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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	beseech_v	good_a	please_v	23,628	5	8.8360	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49757	Christ's power over bodily diseases Preached in several sermons on Mat. 8. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. And published for the instruction especially of the more ignorant people in the great dutie of preparation for sickness and death. By Edward Lawrence, M.A. minister of the gospel at Baschurch in the county of Salop.	Lawrence, Edward, 1623-1695.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1672 (1672)	Wing L653; ESTC R223651	140,079	330

What shall a man give in exchange for his soul Be pleased to accept this poor thing which I humbly offer to you give it a little room in your Study and Closet and let the truths therein have a great place in your hearts Now blessed of the Lord be you and your hopeful posterity for the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof and especially for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush NOw for the rest of you my dearly beloved my joy and my longed for It is now thirteen years since upon your free choice and consent I was setled to be your Minister I mourn that I have done you no better service yet I bless God that I have done you no worse Some of you are the people of my joy others are the people of my hopes but God knows you are all the people of my love possibly you may not enjoy my Ministry long though if any thing but death part us it is like for your sakes to be one of the saddest days of my age Some know I might have had better places both before and since I knew you but I never thought my self too good for you the Lord make me better whilst I stay and give you a better when I am gone You will wonder to see me appear to you thus publick my late visitation whereby I was brought down to the gates of the grave and brought up again was the occasion of my preaching these Sermons and the unanimous advice of four godly reverend and learned Ministers all known to you caused their printing without which my own private thoughts of them had never consented to have them licensed for the Press I have devoted this little plain Treatise to the Will of God knowing that if he put power and savour in it it will prosper I expect to be scorned by some but if God say Well done I care not who findes fault I had rather bear the reproaches of thousands then that one poor ●oul should lose the least spiritual and saving good which I may be a means to help him unto I leave it with you as a testimony of my sincere love to you not so much that you may remember me but that you may remember your selves your sins and your souls and that you may remember God Christ Heaven Hell Death and Judgement which are always present before you Brethren I must needs witness that most of you have been constant hearers of the Word and that you have many hundred Sermons to answer for but you must be doers as well as hearers of the word the sins of men and the terrors of the Lord make me afraid that there is a storm rising and I doubt there will be a great fall of many professors and if you will believe our Saviour you shall finde that those onely are built on a rock and shall certainly stand who are both the hearers and doers of the word I refer you to his own words Matth. 7.24 25 26 27. I beseech you let not the world and sin come between your hearts and Christ let nothing keep you from heaven which cannot keep you from hell Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Your servant for Jesus sake Edward Lawrence Baschurch July 11. 1661. Reader THough nothing be more certain and common then Death it is no common thing to be prepared for it or else salvation would be common As there are no Truths that are more necessary to be oft preacht and heard then those which almost all men know so also no duties are more necessary to be urged then those that almost all confess and think they practice who will not acknowledge that preparation for death should be the daily business of our lives and done with the first and most serious of our cares And yet to the shame of corrupted humane nature we must speak it thousands that are uncertain to live an hour and certain to be lost for ever if death surprize them in the state which they are in are as mindless of a serious preparation and of the change which should go before that change as if it were no part of their concernment Methinks it is a very doleful spectacle to see men unprepared to dye as busily taken up with impertinent diversions as if their work were done already One drinking and prating and singing in an Alehouse or Tavern though unprepared to dye another imployed in feasting and complement and such company and discourse as will least trouble him with such thoughts while yet he is unprepared to dye another scraping for deceitful riches or gaping and scrambling for preferment while yet he is unprepared to dye another quieting his carnal heart with meer hypocritical outsides and lip-service as if he could charm an unprepared soul into Heaven by saying or hearing a few words and few will know feelingly what an important work Preparation is till the terrors of approaching death be upon them One of Gods means for mens preparation is to give his Ministers a special fitness to assist them in the work As Christ took part with the children that were partakers of flesh and bloud Heb. 2.14 and in all things must