without detriment to the Strength and Soundness of the Patient; Or, that this Spreading proves Munfter. no great Malignity ever to have been in fuch a Disease at all. For, as Rivers, when penn'd up in a narrow Course, are deep and strong, and eat away their Banks, to force a Channel which they did not find; but when enlarged, they glide away in fhallow Streams: So this Difeafe, fay They, when rank and fierce, enters deep, gnaws away the kindly Flefh, feizes the Vitals, and penetrates the very Bones and Marrow; but, when of a more favourable and gentle kind, it diffufes and lofes it felf; is rather a Scurf, than a formed Leprofy: And, though fome Defacing, yet efcapes the Cenfure and Shame of the Law. Now this Account, to Me, appears not unfitly to figure the Condition of Mankind, in relation to Sins of Infirmity, and Sins of Prefumption. The Former we are full of, and the Frailty of Human Nature expofes us to frequent Commiffions of them. The Latter, though but Few, though but One; yet, if of a grievous kind, does yet contribute more to the Sicknefs and Danger of the Soul, to the Hardening of the Confcience, to the Scandalizing our Brethren, to the Reproach of our Religion, than the daily, hourly Failings, in point of ftrict Duty, confequent upon the Weakness of corrupt Nature. Thefe do not deftroy the Peace of our Minds; they are pitiable and excufable; incident to Good People; and, provided we lament, and pray, and strive the best we can, against them, they do not cut us off from Chrift. But the Other give deep and deadly Wounds, because they argue a Mind violently bent, and a profligate Senfe in the Perfon indulging them. In One Cafe, the Righteous falls feven times a day, and yet rifes a ; but, in the Other, the deliberately Wicked falls chief. The reafon is, Because the Former is furprifed, furprised, and would ftand better if he could; But the Latter might ftand, and will not. He fees the Precipice, and knows the Danger, and cafts himself down headlong, and will not be withheld from his own Destruction. So that, though Both have their Spots, yet the One is the Spot of Children, and the Other of Lepers. Concerning which having already spoken fo largely, I think it time to proceed to my II. Second Head. Under which I proposed to confider, The Manner of this Leper's Address to Christ for a Cure; and, in agreement to, and purfuance of, that Pattern, how it will become Us to apply for the Forgiveness of Our Sins. I. Now, in the Descriptions given of this matter, we find First, manifeft Tokens of the Man's Concern for his prefent Mifery, and earnest Defires to be releafed from it; expreffed by coming to meet Jefus and befeeching bim, Mark i. 40. Luke v. 12. Secondly, Great Reverence, in 2. that he is faid here to have Worshipped him; and, in the parallel places, to have done That in a manner the moft obfequious and lowly; for they tell us, he did it by kneeling down: nay, and not content with that, he added Proftration too; for St. Luke relates, that he fell on his face before him. We may difcover, Thirdly, a firm and undoubted 3. Perfuafion of Chrift's Ability to grant his Requeft; confequently, that he thought his Power Divine, and that too a Power, of which he had the free Exercise and Difpofal. This Affurance is declared in terms the moft fignificant that can be. He fays not, if thou wilt pray to God on my behalf, he will hear thee, and cleanfe me; but, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. The Difficulty that appeared to Him, was not, Whether Christ had fo great a Power as this came to; but, Whether he would condefcend to exert it upon His account: and there fore 1 fore, in great Humility, which is the Fourth 4. Qualification remarkable in this Addrefs, he recommends the matter to his Confideration; as being fatisfied, that he was Master of his own Favours, and best knew when to grant, and when to refuse. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Thus, not preffing his Petition with an indecent and clamorous Importunity, but referring himself entirely to His Wisdom and Goodness, to determine what fhould become of It, and Him. In proportion to the feveral Parts of this Example, it is neceffary, 1. First, That Forgiveness fhould be a Bleffing of our own Seeking, and that it be fought in a very affectionate and importunate manner too. We are not to imagine, God will thrust this Favour upon us. He hath already fhewed himself gracious and condefcending, even to Aftonishment, in ordaining fuch Methods for our Redemption; in providing himfelf a Lamb, the Son of his Love, who takes away the Sin of the world, by the facrifice of his own Blood. He hath brought Salvation home to our doors, published a Gospel of Reconciliation and Peace, ufed all Inducements and Indearments, poffible for a Rational Creature to be acted upon by, to reclaim, to woe, to win us, to gain our Acceptance of our own Happinefs. And all the part left Us, is, to be prevailed upon to accept. But then we muft accept, as becomes fuch a Gift; with great Thankfulness, and godly Zeal. The Condition is, Ask, and ye fhall have; and, pray, remember, this is a Condition, propounded not only to Creatures, but Criminals. Criminals, convict not only by the Laws, which Intereft, as well as Duty, bound them to obey; but by the fad Reproaches of their own guilty Confciences. If this then be the Cafe of You, and Me, and every Man breathing; Let us turn our Eyes upon the wretched " wretched Malefactors, on whom Verdict and Sentence are paffing, and fee what Nature, and Love of Life, prompt Them to do. Look upon their Tears, liften to their piercing Cries and Groans, obferve their bended Knees and wringing Hands, their doleful Accents and Obteftations; And let us learn from Thefe, at once to beg, and how to beg, a Pardon. Imitate, at least, Their Sorrows, and their Supplications; Be not fullen and impenetrable, but remember, thou haft a Judge armed with Thunder, to deal with. Confider, Thy Offences are more and greater, the Sentence due to Thee more dreadful, the Punishment more infupportable; The Chain of thy Sins, wherewith thou art tyed and bound, a heavier Load, than any Irons of an earthly Malefactor. Let not then Nature out-do Reafon and Grace. Let not a fhort perifhing Life excite ftronger Paffions, than a future and eternal one. Let not the Pains of a Moment, and the Scandal of a Gibbet, be deprecated with more moving Concern, than the Torments of Hell, and everlasting Shame and Contempt. A Deliverance from These deserves all thy Application; If These be not averted, Thou art undone for ever; They hang over thy Head, and cannot be averted but by Prayer; by coming with this Leper, and worshipping, and befeeching. O kifs the Son therefore, left he be angry, aud fo ye perish from the right way: Ye have already kindled his wrath, O ferve and approach him with Reverence. Which is the of in this Matth. viii. 2q Mark i. 40. 2. Second Qualification, taken notice Addrefs to our Bleffed Lord, and expreffed by this Perfon's worshipping, kneeling down, and falling on his face, before Christ. Now thefe are bodily Actions, meant for fo many Significations of a mind full of refpect. And, in truth, fuch outward Teftimonies of Zeal are fo far from needing to be proved law ful, ful, that they, in a manner, prove themselves neceffary. For, it is fo natural with the Body, to conform it felf to the prefent Pofture of the Soul, when the Impreffions there are all as vigorous and lively; that every Part does, as it were mechanically, confpire to speak the Refentments within. The Tongue by Speech, the Countenance by its Air and Form, and every Limb by Gestures, fuited to its Capacity and the prefent Occafion. So that They, who cry. down, or are manifeftly void of, fuch outward Signs of Devotion, stand in need of all our Charity, to believe that their Spirits are fo fenfibly, fo powerfully, affected within, as they would have us think them. We can difcern the fame Impreffions of Joy and Grief, and Love and Fear, in common Cafes, upon Them, as upon our Selves, or other People. Why fhould they then remain, to all Appearance, unmoved and ftupid, in Occafions of infinitely higher Concern to them? Why should not Grace, and the fo much boafted Spirit, provoke the fame Demonftrations of an inward Affection, that Nature plainly does? This, fure, is very hard to conceive. And harder yet it is to fay, why thofe Bodies, which fhare in the Redemption, fhould not come in for a fhare of the Devotions, that feek it. Away, my Brethren, away with fuch senselefs Irreverence! How can you expect, God will grant a Bleffing, for which you fhew no manner of Sollicitude? Would you behave your felves fo unconcernedly, before an Earthly Judge? If therefore no Marks of Refpect or Paffion would be esteemed too much for fuch a Tribunal; do, I befeech you, as our admirable Liturgy exhorts you every Day to do, and as the Leper here fets you a Pattern, O come and worship, and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker. Pfal. xiv. 6. 3. As little Queftion can there be made, Thirdly, whether we be not obliged to copy after this Exam 2 ple, |