tranquillity of minde he had had heretofore his spirit was now troubled and greatly imbittered And a wounded grieved spirit who can bear On the other hand the mercy of the Deliverance wants not its heightning circumstances too as 1. From the efficient cause 't was God deliver'd him But thou hast deliver'd 2. From the motive or impulsive cause 't was out of Love not out of design as men usually do courtesie but out of a free kindeness and that a love of the best sort 't was in love to his soul. And 3. From the danger he was deliver'd out of and that no ordinary one it was a pit and no ordinary pit neither 't was the pit of corruption even the Grave the very state of death But thou hast in love to my soul deliver'd it from the pit of corruption So then however he came by his sickness he is sure 't was God recover'd him out of it and he did it out of Love out of an especial love he bore to the soul of him which was sufficiently manifested by this that his life was precious in Gods sight God delivering it from the pit of corruption Nor is this all You heard 't was a spiritual mercy for 't was in love to his soul and therefore the health of body was to be attended with the welfare of his soul and so for a full Assurance of Divine love to his soul and for a further Improvement of this temporal bodily mercy 't is added for thou hast cast all my sins behinde thy back that as God had imbrac'd his soul in the arms of his love so the Interlinear Version Amplexus es amore animam meam and as it were put her into his bosom so he had cast all his sins behinde his back never to come more into remembrance This is the Crown of Mercies when temporals are thus accumulated with spirituals this a recovery indeed of the whole man when health is improv'd into salvation and strength of body accompanied with pardon of sins This is right saving Health and deserves the returns of a grateful Acknowledgment which now follows in the last place And that is set forth first by shewing the impossibility for the dead to perform this duty which is very elegantly express'd by three Synonymies For the grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth which all come to one meaning And then on the contrary shewing not the possibility only but the probability that the living will i. e. such as divine mercy continues in life and especially such as are by that mercy preserv'd from imminent danger of death The living the living he shall praise thee And this probability exemplified in himself made good by his own practice As I do this day Thus having open'd the several scenes of our intended meditation I shall now proceed to draw from them some useful Observations interweaving their applications all along with that brevity and clearness as such copious heads of matter may in such straights of time admit and that rather in a cursory Explanation then in an elaborate discourse First then for the Affliction 't is not only bitter but in the abstract bitterness it self The sense of Taste is the most necessary of all our senses it being that by which all Animals live and take in their food and nourishment and therefore has in it a power to judge what is grateful and convenient to the nature of each kinde what not Now there is no gust the palate so much dis-relishes as the bitter nothing that nature shews a greater abhorrence to or that is less welcome to her whereupon the Psalmist in the person of Christ looks upon it as one of his enemies greatest unkindenesses that they gave him Gall and Vinegar to drink and Christ himself upon the Cross I suppose out of his meer natural aversation as he was man when he had tasted of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He would not drink it Upon this score 't is that by an usual Metaphor every thing that is highly displeasing to any of our affections and senses either to the rational or sensitive appetite is termed bitter every thing I say that is any way afflictive to flesh and blood any thing that ails us in Minde or Body or Estate or good name whether grief or pain or poverty or reproach and the like we may as Hezekiah here calls his sickness give it the name of bitterness nay even though those afflictions come from the hand of God himself our gracious Father by whose providential dispensations every particular event be it good or bad is so carefully managed that not a Sparrow falls to the ground without his order And yet this bitterness too though never so unpleasant may be made profitable if we make a right use of it as we may learn two things from it here 1. not to be impatient 2. not to be insensible When we are under Gods hand in any affliction Fiezekiah's being in bitterness teacheth us one and his complaining of it the other Who Good King Hezekiah in bitterness sick and that unto death this is bitterness indeed that such a Prince who was a National blessing that such a Saint who had walkt before the Lord in truth and in the sincerity of his heart done that which was good in his sight should be cut off in the midst of his dayes at XXXIX for that was his age at this time the fifteen years which were now added making up his whole life LIV. and should by a bitter and untimely death be sent away to the gates of the Grave after the languishment of a pining distemper Hence we observe that Gods dearest ones are not exempted from bitter afflictions And what are we then that we should repine and murmur and think our selves hardly dealt with Are we better then all those Saints who have gone before us who have pledg'd their Master in hearty draughts of