endure amputation and mortification of their sinful lusts which are as a gangren'd hand or foot therefore they are not healed but choose rather to pine away in their beloved lusts than to have them cut off and so to have their souls saved 2. Hardness of heart and stupid security without apprehension of the danger and vileness of their sins makes them carlesse to seek to the Lord for healing their souls Mat. 13.15 For this peoples heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their hearts and should be converted and I should heal them 3. Willfull rejecting of the counsel and direction of the great Physician of our souls given to us by his faithfull Ministers Jer. 51.9 We would have healed Babylon but she is not healed Mat. 23.37 38. O Jerusalem Jerusalem c. how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left unto you desolat c. 4. A false conceit and imagination of our own righteousness and soul-health is a great impediment to the healing of the soul as the Phrenetick man who thinks himself whole seeketh not the Physician for healing Matth. 9.12 They that be whole need not a Physician but they that are sick that is they that are sensible of their souls distemper through the malady of sin are sensible also of a necessity to be healed The outward means of Soul-healing are the Word specially the Gospel-promises Psal 107 20 He sent his Word and healed them Isai 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty One c. I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humhle and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Isai 61.1 The Lord God hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted Psal 51.17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is an outward mean for healing a broken heart because it is a visible sign and seal of our Communion of Christs Body broken for us and of his blood shed for us and his offering of his Body and our receiving of it by Faith is the special mean to heal the broken heart by the vertue of his Body broken for us Prayer is a mean blessed of God for healing a broken heart Moses Num. 12.13 cryed unto the Lord in behalf of his leprouse sister Miriam saying heal her now O God I beseech thee And 2. Chron. 30.18 19 20. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord for healing and forgivness to the People who had prepared their hearts to eat the Passeover but had not been punctually cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary conform to the Law cerimonial And it is said the Lord hearkned to Hezekiah and healed the people The inward means of healing the Soul are specially two 1. Repentance Jer. 3.20 Return ye backsliding Children and I will heal your backslidings Jer. 4.14 O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved Repentance cleanseth the wound and leteth out the malignant humor 2. Faith is a special mean for Soul-healing it is as the hand that applieth the healing-plaister it applies the blood of Christ wherewith the Soul is cleansed Act. 16.31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved As the Haemoroise Woman when she touched Christ was healed by the healing vertue that came out of him so when a humble broken-hearted sinner doth lay hold on Christ and the promise made in him healing vertue comes from him whereby guilt and obligation to eternal punishment is taken away in our Justification and the fever of corruption is much abaited by the work and power of Sanctification The manner of Gods healing the broken-heart is 1. Freely without any merit in man procuring the same for Who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed to him again Rom. 11.35 To this purpose saith the prophet Isai 43.25 I even I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake c. 2. He healeth powerfully so that when he puts to the hand of his invincible grace for healing no distemper of the will can resist him for he takes away willingness to resist and so he begins his healing in cureing the malignancy of the will Jer. 17.14 Heal me O Lord and I shall be healed Jer. 31.18 Turn thou me and I shall be turned This efficacy of Gods grace in healing Souls is called the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power It is a power exceeding and overcomming the power of our corruption at the time when God is pleased 〈◊〉 exert it 3. God heals the Soul gradually in â—espect of indwelling corruption although as is most probable God justifies a sinner at once from the guilt of all his sins actually forgiving him all his bypast sins and giving him a right and claim through Christ unto the remission of sins to come Yet the healing of the soul from the vilness of indweling corruption in the course of Sanctification is by degrees for so long as the children of God are on Earth there is in them grace and corruption and each of them lusteth one against another Gal. 5.17 4. He healeth perfectly and fully all his Patients at the end of their life from all stain of Sin and diâ—temper of Conscience through the stirring of inward corruption as the Jewish Women were fully purified after Child-birth before they were presented in the Temple so our blessed Lord and Physician after our new Birth and Regeneration doth purifie us in the course of Sanctification and at death having closed the course of our purification doth after