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SERMON VIII.

Of CHRIST's calling Sinners to
Repentance.

MAR. H. 17.

When Jefus beard it, he faith unto them, They that are whole, have no need of the Phyfician, but they that are fick: I came not to call the Righteous, but Sinners to Repentance.

T

HE Occafion of these words, SER M. was briefly This. Our Lord, VIŅI.

having called his Apoftle

Matthew from the Receipt

of Cuftom, and the Call be

ing immediately obeyed; he thereupon

M+

went

SER M.went home with the Converted Disciple, VIII. unto That Difciple's house. And it came

to pass, that as Jefus fat at meat at his houfe, (ver. 15.) many Publicans and Sinners, of That Difciple's former acquaintance, having followed them from the. Receipt of Cuftom, Jet alfo together with Jefus and his Difciples; our Lord being always ready, to take every occafion of exhorting Sinners to Repentance, and to give Them every opportunity of receiving fuch Exhortations. But the conceited Scribes and Pharifees, ver. 16. when they faw him eating with Publicans and Sinners; not confidering, according to the Reafon and Truth of things, that, not the converfing with Sinners, but the partaking with them in their Sins, or incouraging them therein, is only faulty; nay, that converfing with fuch persons, not only may be innocent, but, when it is in order to their Amendment, very praife-worthy alfo: The Scribes and Pharifees, I fay, not confidering This, but being full of Vanity and Pride, and valuing themfelves upon an affected appearance of peculiar Holiness, in defpifing and fetting themselves above the conversation

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of those whom in contempt thy called SER M.. Publicans and Sinners; pretended to won- VIII.

der much, when they faw Jefus fitting at
meat with persons of That character ;
and asked his Difciples, faying, How is it
that he eateth and drinketh with Publi-
cans and Sinners?
Jefus, hearing their
queftion, and knowing their Wickedness
and Pride of Heart, replies in the words
of the Text; They that are Whole, have
no need of the Phyfician, but they that
are Sick: I came not to call the Righte-
ous, but Sinners to Repentance.

IN difcourfing upon which words, I fhall 1 draw fome Obfervations from the feveral particular expreffions we meet with in the Text; and 2dly, I fhall confider the general Doctrine of Repentance, as therein laid down by our Lord.

I, THE Obfervations naturally arifing from the feveral particular expreffions made use of in the Text, are;

If, THAT Sin is to the Soul, what Difeafe or Sickness is to the Body: The Whole, and they that are Sick, are here, in our Saviour's phrafe, the Righteous_and the Sinners. And the Analogy, is very

obvious

~

SER M. obvious and elegant. For as the natural VIII. Health of the Body, confifts in This; that every Part and Organ, regularly and duly performs it proper Function; and, when any of These are difordered or perverted in their operations, there enfues Sickness and Diseases: So likewife, with regard to the Spiritual or Moral State of the Mind and Soul; when every Faculty is employed in its natural and proper manner, and with a juft direction to the end it was defigned for; when the Understanding judges of things according to Reason and Truth, without partiality and without prejudice; when the Will is in its actions directed by this judgment of Right, without Obftinacy or Wilfulness; and when the Paffions in their due fubordinate ftation, and the Appetites under the Government of Sober intention, ferve only to quicken the execution of what Reafon directs; then is the Mind of man Sound and Whole; fit for all the operations of a rational creature, fit for the employments of a virtuous and religious Life, On the contrary, the Abufe or mifimployment of Any of thefe Faculties, is the

Difeafe

And SER M.
VIII.

Difeafe or Sickness of the Soul,
when they are All of them perverted, to-
tally and habitually, by a general corrup
tion and depravation of Manners; then,
as the Body, by an incapacity of all its
organs for the Ufes of natural Life, dies
and is diffolved; fo the man in his moral
capacity, by an habitual neglect and dif-
like of all virtuous Practices, becomes
(as the Scripture elegantly expreffes it)
Dead in Trefpaffes and Sins. And as, in
Bodily Difeafes, Some are more dangerous,
and more likely to prove mortal, than
Others; in which fenfe our Saviour fays
concerning Lazarus, This Sickness is not
unto Death, ch. xi. of St John's Gospel,
ver. 4; So, in the spiritual sense, the fame
Apoftle St John, in his 1ft Epifle, fpeaks
pf Sins, which, according as there be
Any or No Hope of mens recovering from
them, either are or are not unto Death;
1 Job. v. 16.

2. A Second Obfervation arifing from our Saviour's manner of expreffing himfelf in the Text, is; that Repentance, is not an Original and Primary Duty of Religion; but a Duty, only of fecondary

intention,

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