it, Pfal. xlii. 5. &c. Ifa. xli. 10. 17. 18. and liv. Ifa. lvii. 16. &c. Jer. xxxi. 25. Heb. xiii. 5. 6.

7. &c.

XI. Ingratitude to God for mercies is a common difeafe. Alas! we turn unthankful both for common and special mercies, and for the unspeakable gift of Jefus Chrift to Adam's fallen race: What bad requitals do we make to God for his goodness? There are manywho make use of God's mercies as darts to shoot at heaven, and weapons to fight against God himself. The more he gives them of health and money, they turn the more profane and debauched; fo that instead of ferving God with his benefits, they make a facrifice of them to the devil, Hof. ii. 8. I fear fuch will be found guilty of this evil, who beftow their time and money upon games and pastimes, balls and affemblies, plays and comedies, and fuch vanities that prove nurferies of fin, and ferve greatly to debauch the minds and morals of inen and women. O let us not ungratefully requite the Lord our gracious benefactor. Ah! how much of this disease doth remain even with the beft? Even Hezekiah rendered not again, according to the benefit done unto him, 2 Chron. xxxii. 25. Great need have we all of the balm of Gilead to cure us of this plague.

XII. Trufling to our own righteousness is a difeafe. which all are liable to. The unbeliever goes about to build an imaginary tower of his own righteousness, and will not fubmit to the righteoufnefs of Chrift the glori ous Surety, who hath brought in an everlafting and law-biding righteoufnefs for finners to fly to. Nay, believers who have actually fled to it, do ftill groan under the remains of this woful difeafe within them. They have ftill a hankering after fome dependence upon their duties and performances, altho' they cannot but own that their beft duties need the blood of Christ, as well as their worst fins; and if they be not wafhen from the fins that cleave to them, they would damn them. O then, what need have we all of the balm in Gilead, and the Phyfician there, for thefe deadly difeafes which cleave to us?

Time would fail me to mention and infift upon many other grievous diseases which abound among us, fuch as pride, felf-conceit, and lifting up of ourfelves, because of some attainments, above others; difcontentment with our lot and condition in the world; impatience under croffes, finful felf-love, intemperance, covetoufnefs, envy, rafh anger, malice, revenge, and many other deadly plagues. However light fome may make of these diftempers, yet there is none of them but what will prove deadly, if the balm of Gilead, and Physician there, be not applied to for cure. But, blesfed be the God of Ifrael, that this balm is an univerfal medicine, a catholicon for all manner of foul difeafes, if finners would but feek to it, and submit to the application of it in the Physician's own way. May we all be brought to fee and feel our difeafes in time, that we may haften to the great Physician of the church, while his balm and power are prefent to heal us. May God of his infinite mercy determine us to it, for Jefus Chrift's fake. Amen.

SERMON IV.

On Jerem. viii. 22. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no phyfician there, &c.

IN

N the preceding fermon I mentioned many foul-difeafes, which are more fecret and invifible, prevailing among us: In this I fhall fpeak of fome other difeafes of a more public nature, which affect not only the particular members, but, in fome refpects, threaten the whole body of the church, and the feveral congregations thereof; and upon which account our poor difeased church and land do greatly need the balm of Gilead, and physician there, at this day.

1. Herefy and error is a difeafe which fpreads like a gangrene, and doth very much threaten our church

and

and land at this day; when doctrines are vented, and books difperfed in favour of Deism, Socinianism, Arianifm, Arminianifm, and other errors: When principles are espoused and spread, which tend to weaken divine revelation; to advance corrupt reafon and selflove as the spring and standard of religion; to exalt our moral performances more than imputed righteousnefs; to reproach the operations of the holy Spirit upon fouls, with enthusiasm; and afcribe our good actions more to the power of corrupt nature, than to effica cious free grace. Now, when fuch errors as thefe, befides many Popish tenets and superftitions, are propa gated among us, there is ground to fay, we have a fick and diseased land, that needs balm.