death present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy Jud. Epist 24. Obj. One possibly may say my heart is broken with sorrow for my sins and yet their is no healing of my soul nor peace and quietness in my Conscience I may say as Jer. 4.14 19. I looked for the time of healing and behold trouble Ans God is debtor to none for healing he healeth the broken in heart but not because their heart is broken The distemper is meerly from our selves but our healing is from his free Grace with some sinners he deals more roughly than with others according to his Wisdom and good Pleasure Isai 28.27 Paul is cast down to the ground but the heart of Lydia is gently opened some are sooner cured and comforted to preveen despair others are keept long under cure and exercise of Conscience to preveen pride and presumption Therefore wait upon the Lord thy Physician with all patience and submission 1. Because he hath promised to heal the broken
For if they be taken away with the common calamity yet they get their souls for a prey Good Josiah is said to have been gathered to his grave in peace 2 Chron. 34.28 Although he was slain by the bloody sword of an enemy 3. It is evident from the contrary evil of an hard heart because man's wilful hardning of himself in his evil wayes against warnings from the Word of God from the rod of God upon himself or others and from the sharp checks of a guilty conscience doth provoke God judicially to harden him by giving him up to a Conscience past feeling to commit sin with greediness and so to obstruct their own healing because not the hardned but the broken in heart are healed Mat. 13.15 For this peoples heart is waxed gross c. Lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them For when wicked men do wilfully harden themselves in their evil wayes it is just with God to withdraw his former common restraints such as were the checks of a â—emording Conscience and a panick fear of wrath to come thereafter he casts the bridle on their neck then do they run wild in their own imaginations when they are given up in the just judgement of God to walk in the counsels of their own hearts Psal 81.11 12. The means and helps for breaking of the heart that in all men is naturally hard are 1. A laying to heart the severe threatnings of God against sin Jer. 23.29 Is not my word like an hammer Many men hear the word of threatning but are still hardned their heart is not broken because the threatning is not said to heart by Faith The old world Mat. 24.39 though they knew the threatning of the deludge by the preaching of Noah yet they knew not that is they laid it not to heart till the flood came The hammer breaks not the hard stone until it be laid to it with some pith but when it is laid to heart it doth in some measure begin the work of heart-breaking Jonah 3.5 They believed God in his threatning and proclaimed a fast which was a proclamation of their sorrow for their sins Faith to the threatning worketh fear in the heart and fear breaks the heart with present sorrow from a present apprehension of the wrath to come this was the cause of Ahab his sorrow and legal humiliation 1 Kings 21.27 but in the children of God this fear and brokenness of heart is so ordered in the wisdom and mercy of God that it prepareth them for the comforts of the Gospel in Jesus Christ as Noah moved with fear and apprehension of the threatned deludge prepared an ark to the saving of himself and his house Heb. 11.7 In like manner the children of God warned and wakened by the threatning of the Law flee in to Christ the only Ark and propitiation that covereth believers from the curse of the Law and eternal wrath 1 Joh. 2.1 2. If any man sin we have an Advocat with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins 2. Sad afflictions laid home with conviction to the Conscience is a mean oft-times ordered by God to break an hard heart as is seen in Manasseh who was humbled by his fetters and in the Prodigal who was humbled by great famine and want the unjust reproaches of enemies contrary to their intention like that man who opened the Apostem in the body of his enemy by a dart thrown at him are ordered by God to break the heart of his children with sorrow for by-past sins the reproaches of vile Shimei calling David a bloody man in the matter of Saul wherein he was most innocent yet it did break his heart with sorrow in remembrance of the matter of Vriah 3. A particular confession of our sins is a mean blest of God to the breaking of the heart when we consider the circumstances of their number and greatness against infinit Majesty infinitly just who will not clear the guilty when we consider the Omniscience and Omni-presence of God that we have done this and the other evil in his sight and so have been shamless in our sinning as the vile adulteress is shameless by intertaining the adulterer in the presence of her husband when we consider our wilfulness and obstinacy in sinning against the light of our own conscience as these men did Act. 7.51 When we consider our relapses like the Sow to the puddle the Dog to the vomit after many promises and resolutions in the day of affliction to the contrair when we consider our base ungratitude not only neglecting to render to the Lord according to his benefits bestowed upon us but also our rendring to him evil for good and so deserving that evil of punishment should never depart from us Prov. 17.15 4. A particular register remembrance of Gods former mercies in doing us good all our dayes by providing for us and preserving us from many visible and invisible dangers when we call to remembrance his patience and long-suffering in bearing with us in our sins this brake the hard heart of the Prodigal when he remembred the former bounty of his gracious father Luk. 15.17 18. 