Sidenote: Deut. xxxii. 39.
1. YOU have sent me word that while you were lying afflicted by
a severe sickness you believed in the Lord Jesus, and straightway
began to recover. This sickness therefore was unto salvation, bringing
greater pain than danger, for you had long deferred your promise.
This is the meaning of the text, _I wound, and I heal_. He wounded by
sickness, He healed by faith. For He saw that the inward affection of
your mind was not without pious desires, but that they were shaken and
unsettled by delays, and so He thought fit to admonish you, in a way
which while it did not injure your health, excited your devotion.
Sidenote: S. Matt. viii. 7.
2. For how should He do an injury to health Who is wont to say, as
we read in the Gospel, _I will come and heal him_. Being invited
by your friends to visit your house He doubtless said, _I will come
and heal him_; Although you heard Him not, He, as God, spoke to you
imperceptibly, and although you saw Him not, still beyond doubt He
visited you in spirit.
Sidenote: Acts xvii. 28.
3. But in truth you have seen Him, for you have believed in Him, you
have seen Him, for you have received Him into the dwelling of your mind,
you have seen Him in the Spirit, you have seen Him with your inward
eyes. Take care then not to let this new Guest depart, long expected,
late received, even Him _in Whom we live and move and have our being_.
You have tasted the first beginnings of faith, let not the word be
hidden in your heart. Herein lies all grace and every gift. For no man
judges of the secret recesses of a house by its entrance, since all
the fruit is within; nor is it the part of a wise man to look from the
window into the house, and it is folly for a man to listen at the door.
Sidenote: 1 Cor. ii. 9.
Sidenote: 1 S. Pet. i. 12.
Sidenote: Exod. xvi. 15, 16.
Sidenote: Numb. xxvii. 12.
4. The mysteries of the more perfect Sacraments are of one kind; for
the Scripture says, _Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath
entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for
them that love Him_. Of another kind are the things which the prophets
have announced concerning future glory, _unto whom it was revealed_,
and to whom the saints have preached the Gospel _with the Holy Ghost
sent down from heaven, which things the Angels desired to look into_.
Of another kind again are those mysteries wherein is the redemption
of the world, the remission of sins, the distribution of graces, the
participation of the Sacraments: when you receive these you will wonder
that a gift so transcendent should have been bestowed on man, as to
make the manna which we wonder should have been rained down from heaven
on the Jews seem to you to have possessed neither so much grace nor so
much efficacy towards salvation. For all who received this manna in the
wilderness died, save Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb, whereas he who
tastes this Sacrament shall never die.
May the Lord Jesus send you restoration. Farewell.