his Passion-Cup and have march'd after him in the dolorous way towards heaven This should teach us not only with patience but even with chearfulness to take up our crosses and to deny our selves in our healths in our fortunes in all our enjoyments And to recommend this vertue the more to us let us take along with us some considerations why it pleases God to imbitter many times as he does the condition of his Children and Servants in this world Now God does it upon such reasons as these for the chastisement of sin from which the very best are not free for tryal and exercise of their faith and other Graces which else would lie idle upon their hands for what use of patience in time of health and prosperity and consequently for their amendment and improvement The Furnace is heated over and over that having all their dross burnt up their graces may be burnished and throughly refined as Silver purified seven times in the fire
HEZEKIAH'S Return of PRAISE For His RECOVERY By A. L. PSAL. L. 14 15. Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most high And call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for Samuel Tomson at the Bishops-Head in Duck-lane 1668. To the Pious Reader THe Occasion of Preaching this Sermon was sutable to the Text a good Man's Recovery of Printing it the desire of Copies and the Press was for this judg'd the readiest way and thus though intended but for few may be for the use of many The Author is one neither seeks applause nor fears censure if it may do thy soul any benefit he has his end To which purpose this Synopsis was added that thou mightest have the Method and Heads of the Discourse before thee in one view The Doxology in the close being an Extract great part of it out of the Psalter a book which if thou deserv'st the name I called thee by thou art well acquainted with needed no references If by the perusal thou find'st thy self any whit benefited give God the praise and let the Author have thy prayers Farewel The SYNOPSIS The Text divided into IV. Parts I. The Affliction and that either 1. Corporal A sickness describ'd by It's Quality Bitterness and that as it is 1. Undergone by Hezekias Obs. God's dearest ones are not exempt from bitter afflictions 2. Resented by him Obs. Natural apprehensions allow'd even in Exercises of grace It 's Quantity Great bitterness Obs. Great Saints exercised with great Tryals The change For Peace i. e. Health Obs. The truly pious in change of condition change not but serve God for God's sake The surprize Behold Obs. A Christian must stand upon his guard 2. Spiritual Trouble of conscience Obs. A troubled conscience is not alwayes an evil conscience II. The Deliverance considered in The Author God Thou hast deliver'd Obs. God is the sole author of all our deliverances The Motive In love and that to my soul. Obs. Divine mercy is gratuitous Obs. Soul-love is the best of loves The Danger From the pit of corruption Obs. All our life-time we walk on the pit-brink III. The Improvement and Assurance Pardon of sins Thou hast deliver'd thou hast cast my sins c. Obs. God uses to accumulate mercies In love to my soul for thou hast cast c. Obs. Pardon of sins the complement and perfection of mercy From the pit for thou hast cast c. Obs. Where sin is forgiven no fear of hell or the grave All my sins behind thy back Obs. God's pardons are universal and absolute IV. The Acknowledgment Where mark by the way The Connexion For the grave c. Obs. The only Return God expects for mercy is Praise The Synonymy of Praise and Hope Obs. To trust in God is to praise him As 't is set Negatively The grave cannot c. Obs. Death is a silent and hopeless state Positively The living shall Obs. Our life to be spent in the giver's praise Lastly exemplified As I do this day Obs. Signal mercies require solemn Thanksgiving HEZEKIAH's Return of PRAISE for his RECOVERY Is A. xxxviii 17 18 and part of the 19 ver 17. Behold for peace I had great bitterness but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back 18. For the grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth 19. The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day THESE Words are part and indeed the principal part of Hezekiah's Song of Thanksgiving after he was recover'd of a dangerous sickness as you finde in the ninth Verse when all his thoughts were as himself tells us from the 10th to the 15th Verse that he should not live that he should never escape this bout never come abroad more I said that is by an Hebraism I thought in the cutting off of my dayes or as some Versions render it in the midst of my dayes I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall never go more to Church never have any further opportunities to wait upon God in his Sanctuary I shall behold man no more with the Inhabitants of the World never go abroad again to converse with men any more c. So that in effect he gave himself up for lost as to this world and perhaps the Physicians did so too Nay and which was more when the Doctors belike had given him over the Prophet brings him the unwelcom message that he must prepare himself For dye he should and not live v. 1. Yet after all when he was in extremis upon his prayer God was intreated to renew his lease and to lengthen his life And so as in the former part of his Song he mournfully commemorates his Sickness So in the latter part from the 15th verse to the end he chearfully returns thanks for his Recovery The words we have made choice of belong to this latter part and there are four things in them observable 1. A sad