5. A serious and frequent meditation of death and judgement will be a mean to break an hard heart aâ— a man drowned in debt not aquainted with any that will be surety for him and knoweth assuredly the rude Messenger will take him personally at the Term arrest him and present him to the Judge then the irrevockable sentence will come forth Take him bind him hand and foot c. It broke the heart of Pauls companions that he said they should see his face no more Act. 20.38 So the fear of the day of death and of judgement should break the hard heart when they consider if they go on and die in their sins they shall be separate from God for ever and never shall see his face Therefore break thine heart with sorrow for bygone sins break off thy course of iniquity by righteousness make thine aquaintance in time with Jesus Christ the Surety and Mediator of the New Covenant and pray with Hezekiah Lord I am oppressed undertake thou for me If now he be thine Advocat thou needest not be afraid of that day of judgement because thy Advocat will be thy Judge repent of thy sins and by faith make application to him as thy Advocat and intercessour at the Fathers right hand be of good courage he that speaketh for thee now will not speak against thee in that day 6. Look oft by Faith and frequent meditation upon Christ crucified this is a special Medicine and Lenitive to soften the hard heart Zach. 12.10 This look to him by faith is like the blood of the goat which breaketh the hard Adamant look on him wounded for thy transgressions both in his body and spirit
heart is ready to every good work and commanded duty with the Apostle Paul Acts 9.6 saying Lord what wilt thou have me to do For the Doctrine of Justification by Faith obligeth believers the more strictly to the duties of Sanctification for knowing they are justified in the blood of Christ which is the price of our redemption therefore should they glorify God in their body and in their spirit which are God's not only by the right of creation and temporal preservation but also by the right of redemption and everlasting salvation 1 Cor. 6.20 Seing they have the promises of free grace ratified in the blood of Christ they should cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 See more 2 Cor. 5.15 Tit. 2.11 12 14. So that the Doctrine of Justification by faith in Jesus Christ doth not make void the Law but establisheth the Law Rom. 3.31 Though it make the Law void as to Justification by it Rom 8.3 yet it doth not make it void or cancell it from being a fixt rule for our direction Now to the Lord Jesus Christ the Author and Finisher of our faith with the Father and Holy Ghost be all praise c. Amen Spiritual Life and Spiritual Walking SERMON V. GAL. 5.25 If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit THe Apostle having spoken in vers 22 23 24. of the seveâ—al fruits of the Spirit in the soul wherein he hath planted the life of grace he inferreth this conclusion If we live in the Spirit c. that is if we be quickened by the Spirit of God and raised to a new life of grace let it be seen in the course and actions of our life Let us walk by the Spirit that is by the guidance and direction of the Spirit according to the Word of God which was inspired into the Prophets and Apostles by the Holy Spirit In the words we have 1. A benefit supposed If we live in the Spirit 2. A duty proposed Let us walk in the Spirit For clearing the benefit supposed we would know 1. The nature and condition of this life which we are said here to have by the Spirit what it is 2. We would know the necessity of this life 3. The excellent quality of it in excelling all other kinds of life 1. As for the nature of this life it hath three effects or operations 1. Our Justification whereby our sins are forgiven and we are absolved from the sentence of damnation through the perfect obedience and satisfaction of our Mediator the Lord Jesus Christ as a man sentenced to death for some hainous crime is called a dead man even before the execution of the sentence and when he is absolved he is said to be a living man so by nature through sin and guiltiness we are children of wrath and dead in sins and trespasses obnoxious to eternal death and damnation but being justified by faith in Jesus Christ we are said to live in Christ and have the hope to live with him for ever This life is purchased to us by the merit of the death of Christ and is applyed by the Holy Spirit working faith in us whereby we are united to Christ and receive in and through him remission of sins offered to us in the preaching of the Gospel and sâ—aled in the holy Sacraments 1 Cor. 6.11 But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 2. The act also and operation of the life of grace is our Sanctification wrought in us by the Holy Spirit mortifying in us the deeds of the body