the healing hand. This preaching is indeed full of great consolation. But our deficiency is here, we have not a sufficient feeling sense of our calamitous state; for if we felt that, we should flee to this true and very Hercules. He is the deliverer from all evil.-But what did those shepherds? They ruled with the rigour of Manlius : they enforced the law of God with imposing tyranny : to which they added moreover their own inventions, as the same shepherds also do in our day: against which inventions if you transgress, they immediately cry out and condemn you without law or mercy: so that, their administration is nothing else than a continual driving and commanding. But Christ, who is wholly unlike all these, declares that such is not rightly feeding and ruling souls. For in this way, no one is holpen, but rather is robbed of the hope he may have, and is destroyed, as we shall presently hear. Let us therefore, now go over the description of the prophet in all its particulars.

FIRST, he says, that the weak sheep are to be comforted. That is, consciences which have but a weak faith, and are of a sorrowful spirit, and are yet very sore, are not to he tyrannically dealt with, and rebuked thus; Thou must do this. Thou must be strong: for if thou be weak, thou wilt be numbered among the damned.' This is not to administer courage and strength to the weak. Paul, Rom. xiv. teaches that we are to receive such as are weak in the faith. Wherefore, they are not to be driven with hatred or iniquity, but are rather to be holpen up by administered consolations; lest, being weak, they should despair; whereas, in time, they will attain unto proper strength. For the prophet Isaiah speaks thus sweetly concerning Christ, chap. xlii., “A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench." "The bruised reed," signifies weak and afflicted consciences; which are easily shaken and driven to desperation. These God does not at once trample under his feet; this is not the nature of the divine being; he rather gently and carefully deals with them that they fall not. Smoking flax" which has, as

yet, hardly a spark of fire, and is rather smoke than kindling fire, signifies those same weak ones; whose spirit shall not utterly fail, for he will not entirely extinguish them; nay, he will by degrees fan them to a flame, and will strengthen them more and more. What consolation think ye may they draw from hence, who understand these things! He, therefore, who does not lead with a kind, and as it were indulging hand, those consciences that are yet weak, is not to be reckoned among the number of profitable shepherds.

SECONDLY, saith the prophet, "that which was sick ye ought to have healed." Who then are these “sick?" Truly, those who labour externally in the entanglements of various works. It signifies weak consciences, principally. And next, it refers to the external walk in life. That is, when any one, in fits of self-will and wrath, is driven headlong this way or that, in a passion; or commits at times other foolish sins of the same kind; even as the apostles also themselves offended in these gross things. Those, therefore, who thus offend in these external things, and break through the bounds of what is right, before men; so that they, being offended, may say of such, that they are men of bad and morose spirits;-these, God does not at once scratch off from his books, (as they say); for his kingdom is not ordained to receive none but men that are sound and of perfect health, because these pertain to the life to come. But Christ now sits on the throne of state above, to exercise a care over these helpless ones, and to send them succour from thence under all their calamities.

Wherefore, let us not at once conclude, when we sensibly feel our weakness and frailty, that all hope of our salvation is gone, and that we are banished from the kingdom of Christ. Nay rather, on the contrary, the more consciousness we have of our weakness, the more determinately let us go unto Christ. For it is for this very end that he sits in state,-that he might, when we ask him, administer unto us some remedy for, and alleviation of, our sorrows. If therefore thou be sick, and feel thyself to be a sinner and full of misery, thou hast

the greater need to go unto him and say, ' O Lord, I therefore come unto thee because I am a sinner; that thou mightest take from me the burthen of my sins, and make me righteous.' Thus thy very necessity should be spur in thy side: for the greater and more raging thy disease is, the more shouldst thou run to the aid of some physician; this I would especially impress upon thy mind. And Christ therefore invites us, that when our strength is all gone, we should go to him. But these false shepherds persuade themselves, that men may be made righteous by loud bawling and compulsive driving: whereas, by such means, they only become worse. Hence it is, that we see in this day, that this preposterous way of instructing men, only tends most miserably to confound all things; as the prophet here complains.