heavy affliction Behold for peace I had great bitterness 2. A merciful deliverance out of this affliction But thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the put of corruption 3. A blessed improvement of this mercy For thou hast cast all my sins behinde thy back 4. A thankful acknowledgement of this improved mercy in the rest of the words The Affliction aggravated 1. By a description of it in its own nature both in the quality of it 't was bitterness and in the quantity of it 't was great bitterness 2. By opposition of the contrary blessing which it remov'd 't was for peace a word that comprehends in the notion of it all our worldly enjoyments all temporal blessings whatsoever and more particularly in Holy Writ is taken for health a blessing without which all other blessings have no rellish in them give no true satisfaction to the enjoyer For peace I had great bitterness i. e. for the health which he had formerly enjoy'd he had had a very bitter sickness And then lastly the bitterness of this change is heightned by the surprize of it Behold as a strange thing Behold how all on a sudden upon my peace came great bitterness as the Margin reads it Bitterness and great bitterness and that in exchange for peace for a state of health and prosperity and all this with a sudden strange surprize Behold for peace I had great bitterness This was his Affliction And this much further aggravated still if we unde stand it as we must in a spiritual sense too that his sickness calling his sins to remembrance and causing some distrusts of God's love instead of that peace of conscience and quiet
the face of the avenger even unto their City of Refuge the Merits of Christ and likely sickness is God's time of Visiting iniquity in this manner and then sins come thick to remembrance The wicked and the godly may in this respect little differ in their outward Symptoms as to the trouble and quiet of Conscience but in the grounds of either there is a vast difference The ungodly man when his Conscience is awak'd with some rouzing judgement is possest with the frightful foresights of unavoidable vengeance the godly are troubled at God's displeasure at the withdrawings of his favour and the hidings of his countenance The one has no Sanctuary to betake himself to his troubles immerse him into the gulph of despair the other when he is seiz'd with the arrests of the Law can by Faith lay hold upon the terms of Evangelical mercy and has a powerful advocate to plead for him and a sufficient bail to fetch him off even Christ Jesus the Mediator of the Covenant Nor again does their calm and tranquility of minde proceed from the same principle or tend to the same practice the wicked man's quiet proceeds from his carnal security his conscience is cast into a dead sleep and becomes insensible by a kinde of spiritual lethargy that 't is not so much want of trouble as want of sense wherefore he still runs on securely in his sinful course whereas the in ward peace which a godly man enjoyes arises from the assurances of pardon and the sense of God's favour and this puts him upon a careful walking with God that he may not tempt him to remove his peace And this his confidence in God and resolution of his own integrity bears him up even in the midst of his dejections and disquiets that when he goes mourning all the day when he feeds himself with his tears and in great anxiety and distress pours out his soul within him he can say with the Psalmist Psal. XLII and XLIII Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God For he knows that however when God has taken and pursu'd all his advantages against him when he has laid load upon him he is sure at last to give him a good issue out of the temptation and be his affliction what it will to procure him in the end a merciful Deliverance which is our next Theme to treat of And this a two-fold Deliverance according to his two-fold distemper Bodily and Ghostly His temporal affliction his sickness is cur'd by the temporal mercy of his recovery that God has deliver'd his soul i. e. his life from the pit of corruption from the Grave and his spiritual malady or trouble of conscience by that spiritual mercy the pardon of his sins that God had cast all his sins behinde his back First Here 's the removal of his sickness and the return of health and then to improve that here 's the removal of his sins and the restitution of his peace Behold for peace I had great bitterness But thou hast in love to my soul deliver'd it from the pit of corruption For thou hast cast all my sins behinde thy back Thou 't was Thou deliveredst me He imputes his Recovery here wholly to God Hence we learn that God is the sole Author of all our deliverances His sickness might have come by some casualty might proceed from natural causes in the general way of a permissive providence but to be sure God had a special hand in the restauration That was the effect and a peculiar disposition of a particular providence and came with a Mandamus from heaven I will not deny but means may and must be and were here used but then 't is God's blessing that puts vertue into those means and gives them an effectual operation Practicioners of Physick will tell us that a lump of Figs bruised and made up into a Plaister may be no unfit Cataplasm to be applied toa plague sore to help to ripen and break the Bile yet here in this case 't was God himself by his Prophet gave the Receipt and in all cases virtuates and succeeds the means Wherefore the Syriack Interpreter transposes the two last Verses of this