Rom. 8.13 If ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live to wit the life of glory in Heaven and it is a quickening of us to live here unto righteousness as a man pincing away in sickness is said to be a dead man in respect of his fast approaching unto death and when he is in the way of recovery he is said to be a living man because there are pregnant hopes of his better health and life This life of Sanctification purchased also by Christ is applyed and wrought in us by the Holy Spirit through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 3. There is the life of comfort and spiritual chearfulness it 's said of old Jacob Gen. 44.30 His life is bound up in the lad's life because he was much comforted in his son Joseph When sin and judgement is set before us our heart is dead and comfortless like the heart of Nabal whose heart at the report of David's wrath against him died within him through fear 1 Sam. 25.37 But when the Spirit of the Lord in our fears and faintings doth revive us by the sweet and piercing smell of the cross of Christ received by faith into the soul then we live a comfortable life and our soul rejoyceth in God our Saviour 2 Cor. 4.11 For we which live are alwayes delivered unto death for Jesus sake that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh that is that the life of comfort and inward strength from Christ might be manifested in our sufferings 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory This life of inward comfort and strength purchased also by the merit of the death of Christ is applyed and wrought in us by the Holy Spirit Eph. 3.14 15 16. I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ c. that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner-man This life is called our life in Christ Col. 3.3 4. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God It is purchased by him hid and preserved in him and with him as the life of the branches is preserved in the root Joh. 14.19 Because I live ye shall live also It is called the life of the Spirit or by the Spirit in this place because by the Holy Spirit we are united and joyned unto the Lord our Head and Saviour 1 Cor 6.17 He that is joyned unto the Lord is one spirit and because we are renewed to a new life by the Holy Spirit Joh. 3.5 Except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God It is called the life of faith Gal. 2.20 because by faith we receive the life of Justification Sanctification and of inward comfort from Jesus Christ 2. This life of grace is absolutely necessar as a midst and necessar antecedent unto eternal life 1. As the natural life is a necessar foundation of natural actings and operations dead Trees grow not dead Animals walk not dead men discourse not so the life
to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus This duty of walking in the wayes of Gods commandments is required of all who have the spiritual life of grace If we live in the spirit let us walk in the spirit Although the estate of grace doth free us from the Law as it was a covenant of works to man in the estate of innocency Rom. 6.14 Ye are not under the law but under grace yet we are not fred from it as the fixed and perpetual rule of the duty of thankfulness to God both upon the accompt of our creation and redemption Rom. 3.31 Do we then make void the law through faith yea we establish it The Gospel addeth a new obligation from the glade tidings of our redemption through the blood of Christ 1 Cor. 6.20 For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods To this we are called by the Gospel of grace Tit. 2.11 12. 1 Pet. 2.24 Christ bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness To this walking in newness of life we are engaged by solemn profession in Baptism wherein we are said to put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and these who put on Christ should walk in newness of life Rom. 13.14 Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof And Christ giveth salvation only to them who labour to obey him by walking in newness of life Heb. 5.9 And being made perfect he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him There be three evident symptoms of natural life to wit 1. Appetite toward the means of life 2. Growth and increase of stature And 3. Motion and walking In like-manner there are three signs of spiritual life 1. Appetite and desire after the word and means of Salvation 1 Pet. 2.2 As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word Although the renewed children of God do not know sometimes by the reflex act of knowledge and faith that they live by the Spirit yet others experienced Christians do know they live by perceiving their spiritual appetite after the means of the life of grace 2. Growth in Grace and Sanctification is a sign of the life spiritual infused into them by the Spirit for the Ministry of the Word is given for the perfecting of the Saints for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the meâ—sure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4.11 12 13. 