hear the knell ring, and to see the grave opened for such a sick person as this?

SECT. 14. Now let us take a view of the physician. Surely an ordinary one would be so far from visiting such a patient, that, in so desperate a condition as this, he would quite forsake him; as their use is to leave their patients, when they lie a dying. Here then observe the singular goodness of this Physician:

First, Though other physicians judge of the disease when it is brought unto them; yet the patient first feels it, and complains of it himself: but this Physician giveth the patient the very feeling of his disease, and is fain to take notice of that as well as to minister the cure. He went on frowardly in the way of his heart," saith the Lord, and pleased himself in his own ill condition; "I have seen his way, and will heal him "."

:

Secondly, Other patients send for the physician, and use many entreaties to be visited and undertaken by him here the Physician comes unsent for, and entreats the sick person to be healed. The world is undone by falling off from God, and yet God is the first that begins reconciliation; and the stick of it is in the world, and not in him: and therefore there is a great emphasis in the apostle's expression, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself," not himself unto the world. "He entreats us to be reconciled $." "He is found of them that sought him not ;" and his office is not only to save,' but to seek that which was lost.'

Thirdly, Other physicians are well used, and entertained with respect and honour: but our patient here neglects and misuseth his Physician, falls from him, betakes himself unto mountebanks and physicians of no value: yet he insists on his mercy, and comes when he is forsaken, when he is repelled: "I have spread out my hands, all the day, unto a rebellious people "."

Fourthly, Other physicians have usually ample and honourable rewards for the attendance they give: but this Physician comes out of love, heals freely; nay, is bountiful to his patient; doth not only heal him, but bestows gifts

$ 2 Cor v. 19, 20.

r1sai. lvii. 17, 18. t Isai. lxv. 1. u [sai. lxv. 2. Medicos civitate donavit Julius Cæsar. Suet. in Jul. c. 4.

upon him; gives the visit, gives the physic; sends the ministers and servants, who watch and keep the patient.

Lastly, Other physicians prescribe a "bitter potion for the sick person to take; this Physician drinketh of the bitterest himself:-others prescribe the sore to be lanced; this Physician is wounded and smitten himself:--others order the patient to bleed; here the Physician bleeds himself;-yea, he is not only the physician, but the physic; and gives himself, his own flesh, his own blood, for a purgative, a cordial, a plaister to the soul of his patient; dies himself, that his patient may live, and "by his stripes we are healed "."

SECT. 15. We should, from all this, learn, First, To admire the unsearchable riches of the mercy of our God, who is pleased in our misery to prevent us with goodness, and when we neither felt our disease, nor desired a remedy, is pleased to convince us of our sins, "Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity:"-To invite us to repentance; "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God:"-To put words into our mouth, and to draw our petition for us; "Take with you words, and say unto him, Take away all iniquity," &c.-To furnish us with arguments; "We are fatherless, thou art merciful:"-To encourage us with promises; "I will heal, I will love:"-To give us his ministers to proclaim, and his Spirit to apply these mercies unto us. If he did not convince us, that iniquity would be a downfal and a ruin unto us : we should hold it fast, and be pleased with our disease; like a madman that quarrels with his cure, and had rather continue mad than be healed ".

If being convinced, he did not invite us to repentance, we should run away from him, as Adam did. No man loves to be in the company of an enemy; much less, when that enemy is a judge. They "have turned their back unto me, and not their face d." Adam will hide himself from the presence of the Lord;" and Cain will go out from the presence of the Lord f. Guilt cannot look upon majesty;

1 Vis morborum pretia medentibus; fori tabes pecuniam advocatis fert. Tacit. Annal. 1. 11.6. * Isai. liii. 5. Pol! me occidistis, amici; non servâstis, ait: Horat.-Molestus est somnium jucundum videnti qui excitat. Sen. ep. 102. b Ezek. xviii. 30. d Jer. ii. 27.

e Gen. iii. 8.

stubble dares not come near the fire. If we be in our sins, we cannot stand before God .

If being invited", he did not 'put words into our mouths,' we should not know what to say unto him. We know not wherewith to come before the Lord, or to bow before the high God, if he do not show us what is good .' Where God is the judge, who cannot be mocked or derided; who knoweth all things; and if our heart condemn us, he is greater than our hearts; and wherever we hide, can find us out, and make our sin to find us too *;—where, I say, this God is the judge, there guilt stoppeth the mouth, and maketh the sinner speechless'. Nay, the best of us know not what to pray for as we ought, except the Spirit be pleased to help our infirmities". When we are taught what to say,-if God do not withdraw his anger, we shall never be able to reason with him":"Withdraw thine hand from me; let not thy dread make me afraid; then I will answer, then I will speak "." If he do not reveal mercy; if he do not promise love or healing; if he do not make it appear that he is a God that heareth prayers; flesh will not dare to come near unto him P. We can never pray, till we can cry, Abba, Father;' we can never call unto him. but in the multitude of his mercies.' As the earth is shut and bound up by frost and cold, and putteth not forth her precious fruits, till the warmth and heat of the summer call them out; so the heart, under the cold affections of fear and guilt, under the dark apprehensions of wrath and judgement, is so contracted, that it knows not to draw near to God: but when mercy shines, when the love of God is shed abroad in it, then also the heart itself is shed abroad and enlarged to pour out itself unto God. Even when distressed sinners pray, their prayer proceeds from apprehensions of mercy: for prayer is the child of faith, and the object of faith is

mercy.