Chapter setting the 22. verse before the 21. and that very appositely to the close of the Song in the 20th verse where he sayes he will Sing Songs to the tuned instruments all the dayes of his life in the house of the Lord. Now as the Syriack brings it in Hezekiah had said What is the sign that I shall go to the house of the Lord That I shall go abroad again and wait upon God in his Temple And Isaias gave this answer sayes he Let them take a lump of Figs and spread it upon the Bile Which verses in the common order they stand in seem to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of their due place So that the Lump of Figs should according to this Interpreter be appointed here by God for a sign as well as a Plaister nor only for a medicinal expedient but also for a Symbolical token Thus it is in all our troubles and afflictions that befall us be it what it will or who it will the malice of man or the Devil Chance or Nature our own negligence or indiscretion that leads us on 't is God that brings us off and as we pray that he will not Lead us into temptation which he does but very rarely and that only by way of permission so we must pray to him alone to deliver us from all evil And yet this is not intended to lessen our gratitude to too men whose skill or care has afforded us any help in our distress as being instruments under God for our good And so the Prophet here no question was concern'd in the good King's acknowledgements and the very Recipe of Figs is fil'd up in the Records of Scripture Further besides the subordination that men act as instruments in what they do for us God is the sole principal Agent there is usually this difference too that men what kindeness or good office they may do us they may do it for their own sake as well as ours not out of love to our person so much as for some by-respect and self-end The Physician proportions his attendance to his fee and scarce any the best friend we have will do ought for us for God-a-mercy Some perhaps may by the sense of former obligations but most by the expectation of a future reward are excited and mov'd to serve us But all God's mercies proceed from pure love out of love thou hast deliver'd me I say Divine mercy is gratuitous it flows as free as the light from the Sun as the stream from the Spring For alas if we look into our selves and consider how vile we are by nature how more vile by sin what can
their toil and gain will come to no account Go they must one time or other and pack up they know not how soon and yet carry nothing along with them of all that they have Beauty strength riches honour profits pleasures will all be lost and spoil'd and prove at last but care and refuse in this pit of corruption this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Wardrobe of our old cast cloaths and the store-hole of our worm-eaten Lumber We are all journeying straight onward to the Grave and sooner or later every one in his appointed time must arrive there but happy thrice happy those who when they are laid down to rest in the Grave are deliver'd from Hell that other pit of corruption And this Hezekiah was assur'd of that God had deliver'd his soul from this pit because his sins were forgiven And this is our third stage the Assurance of God's love to him and the Improvement of this bodily mercy for thou hast cast all my sins behinde thy back From whence we may make several Observs as first that God uses to accumulate mercy to deal with us as he commands us to deal with one another to give us good measure pressed down and shaken together and running over into our bosom Here upon Hezekiah's prayer God gives more then is ask'd lengthens his life secures him and his Kingdom from the Assyrians recovers him from his sickness and pardons his sins Thus mercies grow like clusters in the vineyards of Engaddi A great incouragement for prayer which makes such ample returns The best Husbandry we can use to improve our selves by praying often A great comfort this too to any good man upon the bed of sickness that God will both recover and pardon him both restore him to health and accept him to favour Thus our Saviour in those Miracles of Mercy he shew'd upon the bodies of men was wont to regard their souls too and wrought cures both upon the outward and inward man as he did to the Paralytick saying first * Thy sins are forgiven thee then Rise take up thy bed and walk Thus easing him first of the heavy load of his sins and then inabling him to bear the lighter burthen of his couch 2. Pardon of sins is the complement and perfection of mercy His recovery without this would have done him little good and the renewing of his Lease have serv'd only for an opportunity of running farther on the score and so of making his condition much worse then it had been O infinitely happy that man even in this life whose sins are forgiven him all his enjoyments must needs have a pleasant relish whereas to the wicked this Coloquintida the rank Hogo which unpardon'd sin gives them spoils all their comforts and makes their condition be it never so spangled and glorious never so gay and jaunty to the outward shew troublesome and vexatious within like the Emperour's Ermin-Cap richly lin'd with pricking cares and cutting fears of which our good King had now clear'd both his Head and Crown for he had God's promise that neither the Assyrian should assault his Kingdom nor Satan his soul. 3. He whose sins are forgiven needs not fear hell or the grave Hezekiah here is assured that God had deliver'd his soul from the pit of corruption because