3. Moving and walking in newness of life with all respect to all the holy Commandments is a sign undoubted that we live in the Spirit because these two are joyned together Ezek. 36.27 I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes As Lazarus raised from death to life did come forth from the sepulchre wherein he was laid and walked in the sight of others so a soul quickened by the Spirit doth rise from his sins wherein he was dead and buried and walketh before God and men in newness of life There is a walking after the flesh directly opposit to walking in the Spirit Rom. 8.1 There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit We must beware of such walking because the end of it is eternal destruction for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit or walketh after the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Gal. 6.8 Such walkers after the flesh are profane men walking presumptuously in the imaginations of their own evil hearts and yet thinking to get Heaven in end as if a man walking toward the west should think in end to come to the east Of this profane and presumptuous walking and the severe punishment of it we read Deut. 29.19 This is not to walk in the power of the Spirit of God but in the strong delusion of their own deceived spirit such walkers are these spoken of 2 Pet. 3.3 There shall come in the last dayes scoffers walking after their own lusts And all such also who walk in a course of life fulfilling the sinful desires and lusts of their own hearts It is true the godly though renewed by the Spirit of God have flesh and corruption in them but they walk not aftr the flesh as their ordinary guide and counsellour The holy Scripture holds forth the manner of our walking in the Spirit in these following qualifications 1. In walking humbly with God Micah 6.8 What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God By keeping upon thy spirit the impressions of his greatness and holiness this will make thee to walk humbly this made Isaiah humble after he had seen a visible representation of the Majesty and Holiness of God Isai 6.5 Then said I Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips c. This impression will make the soul obedient to the will of the Lord as Isaiah also was Isa 6.8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying Whom shall I send and who will go for us then said I Here am I send me This impâ—ession of the greatness and holiness of God will make the renewed man to shine in his conversation before the world as Moses his face did shine before the people after he had conversed with God in the mount 2. It is a spiritual and heavenly-minded walking having the way and haunt of the heart far above the things of the world Prov. 15.24 The way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath Such walking keepeth the heart free from the bondage of many temptations and snares wherein the earthly-minded man is taken and detained as the Eagles who soar in a high way are not so easily shot and fell'd by the Fowler as the greedy Cormorants that flutter upon the surface of the earth or the vain Stanchel that hovers in the air and embraceth the wind In like manner heavenly-minded men are not so easily taken with the baits of the world as greedy and ambitious men who mind earthly things 3. It is a circumspect walking Eph. 5.15 Whereof hereafter in Serm. on that place 4. It is a sincere and upright walking Psal 84 11. No good thing will the Lord God withhold from them that walk uprightly It is a walking with a respect unto all the Commandments of God as David walked Psal 119.6 with active endeavours to keep a good conscience toward
not stiff-necked as your fathers were but yeeld your selves unto the Lord and serve the Lord your God c. Lay up provision of thy own personal experience of sad afflictions upon thy self in a time of thy former strayings from God and of the good such afflictions did to thee in stopping thy course of defection Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word And in a time of renewed afflictions be patient and submit to God who chastiseth his own children to this end especially that he may make them partakers of his holiness Heb. 12.10 In time of great affliction lay up provision from thy experience of his strength supporting thee and of his wisdom and power in delivering thee that in time coming thy heart may be established by confidence and dependence on him in new troubles Psal 42.6 O my God my soul is cast down within me therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites from the hill Mizar 2 Cor. 1.9 10. But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us 4. Lay up provision of self-denial and resolution for evil times of persecution to come Mat. 16.24 If any man will come after me let him deny himself c. And he must be resolute as Paul Act. 21.13 I am ready not only to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus From this Doctrine of Redeeming the time three sorts of persons are justly to be reproved 1. Slothful Idlers who redeem not the time but from day to day delay to put heart and hand to the work of their own salvation like the sluggard Prov. 6.10 Yet a little sleep a little slumber Such men are like to spend-thrifts who neglect the appointed time for redeeming their morgaged lands and afterward when they would they have not the opportunity Luk. 13.24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able 2. Such as trifle away their time as the Athenians did Act. 17.21 As these tatling widows did 1 Tim. 5.17 and as these busie