II. Schifm and divifion among the minifters and members of the church is a grievous malady that we at prefent labour under. Surely it is a moft unnatural diftemper that caufes the theep of Chrift to bite and devour one another, and the members of Chrift to sepa rate as aliens; yea, not only break up Chriftian communion, but break out in uncharitable reflections, bitterness, wrath, clamour, and evil-speaking, one against another. A ftrange diftemper! that puts thofe who will delightfully worship God together through a whole eternity, in fuch a cafe, that they cannot keep fellowfhip together here! A distemper, that makes men renounce communion with those they once delighted in, and with whom the glorious Head doth still hold communion; that takes many off from the vitals and effentials of religion, and employs their time in public controverfies about party opinions, the grounds of feparation, the characters of preachers, and things which rather tend to beget alienation of affections, and angry quarrels, than to promote faving knowledge, faith, love, and godly edifying. Oh! how wrath like a judgment is that fpirit of ftrife and divifion which God hath poured out upon this land for our former mifimprovement of the gospel, and contempt of glorious Chrift! Ah, what a flood-gate doth it open to many evils and calamities! That is a true word of the apoftle James iii. 16. · Where envying and ftrife is, there is confufion and

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every evil work." What a plague muft that be that produces every evil work? What a fad difeafe is it, that turns Chriftian converfe into vain janglings, that hinders focial prayers, that mars the fuccefs of the gofpel, weakens the intereft of religion, propagates all kind of evil, and expofes the church to the fcorn and deri fion of her enemies! How applicable is that word to us, Lam. ii. 13. "Thy breach is great like the fea, who can heal thee?" Surely none but he that hath the balm of Gilead.

III. Giddiness and unsettledness in religion is a disease that fadly prevails among us. Many are now" reeling to and fro like drunken men, as the prophet fpeaks, Ifa. xxiv. 20. They do not, like fober men, keep the highway in a straight courfe; but, like drunkards, ftagger and reel from one fide of the way to another. Alas, the most part are reeling either to one extreme or another, and very few are going on in a straight and fteady courfe. Many are reeling towards defection from our reformation principles and attainments which our worthy ancestors valiantly contended and fuffered for; particularly in encouraging and drawing on the yoke of patronage upon the church without neceffity. Yea, pleading for it as lawful and harmless, though our reformers declared it to be contrary to the word of God, and the practice of the apoftolical and primitive church. Likewife, in compliance with that yoke, many are voluntarily falling in with courses for wreathing it upon the church's neck, and departing from feveral parts of our established government and difcipline to which they stand folemnly engaged, fuch as our approved rules and practice with refpect to the moderation of calls, the election and ordination of paftors; and, in confequence thereof, obtruding minifters into congregations against their will, whereby the church is spoiled of her right of calling her own paftors, the flock of Chrift is fcattered, the edification of fouls hindered, the great ends of a gospel-miniftry defeated, and the work of the gofpel greatly obftructed. Many alfo are fwerving from our old covenant-engagements, and openly denying the lawfulnefs of national-covenanting, and the

binding

binding obligation thereof upon pofterity; and forming to themselves fchemes of government which would open a door to anarchy and licentioufnefs. Again, many are reeling towards Eraftianifm, and injurious infringements upon the church's intrinfic power, and upon Chrift's immediate headship and fupremacy over her, falling in with acts and practices which tend to take the keys of church power and government out of the hands of Chrift and church officers of his appointment, and put them into the hands of the magiftrate. Alfo, many are reeling from the ancient ufe of creeds and confeffions of faith, towards a boundless toleration of all forts of errors and herefies, afferting that neither the church nor the magiftrate have any power to restrain them. Many are reeling towards the exalting of self, even putting it in the room of God, faying it is in the power of a man's free will and natural abilities to repent and convert himself, and that there is a neceffary connexion between a man's moral ferioufnefs and his obtaining of faving grace. Yea, many are warping towards popery and old fuperftitions, pleading for a middle ftate, for prayers for the dead, and for the Eucharift's being a proper facrifice for fin: for the neceffity of a prieft's abfolution in order to the forgiveness of fin, and of bowing to the altar, and at the name of Jefus, of obferving uninflituted feftivals, of ufing the cross in baptifm, kneeling at the facrament, the organ in praife, and other inventions of men in God's worship. Nay, many are reeling from the very fundamentals of Chrif tianity, and the doctrine of the glorious trinity, Chrift's deity and fatisfaction, the neceffity of fupernatural revelation, and of the imputation of Christ's righteoufnefs, and the operations of the holy Spirit; and, inftead of these precious doctrines, offering the fufficiency of reafon, or nature's light, to conduct men in the way to happiness. And thefe Socinian and Deiftical tenets are not a little encouraged by the preachers of a rational or natural religion; I mean thofe dry moral preachers, who are more earnest in recommending a fort of Pagan morality to the world, than in fhewing the excellency and ufefulness of Chrift for perishing fin

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