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806 THE EETURNING BACKSLIDER. ( SeEMON V.
being removed and turned from things, then they are no more judgments. What cared Paul for imprisonment, when he knew God's wrath accompanied not the stocks? Acts xvi. 19, seq. Let wrath be taken from the suifering, that the soul be sound, then it is no matter what condition a man be in, he carries heaven and paradise with him. Therefore, so far God removes those diseases and sicknesses of condition, as they carry venom in them ; BO changing the condition, that whatsoever we suffer, it hath the nature of an exercise, medicine, or correction only. But that which envenoms all, and makes the least cross a curse, and sinks deep, is the anger of God joined with things, Ps. Ixxxix. 46. The least cross, when it carrieth with it the anger and vengeance of God, and reports that to the soul, I have offended God, and it is just with him thus to inflict wrath upon me : this is terrible, and it puts a sting to the cross. Now, God here promiseth to remove that, ' I will heal their backsliding.' This principally, in the first place, is meant of healing in regard of justification ; taking away that guilt from the soul which enthrals it, and binds it over to condemnation and judgment. God will set the soul at a spiritual liberty, and so heal it. Thus you see the point clear, that God is the great physician of the soul.
Reason 1. For God who made the soul, hwtcs all the diseases, uindings, and turnings of it. He is an excellent anatomist : ' all things are naked and open before his eyes,' Heb. iv. 13. He knows the inward part of the soul, the seat of all sin. We know not ourselves as he knows us. There is a mystery of self-deceit in the heart, which he knows who can search all the hidden corners of the heart, which is the reason why he is so good a physician, and so excellent. Because he is a discerner and searcher of the heart, who can see all, and so can cure all, being above the sting of con- science, he hath a remedy above the malady. He is greater than our con- science. Therefore he can cure our conscience.
Reason 2. And in the next place, as lie can heal our souls, so he is ivilling to do it, which his willingness we may know by the medicine he doth it by, his own dear Son. He hath provided a plaster of his Son's blood to heal us. And besides his own inward willingness, being now a gracious father to us in Christ Jesus, he sends his ambassadors to heal and cm-e us in his name, 2 Cor. v. 20, to apply his medicines, and to beseech and entreat us to be reconciled. God, by them, entreats us to entreat him for pardon and mercy, and is so willing to be entreated, that ere we shall set out he teacheth us words, as we heard, ' Take unto you words,' &c. As he is an able, so he is a willing physician. Christ, the great physician, together with his Father, expects not that we should first come to him, but he comes first, and sends to us. The physician came to the sick, though for the most part the sick, if able, go to the physician, 1 John iv. 9, 10. But here is the contrary. He came from heaven, took our nature upon him, and therein died, by which his blood-shedding, he satisfied the wrath of God, justly offended with us, Isa. liii. 10. So he heals our souls that way, having undergone the anger and WTath of God, that his blood might quench and appease that anger by a plaster thereof made, and applied to our souls, Isa. liii. 11, 12.
Do w^e doubt of his willingness, when he comes to us and calls us, ' Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest' ? Mat. xi. 28. It is his ofiice which he hath assumed to heal our soul. The many cures he hath done sheweth the ability and willingness of the physician ; cures whereof we are incapable, by reason of our mean con-
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HOSEA XIV. 4.J THE RETURNING BACKSLIDER. 307
dition. A king, as his place is greater, so sometimes his sins are gi'eater than others are ; yet he cured Manasseh, that sinful king, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 23, together %vith Mary Magdalen, Paul, Peter, and the rest, who were a company healed hy this physician. Therefore all this is for the glory of om* physician. We may see what he can do by what he hath done ; as amongst us physicians are sought after according to their skill and cures done. Consider in the sacrament how ready God is to cure and to heal us, how gracious he is in the sacrament of baptism, wherein he engageth us to believe, admitting us into the covenant, and preventing us with mercy, be- fore we linew what a covenant or seal was, Ezek. xvi. G, seq. And so to per- suade us of his willingness to forgive our sins and heal our rebellions, he hath ordained the sacrament, not for his sake, but to strengthen our weak faith, and help us. The point is easy for matter of our understanding, but hard in regard of use and application, especially when it should be made use of, in time of temptation. Then let us lay it up as a comfortable point, this gracious promise of God, ' I will heal their backshding, I will love them freely,' &c. Lay this up against the hour of temptation, make use of it then, alleging unto God his own promise and nature, as David did, ' Lord, remember the promise wherein thou hast caused me to trust,' Ps. cxix. 49. Thou hast promised pardoning and healing [of] all our trangi'essions, &c. Remember thy free promises made in Jesus Christ. God cannot deny himself nor his word, but loves to have his bonds sued. Remember this. And when conscience is surprised vvdth any sin, though it be never so great, look not on the disease so much as who is the physi- cian, and what his j)laster and medicine is. God is the physician, and the blood of Christ is the plaster. What if our sins be mountains ! There is an ocean and a sea of mercy to swell above and cover these mountains of our sins, Mic. vii. 18, 19. Our sins in this case are like fii*e, which, fall- ing uito the sea, is by and by quenched. What if our sins be of never so long standing (as these their backslidings here had continued hundi'eds of years, wherein they were a backsliding generation), yet it is no matter of what standing or continuance the disease is, so long as God hath promised to be the physician, and the blood of Christ is the plaster that healeth us, Isa. i. 18, 19. The question is not, What ? How many ? How gi-eat ? and of what continuance our sins ? but how we stand afiected towards them, hate them, and resolve against them ? That sin cannot hurt us which we fight against, mourn for, complain of, resolve to leave, and truly hate. Let us never stand, then, in comparisons with our sins, which bear no pro- portion to the infinite skill and power of our great physician, and to the infinite work of Chiist's all-suflScient satisfaction. What canst thou object, 0 man ? ' It is Christ that justifieth the ungodly, who art thou that con- demneth ? It is he that died, yea, rather, who is risen again, who is also at the right hand of God, and also maketh intercession for us,' Rom. viii. 33, 34. Thou canst not satisfy for the least sin. God hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all. Lev. xvi. 21. ' The chastisements of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed,' Isa. liii. 5.