bodies 2 Thess 3.11 Such also who spend more time in their excessive recreations and gaming 's than in their necessary and lawful employments especially such who spend much of their time in dycing and carding Such of old were severely fined by the laws both of Heathen and Christian Emperours and by the Canons of the Council of Eliberis were suspended from the holy Sacrament as witnesseth the learned Ductor dubitantium such prodigal triflers of precious time are like to some foolish persons who spend upon conceits and fancies the moneys that should have been imployed to redeem their morgages so these men play away their time which should be employed to redeem their former time that was ingaged to their former foolish courses 3. The debauched wasters of time in the works of darkness as uncleanness drunkenness oppression covetousness pride malice c. Such men redeem not the time but prodigally cast it away they are like unto profuse wasters who do not redeem the wodsett but take on more debt and in end bring themselves to sinful shameful and desperat poverty So these prodigal wasters and debauchers of their time bring themselves in end to an everlasting want of all comfort as the rich glutton did Luk. 16.23 24. Therefore let all sorts and conditions of men take with the warning to improve their time to the glory of God and to the advantage of their own salvation 1. Such as are in their adolescency and growing age they would improve their young years to the glorifying of their Creator Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth Offer the first fruits of your age unto God that your after-age may be sanctified and blessed of the Lord if the first-fruits be holy the whole lump of your time and age will be holy Rom. 11.16 Plato to this purpose speaketh indeed like a divine Philosoph in his first book of his Repub. Young age saith he pâ—st over in vertue and in honest imployments is a comfortable nurse to entertain and cherish their old age but he that wasteth and debaucheth his young years when he comes to old age the remembrance of his former miscarriages in the time of his youth doth greatly afright him as infants awaked out of their sleep by loud noises are greatly terrified and afrighted In like manner those men that sleeped sometimes securely in the sins of their youth shall be awaked in their old age with the terrours of an accusing conscience and afrighted with the dreadful found of death and judgement and shall not have rest to their souls until they repent of the sins of their youth and by â—aith rest on the Lord Jesus Christ whose blood cleanseth from all unrighteousness 2. Such as are in their prime and meridian of their time who are now in their full strength of body and mind Improve your time well honour God with the strength of thy body give not thy strength and the flower of thy time to uncleanness and drunkenness like these cursed men Isa 5.22 Wo unto them that are mighty to drink wine by so doing they weaken the spirit and consume the body they turn the good gifts of God unto rebellion against himself as if a souldier should employ his levy-mony to buy armes wherewith he might fight against his King who gave it Reuben the beginning of Jacobs strength abused his own time and strength therefore his dignity and excellency was taken from him but Joseph improved well his youth and strength of body therefore God blessed him and his bow abode in strength in despight of all that shot at him Now is the time wherein your senses and judgement are ripe and quick use your time and judgement well that ye may have comfort in old age when senses and judgement will fail as they did in old Barzillay but if your quickness be set on edge upon vain inventions ye will be forced in your old age to say as Rom. 6.21 What pleasure have we or fruits in those things whereof we are now ashamed 3. And such who are in their decrept old age stouping toward the earth and the grave let them not imploy their short time and their affections wholly upon the things of the earth when by the course of nature they are near to be removed from it Let them not be busie in the things of the world and careless of the work of their own salvation I say to them as the Lord of the Vineyard said to those Matth. 20. Why stand ye all day idle ye are come to your eleventh hour your time is near run the night of death is near hand wherein no
shall the innocent Cautioner be wounded and sore distressed and shall not the Principal debtor be wounded with sorrow for the debt he himself contracted shall our spotless Cautioner suffer shame and reproach and shall not our hearts be broken with grief and shame for our sins which put the innocent Lamb of God to open reproach Psal 22.6 7. Psal 69.20 7. Pray to God for a soft and broken heart it is promised in the New Covenant Ezek. 36.26 27. Pray for the influence and insuperable operation of the grace of God upon thy hard heart that thou may know in thy self what is the exceeding greatness of his power to them who believe according to the working of his mighty power c. Ephes 1.19 The influence of his overpowering and overcoming grace will be as Aqua-fortis to cut and divide an heart of iron we are like little children within the house that can shut the door of the heart upon our selves but cannot open it Therefore we must