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and the broken hearted as his proper patients; and therefore he has a peculiar care of them: Ezek. xxxiv. 15. 16. "I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, faith the Lord God; I will feek that which was loft, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was fick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong, I will feed them with judgement." You fee that he will handle the broken hearted very tenderly: Ifa. xl. 11. "He fhall feed his flock like a thepherd, he fhall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bofom, and fhall gently lead thofe that are with young" chap. xlii. 3. " A "A bruised reed fhall he not break, and the smoking. flax fhall he not quench; he fhall bring forth judgement unto truth."

In the last place, we would exhort those whofe broken hearts Christ has healed, to take heed! to the preserving your restored health, Indeed every one who feems to be healed, is not healed by the hand of the true Phyfician; but if your hearts are now eased, and your wounds bound up by the great Physician, you will know it by thefe three things.-1. You will have an appetite for fpiritual food: 1 Pet. ii. 2. 3. "As newborn babes, defire ye the fincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby; it fo be ye have tafted that the Lord is gracious." When one begins to recover in earneft, he recovers his appetite. But fuch an one, fay we, is not well yet, for he has no appetite; fo thou art not well if thou doft want the fpiritual hunger.-2. Your food will relish with you: Prov. xxvii. 7. "The full foul loatheth the honey-comb; but to the hungry foul every bitter thing is fweet." Many have their qualms of confcience which they get over, but still K 3

they

they have no relish for spiritual things, but for the world and their lufts. But if Chrift has healed thee, he has corrected thy tafte.-Lafly, You will be beginning to walk in the way of God. "I will run," faid David, “ in the way of thy commandments, when thou fhalt enlarge my heart," Pfal. cxix. 32. They who return with the dog to the vomit, fhew that their disease is yet in its ftrength, though they are not fenfible of pain.

Now, if Chrift has healed you, to preferve the health of your fouls, it is neceffary for you,-To keep a good and regular diet. Beware of these things which formerly caft thee into foul-fickness. Peter went no more back to the high priest's hall, nor Judah to Tamar, Gen. xxxviii. 26. Feed there, and on these things which may tend to the foul's health. "Behold," faid Jefus to the impotent man he had healed, "behold thou art made whole; fin no more, left a worse thing come upon thee." And for this caufe observe your Phyfician's rules in all things.-Walk circumfpectly, take notice of every step you make, as one who has had a broken limb healed: Ifa. xxxviii. 15... "I fhall go foftly," faid Hezekiah, "all my years, in the bitterness of my foul." And beware of walking in the dark, of going forward there where you cannot difcern your way by the light of the Lord's word. Study to increase in love to Chrift, zeal for his glory, and hatred of fin.-Always keep correfpondence with your Phyfician. Be often at the throne of grace by prayer, and keep up communion with him in the exercife of faith. "They who wait upon the Lord fhall renew their ftrength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they fhall run and not be weary, and they fhall walk and not faint." Amen.

JESUS

JESUS PROCLAIMS LIBERTY TO THE

CAPTIVES.

SERMON LII:

Isa. Ixi. 1.-To proclaim liberty to the captives..

H'

ITHERTO we have had Chrift's commiffion

as it refpects those who have fome good in them, the meek and the broken hearted. Here is his commiffion with respect to those who have no good in them, but are utter strangers to him, living in their natural ftate. He is anointed to proclaim liberty to the captives.--In which words confider,

1. Man's natural ftate. It is a state of captivity; they are captives to Satan: 2 Tim. ii. 26. "And that they may recover themselves out of the fnare of the devil, who are taken captives by him at his will." He is the tyrant whofe captives they are, who has carried them away out of the light of God's favour, and holds them faft in his territories,, being the god of this world.-Confi2. Chrift's

der,

2. Chrift's work with respect to them, it is to proclaim liberty to them, Luke, iv. 18. "To preach deliverance to the captives." Thefe are indeed the fame. Luke's word for liberty or deliverance, is properly difmiffing or letting away, that is, giving liberty. The words for preaching and proclaiming, fignify properly to cry, and are used either of preaching or proclaiming. And what is preaching but proclaiming in the name of the King of heaven? and fo this. relates to Christ's kingly office. From this part of the subject we take the following DOCTRINES.

DocT. I. That finners in their natural unregenerate ftate are Satan's captives.

DOCT. II. That Jefus Chrift, with the exprefs confent of his Father, has iffued out his royal proclamation of liberty to Satan's captives.

WE begin with,

DOCT. I. That finners in their natural unregenerate state are Satan's captives.

FOR illuftrating this doctrine, we fhall confider,

1. How finners in their natural ftate have become Satan's captives.

II. What is their condition as Satan's captives. III. The properties of this captivity.-And then,

IV. Add the improvement of the fubject..

WE are then,

I. To fhew, how finners in their natural ftate have become Satan's captives.-They have become his captives,

1. As taken in war: 2 Pet. ii. 19. « Of whom a man is overcome, of the fame is he brought in bondage." Satan having proclaimed war against Heaven, maliciously fet on our first parents in paradife, and on all mankind in them. He fet on them as the confederates of heaven, and carried his point, gained the victory. And in this refpect he is ftill pursuing the victory, and driving the unrenewed world before him as prifoners of war, called his lawful captives, Ifa. xli. 24.-They have become his captives, because,

2. They are born his captives, as being born of those whom he overcame and carried captive. So they are exprefsly called the children of hell, Matth. xxiii. 15. There were many of the captives in Babylon, who had never feen Canaan, having been born in that country. These were cap

tives no less than their parents; and that by their birth. So is it with all Adam's pofterity naturally, they were born under the power of Satan, Acts, xxvi. 18. When a flave, under the law, married in his mafter's houfe, though at the end of seven years he got his own freedom, yet the children were his master's as being born in his houfe, and could not be free without a particular liberty for them, Exod. xxi. 4. Thus even the children of godly parents are by nature Satan's captives; children of Abraham, children of the devil. To the Jews, our Saviour faid, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lufts of your Fa-. ther ye will do," John, viii. 44.-We were,

II. To inquire what is their condition as Satan's captives. Upon this we obferve,

1. That every natural man is transported from their primitive foil into. Satan's territories, his kingdom of darkness. Hence believers are faid

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