Man ashiv le-Yahoweh, or, A serious enquiry for a suitable return for continued life,…

The cure of these distempers are but partial, yet so far are they healed, that they shall not be the death of the soul. The cure will not be perfect till we die. Death (we say) cures all distempers, and so it doth those of the soul. There is a double wound that sin doth make, there is the wound that doth certainly destroy the soul, by hindering it from salvation and eternal life, and there is the wound that destroys the peace and comfort of the soul. So there is a double Cure, which Christ doth work, the one for the safety and happiness of the Soul, the other for the peace and comfort of the Soul. The first of these we enquire after.

THe cure of these distempers are but partial, yet so far are they healed, that they shall not be the death of the soul. The cure will not be perfect till we die. Death (we say) cures all distempers, and so it doth those of the soul. There is a double wound that sin doth make, there is the wound that doth certainly destroy the soul, by hindring it from salvation and eternal life, and there is the wound that destroyes the peace and comfort of the soul. So there is a double Cure, which Christ doth work, the one for the safety and happiness of the Soul, the other for the peace and comfort of the Soul. The first of these we enquire after.

1. ¹Every man that is healed of Soul-sickness, hath been sensible of it: Sin hath been thy sorrow and thy grief, and the burden of thy heart; thou hast groaned under it as the greatest load, as the greatest evil in the world. Every man that is bodily sick, and is sensible of it, and is unfeignedly willing to be freed from his sickness, and desireth nothing more, is not cured; but it is so in spirituals: He that is sensible of sin, and is heartily, and unfeignedly willing to part with his sin, as ever sick man was of sickness, is certainly healed by Jesus Christ: But such as never found so much sorrow for sin, nor sense thereof, as to make them willing to part with every sin, were never yet cured. How can a man that is wounded, have his sore dressed and lanced, in order to a Cure, and not be sensible of the smart and pain thereof? Or how can he be healed, while the sword that made the wound, abideth in it? It is as impossible that man should be healed of his spiritual sickness and wounds, that is not willing to part with sin, as for a man to be healed of his bodily wound, while he will not have the sword pulled out that did make it. Sin caused the wound and the sickness of thy soul, and if thou art not willing to part with every sin, thou art not healed: thy soul is sick, and if thou dost not feel it, that is the worse.