doth terrible things which they looked not for, as in Ifa. Ixiv. 3. Thus he healed the fears of Ifrael, by opening a way for them in the red-fea. He healed their murmurings in the wilderness by giving them waters out of the rock. So the Lord, by ftupendous difpenfations and revolutions, hath often brought relief and healing to his diftreffed church in our land, as in the years 1560, 1638, 1688, 1714, and at other times. O let us still remember the years of the right hand of the most High.

V. Faithful minifters are appointed as balm and means of healing to difeafed fouls. The great physician fends them to dispense found and wholesome doc trines for that end, 1 Tim. vi. 3. Tit. ii. 1. They are his apothecaries to weigh out, mix, qualify and prepare the medicines according to his prefcriptions: This the apostle points at by a minifter's " rightly dividing the word of truth," 2 Tim. ii, 15. and Christ himself means it by the "teward's giving his houthold their portion of meat in due feafon, Luke xii. 42. It is happy for a difeafed church, when God gives them underftanding of the times (like the men of Iffachar) to know what Ifrael ought to do in difficult cafes. And it is as unhappy for her, when they are left to mistake the proper means, and sometimes to inflame her wounds, inftead of healing them. It is the Lord that muft give ministers understanding in all things, 2 Tim. ii. 7. May they be helped always to depend upon him for it.

VI. Reforming magiftrates have been made ufe of as balm for the church's diftempers, when the Lord ftirs them up to restore her liberties, redress her grievances and to use their authority to curb error and vice, idolatry and fuperftition, to call fynods, to confult about reformation, and excite minifters to their duty. Such balm were David, Solomon, Jehoshaphat, Joath, Hezekiah, Jofiah, and Nehemiah, to the church of God in their times. And fo alfo were Ahafuerus, Cyrus, Darius, Artaxerxes, and other heathen magiftrates, by the Lord's turning their hearts to favour his church in their dominions. And when the Lord's time of fulfilling his promises to her doth come, he can still make ftrang

G 2

ers

ers to build up her walls, and their kings to minifter to her: And kings to prove her nurfing fathers, and queens her nurfing mothers, according to Ifa Ix. 10. and Ifa. xlix. 23.

VII. Godly praying perfons in every ftation are as balm to a difeafed land, and the pooreft of them may help to heal it by their prayers; even as a little child may bring phyfic, and prefent it to its fick mother. O that all the children of Zion were thus employed at prefent, when there is fuch need for it. The Lord encourages them to it, by promifing that the prayer of faith fhall fave the fick, James v. 15. and contribute to heal the whole land, 2 Chron. vii. 17. "If my peo ple, who are called by my name, fhall humble themfelves, and pray, and feek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their fin, and will heal their land." Wherefore, as long as God is pleased to preserve a praying remnant in the land, however deadly our diseases be, there is hope in Ifrael concerning it; feeing there is still good balm in the land. May poor Scotland never be without it!

The FIFTH HEAD. I propofed, in the next place, to enquire into the phyfician's method of applying the balm, and performing the cure of the diseased.

I. Our bleffed Phyfician first makes finners fick before he makes us whole; that is, he makes finners fenfible of their disease, by convincing them of fin and mifery, and humbling them under the view of it, that fo they may prize Chrift and his healing balm; fuch are faid to be lick, Mat. ix. 12. Now this preparatory fick nefs bath several things in it; as,

1. A difcovery of the dangerous nature of our dif ease, fin, that it is the root of all the other plagues and miferies which we complain of; that it draws down the wrath and curfe of God upon us, and puts us in a ftate of damnation.

2. A folicitous care and thoughtfulness about our difeafe, as being of a deadly nature; which makes us reftlefs and inquifitive about it, like the Jailor, to fay,

What fhall we do to be faved?" What shall we do

to

to be healed? To get our fins pardoned, and our natures changed? Is there any balm or phyfician for us?

3. There is in it a diffatisfaction with all earthly comforts and enjoyments, as helpless things to us under our disease. The fick man can take no pleasure in eating and drinking, fleeping, or any worldly thing, while his disease continues; bring gold, filver, honours, pleafures, or friends to him, he answers, like Haman, "All these things avail me nothing," while I want Chrift's healing balm to my foul, which is every hour in hazard of the fecond death.

4. The fick man groans under the burden of his difease, he hath grief and forrow of heart for fin, like the Pfalmift, Pfal xxxviii. 6, 18. "I go mourning all the day long, I will be forry for my fin." Why? it is a a disease of my own bringing on, I have given the wounds to myself, and made my foul loathfome to God. O what a fool and beast have I been !