be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-priest and in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted v. 17 18. so that we have not an High-priest that cannot be touched with the feeling our of infirmities Heb. 4.15 Even so his Ministers must be mortals frail and subject to like passions as other men James 5.17 and the treasure of the spirit must be in earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4 7. They must be sick that they may the better teach you to prepare for sickness and they must be exercised in preparing for death themselves that they may be the fitter to teach you to prepare The God of Comfort comforteth them in all their tribulations that they may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the Comfort whe●ewith they are comforted of God ●nd whether they be afflicted or comforted it is for your consolation and salvation Even when they are pressed out of measure above strength insomuch as they despair of life they receive the sentence of death in themselves that they may not trust in themselves but in God that raised the dead that thanks may be given by many on their behalf 2 Cor. 1.3 4 6 8 9 11. Whereas those that are insensible of their neerness to eternity and in healthful prosperity grow secure are like to be no lively feeling Preachers nor fit to waken others to that serious preparation which they

are wilful strangers to themselves but rather like to be corrupted with ambition worldliness idleness flesh●pleasing man-pleasing superficialness formality and trifling in Religion and vexing the Church with their contentions about their Ceremonies and Opinions till the approach of death do help them to juster apprehensions and bring them to such confessions as Bishop Ridley made to Hooper in his imprisonment Thou hast here in this Treatise the wholesome savoury fruit of sickness This servant of the Lord was cast down and delivered to teach him how to teach thee to prepare The subject is of such universal usefulness and yet fully handled by so few so needful to be much studied in health and the Book so fit for the reading of the sick or for those friends to read to them that are about them or visit them that though urgent business prohibited me to read it all yet having perused the most of it and observed the scope and spirit of the work I think it my duty to recommend it to thy thankful acceptance and improvement assuring thee upon long experience of the benefits of a dying life that the time is at hand when the studies of death and thy everlasting state will appear to have been more necessary and wise then all those impertinences that now divert distracted worldlings and are but the seed of endless sorrows Thy Brother in the Patience and Hope of Believers Richard Baxter August 1. 1661. Matth. 8.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13. 5. And when Jesus was entred into Capernaum there came unto him a Centurion beseeching him 6. And saying Lord my servant lieth at home sick of the Palsie grievously tormented 7. And Jesus saith unto him I will come and heal him 8. The Centurion answered and said Lord I am not worthy thou shouldest come under my roof but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed 9. For I am a man under Authority having Souldiers under me and I say to this man Go and he goeth and to another Come and he cometh and to my servant Do this and he doth it 10. When Jesus heard it he marvelled and said to them that followed Verily I say unto you I have not found so great Faith no not in Israel 11. And I say unto you that many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven 12. But the children of the Kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth 13. And Jesus said unto the Centurion Go thy way and as thou hast believed so be it done unto thee And his servant was healed in the self-same hour THE mighty Hand of God which hath of late come upon me whereby I must bear him witness that he hath in his Fatherly Wisdom and Goodness and Faithfulness visited me hath caused me to wink a little at the pomp and bravery of this world and to set before my eyes the ghastly sight of those many Beds of Sickness wherein the poor children of men lie languishing I have seriously thought what a poor Creature Man is when he lies gasping under the power and torture of a disease and withall have considered how little a Consumption or a Fever or the Small Pocks or any other disease cares for the strength or wealth or youth or beauty of a man I have seen the great changes which these make in Nations and Cities and Families and Persons where they are sent I have endeavoured to stand at the Door of Eternity looking on these Messengers carrying multitudes before me out of this into the other world The Grave that House of Darkness tells me These bring my ghastly Inhabitants to lodge in me the Worms say These bring our Brethren and Sisters unto us Hell from beneath cryes These have turned multitudes of damned Souls into me and Heaven from above cryes These have brought many blessed Spirits into me Upon these and other considerations I have desired for my own and others good to see clearly out of whose hands all sicknesses and diseases come that I may acknowledge my self and assert and testifie unto others the absolute Command and Dominion which God and Jesus Christ have over all these things the true knowledge and improvement whereof may have a powerful influence upon us in our health to make us daily look and prepare for sickness and in our sickness to make us fit to live or fit to