes on them. Grow up into splendor and perfection, and restore the collapsed honour of this august council in all parts of it. Tread down wickedness; make stronger laws than ever, against impiety and profaneness, against iniquity and unrighteousness. Keep Christ and his presence; keep godliness and the fear of his name in the midst of the land. Endeavour not a mere formal and superficial, but a substantial and spiritual reformation; and then assuredly the Lord will honour you, and make you his instruments of performing this gracious promise, "Unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of Righteousness arise, with healing in his wings:" and these wings shall carry your names and memories with splendor and renown unto all succeeding ages. "For them that honour him, the Lord will honour " b THE MEANS AND METHOD OF HEALING IN THE CHURCH: Set forth in a SERMON, preached before the Right Honourable the House of Peers in Westminster-Abbey, April 30, 1660, being a day of Solemn Humiliation to seek God for his Blessing on the Counsels of the Parliament. NOBILISSIMIS, HONORATISSIMIS, AMPLISSIMIS, DOMINIS IN SUPERIORI DOMO PARLIAMENTORUM ARDUA REGNI NEGOTIA TRACTANTIBUS, FACTAM, IN SUMMI HONORIS HUMILLIMIQUE OBSEQUI TESTIMONIUM DAT, DICAT, CONSECRAT, E. R. 2 CHRON. vii. 13, 14. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain; or if I command the locusts to devour the land; or if I send pestilence among my people ;-if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. THE words are a gracious promise, made by the Lord unto Solomon, after he had dedicated the temple by fasting and |