he had cast all his sins behinde his back The righteous man say the Proverbs i. e. he that is justified by faith and has his sins pardon'd is as bold as a Lion fearless and undaunted for indeed what need such an one fear Let the Devil go about like a roaring Lion he has the Lion of the tribe of Judah to defend him and for death now the sting is pluck'd out he plays with it as a harmless Snake and to take off even the natural apprehensions of it makes it familiar to him by his daily meditation Lastly God's pardons are universal and absolute They are all his sins and all cast behinde God's back never more to be remembred God pardons totally and finally not by halves or half way but wholly and out-right he forgives and forgets We are too too apt to throw our sins behinde our own back and to take no notice of them our great concern is to get them cast behinde God's back O let us prize this pardoning Grace of God's endeavour to obtain it by confessing and forsaking our sins and especially in the time of sickness or any other affliction when God's hand lies upon us to make our humble and earnest supplications then to the blessed Spirit to bring home to our soul this comfort to renew our repentance and to re-inforce our resolutions and having obtain'd forgiveness never by any fresh wilful acts of sin to forfeit the comfort of such an assurance Thus have we seen Hezekiah Afflicted Recover'd Pardon'd we are now in the last place come to his Thanksgiving and Acknowledgement and that as I noted before set down 1. Negatively that if he had miscarried in this his sickness then he could not possibly have perform'd this duty of praise 2. Positively that being now recover'd and in a state of life and health he will make it his business as he sayes in the 20. verse All the dayes of his life to sing his songs in the house of the Lord. For the Grave cannot praise thee c. which words will help us to several useful observations In the first place that The only Return which God expects for his mercies is Praise This is given here as the reason of this his deliverance FOR the Grave cannot praise thee the living shall God the Jehovah being an Infinite Being and consequently in his Essence and Actions independent of any other being can have no Principle or End of his Actions without him As in a Circle the whole round being in it self compleat the beginning and end meet but in an imaginary point and admit not of a real distinction And such a Circle is God which comprehends all things and is it self not comprehended Wherefore he can have no other principle but himself no other end but himself in all that he does or designs He is the Alpha and Omega From him and to him are all things He acts all freely from his own will and wisely to his own glory and in this manner we his creatures are to act if we will act regularly from him and to him He is as the supreme cause which excites and impowers all subordinate agents to act so the Chiefest Good too in which all their actions should terminate And in this subordination all other creatures in their several spheres of activity comply with the rule and method of their Creator man only to his shame stands out who has most reason to be and to act like his God wearing his Image Good and pious men however do endeavour after this which is their perfection to live by the power to the praise of God that is to act by his
Grace to his Glory Should God require any greater matter of us as Naaman's servants tell him when we lie on the bed of sickness when we are incompass'd with distresses would not we have done it and when for our deliverance all that he looks for at our hands is praise only he must be of an extraordinary disingenuous impiety that should refuse to testifie his thanks in so cheap a Sacrifice This civility we deny not to men 't is a Physician 's reputation when his patient recovers and we usually besides his Salary allow him our good word Let not us grudge God the honour of a poor acknowledgement Again praising and celebrating God and hoping for his truth his mercy say the LXX his Salvation the Chaldee Paraphrast are here made Synonyma's to mean the same thing If so then a generous trust in God's mercy is the right celebration of it To trust in God is to praise him I have been afflicted God has deliver'd me I praise him for it how by trusting that he will still deliver me I have been exercised with grievous sickness God has visited me with his loving kindeness I come to return him due praise for his goodness how by entertaining and professing a just confidence in God that he will never fail me never leave me destitute And this as 't is a comfortable so 't is a rational and a natural duty We ordinarily do it to men when we have had tryals of their fidelity in matters of any moment we stick not to trust them farther and by so doing recommend their honest just dealing to the world Shall we not much more do so to God whose mercy and faithfulness we have so often experimented when no one could help us out but He He that distrusts God scandalizes his goodness and calls his truth in question David is not asham'd to make one of the first and earliest acts of God's common providence towards him when he was an infant an argument of his trusting God his whole life after Thou art he that tookest me out of my Mothers Bowels What then my praise shall be alwayes of thee A little after upon the strength of this confidence he prayes Cast me not off in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength faileth Further in that the Grave cannot praise