This disease, our great physician, Christ, cures, by remissi on, which is the diffolving of the obligation to punishment; the loofing of the foul that was bound over to the wrath and condemnation of God, Col. i. 13, 14. Heb. vi. 12. Micah vii. 17, 18, 19. This remiffion being made, the foul is immediately cleared from all its obligations to punishment. Rom. viii. 1. "There is no condemnation." All bonds are cancelled, the guilt of all fins is healed, or removed, original and actual, great and fmall. This cure is performed upon fouls, by the blood of Chrift: nothing is found, in heaven, or earth, befides his blood, that is able to heal this disease. Heb. ix. 22. "Without fhedding of blood there is no remiffion;" nor is it any blood that will do it, but that, only, which dropped from the wounds of Chrift. Ifa. liii. 5. "By his ftripes we are "healed." His blood, only, is innocent, and precious blood, 1 Pet. i. 19. blood of infinite worth, and value; blood of God, Acts xx. 18. blood prepared for this very purpose, Heb. x. 5. This is the blood that performs the cure; and how great a cure is it! for this cure, the fouls of believers shall be praising and magnifying their great phyfician in heaven, to all eternity; Rev. i. 5, 6. To him that loved us, and washed us from our fins, " in his own blood, &c. to him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever."

Secondly, The next evil in fin cured by Chrift, is the domini on of it over the fouls of poor finners. Where fin is in dominion, the foul is in a very fad condition; for it darkens the understanding, depraves the confcience, ftiffens the will, hardens the heart, mifplaces and diforders all the affections; and thus every faculty is wounded, by the power and dominion of fin over the foul. How difficult is the cure of this disease! it passes the skill of angels, or men, to heal it; but Chrift undertakes it, and makes a perfect cure of it, at last, and this he doth by his Spirit. As he cures the guilt of fin by pouring out his blood for us; fo he cures the dominion of fin, by pouring out his Spirit upon us. Juftification is the cure of guilt, fanctification the cure of the dominion of fin. For.

his

First, As the dominion of fin darkens the understanding, 1 Cor. ii. 14. fo the Spirit of holiness, which Chrift sheds upon people, cures the darkness and blindness of that noble facul ty, and restores it again, Eph. v. 8. They that were darkness, are hereby light in the Lord; the anointing of the Spirit, teacheth them all things, 1 John ii. 27.

Secondly, As the dominion of fin depraved and defiled the

SERM. X. confcience, Tit. i. 15. wounded it to that degree, as to disable it to the performances of all its offices, and functions; fo that it was neither able to apply, convince, or tremble at the word: So, when the Spirit of holiness is shed forth, O what a tender fenfe fills the renewed confcience! For what small things will it check, fmite, and rebuke! How ftrongly will it bind to duty, and bar against fin!

Thirdly, As the dominion of fin ftiffened the will, and made it ftubborn, and rebellious; fo Chrift, by fanctifying it, brings it to be pliant, and obedient to the will of God." Lord (faith "the finner,) what wilt thou have me to do!" Acts ix. 6.

Fourthly, As the power of fin hardéneth the heart, so that nothing could affect it, or make any impreffion upon it; when fanctification comes upon the foul, it thaws, and breaks it, as hard as it was, and makes it diffolve, in the breast of a finner, in godly forrow, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. "I will take away the heart of ftone out of your fleth, and I will give you an heart of flesh." It will now melt, ingenuously, under the threatnings of the word, 2 Kings xxii. 19. or the strokes of the rod, Jer. xxxi. 18. or the manifeftations of grace and mercy, Luke vii. 38.

