[2.] Here is macula, which is the blot or inclination to sin again. So he healeth us by sanctification, renewing and cleansing us by the Spirit, which is the work of God : Exod. xv. 26, ' 1 am the Lord that healeth thee.' This is most properly his healing grace. So God reneweth and healeth our natures : Ps, ciii. 3, ' Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases.'
[3.] There is reatus, the guilt or obligation to punishment. God dissolveth this by his sovereign authority, according to his new co- venant : 2 Chron. xxx. 20, ' The Lord hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.' There was no actual stroke or judgment upon them, but healing — there is dissolving the guilt. He forgave their sin, or remitted the penalty which they had incurred by eating the pass- over otherwise than it was written.
[4.] There is poena, the punishment, which is external, internal, or eternal. The exteinal punishment is affliction. This is the wound that sin maketh in us. This wound God healeth by restoring pros- perity : Hosea vi. 1, ' Come, let us return, unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal us ; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up ; ' 2 Chron. vii. 14, ' I will forgive their sin, and heal their land.' The internal punishment consists in trouble of conscience, or the anguish and pain occasioned by the fear of God's wrath, which he healeth : Ps. vi. 2, ' Have mercy upon me, 0 Lord, for I am weak ; 0 Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed ; ' Ps. xli. 4, ' Lord, be merciful unto me, and heal my soul ; for I have sinned against thee.' As to eternal, or the mortal wound of sin, he healeth that by reversing the sentence of eter- nal death, and bestowing upon us eternal life, that from children of wrath we may be made heirs of glory. This grant is the true balsam for a wounded soul, when it is not only freed from the fears of the flames of hell and the sting of death, but made heir according to the hope of eternal life. If God and heaven be not matter of comfort, I know not what is. This is the portion of one that believeth in Christ
2. The sevei-al periods of this benefit.
[1.] The cure is begun when we repent and believe, and so are re-
202 A PRACTICAL EXrOSITION UPON [IsA. LIII. 5.
newed and reconciled to God ; then the danger of death is over : John V. 24, ' He tliat hcareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hatli evedasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life.' The disease will not prove mortal.
[2 ] It is carried on by degrees, as he doth sanctify ns more and more by his Spirit, and settles us in the peace of the gospel. Christ is still in hand with the cure : Mai, iv. 2, ' The Sun of right- eousness shall arise upon you with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up like calves in the stall.' Increase of grace and joy in the Holy Ghost is our continued healing. Dangerous sores and deadly wounds are not so soon ciu-ed. We have defects and dis- tempers which disable us for duty, but the healing viitue prevail- eth more and more. Tiie wicked grow 'more and more diseased, and in tlie godly there are some ups and downs ; but the Lord promiseth to heal our backslidings : Hosea xiv. 4, 'I will heal your back- sliding, and I will love you freely ; for mine anger is turned away from you.' He will take away more and more the guilt, pollution, and other eflfects ot" sin.
[3.] Our state of perfect health is in heaven ; there is our com- plete and eternal welfare, when sin and misery shall be no more. Therefore heaven is set forth by the tree of life which groweth in the midst of paradise, and ' beareth twelve manner of fruits, and yieldeth its fruit eveiy month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations,' Eev. xxii. 2 ; and ver. 14, it is said, ' Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have a right to eat of the tree of life, and may enter in through tlie gates into the city ; ' that is into the happiness of the saints in glory. Tliese enter into the New Jerusalem, and are there fully healed.
Tldrdly^ The means of our recovery is by Christ's stripes.
1. None but Christ can cure us, for he is the physician of souls — all else are physicians of no value. Sin is the disease, the Re- deemer's grace the medicine, and salvation is our health ; and then it is perfect when we are fully saved from sin, and all the consequents of it. Now this is above the sinner's cure, till Cod himself takes us in hand. Christ is the Sun of righteousness, who hath healing in his wings, and hath set forth himself under the notion of a ])iiysician : Mat. ix. 12, ' The whole need not the physician, but they that are sick.' This sore sickness can be cured by no other hand. And the pro{)er nature of his grace is to be medicinal, that is, a healing dis- pensation.