him with mourning and fupplication, as he calls us: But we will still go on in our old courfes without relenting. Our cafe is not unlike that of God's profefling people of old, Ifa. lvii. 17. "For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and fmote him, I hid me, and was wroth." And yet, after all these tokens of God's anger, it is added, "He went on frowardly in the way of his heart. Now, can there be any remedy for him in fuch a cafe? Yes, the Lord faith, there is even balm in Gilead for fuch a' defperate condition, and, which is moft furprizing, that the Physician himfelf will come and apply it, as he adds in verfe 18. “I have feen his ways, and will heal him. In these hope lefs circumstances I will ftep in myself, with the balm in my hand, which will heal him of his frowardness and perverfeness, when nothing else can. Now, who could have expected fuch a word in fuch a defperatelike cafe, and that there could be balm for fuch a froward distemper of heart! One might have thought God would have added, "I have feen his ways, and will damn him." But instead of that he fays, "I have feen his ways, and will heal him." Oh the condefcending goodness and mercy of God to the chief of finners. VI. A difeafe is judged defperate and incurable, when the patient lofes his fenfes, or turns lethargic, that he cannot be awakened. Ah! we are become lethargic under our maladies, we have loft our fpiritual fenfes in a great measure. Our hearing is gone, we hear not the voice of rods, nor the voice of mercies, the voice of confcience, nor the voice of God's word, nor do we fet about the duties they loudly call us to. Our fight is departed from us, we fee not the Lord's hand in his difpenfations; when mercies come, we receive them like brutes, without feeing the hand that gives them, or rendering thanks to the giver. When afflictions come, and the Lord's hand is most visible in them, yet we fee it not, like thofe, Ifa xxvi. 11. we fee not the Achan, the fin which is clearly pointed at by the rod. Why? because a fpirit of flumber and of deep fleep, hath fallen down upon minifters and pro feffors, feffors, which have clofed their eyes, according to Ifa.. xxix. 10.. Our feeling is almost gone, we feel not the weight of fin, nor the ftings and upbraidings of confcience for it, we groan not under the burden.We smell not the fweet favour of Chrift's name, nor the precious ointments of his graces and comforts which draw fouls unto him, Cant. i. 3. 4.- -We tafte hot the sweetness that is in his promifes, and in the fruits of the bleffed apple tree. Alas! fabbaths and fast-days, fermons and facraments, do not relish with us as in times paft. Now, thefe deadly fymptoms of our difeafed church and land, when we view them, make our maladies feem incurable, and our cafe defperate; yet when we look to the balm of Gilead, we fee a remedy for them. We find the same symptoms in the cafe of Jerufalemn, which made her wounds and bruifes seem incurable, yet, faith the Lord, Jer. xxx. 17. "I will restore health unto thee, and will heal of thy wounds." And Jer. xxxiii. 6. "Behold I will bring health and cure, and reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth." May the Lord take compaffion upon our helpless and hopeless condition, and accomplish these his gracious promifes to our difeafed land, for Jefus Chrift's fake. Amen. Who is the Physician? SERMON V. On Jerem. viii. 22. Is there no balm, &c. HEAD III. I PROPOSED, in the third place, to fpeak of the phyfician who hath this balm for us. God himself is our phyfician. He is Jehovah that healeth us, Exod. xv. 26. Our cure is the work of the whole Trinity, but especially of Jefus Chrift, God incarnate, who came to This to the world with a commiffion to heal fouls. commiffion he opened and read at the beginning of his miniftry, Luke iv. 18. and still after owned it to be his bufinefs to heal fouls, Mat. ix. 12, 13. In this office of healer, he was held forth and typified of old by the brazen ferpent that healed the ftung Ifraelities, John iii. 14. and by the sun of righteousness that rifeth to us with healing under the wings, Mal. iv. 2. and by the tree of life, whofe leaves were for the healing of the nations, Rev. xxii. 2. The Lord Jefus Chrift being God-man, is nobly qualified to be our foul-physician; for, 1. He hath infinite knowledge and fkill for taking up all difeafes, with their causes, and the proper remedies for them, so that he can never mistake the cafe of the afflicted, nor make wrong applications for their cure. 2. He hath fovereign authority and almighty power, whereby he can command diseases to come and go at his pleasure. 