Thomas Manton · 33 of 57
The Fifth Verse. · Part 3
2. The soul of a sinner never sits so easy but that he has his qualms and pangs of conscience, and that sometimes in the midst of jollity; as was the case of Belshazzar, while carousing in the cups of the temple. Certainly they feel enough to show that if they were cured of this disease, it would be a great comfort and felicity to them; their best pleasures are but stolen waters, and bread eaten in secret, poor sneaking delights, when they can get conscience asleep.
3. Though they feel not their diseases now, they shall hereafter. Oh, what a pain will sin be to them when God awakeneth them, either in this life, by letting a spark of his wrath fall into the conscience, and then they become a terror to themselves; or, if not here, yet in hell hereafter, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!
Thirdly, It is a loathsome disease. The pain of sin, which worketh upon our fear, is first and soonest felt: but the loathsomeness of sin, which worketh on our shame, requireth a quicker and more tender sense. As a man overgrown with noisome boils and sores, is first affected with the pain caused by them, and then with the sight and smell of them; so it is with soul-distempers: Ps. xxxviii. 5, ‘My wounds stink and are corrupt, because of my foolishness;’ and ver. 7, ‘My loins are filled with a loathsome disease.’ The soul abhors, and is ashamed of itself, when it hath anything of tenderness, or lively sense of the purity of God. Solomon telleth us that ‘a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame,’ Prov. xiii. 5. How loathsome? He is loathsome to God, who is ‘of purer eyes than to behold ,’ Hab. i. 13. Loathsome to good men, who can no more delight in him than a sound man can in the of a leper: Prov. xxix. 27, ‘An unjust man is an abomination to the just.’ Loathsome to indifferent men, for those that can allow sin in themselves dislike it in others: Titus iii. 3, ‘Hateful and hating one another.’ Another’s pride, sensuality, and , is offensive to us. Though we be proud, sensual, and worldly ourselves, yet it is an offence to ourselves; therefore a sinner dareth not converse with his own heart, but doth what he can to fly from himself, to divert his thoughts from the sight of his own natural face in the glass of the word, as being ashamed of himself and his own ways: Rom. vi. 21, ‘What fruit had ye then of those things whereof ye are now ashamed?’ However it is enough for our purpose, if loathsome to God: Ps. xiv. 2, 3, the psalmist telleth us, ‘The Lord looked down from heaven.’ And what did he see here below? ‘They are altogether become filthy and abominable.’ All their persons, all their actions flowing forth from their corrupt hearts, are vile and loathsome in God’s sight. When God looked upon his creatures just as they passed his hand, all was very good, Gen. i. 31. But when once they were infected with sin, the case is altered, they are all become filthy and abominable; some more, some less gross, as to the outbreaking of sin; but they are all odious to God, and we are sensible of it, as appeareth by our shyness of God, and backwardness to look him in the face.
Fourthly, It is an infectious and catching disease. Sin cometh into the world by propagation rather than imitation: yet imitation and example hath a great force upon the soul: Eph. ii. 3, κατὰ τὸν αἰῶνα, ‘Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others;’ Isa. vi. 5, ‘Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.’ Living among such, he had contracted some contagion and taint. It is hard to converse with wicked ones and not to be defiled: Micah i. 9, ‘Her wound is incurable, for it is come into Judah.’ Samaria was desperately sick of provocations, and the taint reached to Judah also.
Fifthly, It is a mortal disease if we continue in it without , for ‘by sin came death’ into the world, Rom. v. 12; and ‘the wages of sin is death.’ Rom. vi. 23. Not only death temporal, which consists in the separation of the soul from the body, but death spiritual, which consists in an estrangement from God, as the author of the life of ; yea, death eternal, which consists in a separation both of body and soul from the for ever, and is a perpetual living in deadly pain and torment. The second death is set forth by two notions—‘the worm that never dieth,’ and ‘the fire that shall never be quenched,’ Mark ix. 44; by which is meant the sting of conscience and the wrath of God. Conscience worketh on what is past, present, and to come. There is a vexing remembrance of what is past, your past folly and evil choice, past neglects of grace, past misspense of time, past abuse of mercies, past despising of the offered salvation. Oh, what cutting thoughts will these be to the damned to all eternity! There is a sense of what is present; they have nothing to divert their thoughts from their misery, no company nor sensual comforts, but are left to the bitter apprehension of their sad estate. There is also a fear of what is to come, or a fearful looking for of more wrath from God. The fire is the wrath of God, which inflicts pains upon the damned both in body and soul. There is no member or faculty free, but feeleth the misery of the second death. The agonies of the first death are soon over, but those of the second endure for ever. The first death is the more terrible because of this death which is to succeed it. In the first death our struggling is for life, we would not die; but here, for death and destruction, we would not live. This is the fruit of sin.
