confcience, arifing from the fenfe of that wrath, and fentence of death upon the foul. Our iniquities, that met on his back, laid it open to the rod, which in itself was free; thofe hands that never wrought iniquity, and thofe feet that never declined from the way of righteoufnefs, yet for our works and wanderings were pierced; and that tongue dropped with vinegar and gall on the cross, that never spoke a guileful nor a finful word. The blood of thofe ftripes are that balm iffuing from that tree of life fo pierced, that can only give ease to the confcience, and heal the wounds of it; and they deliver from the power of fin, working by their influence a loathing of fin, that was the cause of them; they cleanfe out the vitious humours of our corrupt nature, by opening that iffue of repentance, They shall look on bim, and mourn over him, whom they have pierced, Zech. xii. IO.

Now, to the end it may thus cure, it must be applied; it is the only receipt, but it must be received for healing. The most fovereign medicines cure not in another manner, and therefore ftill their first letter is R Recipe, Take fuch a thing.

This is amongst those wonders of that great work, that the fovereign Lord of all, that binds and ioofes at his pleasure the influences of heaven, and the power and workings of all the creatures, would himself in our flesh be thus bound, the only Son bound as a flave, and fcourged as a malefactor! and his willing obedience made this an acceptable and expiating facrifice; amongft the rest of his fufferings, He gave bis back to the fmiters, Ifa. 1. 6.

Now, it cannot be, that any that is thus healed, reflecting upon this cure, can again take any conftant delight in fin. It is impoffible fo far to forget both the grief it bred themselves, and their Lord, as to make a new agreement with it, and take pleafure to live

in it.

VOL. I.

3 F

His

His Stripes.] Turn your thoughts every one of you to confider this. You that are not healed, that you may be healed; and you that are, apply it ftill to perfect the cure, in that part wherein it is gradual, and not complete; and for the cafe you have found, blefs and love him who endured fo much uneafinefs to that end. There is a fweet mixture of forrow and joy in contemplating thefe ftripes; forrow, fure, by fympathy, that they were his ftripes, and joy that they were our healing. Chriftians are too little mindful and fenfible of this, and, it n:ay be, fomewhat guilty of that great fault mentioned, Hof. xi. 3. They knew not that I healed them.

Ver. 25. For ye were as sheep going aftray, but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your fouls.

N these few words we have a brief and yet clear

condition, and our happiness in Chrift. The refemblance is borrowed from the fame place in the prophet Ifaiah liii. 6.

Not to press the comparison, and, as it is too usual in fuch comments as thefe, to ftrain it beyond the purpose in our loft eftate; this is all, or the maint circumftance, wherein the resemblance with fheep holds, our wandering, as forlorn, and expofed to deftruction, as a fheep that is ftrayed and wandered from the fold. So it imports indeed the lofs of a better condition, the lofs of the fafety and happiness of the foul, of that good which is proper to it, as the fuitable good of the brute creature here named, is fafe and good pasture.

That we may know there is none exempt in nature from the guiltinefs and mifery of this wandering, the Prophet is exprefs in the univerfality of it, all we have gone aftray: And though the Apostle here applies it in particular to his brethren, yet it falls not amifs to

any

any other, ye were as sheep going aftray: Yea, the Prophet there, to the collective univerfal, adds a diftributive, every man to his own way, or a man to his way. They agree in this, that they all wander, though they differ in their feveral ways. There is an inbred propenfion to ftray in them all, more than in fheep, that are creatures naturally wandering, for each man hath his own way of it.

And this is our folly, that we flatter ourselves by comparison, and every one is pleafed with himself because he is free from fome wanderings of others; not confidering that he is a wanderer too, though in another way; he hath his way, as thofe he looks on have theirs. And as men agree in wandering, though they differ in their way, fo thofe ways agree in this, that they lead unto mifery, and fhall end in that. Think you there is no way to hell but the way of open profanenefs? Yea, fure, many a way there is that seems smooth, and clean in a man's own eyes, and yet will end in condemnation. Truth is but one, error endless and interminable; as we fay of natural life and death, fo may we fay of fpiritual, the way to life is one, but there are many out of it; letbi mille aditus. Each one hath not opportunity nor ability for every fin, or every degree of fin, but each fins after his own mode and power, Ifa. xl. 20.