3. He hath infinite pity and readiness to help the diftreffed: as he hath in him the compaflion of a God, fo he hath alfo the bowels of a man, which endows him with a peculiar tenderness of heart towards us, as being touched with the feeling of our infirmities; and hence he is inclined many times to come to the fick without being fent for, to the poor who have nothing to give him, and to be found of them who never fought him. On this account Chrift is reprefented by the good Samari tan that came to the wounded man that fell among thieves, and was lying by the way- fide, in a helpless cafe; the diftreffed man fent not for him, but he came of himself, he pitied him and took him up, and poured wine and oil into his wounds. 4. He hath wonderful patience towards the diftreffed, he doth not leave them for their unthankful carriage, and the abufes he gets from them, but bears with them all, and refolutely goes on with his defigned applications, till the cure be perfected. He knows if he fhould caft them off, none else could take them in hand, and death would infallibly be the iffue. That the Lord Jefus might convince us the more of his compaffion and readinefs to heal difeafed fouls, he readily readily cured men's bodies when he was on earth, and put none away that came to him. His defign in this was to encourage us to come to him with our foul-maladies, and to afford us a strong prop to our faith, and an argument to plead with him, and fay, "Lord, thou didft fhew compaffion to diseased. bodies that muft rot in the earth, and wilt thou not be moved with pity to precious fouls that will live for ever? Did the diseases of bodies draw out thy bowels, and shall not the wounds of fouls affect thee much more? Was it not thy main errand to heal fouls, O reject not those which are laid down at thy feet." The FOURTH HEAD. I propofed, in the 4th place, to enquire into the nature of the balm, and means of healing, which the Phyfician makes ufe of. In the first place, the blood of Chrift may justly be called the balm of Gilead, that heals fouls, for it is the meritorious caufe of our health and cure, and purchases all under means of healing to us. This is evident from Ifa. liii. 5. "He was wounded for our tranfgreffions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his ftripes we are healed." Our glorious Physician faw that no less than his blood and ftripes, his fuffering and dying in our room, could fatisfy juftice, and obtain pardon to take away the guilt and punishment of fin, and procure the graces of the Spirit to remove the power and pollution of fin, and therefore he willingly fheds all his blood for curing us of the diseases of fin. This blood then is our healing balm. Though the fcripture fpeaks of other means of healing, which our Phyfician makes ufe of, yet we are to understand that all these are used in subferviency to Chrift's blood, which is the bleffed meritorious mean of our cure, the only balm that procures all the other means of healing to us; fome of which I fhall mention; as, I. The Spirit of God, with his faving operations in fouls, is the great mean of healing, which our bleeding Saviour procured for us. He fends the Spirit to inti mate the pardon of fin to the wounded confcience, and thereby cures the foul of its fears of wrath. And for VOL. III. curing G 1 curing the power and pollution of fin, he fends the Spi- fick fouls and our fick land. II. The word and ordinances of Chrift are another mean he makes use of for healing our spiritual diseases. Thefe are the leaves of the tree of life, which are for healing of the nations. As the word is a mean in the hand of Christ, and his Spirit for breaking and wounding the hard heart, and therefore called a hammer and a fharp fword; fo it is alfo a mean of healing the wounded foul, by bringing healing promises to it, and prescribing remedies against fin, according to Pfal. cvii. 20. "He fent his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction." The facraments also are means of healing, as they feal the pardon of our fins, and bring cordials to our fainting hearts. III. Afflictions are means of healing, made ufe of by our Physician. He fends croffes and loffes to make us feel how bitter fin is, to caufe us to search our wounds, to mourn over them, and refolve against fin for the future. Sanctified rods are the purchase of Chrift's blood to his patients; they are his phyfic to purge away their fins, Ifa. xxvii. 9. By this fhall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away their fin. So that believers, instead of murmuring, ought to blefs God for their afflictions, feeing they are Christ's physic which he hath purchased for them at a dear rate. IV. Stupendous providences are fometimes made use of by Chrift as balm for his church's difeafes, when he doth |