Secondly, Our recovery out of sin, and all the effects of it, which is our health. Before the application of the blood of Christ, every man in his natural estate is in no less dangerous a condition than a man that is wounded and bleeding to death: Luke x. 30, ‘A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.’ Not as if he had any spiritual life at all, but it is spoken in respect to his natural life. So before Christ’s blood is applied, every man is dead spiritually, and is posting towards eternal death; but when he is and to God, then he is translated from death to life. Therefore this healing must be considered—
1. As to its nature.
2. With respect to the several periods of this benefit, as to its beginning, progress, and final consummation.
1 The nature of this cure, or health bestowed upon us, will be best understood by considering what is in sin. There are in sin four things—culpa, macula, reatus, poena.
[1.] Culpa. The fault is the criminal action, which is the foundation of our guilt. Now this properly is not healed, but passed by, or not brought into judgment against us, for as it is an action it cannot be reversed. Factum infectum fieri nequit. As it is a criminal action against the law of God, it cannot lose its nature, for Christ came not to make a fault to be no fault. This properly is not healed. Indeed some phrases express pardon but by a passing by: Micah vii. 18, ‘That pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the of the remnant of his heritage.’ The Lord passeth over the fault, or quits the plea towards them that own their faults. The Lord seeth them, and not seeth them; that is, will not lay them to their charge: Isa. lvii. 18, ‘I have seen his ways, and will heal him;’ that is, not enter into judgment with him. In short, the fault is not disannulled, but passed over, and cast behind God’s back. The offender is not made innocent, but pardonable on certain terms. We must remember the fault, but God forgets it.
[2.] Here is macula, which is the blot or inclination to sin again. So he healeth us by , renewing and cleansing us by the .Spirit, which is the work of God: Exod. xv. 26, ‘I am the Lord that healeth thee.’ This is most properly his healing grace. So God reneweth and healeth our natures: Ps. ciii. 3, ‘Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases.’
[3.] There is reatus, the guilt or obligation to punishment. God dissolveth this by his authority, according to his new : 2 Chron. xxx. 20, ‘The Lord hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.’ There was no actual stroke or judgment upon them, but healing—there is dissolving the guilt. He forgave their sin, or remitted the penalty which they had incurred by eating the passover otherwise than it was written.
[4.] There is poena, the punishment, which is external, internal, or eternal. The external punishment is affliction. This is the wound that sin maketh in us. This wound God healeth by restoring prosperity: Hosea vi. 1, ‘Come, let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up;’ 2 Chron. vii. 14, ‘I will forgive their sin, and heal their land.’ The internal punishment consists in trouble of conscience, or the anguish and pain occasioned by the fear of God’s wrath, which he healeth: Ps. vi. 2, ‘Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed;’ Ps. xli. 4, ‘Lord, be merciful unto me, and heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.’ As to eternal, or the mortal wound of sin, he healeth that by reversing the sentence of eternal death, and bestowing upon us eternal life, that from children of wrath we may be made heirs of glory. This grant is the true balsam for a wounded soul, when it is not only freed from the fears of the flames of hell and the sting of death, but made heir according to the hope of eternal life. If God and heaven be not matter of comfort, I know not what is. This is the portion of one that believeth in Christ.
2. The several periods of this benefit.
[1.] The cure is begun when we repent and believe, and so are renewed and to God; then the danger of death is over: John v. 24, ‘He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life.’ The disease will not prove mortal.