Fifthly, As the power of fin mifplaced and difordered all the affections, fo fanctification reduces them again, and fets them right, Pfal. iv. 6, 7. And thus you see how fanctification becomes the rectitude, health, and due temper of the soul, so far as it prevails, curing the diseases that fin, in its dominion, filled the foul with. True it is, this cure is not perfected in this life; there are ftill fome remains of the old diseases, in the holieft fouls, notwithstanding fin be dethroned from its dominion over them but the cure is begun, and daily advances towards perfection, and at laft will be compleat, as will appear in the cure of the next evil of fin; namely,

Thirdly, The inherence of fin in the foul: this is a fore difeafe, the very core and root of all our other complaints and ailes. This made the holy apoftle bemoan himself, and wail fo bitterly, Rom. vii. 17. because of "fin that dwelt in him" And the fame mifery is bewailed by all fanctified perfons, all the world

over.

'Tis a wonderful mercy to have the guilt and dominion of fin cured, but we shall never be perfectly found, and well, till the existence, or in-dwelling of fin, in our natures, be cured too: when once that is done, then we fhall feel no more pain, nor forrows for fin: and this our great physician will at laft perform for us, and upon us. But as the cure of guilt was by our justification, the cure of the dominion of fin by our fanctification;

fo the third and laft, which perfects the whole cure, will be by our glorification; and, till then, it is not to be expected. For it is a clear cafe, that fin, like ivy in the old walls, will never be gotten out till the walls be pulled down, and then it is pulled up by the roots. This cure Chrift will perform in a moment, upon our diffolution. For it is plain,

First, That none but perfected fouls, freed from all fin, are admitted into heaven, Eph. v. 27. Heb. xii. 23. Rev. xxi. 27. Secondly, It is as plain, that no fuch perfonal perfection, and freedom is found in any man, on this fide death, and the grave, 1 John i. 8. 1 Kings viii. 46. Phil. iii. 12. a truth, fealed by the fad experience of all the faints on earth.

, Thirdly, If fuch freedom, and perfection must be before we can be perfectly happy, and no fuch thing be done in this life; it remains that it must be done immediately upon their diffolution, and at the very time of their glorification: as fin came in at the time of the union of their fouls and bodies in the womb, fo it will go out at the time of their feparation by death; then will Chrift put the laft hand to this glorious work, and perfect that cure which hath been fo long under his hand, in this world: and thenceforth fin fhall have no power upon them, it shall never tempt them more, it fhall never defile them more, it shall never grieve and fadden their hearts any more: henceforth it fhall never cloud their evidences, darken their understandings, or give the leaft interruption to their communion with God. When fin is gone, all thefe, its mifchievous effects, are gone with it. So that I may speak it to the comfort of all gracious hearts, according to what the Lord told the Ifraelites, in Deut. xii. 8, 9. (to which I allude, for illustration of this most comfortable truth) "Ye shall not do after all the things that ye do "here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes, "for ye are not as yet come to the reft, and to the inheritance

which the Lord your God giveth you." Whilft you are under Chrift's cure upon earth, but not perfectly healed, your understandings mistake, your thoughts wander, your affections are dead, and your communion with God is daily interrupted; but it fhall not be fo in heaven, where the cure is perfect: you shall not-there know, love, or delight in God, in the manner you do this day; for you are not, as yet, come to the rest, and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you. And fo much as to the diseases of fin, and Chrift's method of curing them.

Secondly, As Sin is the disease of the faints, fo, alfo, is for row, the best faints must pass thro' the valley of Bacha, ta

SERM. X. heaven. How many tears fall from the eyes of the faints, upon the account of outward, as well as inward troubles; even after their reconciliation with God? "Through much tribula❝tion we must enter into the kingdom of God," Acts xiv. 22. It would be too great a digreffion, in this place, to note but the more general heads, under which almost infinite particulars, of troubles and afflictions, are found it fhall fuffice only to fhew, that whatever diftrefs, or trouble, any poor foul is in, upon aby account whatsoever; if that foul belongs to Jefus Chrift, he will take care of it, for the prefent, and deliver it, at last, by a complete cure.

