The Sun of Righteousness Heals (2)

By his Spirit he heals and enlightens our understanding, which by nature is dark, and so easily led astray to mistake light for darkness, and darkness for light. This he heals by his word, creating in us sound affections and judgments, by which we value things as they truly are.
He heals our wounds of conscience that Satan makes by his darts and sharp temptations, by which he makes us think that we are still reprobates, and that God is angry with us. Against these Christ strengthens our faith and trust in God.
The soul that hungers after comfort will find it; for Christ is a universal healer, healing both the bodies and souls of men, and healing them from all evil, from both blindness and deafness of the heart; the very dead heart he can restore to life. This should teach us to take notice of our diseases in time, and to go to the healing God, as he terms himself (Exod. 15:26), and lay open ourselves to him, and confess, as David did, 'Heal me, Lord, for I have sinned against you' (Psa. 41:4). What comfort there is for a poor miserable wretch, but to be well grounded in the knowledge of his Physician, and to be assured of his healing power, he who has cured innumerable souls.
We should also take heed of ignorance; for many, when temptations come, have not the least knowledge of any healing power in Christ, and so they go on until death, and they die like blocks. We should meditate on his commandments and promises; on his goodness and nature; on his encouragement to come to him, 'Come to me, all you who are weary' (Matt. 11:28). Christ has a medicine of his own that is able to cure any disease no matter how desperate, any person no matter how sick; Mary Magdalene as well as Paul; Zacchaeus as well as Manasseh; all come from him having been made whole. When Satan would tempt us to despair, we should call to mind that we have a merciful God that 'forgives all our sins and heals all our infirmities' (Psa. 103:3).

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Sun of Righteousness, Works, vol. 7, pp. 171-73
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