die and when we are restored to health to teach us to whose Will and Glory we should live and to make us ready for sickness and death when they return and by all to cause us to hasten into that blessed state and to live in that gracious frame that both in life and health sickness and death we may have always a plain passage and a clear and safe entrance into that everlasting Kingdom of Glory which is alway set open before us For these ends I have chosen this Text which is full of this Argument viz. to prove that all sicknesses and diseases are under the Command of Jesus Christ This Scripture is recorded by two Evangelists by Matthew in the place before-mentioned and by Luke Cap. 7. from ver 1. to ver 11. they differ chiefly in two things 1. Luke makes a more prolix and large relation then Matthew and therefore we read some things there not mentioned here 2. Matthew speaks as if the Centurion came and spake to Christ in Person v. 5 6. but Luke tells us expresly that he sent unto him the Elders of the Jews v. 3. and after sent other friends to meet him v. 6. This difference hath made some conceive that they are distinct Relations of two distinct Miracles but without ground for it is ordinary to speak of that which a man doth by others as if he did it by himself as the words which John the Baptist spake by his Disciples are mentioned as if he had spoken them himself Matth. 11.2 3. So the Evangelist here reports that the Centurion came to Christ beseeching him meaning not that he came in person but that he came and spake by his messengers as St. Luke explains it and thus the two Evangelists are reconciled Now why the Centurion came not to Christ in person whether it was because he thought he had no right to come for such a mercy being a Gentile or whether the sense of his unworthiness made him afraid or ashamed to come or what other reason there was because it cannot certainly be known therefore it is not wisdom too curiously to enquire The Text is a Narration of Christs miraculous healing the Centurions servant of a deadly disease upon the faith and prayer of his good Master There are three main things which make up the subject of this Narration 1. The Servants mortal disease 2. The Masters miraculous Faith 3. Christs Miraculous Cure In the whole observe these four particulars 1. Here is the Centurions servant lying

Argument to press his following exhortation And now behold I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kindom of God shall see my face no more Oh people honour your Ministers children be instructed by your Parents whilst you have them for shortly you must see their faces no more Christians exhort one another daily whilst it is called to day For yet a little while and you shall see one anothers faces no more We finde that Saint Paul having exhorted Timothy to those great and necessary duties mentioned 2 Tim. 4.1 2 5. he presseth all with this melting motive vers 6. For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand as if he had said My dear son Timothy I am not like to counsel and instruct thee long therefore hearken to the counsel of thy dying father Paul Preach the word be instant in season out of season c. Sirs look upon your Ministers as dying Ministers and your Friends as dying Friends and labour to draw from these wells of life whilst they live for you little know what a loss you will have of them when they dye Fifthly believe and improve those precious Promises which God hath made for the preservation of your health and lives and in the use of means live by faith and prayer upon those gracious promises See Prov. 3.1 2 7 8. My son forget not my law but let thy heart keep my commandments For length of days and long life and peace shall they add unto thee vers 7 8. Fear the Lord and depart from evil It shall ●e health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones See also Prov. 4.20 21 22. Job 33.25 His flesh shall be fresher then a childes he shall return to the days of his youth Hence we often see that when a mans body is withered by sickness and baked like a potsherd he is restored by the blessing of God to such a good constitution and temper that his body becomes fresh like the flesh of a childe This is elegantly expressed by David Psal 103.5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the Eagles Some say that the Eagles at every ten years end cast off their old Feathers and are quickly cloathed again with new as if they began to be young again and so live till they be an hundred years old Some also write of this property in the Eagles that when by reason of old age they have the upper part of their Bills bending down so far below the lower that they are scarce able to feed and so languish with hunger that then they break their beaks upon a rock whereby being able to feed they grow to their former strength to which the translation in the singing Psalms seems to allude Like as the Eagle casts her bill Whereby her age renew'th Whether these and many other such relations of the wonderful properties of the Eagles be true is uncertain yet it 's generally received that they are Birds long-lived and for many years continue so healthful that they seem to grow young again And thus God often blesseth men with health and strength and long life that their strength is renewed like the Eagles and although that which we read of Moses was extraordinary that when he was an hundred and twenty years old his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated yet we often see many live to a great