5. The fick man is brought to defpair of all healing and cure in his own doings or contrivances: All his former refuges and confidences are dafhed in pieces, and he joins with penitent Ifrael, Hof. xiv. 3. "Afhur fhall not fave us, we will not ride upon horses, neither will we fay any more to the work of our hands, ye are our gods:" We will not any more make balm of our prayers, our tears, or refolutions, we must seek it from another quarter.

of

6. The fick man fees his abfolute need of a phyfician, and of one that is fkilful, and hath balm of infinite virtue, even of Chrift, who is able to fave to the uttermoft, and can cure the deepest and deadlieft wounds. It is he, and he only (faith he) who hath an infinite fulness of merit and fpirit that can fuit my defperate malady. None but the eternal Son of God can be my phyfician: "O that I knew where to find him!"

7. The difeafed man is brought to a willingness to fubmit to the phyfician's method and prefcriptions, and to fay with Paul, Acts ix. 6. " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Let him cut me, lance me, blood me, purge me. Let him put me to what pain he pleaseth, let him lay me never fo low, I'll fubmit. Let him pre

fcribed

fcribe a potion never fo bitter, I'll drink it. Let Chrift do with me what he will, if he cure my difeafe, all is well. I will not haggle with him for a right eye, or a right hand, or any darling fin, or any thing dear to me in the world; no, every thing fhall be parted with at his command. Thus the finner, by the great Phyfician's power and fkill, is made fick and fenfible, humble and willing, in order to prepare him for the healing balm.

II. Another ftep which the Phyfician takes to cure the difeafed man: He by his Spirit works faith in his foul; that is, he powerfully perfuades and enables him to embrace Chrift as his Saviour, and apply the balm of his blood and merits unto his wounds, for removing guilt, pardoning fin, and reconciling God to his foul. Now, when this is done, the danger of death is over, John v. 24. "He that believeth fhall not come into condemnation, but is paffed from death to life." Faith is a healing grace, for it is the inftrument which applies the healing balm of Chrift's blood to the diseased foul. Every touch of faith's hand brings healing, nay, every one of its looks are healing, Ifa. xlv. 22." Look unto me, and be faved." Thus a look of a stung Ifraelite brought healing to his wound. So Peter's look to Chrift healed him of apoftacy. Hence Chrift faid to feveral difeafed perfons, "Thy faith hath made thee whole." So here, when once faith applies Chrift's blood, the guilt of fin is cured, its reigning power fubdued, and the strength of the disease is broken, it will not prove

mortal.

Queft. How fhall I know whether I have got this healing faith, faith which hath made me whole?

Ans. See whether it hath the evidence of a healing faith? 1. Hath thy faith brought thee to a peremptory refolution to ly at the Phyfician's door, and look to him alone for healing, faying, If I die, it fhall be at Chritt's door, for there is no other name given under heaven, nor among men, whereby I can be healed. 2. Hath thy faith made thee fall heartily in with the gofpel method of healing, and to approve it as a beautiful contrivance, and fay, "God's covenant of grace

is well ordered in all things, and fuitable to all my maladies; Chrift the Mediator of it is a noble Phyfician, and complete Saviour, and therefore I chufe him in all his offices, and accept of all his prefcriptions for my diseased foul: I accept of his blood to wash me, his righteousness to cover me, his Spirit to fanctify me, his word to direct me, and his laws to govern me." 3. See whether thy faith hath determined thee to open frankly to thy Phyfician, and entertain him in the best rooms of thy foul. When Chrift knocked by his Spirie, did thy faith make thee willing to yield and furrender all thy powers and faculties to him? Didit thou bring the keys of all the rooms of thy foul to Christ, and particularly of thy will, faying, "Lord, come, chuse where thou wilt lodge, where thou wilt lie, and what thou wilt have, for all I have is devoted to thee, and at thy command." Now, O man, if thou haft got fuch a faith as this, then thy faith hath made thee whole, the healing balm is applied, the cure begun, and fhall affuredly be perfected at length.

III. Another ftep of the foul's cure is by the renewing and fanctifying work of the Spirit. Affoon as the Phyfician gives faith to apply the balm, he takes the foul into his hofpital, places him among his patients, whose disease is broken, and who are on the way of recovery. He takes every believing foul under his fpecial care, he kindly vifits and attends them, and carries on their cure by his Spirit's renewing and fanctifying work: And this he doth by degrees, for the wounds which fin hath given our natures are fo deep, that they take long time to heal; nay, it will take all our days before the cure be finished. But though the cure be flow, it is fure.

Queft. By what fteps or degrees doth the Physician carry on the cure in believers ?

Ans. 1. By his Spirit in regeneration; he cures the mind of its blindness, the heart of its hardness, the nature of its perverfenefs, the will of its backwardness, the memory of its flipperinefs, the confcience of its benumbednefs, and the affections of their diforder; all