I shall not stay to mention all the particular distempers that rage in some, and that rule and reign in all before the coming of the gos- pel; as darkness, blindness, ignorance, worldly-mindedness, sensuality, hatred of God, envy, and malice, which are fixed in the souls of men by presumption and self-righteousness. There is nothing in them of spiritual life or holiness, of purity or zeal, — nothing that is acceptable or pleasing unto God. But to set forth this to the utmost, were to describe the whole natural condition of men, — which is not my pre- sent work ; and therefore I shall not farther insist on it.
III. The word of the gospel is in its own nature a quickening, healing, sanctifying, saving word, to them who receive it.
They [the waters of the sanctuary] bring Christ along with them, the great physician of souls, who alone is able to cure a sin-sick soul. They bring mercy with them to pardon sinners, that " the inhabitants of the land may no more say they are sick, having their sins forgiven them/' Isa. xxxiii. 24. They bring grace with them to cure all the distempers of lusts, Isa. xi. 5-7; Tit. ii. 11, 12.
These things I have only touched upon, and proceed now to the fourth observation, on which I chiefly proposed to insist.
IV. Where the waters of the sanctuary come, and the land is not healed, that land is given up of the Lord to salt and barrenness for ever; — or, where the word of the gospel is preached unto a place or persons, and they receive it not so as to have their sinful distempers healed by it, they are given up by the righteous judgment of God unto barrenness and everlasting ruin.
To clear this proposition I shall show, — 1. What I mean by the coming of the waters of the sanctuary, or the preaching of the gospel, to a place or persons; 2. What by healing their sinful distempers; 3. What by being given up to barrenness and ruin.
1. By the coming of the healing waters of the sanctuary, I intend not the occasional preaching of a sermon, although this be sufficient to justify God in the rejection of any person or people. In the first
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preaching of the gospel, the refusal of one sermon lost many their souls unto all eternity. When the Lord Jesus sent out his disciples to preach the tidings of everlasting peace, he commanded them to pass through the towns, cities, and villages, and to offer them peace and mercy in the word of truth ; which if they received not, they were to shake off the dust of their feet against them, Matt. x. 12-15 ; Luke x. 8-12. But 0 the unspeakable patience of Christ to many in the world, where the word is continued ofttimes for a very long season, and the salvation tendered therein despised ! But this is that which I in- tend as the rule of the dispensation mentioned, — namely, when God by his providence doth cause the word to be preached for some conti- nuance, and to the revelation of his whole counsel; as Paul affirmed himself to have done at Ephesus, Acts xx. 27, where he had abode above a year.
Nor do I mean any waters, but the waters of the sanctuary; not any preaching, but the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ : which Paul affirms to be his work, Eph. iii. 8. All waters are not the waters of the sanctuary; all preaching is not the preaching of the sanctuary. There is preaching in the world wherein God and the souls of men are no more concerned than in an oration of an ancient heathen. Many undertake to be preachers who never " stood in the counsel of God," as he complains, Jer. xxiii. 22, who never received of the Spirit of Christ, nor knew his mind, — blind leaders of the blind. The chil- dren of Zion are promised, under the gospel, that " they shall be all taught of God." And we have men undertaking to be teachers of them, who never learned any thing of Christ ; — a wicked generation of soul-murderers, for which cursed work they every day invent new engines, — whom the Lord's soul abhors. See their condition and por- tion, Ezek. xxxiv. 3, 4, etc. I mean, therefore, a dispensation of the word according to the mind of Christ, — the due unfolding of the mys- tery of the gospel. This is the coming I intend.
2. What is meant by their sinful distempers not being healed? Look what the waters of the sanctuary come to do : if that be not effected, they are not healed.
Now, there are two effects here ascribed unto the waters of the sanctuary: — (1.) They quicken and give new life, verse 9. A natural life they had before, but these give them another life. (2.) Healing, as the waters of Jericho by Elisha, 2 Kings ii. 21. Where these effects are not produced, that is the condition described, that is the state of these " miry and marshy places,"- — they are not healed : —
(1.) Men are not quickened; they receive not a new spiritual life; they are not so brought to the knowledge of God. It is not enough that men have their affections wrought upon, or their lives in some measure reformed ; — unless they are quickened, unless they receive a