SECT. 16. Secondly, The way to prize this mercy, is to grow acquainted with our own sickness; to see our face in

g Ezra ix. 15. h Oratio de conscientia procedit: si conscientia erubescit, erubescat oratio: si spiritus reus apud te sit, erubescit conscientia: Tert. exhort. castit. c. 10. i Mic. vi. 6, 8. Gal. vi. 7. 1 John iii. 20. Numb. xxxii. 23. m Rom. viii. 26. n Job Rom. x. 15.

ix. 13, 14. James v. 15.

1 Matth. xxii. 12. Rom. iii. 19.

• Job xiii. 21, 22.

P 2 Sam. vii. 27.

the glass of the law; to consider how odious it renders us to God, how desperately miserable in ourselves. The deeper the sense of misery, the higher the estimation of mercy. When the apostle looked on himself as the chief of sinners, then he accounted it a saying "worthy of all acceptation, That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners"." Till we be sick and weary,' we shall not look after a 'physician to heal and ease us;' till we be 'pricked in our hearts,' we shall not be hasty to enquire after the means of salvation'. Though the proclamation of pardon be made to ‘all, that will", yet none are willing, till they be brought to extremities : as men cast not their goods into the sea, till they see they must perish themselves, if they do not. Some men must be bound, before they can be cured. All that God doth to us in conversion, he doth most freely: but a gift is not a gift till it be received *; and we naturally refuse and reject Christ when he is offered, because he is not offered but upon these terms, that we deny ourselves, and take up a cross, and follow him therefore, we must be wrought upon by some terror or other. When we find the wrath of God abiding upon us, and our souls shut under it as in a prison", and the fire of it working and boiling, like poison, in our consciences; then we shall value mercy, and cry for it as the prophet doth, "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for thou art my praise." Things necessary are never to be valued to their uttermost, but in extremities. When there is a great famine in Samaria, an ass's head (which at another time is thrown out for carrion) will be more worth, than, in a plentiful season, the whole body of an ox. Nay, hunger shall, in such a case, overvote nature, and devour the very tender love of a mother: the life of a child shall not be so dear to the heart, as his flesh to the belly of a pined parent. As soon as a man finds a shipwreck, a famine, a hell in his soul, till Christ save, feed, deliver it,-immediately Christ will be the desire of that soul, and nothing in Heaven or earth valued in comparison of him. Then that which was esteemed the 'foolishness of preaching'

before, shall be counted the power of God, and the wisdom of God: then every one of Christ's ordinances (which are the 'waters of the temple, for the healing of the sea,' that is, of many people, and the 'leaves of the tree of life,' which are for the 'healing of the nations","—and the streams of that fountain which is opened in Israel for sin and for uncleanness", and the wings of the Sun of Righteousness,' whereby he conveyeth healing, to his church, shall be esteemed, as indeed they are, the riches, the glory, the treasure, the feast, the physic, the salvation of such a soul".' And a man will wait on them with as much diligence and attention, as ever the impotent people did at the pool of Bethesda, when the angel stirred the water and endure the healing severity of them, not only with patience, but with love and thankfulness; suffer reason to be captivated, will to be crossed, high imaginations to be cast down, every thought to be subdued, conscience to be searched, heart to be purged, lust to be cut off and mortified ;-in all things, will such a sick soul be contented to be dieted, restrained, and ordered, by the counsel of this heavenly Physician.

SECT. 17. It is here next to be noted, That God promiseth to heal their backslidings.' The word imports a departing from God, or a turning away again. It is quite contrary, in the formal nature of it, unto faith and repentance; and implies that which the apostle calls a 'repenting of repentance. By faith we come to Christ, and cleave to him, and lay hold upon him; but, by this, we depart, and draw back from him, and let him go. By the one, we prize Christ as infinitely precious, and his ways as holy and good"; by the other, we vilify and set them at nought, stumble at them, as ways that do not profit. For, a man having approved of God's way, and entered into covenants

d Ezek. xlvii. 8.

b Rom. xi. 12. Ephes.

e Rev. xxii. 2. f Zach. xiii. 1. g Mal. iii. 2. iii. 8. 2 Cor. iii. 8, 11. iv. 6, 7. Isai. xxv. 6. Rev. xix. 9. Luke iv. 18. Heb. ii. 3. James i. 21. John xii. 50. Acts xxviii. 28. i 2 Cor. vii. 10. k John vi. 37. Venire ad Christum, quid est aliud quam credendo converti? Aug. de grat, et lib. arbit. ca. 5.-Transfugas arboribus suspendunt. Tacit. de morib. Germ.-Transfugas, ubicunque inventi fuerint, quasi hostes interficere licet; 1. 3. s. 6. ad leg. Cornel. de Sicariis. D. ep. 1. 38. D. de pœnis, s. 2, et 19. captivis et postliminio, et 1. 3. de Re militari, s. 11. 1. 7. Heb. vi. 18. Isai. lvi. 2, 6. m Heb. x. 13, 28, 29. Phil. iii. 8. • Matth. xxi. 42. Acts iv. 11. 1 Pet. ii. 7, 8. John xxi. 14, 15.

2 Pet. i. 4.