age with their health and strength and parts through Gods mercie continued youthful and fresh to them Now Sirs lay up these promises in your hearts and improve them by faith and prayer so they may be the better to you then the wholesomest dyet or best physick in the world Lastly use the means of health and life so as that the God of life may bless you in the use of them for this purpose make conscience of these four things First Of your food It is God that gives a blessing to this Exod. 23.25 He shall bless thy bread and thy water and I will take away sickness from the midst of thee Therefore pulse and water with Gods blessing made those conscientious Saints look and like better then others that were fed with royal dainties Dan. 1.15 Take then your food as it were out of the hands of God who openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing Psal 145.16 and eat and drink as those that see a presence of God at your table Deut. 12.7 Ye shall eat before the Lord your God eat as those that therein seek to please and honour God Rom. 14.6 He that eateth eateth to the Lord and giveth God thanks I know these Scriptures intend particular occasions of eating yet they hold out upon the same reason our duty to eat and drink so as to do the will of God and to bring glory to him according to that 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the glory of God as God turns all to a Christians good so it 's the admirable property of grace to turn all to Gods glory A gracious heart can feed upon the goodness of God in and bring glory to God out of every morsel of meat that comes into his mouth Tertullian gives a very savoury relation of the Feasts of the primitive Christians Before saith he they sit down to taste their meat they first taste of prayer to God they eat so much as hunger requires and drink no more then is profitable for chaste and sober persons they are so filled as thereby fitted to worship God in the night they discourse at meat as those that know that God hears them and as they began so they conclude the meal with prayer and so they depart not as if they fed onely upon meat but also upon discipline and instruction I refer the learned Reader to his own words Apolog cap. 39. here is a most gracious example worthy of the imitation of all Christians Secondly make Conscience of your apparel let it be such as becomes a holy chaste humble member of Christ and not a proud vain wanton limb of the Devil let your garments be both wholesome and comely neither so immodest as to dishonour the Gospel of Christ nor sordid as to disgrace the Body of a Christian Thirdly make Conscience of lawful and seasonable recreations These are healthful for our bodies and when used in the fear and according to the Will of God do very much fit us for the most inward communion with him What Solomon saith of one kinde of labour is true of others that it is a weakness and weariness to the flesh Eccles 12.12 For as it weakens a bow to keep it always bent and mars the strings of an instrument to keep them always stretcht so it weakens the body to keep it too long bent to one imployment therefore it is Gods will that it should be remitted to its harmless inoffensive and honest

recreations Lastly make Conscience of the duties of your relations so that you may refresh and revive and not disease and destroy one another our health and life doth much depend under God upon our relations You therefore that are parents do not spend your childrens bread in whoredom drunkenness idleness and revenge many parents finde their lusts more chargeable then their children It is very sad that children may cry out We might have had better education better trades better portions better health had not our merciless Parents loved their sins better then their children You that are children make not your parents lives miserable who have been a means of life to you be not such foolish children as to be the heaviness of your parents Prov. 10.1 Husbands Nourish and cherish your own flesh Eph. 5.29 Make not provision for your lusts with that which should make provision for your wives Wives do your Husbands good and not evil all the daies of your lives Prov. 31.12 labour to be their Comfort and Crown and not as rottenness in their bones So much for the Exhortation to all in general 2. Exhortation directed to people as they enjoy their health The duty which I shall exhort unto is to prepare for sickness and death In this Exhortation I shall use this method 1. I shall shew what this work of preparation is 2. I shall press this duty on several sorts of persons 3. Urge it with some Motives Lastly I shall give several Directions to direct us how to be prepared for sickness and death For the first This work of preparation is that whereby every sound believer is by the spirit of Jesus Christ setled in such a blessed state and frame that he is fitted for all that Christ shall do to him by sickness and death In this description observe three things 1. The principal efficient cause which makes this great preparation in us viz. the Spirit of Jesus Christ Hence Christ is called The Author and finisher of our faith Heb. 12.12 Where Jesus Christ begins a work of grace and salvation in a soul he never leaves it till he hath finished it and made it up for heaven therefore saith the Apostle Phil. 1.6 Being consident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it or finish it till the day of Jesus Christ that is till the day of death and of judgment so that this is the great work of Jesus Christ in every true believer to fit him and make him ready for sickness and death and the day of judgment 2. Here is the subject of this work or the person prepared viz. every true believer who is a vessel of mercy prepared for glory 3. Here is that wherein the nature of this work of preparation consists viz. in three things 1. He must be setled in the state of grace and salvation that is he must have a Scripture-right to God as he is the God of salvation by Jesus Christ and so a right to heaven and to all the blessings of the Covenant of Grace 2. He must be wrought into a gracious frame whereby he is bent to yield up himself in subjection and obedience to the will of God in sickness and in death Lastly Here is that which he must be prepared for viz. all that God shall do to him by sickness and death If God fill him with pain and misery he hath his graces of faith love patience humility and meekness to enable him to lie quietly and obediently and chearfully under the power and will of his heavenly Father If God call him by sickness into Eternity he is with Saint Paul ready to be offered and is made fit by grace to receive and enjoy the glory of heaven This gracious frame of heart is fully epxress'd Rom. 14.8 Whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord that is we live to this end to please and do the will and to seek the glory of the Lord and we are ready to die to the will and glory of the Lord. So much for the Explication of this work of preparation Secondly I shall press this Exhortation upon these seven sorts of persons 1. I shall exhort little children so far as they are capable to know and practise this duty to prepare for sickness and death Now because this applica●ion may seem strange consider that God himself thinks it not below him to be a Teacher of young children Psalm 148.12 13. Both young men and maidens old men and children let them praise the name of the Lord. And all parents are commanded to teach their children to know and do his will Deut. 6.6 7. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently or wh●t and sharpen them upon thy children So Prov. 22.6 Train up a childe in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Observe there is a way for young children to go to heaven and it is that wherein they should be found when they are old and all parents are bound to set them in that way and indeed children are sooner capable then most conceive to know something of God and Christ and Heaven and Hell Timothy knew the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a sucking childe 2 Tim. 3.15 And this appears by the timely fruits of the Spirit that sometimes drop from their pretty sanctified mouths And certainly baptized children being Christs Disciples and admitted into his School the Church have a right to be taught in the way to salvation and Christ is a Prophet to them and his Ministers are Ministers to them as well as to others And really Ministers have often more comfort from catechized Boys and Girls then from many old ignorant Atheists who are worse then children in the understanding of the Scriptures And lastly it makes much for Gods glory to have his Name praised by the mouths of little children Psal 8.2 Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thy enemies that thou mightest still the enemy and avenger Observe God hath ordained that his praise in the mouths of little children shall be a strong and powerful means to stop the mouths of malicious subtil Atheists to still the enemy and avenger So we read Matth. 21.16 Out o● the mouths of babes and sucklings hast tho● perfected praise The praises that come to God by the blessed Angels and all the Saints in heaven and earth is perfected and made up by the praises of these young Saints Now considering these things and seeing sickness and death fetch away so many young children into Eternity I have chosen to direct one brief Exhortation to the young Boys and Girls among us Oh come therefore you sweet and pretty children and I will teach you the fear of the Lord be you prepared for sickness and death Heark sweet Children

between the two worlds a world of sin snares persecution poverty sickness and death on the one hand and a world of life and immortality and fulness of inconceivable joy and pleasure on the other hand Thus the Apostle seems to stand 2 Cor. 4.17 18. we stand looking from our afflictions on the things that are not seen So Rom 8.17 18. If we suffer with him we shall be glorified with him Well put these together put the persecution from wicked men and the Crown of Glory together put a moment of pain and misery on a sick bed and an eternity of joy in heaven together and thou must needs conclude with the Apostle vers 18. For I reckon saith he I have cast them both up and I finde that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Lastly look upon time and eternity together Oh what is time when a man looks into eternity it seems but a breath a twinkling of an eye a stroke of a pulse to a man that sees eternity before him Methinks a believer is like a man on a hill by the sea-side he sees a little spot of ground and the great Ocean lying beyond it so he sees a little spot of time and the great Ocean of eternity lying beyond it he sees the end of all things Oh saith he I am gone I am gone look how all the honours and riches and comforts of this life do vanish out of my sight and everlasting fire or everlasting glory will receive me presently Sirs this would make us live in a posture to dye if we did but see what a little