288 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [IsA. LIII. 5.
temper of his body; that is a brutish strength, and a bull or an ox ex- ceedeth us in that ; nor merely in the strength of natural parts, for therein many pagans excel many Christians : but it lies in the strength of grace, strength to ov^ercome temptations to sin, to govern our passions and afiections, to do the things which God commandeth, that is strength indeed, the strength of the inward man. See, on the other side, man s proper strength described, Prov. xvi. 32, ' He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he thatruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city.' On the other side see weakness described, Ezek. xvi. 30, ' How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman ! ' That is a weak heart that lieth open to every temptation ; that is at the beck of every foolish and hurtful lust, as pride, sensuality, worldliness, carnal fear and sorrow. An imperious heart is a weak heart, and this weakness sin hath brought upon us.
Secondly, It is a painful disease, it woundeth the spirit ; and a wounded spirit who can bear ? Prov. xviii. 14. Greatness of mind may support us under a wounded body, but when there is a breach made upon the conscience, what can relieve us then ? Take either a tender conscience, or a raging, stormy conscience, for an instance to show what sin is. Ask of Cain and Judas, and they will tell you what horror and anguish it breedeth in the soul, what storms and tempests it raiseth in the mind : Gen. iv. 13, ' My iniquity is greater than I can bear.' Their lives, yea, all their comforts, are a burden to them. Nay, ask any man whose heart is well awaked, and he will tell you, that the sense of the guilt of sin is bitterer to the soul than the gall of asps, and that no tortures are comparable to the piercing stings of an accusing conscience. Even holy David could say, Ps. xxxviii. 1-3, ' Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot dis- pleasure. For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thine hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.' If this holy man, whose heart was upright with God, did thus complain, what should they do who are nothing else but wounds and putrified sores from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot ? We tliink a man in a fever is in a miserable condition, who hath little rest day or night: but alas! feverish flames are nothing to the scorchings of conscience, and the fear- ful apprehensions of divine wrath: they that are under these are miser- able indeed, because the pains of hell do compass them round about, and wherever they go, they carry their own hell along with them.
Object. But you will say. They that are most infected with sin feel little of this ; how is it then so painful a disease ?
Ans. 1. If they feel it not, the greater is their danger ; for stupid diseases are the worst, and usually most mortal. It is an ill crisis and state of soul when men are past feeling: Eph. iv. 19, 'Who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lasciviousness.' These have out- grown their consciences. There is hope of sensible sinners ; their anguish may drive them to the physician, and make them inquisitive after a remedy : Acts ii. 37, ' When they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and .'^aid unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?' But it is more dangerous when sins
ISA. LIII. 5.] THE FIFTY-THIRD CHAPTER OF ISAIAH. 289
do not terrify but stupefy. A spiritual letharg^y is the common disease that rnineth the far greatest part of the world.
2. The soul of a sinner never sits so easy but that he has his qualms and pangs of conscience, and that sometimes in the midst of jollity ; as was the case of Belshazzar, wliile carousing in the cups of the temple. Certainly they feel enough to show that if they were cured of this disease, it would be a great comfort and felicity to them ; their best pleasures are but stolen waters, and bread eaten in secret, poor sneaking delights, when they can get conscience asleep.
3. Though they feel not their diseases now, they shall hereafter. Oh, what a pain will sin be to them when God awakeneth them, either in this life, by letting a spark of his wrath fall into the conscience, and then they become a terror to themselves ; or, if not here, yet in hell hereafter, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth !
Thirdly, It is a loathsome disease. The pain of sin, which worketh upon our fear, is first and soonest felt : but the loathsomeness of sin, which worketh on our shame, requireth a quicker and more tender sense. As a man overgrown with noisome boils and sores, is first affectied with the pain caused by them, and then with the sight and smell of them ; so it is with soul-distempers : Ps. xxxviii. 5, ' My wounds stink and are corrupt, because of my foolishness ; ' and ver. 7, ' My loins are filled with a loathsome disease.' The soul abhors, and is ashamed of itself, when it hath anything of tenderness, or lively sense of the purity of God. Solomon telleth us that ' a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame,' Prov. xiii. 5. How loathsome ? He is loathsome to God, who is ' of purer eyes than to behold iniquity,' Hab. i. 13. Loathsome to good men, who can no more delight in him than a sound man can in the conversation of a leper : Prov. xxix. 27, 'An unjust man is an abomination to the just.' Loathsome to indif- ferent men, for those that can allow sin in themselves dislike it in others: Titus iii. 3, 'Hateful and hating one another.' Another's pride, sensuality, and worldliness, is offensive to us. Though we be proud, sensual, and worldly ourselves, yet it is an offence to ourselves ; therefore a sinner dareth not converse with his own heart, but doth what he can to fly from himself, to divert his thoughts from the sight of his own natural face in the glass of the word, as being ashamed of himself and his own ways : Eom. vi. 21, 'What fruit had ye then oi those things whereof ye are now ashamed?' However it is enough for our purpose, if loathsome to God : Ps. xiv. 2, 3, the psalmist telleth us, ' The Lord looked down from heaven.' And what did he see here below? 'They are altogether become filthy and abominable.' All their persons, all their actions flowing forth from their corrupt hearts, are vile and loathsome in God's sight. When God looked upon his creatures just as they passed his hand, all was very good. Gen. i. 31. But when once they were infected Avith sin, the case is altered, they are all become filthy and abominable ; some more, some less gross, as to the outbreaking of sin ; but they are all odious to God, and we are sensible of it, as appeareth by our shyness of God, and backwardness to look him in the face.