opened for washing and for cleansing the pollution of sin from our souls; in him is the fulness both of merit and of the Spirit, two sweet springs of peace to the souls of men: well might the apostle call him "Christ the wisdom of God;" and well might the church say, "He is altogether lovely." Had not God provided Christ for us, we had never known rest to all eternity.

4. How unreasonable and wholly inexcusable in believers, is the sin of backsliding from Christ! Have you found rest in him when you could not find it in any other? did he receive and give peace to your soul, when all other persons and things were physicians of no value? And will you after this backslide from him? O what madness! No man in his right mind would leave the pure, cold, refreshing stream of a crystal fountain, to go to a filthy puddle or an empty cistern; such are the best enjoyments of this world in comparison with Jesus Christ.

That was a melting expostulation of Christ with the disciples when some had forsaken him, "Will ye also go away?" John vi. 67. And it was a very suitable reply they made, Lord, whither away from thee should we go? From thee, Lord! No; where can we mend ourselves? Be sure of it, whenever you go from Christ, you go from rest to trouble. Had Judas rest? had Spira rest? and do you think you shall have rest? No, no; "The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways," Prov. xiv. 14; "Cursed be the man that departeth from him; he shall be as the heath in the desert, that seeth not when good cometh, and shall inhabit the parched places of the wilderness," Jer. xvii. 5, 6. If fear of sufferings and worldly temptations ever draw you off from Christ, you may come to those straits and terrors of conscience that will make you wish yourselves back again with Christ in a prison, with Christ at a stake.

5. Let all that come to Christ learn to make him the rest and peace of their souls in all the troubles and outward distresses they meet.

Rest may be found in Christ in any condition; he is able to give you peace in all your troubles. So he tells you, John xvi. 33; "These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation." By peace, he means not a deliverance from troubles by taking off affliction from them, or taking them away by death from all afflictions; but it is something they

enjoy from Christ in the very midst of troubles and amidst all their afflictions, that quiets and gives them rest, so that troubles cannot hurt them. Certainly, believers, you have peace in Christ when there is little in your own hearts; and your hearts might be filled with peace too, if you would exercise faith upon Christ for that end. It is your own fault, if you are without rest in any condition in this world. Set yourselves to study the fulness of Christ and to clear your interest in him; believe what the Scriptures reveal of him, and live as you believe, and you will quickly find the peace of God filling your hearts and minds.

Blessed be God for Jesus Christ.

SERMON X.

FIRST TITLE OF CHRIST-THE PHYSICIAN OF SOULS.

But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Matt. ix, 12.

HAVING in the former discourses considered the nature and method of the application of Christ to sinners, it remains now that I press it upon every soul, as it expects peace and pardon from God, to apply and put on Jesus Christ; that is, to obtain union with him by faith whilst he is yet held forth in the free and gracious tenders of the gospel. Pursuing the general application of the subject as entered upon in the last sermon, in the gracious invitation to come to Christ, divers arguments will be further urged, both from the titles of Christ, and the privileges conferred by him.

The TITLES of Christ are so many motives or arguments fitted to persuade men to come to him; amongst which Christ, as the Physician of souls, comes under our first consideration in the text before us.

The occasion of these words of Christ was the call of Matthew the publican, who having first opened his heart, next opened his house to Christ, and entertained him there. This strange and unexpected change wrought upon Matthew quickly brings in all the neighbourhood, and many publicans and sinners resorted thither; at which the pride of the Pharisees began to swell. From this occasion they took offence at Christ, and in this verse Christ addressed them in a manner fitted both for their conviction and his own vindication. "He said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick."

He gave this, says one, as a reason why he conversed so much with publicans and sinners, and so little with the Pharisees, because there was more work for him: Christ came to be a physician to sick souls; Pharisees were

so well in their own conceit, that Christ saw that they would have little to do with him, and so he applied himself to those who were more sensible of their sickness. In these words,

1. The secure sinner is described, both with respect to his own apprehensions of himself as one that is whole, and also by his low value and esteem for Christ: he sees no need of him; "They that be whole need not a physician."

2. The convinced and humbled sinner, also, is here described, and that both by his state, he is sick; and by his valuation of Jesus Christ, he greatly needs him: they that are sick need the physician.

3. We have Christ's treatment of both; the former he rejects and passes by, as those with whom he has no concern; the latter he converses with, in order to their

cure.

The words thus opened are fruitful in observations. I shall now insist upon only this one, which suits the scope of my discourse—

DOCT.-That the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Physician for sick souls.

The world is a great hospital, full of sick and dying souls, all wounded by one and the same mortal weapon, sin. Some are without a sense of their misery, and value not a physician; others are sensible of danger, mourn under the apprehension of their condition, and sadly bewail it. The merciful God has, in his abundant compassion to the perishing world, sent a Physician from heaven, and given him his orders under the great seal of heaven for his office, Isa. lxi, 1, 2, which he opened and read in the audience of the people: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captive, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised," Luke iv. 18. He is the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations: he is the Lord that healeth us; and that even as he is "the Lord our righteousness." The brazen serpent that healed the Israelites in the wilderness was an excellent type of our great Physician Christ, and is expressly applied to him, John iii. 14. He rejects none that come, and heals all whom he undertakes with. But more particularly I will point out those diseases which Christ

heals in sick souls, and by what means he heals them; and show the excellency of this Physician above all others: there is no one like Christ; he is the only Physician for wounded souls.

I. We will inquire into THE DISEASES which Christ the Physician cures, and they are reducible to two-sin and

sorrow.

1. The disease of sin; in which three things are found exceedingly burdensome to sick souls-the guilt; the dominion; and the inherence of sin-all cured by this Physician.

1. The guilt of sin; this is a mortal wound, a stab in the very heart of a poor sinner. It is a groundless distinction that papists make of sins mortal and venial: all sin in its own nature is mortal. "The wages of sin is death," Rom. vi. 23. Yet though it be so in its own nature, Christ can and doth cure it by the sovereign balm of his own precious blood. "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace," Eph. i. 7. This is the deadliest wound the soul of man feels in this world. What is guilt but the obligation of the soul to everlasting punishment and misery? It puts the soul under the sentence of God to eternal wrath, the condemning sentence of the great and terrible God; than which nothing is found more dreadful and insupportable. Put all pains, all poverty, all afflictions, all miseries in one scale, and God's condemnation in the other, and you weigh but so many feathers against a talent of lead.

This disease our great Physician Christ cures by remission, which is the dissolving of the obligation to punishment; the loosing of the soul that was bound over to the wrath and condemnation of God, Col. i. 13, 14; Heb. vi. 18; Micah vii. 18, 19. This remission being made, the soul is immediately cleared from all its obligation to punishment. There is no condemnation, Rom. viii. 1. All bonds are cancelled; the condemnation of all sins, original and actual, great and small, is removed. This cure is performed upon souls by the blood of Christ; nothing is found in heaven or earth besides his blood, that is able to heal this disease. "Without shedding of blood there is no remission," Heb. ix. 22; nor is it any blood that will do it, but that only which dropped from the wounds of Christ. "With his stripes we are healed," Isa. liii. 5. His blood