See an unhappy succession of sin, that where there is transgression there will be iniquity ; when a man yields to lust once, presently he breaks upon God's due, and then upon man's. One sin draws on another. As we see David giving way to one sin, it brought another ; so the giving way to transgression, neglecting the word of God and duties of religion, presently another follows, neglect of duty to men.
Use. Take heed of the heginnimjs of sin. There are degrees in Satan's school from ill to woi'se, till we come to worst of all ; and there is no stay- ing. It is like the descent down a steep hill. Let us stop in the beginning
110 A RESCUE FROM DEATH,
by anj' means. As we would avoid iniquity', let us take lieed of trans- gression.
' Arc afHicted.'
He means, especiall}', that aflliction of sickness, as appears by the words following.
Doct. Sin is the cause of all sickness.
* Fools, for their transgressions and iniquities, are afflicted.' For God's quarrel is especially against the soul, and to the body because of tlie soul. I will not dwell on this point, having spoken of it at large on another text, 1 Cor. xi. 31.*
Use 1. The use that I will make of it now, shall be, first of all, if sin be the cause of all sickness, let its justij)/ God and condemn ourselves : complain of ourselves, and not of God. * Wherefore doth the living man complain,' Lam. iii. 39, and murmur and fret ? Man sufforeth for his sin. Justify God, and judge ourselves. ' 1 will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him,' Micah vii. 9. Judge ourselves, and we shall not be judged,' 1 Cor. xi. 31.
2. Then again, is sin the cause of sickness ? It should teach its patience. * I held my tongue, because thou, Lord, didst it,' Ps. xxxix. 2. Shall not a man be patient in that he hath procured by his own evil and sin ?
8. And search ourselves ; for usually it is for some particular sin, which conscience will tell a man of ; and sometimes the kind of the punishment will tell a man. For sins of the body, God punisheth in the body. He pays men home in their own coin. ' What measure a man measureth to others shall be measured to him again,' Mat. vii. 2. If a man have been cruel to others, God will stir up those that shall be so to him ; therefore we should labour to part with our particular transgressions and iniquities. It is a general truth for all ills whatsoever, as well as this of sickness. Therefore we should first of all go to God by confession of sin. It is a preposterous course that the athestical careless world takes ; where the physician ends, there the divine begins ; when they know not what to do. If diseases come from sin, then make use of the divine first, to certify the conscience, and to acquaint a man with his own mercy. First, to search them, and let them see the guilt of their sins, and then to speak comfort to them, and to set accounts, straight between God and them, as in Ps. xxxii. 4 — an excellent place — David ' roared ; his moisture was turned into the drought of summer.' What course doth he take ? He doth not run to the physician presently, but goes to God. ' Then said I.' It was an inward resolution and speech of the mind. Then I concluded with myself, ' I will confess my sin to God, and thou forgavest my iniquities and sins,' Ps. xxxii. 5. So body and soul were healed at once. Divinity herein transcends all other arts ; not only corrupt nature and corrupt courses, but all other. For the physician he looks to the cause of the sickness out of a man or in a man ; out of a man, and then especially in contagious sick- ness, he looks to the influence of the heavens. In such a year, such con- junctions and such eclipses have been ; he looks to the infection of the air, to subordinate causes, to contagious company, and to diet, &c. {a). And then in a man, to the distemper of the humours and of the spirits. When the instrument of nature is out of tune, it is the cause of sickness. But the divine, and every Christian, — that should be a divine in this respect, • — goes higher, and sees all the discord between God and us. There is not * Cf. Sibbcs's ' Glance of Heaven,' in Vol. IV.— G.
WITH A RETURN OF PRAISE. 141
that sweet harmony there ; and so all the jars in second causes come from God as the cause mflicting: from sin, as the cause dementing. The divine considers those two alway. The physician looks to the in\Yard distemper and the outward contagion ; and this is well, and may be done without sin. But men must join this too, to look into conscience, and look up to God, togother with looking for help to the physician, because we have especially to deal with God.
I would this wore considered, that we might carry ourselves more Chris- tian-like under any afliiction whatsoever. What is the reason that people murmur, and struggle, and strive, ' as a bull in a net,' as the prophet speaks, Isa. li. 20, when God hampers them in some judgment ? They look to the second causes, and never look to clear the conscience of sin, nor never look to God, when indee"d the ground of all is God offended by sin.