Obs. 1. From the supposition is any among you sick ? The note is obvious. Christ's worshippers are not exempted from siclmess, no more than any other affliction. God may chasten those whom he loveth. It is said, John xi. 3, ' Beliold he whom thou lovest is sick.' Those that are dear to God have their share of miseries. Austin asketh, SI amatur, quomodo injirmcdur .^ If he were beloved, how came he to be sick ? In the outward accidents of life God would make no difference. It is usual in providence that they who have God's heart should feel God's hand most heavy. I have observed it, that God's children never question his love so much as in sickness ; our thoughts return upon us in such retirement, and the wealmess of the body discomposeth the mind, and depriveth us of the free exercise of spiritual reason ; to sense and feeling all is sharp. Besides, in sickness we have not that express comfort from Clirist's sufferings which we have in other troubles. It is a sweet help to the thoughts when we can see that Christ went through every miserable condition to which we are exposed. Now, Christ endured want, nakedness, trouble, reproach, injustice, &c., and not sickness. Ay! but he had passions like sickness, hunger, thirst, and weariness, wherewith his body was afflicted. Christ, by experience, knoweth what it is to be under the pains and inconveniences of the body. But if you have not the example of Christ, you have the example of all the saints. Paul had a racking pain, which he expresseth by aKoXoyjr ev aapm, *a
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thorn in the flesh,' 2 Cor. xii. 7-9, and could have no other answer but only ' my grace is sufficient for thee.' He alludeth to such a kind of punishment as slaves, or men not free, were put to for great offences : they sharpened a stake, and pointed it Avith iron, and put it in at his back till it came out at his mouth, and so with his face upward he died miserably. And, therefore, by that expression the apostle intendeth some bodily distemper and racking pain ; suppose the stone, the gout, the strangury, inward ulcers, or some like disease. Of this mind is Cyi^rian l among the fathers ; the word aaOeveia, which Ave translate infirmity, but is usually put in the New Testament for sickness, confirmeth it. Certainly he speaketh of such infirmities in which he would glory, because of concomitant grace, and such as were apt to cure pride ; and therefore it cannot be meant of sin or some pre- vailing lust, as is usually expounded. Therefore comfort yourselves : God's dearest saints may have experience of sorest sicknesses ; and if God afflict you with an aching head, you will have abundant recom- pense if thereby he giveth you a better heart ; and if he make your bones sore, bear it, if thereby he breaketh the power of your corruptions. It is no unusual thing for saints to ' chatter like cranes,' as Hezekiah did, Isa. xxxviii. ; and for healthy souls to be troubled Avith a weak body, as Gaius Avas, 3 John 2. Sicknesses are not tokens of God's displeasure. It was the folly of Job's friends to judge of him by his calamity. Usually men smite Avith the tongue Avhere God hath smitten by his hand. Alas ! the children of God haA^e bodies of the same make with others ; and in this case ' all things come alike to all.' Hezekiah, Job, David, Epaphroditus, they Avere all corrected, but not condemned. It was Popish malice to upbraid Calvin with his diseases : ' You may see Avhat he is,' say they, ' by his sicknesses and diseases.' He was indeed a man of an indefatigable industry, but of a sickly Aveak body ; and the same hath befallen many of the precious servants of the Lord.
Ohs. 2. From that let him call for the elders. Note, that the chief care of a sick man should be for his soul. If any be sick, the apostle doth not say, let him send for the physician, but the elders. Physicians are to be called in their place, but not first, not chiefly. It was Asa's fault, 2 Chron. xvi. 12, 'In his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians.' Sickness is God's messenger to call us to meet with God. Do not as the most do, send for the bodily physician, and, when they are past all hope and cure, for the divine. Alas ! how many do so, and ere a word of comfort can be administered to them, are sent to their own place.
Ohs. 3. From that let him call. The elders must be sent for. A man that hath continued in opposition is loath to submit at the last hour, and to call the elders to his spiritual assistance. I remember, Aquinas saith, Sacramentum extremoj unctionis non nisi i:)etentihus verho vel signo dari debet, that this last office must not be performed but to those that require it. Possidonius, in the life of Austin, saith, that Austin Avas wont of his own accord to visit the poor, the father- less, and the widow, but the sick never till he was called. It is indeed suitable to true rehgion to 'visit the fatherless,' James i. 27 ; but