THIRDLY," that which was torn have ye not bound up." To be "torn," is when a man's mouth or rib is broken, or any other hurt received: that is, when the Christian is not only weak, and slips out of the way through the infirmity of nature, or makes a slip of the tongue, (from which sins no one is in all respects free,) but when he falls into heavy temptations so as to break a leg, and afterwards, to fall down and depart from the Gospel through a denial of it; as Peter did when he denied Christ. Now if any one fall thus enormously, so as even to be driven quite back, or to fall prostrate on the ground, yet his name is not to be scratched off from the book of Christians, as though he had utterly fallen out of Christ's kingdom. Christ must and will be ever like himself: and his kingdom must and will consist in no other thing, than the same overflowing abundance of mere grace and mercy: so that his work will ever continue to be a helping those, who acknowledge their misery in departing from him, and who desire to be rescued from that misery: and thus, his kingdom will never be any thing but an administering of help and comfort. And as a shepherd, he will ever with an admirable kindness and amiableness be putting himself in the way and in the sight of all, and inviting and alluring

them to himself; desiring to shew himself every thing but a God inaccessible.

Moreover, all these things are administered by the Gospel only. This is the only support for the weak, the only medicine for the sick. For the word is of that nature, that it is a certain heal-all for every disease of the mind, a medicine for every patient, and a kind of solace that drives away every care and trouble from the heart; so that no one, though overwhelmed with the guilt of sins never so great and peculiar, need despair. Christ alone therefore is the true and real shepherd; the true helper under every distress; who averts every evil, and lifts up every one that is fallen. No one that is not thus affected toward his sheep, deserves the name of shepherd.

FOURTHLY saith the prophet, "That which was driven away ye brought not back." What is that which is "driven away?" Truly, the soul that is despised and brought to shame; which is thought by most to be utterly lost. But persons of this kind, Christ will have treated tenderly. For he does not so contract his kingdom as to admit none but the strong, the whole, and the altogether perfect, to dwell therein:-that perfection pertains to the future kingdom after death. But this present kingdom of his, wherein he presides until the day of the resurrection over those who are yet subject to mortality, breathes nothing but grace and sweetness, even as God declared to the future race of Israel, that the promised land should flow with milk and honey: which also St. Paul confirms when he says, 1 Cor. xii. "Those members of the body which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant comeliness."

FIFTHLY the prophet saith in conclusion, which was lost ye have not sought out." have not sought out." "That which is lost," signifies that which is thought to be so condemned, as to be beyond all possibility of being recalled to amendment. Such as are the publicans and harlots in the Gospel and such, among us, who appear to be altogether untameable, and who refuse the bridles of all

discipline. These are in no wise to be disregarded, but to be called back into the way by all possible means. Even as we read Paul did, when he delivered over two unto Satan, 1 Tim. i. "Whom (says he) I have delivered unto Satan, that they might be chastened, and might learn hereafter not to blaspheme." And also, 1 Cor. v. "I have resolved to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit may be saved," &c. These he cast out as condemned, but afterwards, he restored them.

Wherefore Christ must be preached, as rejecting no one whatever, how weak soever he may be, but as being ready to receive unto himself all of every sort, and to comfort, support, and help them; and that he is ever to be viewed by the eyes of our mind, under the character of a good shepherd. Such a representation as this, hearts will gladly follow. So that, men are no more to be urged and driven by iniquitous compulsion. For the Gospel carries in itself that power of attraction, that it invites and causes minds to follow spontaneously; and works in men a willingness to come, together with a confidence in coming. Under this they conceive a love and affection for Christ; so that now, they perform all the duties of a Christian with a willing mind; whereas before, they needed to be driven with spurs and bawling reproofs. Those things however which we do from being driven by bawling words, we do against our will, and with a reluctant mind; and such an obedience as this, God cannot endure. But when I see that the Lord has a mind so favourably inclined towards me and so willing to serve me, my heart is so softened that I cannot contain myself, but immediately leave all other things and run up to him; and, from this time, my heart is filled with all pleasure and joy.

Here then observe what an accursed thing it is for one to judge another. The kingdom of Christ, as we have heard, is for that end established, that it might have respect unto sick souls, and might render them righteous. Wherefore, all those must be in error, who look only at the strong and the holy. And hence, the