Thy tongue, it may be, wanders not in the common path-road of oaths and curfes, yet it wanders in fecret calumnies, in detraction and defaming of others, though fo conveyed as it fcarce appears : Or, if thou speak them not, yet thou art pleased to hear them. It wanders, in trifling away the precious hours of irrecoverable time, with vain unprofitable babblings in thy converfe, or, if thou art much alone, or in company much filent, yet, is not thy foolish mind still hunting vanity, following this felfpleafing defign or the other, and feldom, and very flightly, if at all, converfant with God, and the things of heaven? which, although they alone have the trueft,

and

and the highest pleasure in them, yet to thy carnal mind are taftelefs and unfavoury. There is fcarce any thing fo light and childish that thou wilt not more willingly and liberally beftow thy retired thoughts on, than upon those excellent incomparable delights. Oh! the foolish heart of man, when it may feem deep and ferious, how often is it at Domitian's exercise in his study, catching flies?

Men account little of the wandering of their hearts, and yet, truly, that is most of all to be confidered; for from thence are the iffues of life, Prov. iv. 23. It is the heart that hath forgotten God, and is roving after vanity. This caufes all the errors of mens words and actions. A wandering heart makes wandering eyes, feet and tongue. It is the leading wanderer, that misleads all the reft; and as we are here called fraying sheep, fo within the heart itself of each of us, there is, as it were, a whole wandering flock, a multitude of fictions, Gen. viii. 21. ungodly devices; the word that fignifies the evil of the thought in Hebrew, here from y is from that which is feeding of a flock, and it likewife fignifies wandering; and so these meet in our thoughts, they are a great flock and a wandering flock. This is the natural freedom of our thoughts; they are free to wander from God and heaven, and carry us to perdition: And we are guilty of many pollutions this way that we never acted. Men are lefs fenfible of heart-wickedness, if it break not forth; but it is far more active in fin than any of the fenfes, or the whole body. The motion of fpirits is far fwifter than of bodies; it can make a greater progrefs in any of thefe wanderings in one hour, than the body is able to overtake in many days.

When the body is tied to attendance in the exercifes wherein we are now employed, yet know you not? (it is fo much the worfe, if you do not know, and feel it, and bewail it.) Know you not, I fay, that the heart can take its liberty, and leave you nothing

but

but a carcafe? This the unrenewed heart doth continually They come and fit before me as my people, but their heart is after their covetousness, Ezek. xxxiii. 31. It hath another way to go, another God to wait

on.

But are now returned.] Whatsoever are the feveral ways of our ftraying, all our wandering is the averfion of the heart from God; whence, of neceffity, follows a continual unsettledness and difquiet; the mind is as a wave of the fea, toffed to and fro with the wind; it tumbles from one fin and vanity to another, and finds no reft; as a fick perfon toffes from one fide to another, and from one part of his bed to another, and perhaps changes his bed, in hope of ease, but still it is farther off; thus is the foul in all its wanderings : But shift and change as it will, no rest will it find until it come to this returning, Jer. ii. 36. Why gaddeft thou about fo much to change thy way? Thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt as thou waft of Affyria. Nothing but forrow and fhame till you change all those ways for this one. Return, O Ifrael, fays the Lord, if thou wilt return, return unto me. It is not changing one of your own ways for another that will profit you; but in returning to me is your falvation.

Seeing we find in our own experience, befides the woful end of our wanderings, the prefent perplexity and difquiet of them, why are we not perfuaded to this, to give up with them all? Return unto thy reft O my foul, fays David, Pfal. cxvi. 7.; this were our wisdom.

But is not that God, in whom we expect reft, incensed against us for our wandering? and is he not, being offended, a confuming fire? True, but this is the way to find acceptance and peace, and fatisfying comforts in returning. Come first to this Shepherd of fouls Jefus Chrift, and by him come unto the Father; no man comes unto the Father, says he, but by me. This is via regia, the high and right way of returning unto God, John x. 11. I am the good Shepherd

an