cry to him who both opens the dark understanding Luk. 24.45 and also the heart and affections Act. 16.14 that he would open our hard hearts by his preveening grace and by his subsequent grace he would keep them open and enlarge them by love toward himself and his holy Commandments 3. The cure of the broken in heart he healeth them and bindeth up their wounds God healeth these that are of a broken heart with sorrow under great afflictions upon their persons or outward estate Hos 6.1 Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up The Lord healeth these that are thus wounded by giving them patience and strength in the inner-man to bear the visitation of the Lord in the day of their trouble Psal 138.3 In the day when I cryed thou answeredst me and strengthendst me with strength in my soul Sometimes he comforts them with inward peace and joy that exceeds the pain they have from outward tribulation 2 Cor. 1.4 5. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation c For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ and sometimes by delivering them in their greatest extremity 2 Cor. 1.9 10. But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us The Lord healeth also in a more special manner those whose hearts are broken with sorrow for their sins This is the healing we should desire most as David did in the time of his great sickness Psal 41.4 I said Lord be merciful unto me heal my soul for I have sinned against thee Our greatest care should be of soul-health 1. Because our care should be greater to have the soul healed than the body or outward estate This was David's first and greatest desire in the time of sore sickness Ps 39.8 13. he first prayes for deliverance from his sins and then with submission for deliverance from his bodily disease Deliver me from all my transgressions O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more The soul is more precious than the body as men are more careful to have an Apostem in the inward and noble parts healed than a scratch in the skin of the body so our first and greatest care should be to have the diseases of our souls healed 2. If the spirit be healed and if a man have peace with God and his own conscience he will be able patiently to bear the infirmities of the body But a wounded spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 As a man having an Ulcer in his back is much disquieted even with a little burden but if the back be sound and whole he can walk quietly under a great burden So when there is no health nor peace in the conscience a very small affliction doth disquiet and perplex our hearts but when we have inward health and peace in the conscience we are able through the Lord who strengtheneth us to walk patiently and quietly under a great affliction Psal 23.4 Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me Psal 138.7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble thou wilt revive me 3. Unlese ye have a care of your souls-healing in this life there is no coming to perfect soul-health and salvation in Heaven as the Lepers under the Law were not admitted into publick meetings till first they were cleansed and healed so no unclean thing shall enter into the New Jerusalem Rev. 21.27 That we may the better understand what this soul-healing is and how the cure is performed we would consider that sin in Scripture is compared oftentimes to sickness Isai 1.5 and in many places to leprosie 1. In bodily sickness there is a privation and want of health so in sin there is want of Original Righteousness which was the sound constitution of man in the state of innocency 2. In bodily sickness there is a collision of humours like contrary waves making a commotion in the body so in our corrupt hearts there is a contrariety of unruly lusts one desiring this visible and sensual good and another lust carried after another sinful object 3. In sickness there is consumption and a tendency unto death unless it be preveened so in sin there is a tendency unto eternal death unless it be preveened by the pardon of our sins in the blood of Christ 4. In sickness bodily men oftentimes become weaker and weaker so unless they be restored by sanctification sinners grow worse and worse 2 Tim 3.13 Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived Therefore by healing is meant specially these two 1. The forgiving of sin to these who are broken in heart with sorrow for it Isa 33.24 And the inhabitant shall not say I am sick to wit unto the second death the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity 2. The sanctifying of a broken-hearted man and healing him by degrees from in-dwelling corruption which many times over-mastered him these two acts of soul-healing are set down Psal 103.3 Bless the Lord who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases By the remission of sin the soul is healed and recovered from a state of guiltiness and obligation to punishment eternal and by sanctification it is recovered from pineing away in iniquity The impediments of soul-healing are 1. Waywardness and frowardness of men who cannot endure to have their wounds touched and ript up by the word of reproof Prov. 1.30 31. They would none of my counsel they despised all my reproof therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices They cannot