[2.] It is carried on by degrees, as he doth sanctify us more and more by his Spirit, and settles us in the peace of the gospel. Christ is still in hand with the cure: Mal. iv. 2, ‘The Sun of shall arise upon you with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up like calves in the stall.’ Increase of grace and joy in the is our continued healing. Dangerous sores and deadly wounds are not so soon cured. We have defects and distempers which disable us for duty, but the healing virtue prevaileth more and more. The wicked grow more and more diseased, and in the godly there are some ups and downs; but the Lord promiseth to heal our backslidings: Hosea xiv. 4, ‘I will heal your back sliding, and I will love you freely; for mine anger is turned away from you.’ He will take away more and more the guilt, pollution, and other effects of sin.
[3.] Our state of perfect health is in heaven; there is our complete and eternal welfare, when sin and misery shall be no more. Therefore heaven is set forth by the tree of life which groweth in the midst of paradise, and ‘beareth twelve manner of fruits, and yieldeth its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations,’ Rev. xxii. 2; and ver. 14, it is said, ‘Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have a right to eat of the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city;’ that is into the happiness of the in glory. These enter into the New Jerusalem, and are there fully healed.
Thirdly, The means of our recovery is by Christ’s stripes.
1. None but Christ can cure us, for he is the physician of souls—all else are physicians of no value. Sin is the disease, the, Redeemer’s grace the medicine, and salvation is our health.; and then it is perfect when we are fully saved from sin, and all the consequents of it. Now this is above the sinner’s cure, till God himself takes us in hand. Christ is the Sun of righteousness, who hath healing in his wings, and hath set forth himself under the notion of a physician: Mat. ix. 12, ‘The whole need not the physician, but they that are sick.’ This sore sickness can be cured by no other hand. And the proper nature of his grace is to be medicinal, that is, a healing dispensation.
2. Christ cureth us not by doctrine and example only, but by merit and suffering; for it is said in the text, We are healed by his stripes. I confess the doctrine of Christ hath a great tendency this way; for it is said, Prov. iv. 22, ‘My word is life to them that find it, and health to their flesh.’ There is the medicine for sick souls; there are our cordials and encouragements to prevent sinkings and despondences of spirit; there are potent arguments against distrustful cares and fears, excellent remedies against covetousness, sensuality, and pride; forcible dissuasions from unkind and unholy walking. In short, it is the common shop and storehouse against any distemper incident to the soul. The words of the Lord Jesus are wholesome words, but yet the virtue of the word mainly results from his merit and satisfaction: John xvii. 19, ‘And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth;’ and Eph. v. 25, 26, ‘Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.’ So his example hath a great force, seeing how prone the nature of man is to imitate. And this example is so much commended to us by his kindness and condescension in coming down to be subject to the same laws we live by, by the exactness of it, and the issue and consequent—life and immortality—into which he entered to give us a visible demonstration of the success of our obedience. But an example would nothing at all have profited those that are dead in sin and hated of God, if some other means had not been used. Compare 1 Peter ii. 21 with 24; ‘For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps;’ then ver. 24, ‘Who his own self bare our sins in his own body upon the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes we are healed.’ There needed grace to make example effectual: 2 Cor. iii. 18, ‘We all with open face, be holding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.’
3. Christ’s merit and sufferings do effect our cure, as they purchased the Spirit for us, who reneweth and healeth our sick souls: Titus iii. 5, 6, ‘Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.’ We have it by virtue of Christ’s sufferings: Gal. iii. 13, 14, ‘Christ hath us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.’ So in many other places. He is powerful to change our hearts, and to take away sin. Our wound is not in curable. The Spirit of God can and will heal the diseased soul. God’s justice being satisfied in Christ, he is at more liberty now to dispense his grace.
Use 1. Is for reproof, and that to divers sorts; as—
1. Those that are not sensible of their deadly wounds and the diseases of their souls. There is a carelessness and insensibility in most of soul diseases. If the body be but ill at ease, they complain presently, and seek help for their bodies, but never think of the languishing condition of their souls, and how lamentably distempered they are. They are hard by death’s door, on the brink of destruction, yet are merry and laugh, lay not their condition to heart; nay, think it an injury done them, if you mind them of their cure. Though they are spiritually sick, yet they will not know nor acknowledge it, but, like persons of a distempered brain, who take the physician for an enemy, they murmur at and resist all Christ’s healing methods, as if their duty were their torment, and not their disease. These are in love with their diseases: John iii. 19, ‘This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.’