while it is before we must sit with Christ in heaven or burn with Devils in hell Direct 4. Labour to fill up your time this is the way to fit you for eternity but you will say What is it to fill up our time Answ Time is filled by applying our time to that work which God hath given us our time for God hath given us time for our callings to labour and do all that we have to do time to worship God and do his will time for recreations meat drink sleep c. and by all these to honour God to be blessings to men and to seek salvation for our selves and by doing these things we fill our time as for example if a man should write down his days work not that I would impose upon the consciences of men So long I was slugging in bed so long I was glutting at meat so long filling my self with drink at such a time belching out oaths and then look upon this on a sick-bed here would be a black day to look upon such a day would make work in eternity So if a man spend a day in idleness as Seneca speaks of some idle persons that are busied between the comb and the looking-glass now if such a one were to write his days work he must leave a blank for such a day which would cause stinging reflections when he comes to know the loss of his precious time But if a godly man should write down Such an hour I spent in secret prayer and meditation such an hour in family-worship such a time in the works of my calling and such time in a sober use of recreations now if this were done in a right manner notwithstanding many invincible infirmities yet here is a day well filled and may cause sweet reflections when he sees his days ending in eternity Now that you may thus improve and fill up your time I shall briefly give you these five Directions 1. Labour to have your hearts filled with grace Beloved a mans time is full of that which his heart is full of the heart fills the tongue and fills the life and so fills the time Solomon tells us Prov. 10.20 The heart of the wicked is little worth when all that is in a mans heart is good for nothing neither good to honour God nor to save himself nor others then his time must needs be good for nothing it must needs be an empty sinful unprofitable time for such a man hath nothing to fill up his time with But on the contrary our Saviour tells us Matth. 12.35 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things The graces of Gods Spirit make a good treasure in the heart and all things that come from faith love humility meekness c. are good things and do much good and a mans time is happily filled that is full of prayer of holiness of godly conference c. which are all brought forth out of the good treasure of grace in the heart 2. Do nothing in time but what will pass in your account when your time is at an end Christ will one day say to thee Give an account of thy stewardship for thou mayst be no longer steward Luk. 16.2 Give an account of thy Health Life Parts Estate of Sabbaths Sermons Sacraments and all thy precious opportunities for thou must no longer use or enjoy these Now what a sad reckoning will here be if he hath one nothing with these that will pass in his account as if a great man intrust a servant to be his Steward and commit to him his money rents c. to disburse according to his Masters pleasure Now if when the Steward is called to give up his account he is able to reckon So much laid out for provision for the family so much for the education of the children so much to relieve the poor these things will pass in his account but if he reckons So much wasted in drunkenness so much converted to my own use c. the Master will never accept of this So my Brethren when God calls us to an account of our stewardship if a man can say Lord I spent my estate in the education of my children in feeding and maintaining my family in relieving the poor I spent my parts in making God and Christ known to others I spent my time to please and praise thee to profit others and save my self these things will pass in thy account and thou shalt be sure of thy reward and honour of a faithful servant when the time of my Stewardship is expired but if it appear that a man hath wasted his estate on his lusts and spent his time in his sins his account must needs be sad when he must have hell for his wages whatever ye do consider whether it will pass in your account and look upon every thing now as it will prove when you are to give an acount for it It is a remarkable expression Phil. 4.17 I desire fruit that may abound to your account many things which a believer doth with an upright heart seem but little now but they will rise and abound to his glory when he comes to give an account 3. Do nothing but what thou art willing to have thy self the very Nation wherein thou livest and thy