Firft, Chrift cures troubles, by fanctifying them to the fouls of his, that are under affliction, and makes their very troubles medicinal, and healing to them. Trouble is a fcorpion, and hath a deadly fting; but Chrift is a wife physician, and extracts a sovereign oil out of this fcorpion, that heals the wound it makes. By afflictions, our wife phyfician purges our corruptions, and so prevents, or cures, greater troubles, by leffer; inward forrows, by outward ones. Ifa. xxvii. 9. "By this, therefore, fhall the ini"quity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit, to take 68 way his fin."

Secondly, Chrift cures outward troublss, by inward confolati ons, which are made to rife in the inner man, as high as the waters of affliction do upon the outward man, 2 Cor. i. 5. One drop of fpiritual comfort, is fufficient to fweeten a whole ocean of outward trouble. It was an high expreffion of an af afflicted father, whom God comforted, juft upon the death of his dear and only fon, + with fome clearer manifestations of his love than was ufual: "O, faid he, might I but have fuch confolations as

thefe, I could be willing (were it poffible) to lay an only fon "into the grave every day I have to live in this world." Thus all the troubles of the world are cured by Chrift. John xvi. 33. "In the world ye fhall have trouble, but in me ye faall have peace."

Thirdly, Chrift cures all outward forrows and troubles in his people by death, which is their removal from the place of forrows, to peace and reft for evermore. Now God wipes all tears from their eyes, and the days of their mourning are at an end; the then put off the garments and spirit of mourning, and enter into peace, Ifa. lvii. 2. They come to that place, and ftate, where tears and fighs are things unknown to the inhabitants

Nihil corpus fentit in nervo, cum anima fit in cœlo. i. e. The Body has no feeling, when the foul is in heaven.

one step beyond the state of this mortality, brings us quite out of the fight and hearing, of all troubles and lamentations. These are the difeafes of fouls; fin, and sorrow; and thus they are cured by Christ, the physician.

Secondly, Next I fhall fhew you, that Jefus Chrift is the only physician of fouls, none like him for a fick finner: And this will be evident, in divers refpects.

First, None fo wife, and judicious, as Jefus Chrift, to underftand, and comprehend the nature, depth, and danger of fouldiseases. O how ignorant and unacquainted are men with the state and cafe of afflicted fouls! But "Chrift hath the tongue *of the learned, that he fhould know how to fpeak a word in "feason to him that is weary," Ifa. 1. 4. He only understands the weight of fin, and depth of inward troubles of fin.

Secondly, None fo able to cure, and heal the wounds of afAlicted fouls, as Chrift is; he, only, hath thofe medicines that can cure a fick foul. The blood of Chrift, and nothing else, in heaven or earth, is able to cure the mortal wounds which guilt inflicts upon a trembling confcience: let men try all other receipts, and coftly experience fhall convince them of their infufficiency. Confcience may be benumbed by ftupefactive medicines, prepared by the devil for that end; but pacified it can never be, but by the blood of Chrift, Heb. xvi. 22.

Thirdly, None fo tender-hearted, and sympathizing with fick fouls, as Jefus Chrift; he is full of bowels and tender compaffions to afflicted fouls: he is one that can have compaffion, because he hath had experience, Heb. v. 2. If I must come into the chirurgeon's hands with broken bones, give me fuch an one, to chufe, whofe own bones have been broken, who hath felt the anguish in himself. Chrift knows what it is, by experience, having felt the anguish of inward troubles, the weight of God's wrath, and the terrors of a forfaking God, more than any, or all the fons of men: this makes him tender over distressed fouls. Ifa. xlii. 3. "A bruifed reed he will not break, and fmoking flax he will not quench."

Fourthly, None cures, in for wonderful a method, as Chrift doth; he heals us by his ftripes, Ifa. lii. 5. The phyfician dies, that the patient may live; his wounds must bleed, that ours may be cured: he feels the smart and pain, that we might have eafe and comfort. No physician, but Chrift, will cure d thers at this rate.

Fifthly, None fo ready to relieve a fick foul, as Chrift; he is within the call of a diftreffed foul at all times. Art thou fick for fin, weary of fin, and made truly willing to part with fin?