2. Some would have peace and comfort by Christ, but neglect healing; whereas both were purchased by him, and both must be regarded by us. We should aim at a sound cure, not to have the grief assuaged only, but the distemper removed. It is a mountebank’s cure to stop the pain and let alone the cause; yet such a cure do they seek after that are more earnest for ease and comfort than grace. A good Christian is troubled with the strength of sin, as well as the guilt of it, and mindeth the rectitude of all his faculties as well as the ease and peace of his conscience, that he may be enabled to walk with God cheerfully, in the way of , as well as enjoy the pardon of sins: 1 John i. 9, ‘He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ He would be an unwise man who, having his leg broken, should only mind to be eased of the pain, but not take care to have it set right again. So foolish is that Christian who is earnest for comfort, but taketh no care how to be directed and enabled to please God. Sin, in some sense, is worse than damnation.
3. It reproveth those who think it impossible to get rid of their distempers. Will you lessen the merit of Christ and the power of his Spirit, or doubt of the promise of God? Jer. iii. 22, ‘Return, and I will heal you.’ Now, upon these terms we should come to Christ with confidence, to be the better for coming: Jer. xvii. 14, ‘Heal me, and I shall be healed.’ God can heal, and he will; that is, he is ready to do it, or else why did he take this course?
Use 2. Is to press us to come to God for healing. I shall give you a few directions.
1. You must, in a broken-hearted manner, be sensible of your sickness. It is the sensible sinner Christ undertaketh to cure; the heart-whole are not within the compass of his commission: Luke v. 31, 32, ‘They that are whole need not the physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’ A sense of our disease is a good step toward our cure. God will so heal that he will make us feel our sickness, that the smart of it may be a warning to us for the future, that we may not presume to offend again when we are recovered: Josh. xxii. 17, ‘Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not cleansed until this day?’ We must not make too bold with God.
2. We must by earnest prayer seek this blessing of God, for God will be entreated for all things which he meaneth to bestow: Isa. xix. 22, ‘He shall be entreated of them, and he shall heal them;’ Ps. xci. 14, ‘Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him.’ The leven of these distempers is so kneaded into the nature of man that it cannot be gotten out presently; therefore come often to God by prayer for healing, sometimes this, sometimes that distemper; now that our pride may be , and our impatience; at another time our carnal fear, our sensuality; still praying as occasion requireth. We speed well at the throne of grace if we obtain the rid dance and abatement of any one spiritual disease.
3. We must use God’s means, viz.:—(1.) The word, which is our medicine: 2 Tim. i. 13, ‘Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.’ Keep the soul healthy. (2.) The , they are a part of the medicinal dispensation, sealing the great benefits of God towards us, and our duty towards him, and so are a help against . (3.) Meditation on the death of Christ, not only as a price and ransom, but morally, as it represents the odiousness of sin, and also the love of Christ towards us. So that, out of gratitude to him, and kindness to ourselves, we are bound to abstain from sin for the future. Viscera patent per vulnera. By his stripes we see what we have deserved, and what Christ hath endured.
4. When God is seriously dealing with us about a cure, and applying means of healing, let us take heed we do not lose the advantage and grow worse: Jer. li. 9, ‘We would, have healed Babylon, but she would not be healed.’ So of Sion it is said, Hosea vii. 1, ‘When I would have healed Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered.’ God is willing to offer us help to cure us of our sins, and affordeth us special means and excitations to that purpose. Now, when the waters are stirred, we should step in that we may be made whole; otherwise the disease is the more irritated, and breaketh out in a worse manner than it did before. The great Physician of souls must be carefully observed and constantly waited upon, and in time he will give us perfect ease and health.
5. Take heed, when you are healed, of casting yourselves into new diseases: John v. 14, ‘Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee;’ Heb. ix. 14, ‘How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God?’