hath done for thee Psal 42.8 My prayer shall be to the God of my life He honours God with this Title The God of his life Psal 59.10 The God of my mercy Psal 18.1 2. I will love thee O Lord my strength The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer Believe it poor Christian that the God of all the world is pleased and praised by thy calling him thy God and therefore praise God as his glory shines and appears in all other things and as it appears to thee As thus the God of all the world and my God the Father of Jesus Christ and my Father the God of life and health to his people and the God of my life and of my health 3. Labour to the utmost of thy power to fill all places with the Name of God and Jesus Christ Psal 66.2 Make his praise glorious This is a right praising God when we endeavour to make his Name glorious in the hearts of all that are about us our lives should be such that in every thing that we do there may be reason to cause others to love bless praise and rejoyce in God Mat. 5.16 Our works should be such that they should set all that see them on work to glorifie our Father which is in heaven and we should live so that it may be an honour to God to be called the God of such a people Now is it any honour to God to be called the God of Drunkards or the God of Swearers or the God of Whoremongers No no but as Master Latimer said they may say Our father which art in hell But the God of Believers the God of all that love him and fear him and seek him it is his honour to be called the God of such a people and as it is said Heb. 11.16 He is not ashamed to be called their God 4. Let every thing that hath been the subject of mercy be the instrument of praise David calls upon all that is within him to praise Gods holy Name Who healeth all his diseases Psal 103 1 3. And we are commanded to yield our members as instruments of righteousness unto God Rom. 6.13 Sirs every member of a Christian is a member of Christ and the Life of Christ spreads all over and fills his whole body and this life should branch out in all the parts and members of our bodies Christ hath bought and paid for all the Law bindes all every member can be an instrument of sin every member must at last be cloathed with glory therefore we should glorifie God with our bodies and souls which are Gods 1 Cor. 6.20 Consider What may I do for God with my tongue hands feet countenance c. Perhaps not long since thy whole body was overspread with a disease and there was no soundness in thy flesh because of Gods anger neither was there any rest in thy bones because of thy sins Never a bone or joynt was free from pain Now then seeing God hath healed all thou shouldest say with David Psal 35.10 All my bones may say Lord who is like to thee Lastly Let the consideration of the greatness of thy mercy cause thee to praise God Consider this in four particulars 1. Thou art restored to life God hath as it were clearly given thee a life We have this passage in Jer. 45.5 and elsewhere in Scripture Thy life will I give unto thee for a prey the meaning seems to be thus that when a mans life is in great danger though he suffer divers losses yet if his life be saved he triumphs in the preservation of his life as if he had got a great prey or spoil from an enemy Now to apply this to the present case perhaps thou hast suffered divers losses and crosses in thy sickness and now thou art restored thou mayst see many things sad in the Church and in thy family but thy life is given instead of a prey to thee and in this thou hast cause to rejoyce Look at thy life and consider what a mercie that is and thou wilt see great reason to praise God in the midst of thy greatest afflictions Oh then let thy life be laid out to the will and glory of God say with David after his recovery from a great danger Psal 116.9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living do nothing but what thou canst with comfort do before the Lord as seeing the all-seeing God looking on 2. Thou art restored to thy health consider how lately the multitude of thy bones were tortured with strong pains thy stomach was gone and thy life did abhor bread and thy soul dainty meat Job 33.19 20. Thou wouldst have given much for a nights sleep when wearisome nights were appointed to thee Job 7.3 yet now God hath given thee health he hath caused thy bones to rejoyce and filled thy heart with food and gladness and thou liest down and thy sleep is sweet unto thee 3. Thou art restored to thy friends and relations to thy husband wife children parents brothers and sisters and to thy dear and bosom-friends the day would have been sad to these mourners going about the streets following thee to thy long home But now God hath restored comfort to thee and to thy mourners Isa 5.18 therefore let the sight of all thy friends fill thee with a fresh sense of the goodness and mercie of God Say as Jacob said of his Brother Esau in another case Gen. 33.10 I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God See the gracious face and presence of God shining upon thee in the face of all thy friends look on thy yoke-fellow and look upon God look on thy parents and look upon God look on thy children c. and look upon God and so as the sight of every friend fills thee with new and fresh thoughts of thy mercie let it also renew in thee a fresh and thankful remembrance of the God of thy mercie Lastly thou art restored to thy blessed and soul-saving opportunities Sirs if we consider how precious time is we must needs acknowledge this to be a precious mercie now that you may see time precious and so for this reason may esteem your recovery a precious mercie look on thy time as the season allowed thee to glorifie God and to work out the Salvation of thy soul you know in other cases we prize our time according to the worth of those things which time gives us an opportunity to gain as the husbandman accounts Harvest-time precious because it is his season to reap the precious fruits of the earth as St. James calls them Jam. 5.7 The Merchant accounts the time precious when the wind blows him to his prize The souldier accounts the time precious when he marches for his life And is not that time much more precious which God hath given thee to save thy soul If God and Christ and Heaven and Grace and the Soul be precious