God nor they that go down into the pit hope for his truth it appears that Death is a silent and a hopeless state The Grave indeed opens a wide mouth but 't is to swallow the man not to praise God with And how can Divine Praises be celebrated by death which puts all the Organs and Instruments of Speech out of tune when as the Preacher phrases it all the daughters of musick are brought low and then for those that go down into the pit they together with their lives quit their hopes and are lodg'd now in a remediless condition No hope to be met with at the bottom of that pit because the pit it self is bottomless for so the Septuagint have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that are in hell they that are in Gehenna says the Arabick and by the Targum the pit is interpreted the lake of perdition Hope is a vertue peculiar to life and when the man dies hope fetches its last gasp and dyes with him After death there 's no recovery Faith and repentance can now no longer exercise any vital acts If thou dye in thy sins thou will lie and rot in thy sins and rise again in thy sins No imbalming can preserve thy soul or take from thee the stench of thy sins in that pit of corruption Death concludes thee to an unalterable condition Here thou mayest manage thy resolutions and shape thy course to please thy self and if thou wilt to please thy God if thou wilt let his grace pilot thy vessel but when thou art once put into harbour the ship then is laid up and there 's no mending the miscarriages of thy past voyage Be sure then to live godly if thou wouldst dye comfortably and then thy grave will prove a bed of spices and thy dust be preserv'd as the Phoenixâ—ashes in hopes of a joyful resurrection To draw to a conclusion a 4th Note may be this that Life it self is a blessing to be spent in the giver's praise From these words The living the living he shall praise thee The word is twice repeated to shew we should do it with chearfulness with a life and with constancy through our whole life If we had a hundred lives they would be all well spent in God's service It will be the business and imploy of our eternity to praise him and we must aforehand acquaint our selves with it and so practice this lesson here that we may be found worthy to wait upon the Lamb and sing Hallelujahs in heaven But then if we would praise God to the life we must live to his praise by doing things praise-worthy Further consider what this life of ours is 't is but a breath We must begin this task then out of hand presently There 's nothing of our life ours but the present the Nunc instans this very instant of time For all that 's past of our lives was indeed ours once but now is not nor can we recal what 's gone for improvement or amendment and what is to come is not ours yet and we know not whether it will be in our power or no and therefore the great duty interest of life is the right husbanding of our present time Upon this moment hangs our eternity and this infinite advantage our short-liv'd service has that he that lives to God's glory here shall hereafter be made partaker of it Thus have I as well as I could gather'd a posie of Observations as they grew in this fragrant piece of Scripture and if some Rue and Wormwood be found amongst the sweeter herbs their wholesomeness will make amends for their bitterness Myrrh and Aloes as they are bitter drugs so they are rich perfumes in either notion great preservatives they are against corruption The Psalmist tells us Psal. XLV that All the Churches garments smell of them 'T is not amiss if we have pounded and mix'd somewhat of them with the Frankincense of this days Thanksgiving Which brings us to the close of all the Exemplification as I do this day And that will yield us a considerable remark to make an end with that signal mercies require solemn thanksgiving So Hezekiah is eager to go up to the house of the Lord and closes this Ode of his with a resolution there to sing his songs all the days of his life And this on purpose to draw in others by his example to partake in the duty Thus David after such a deliverance Psal. XXXIV invites others O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together In the 6th verse as it were pointing to himself This poor man cried and
mercies to accept the thanksgiving of every particular person in this Congregation for all thy favours and merciful deliverances vouchsafed them through the course of their whole lives and more especially be graciously pleased to accept the thanks of that thy servant who being by thy gracious providence recover'd of a grievous and dangerous sickness this day in thy house presents his offering of praise Grant that both he and all of us may have that his sickness and all our afflictions so sanctified and this his recovery and all our deliverances so improv'd to him and to us that we may ill be fully assur'd that out of love to our souls thou hast deliver'd them from the pit of corruption and that thou hast cast all our sins behind thy back Thus shall our meditation of thee be sweet we will be glad in the Lord and rejoyce in thy salvation who forgivest all our iniquities and healest all our diseases and redeemest our life from destruction Who hidest not thy face from us in the day of trouble but regardest the prayer of the destitute who lookest down from the height of thy sanctuary to hear the groaning of those that are confin'd and to deliver them that are appointed unto death To declare the name of the Lord in his temple and his praise in the great assembly when the people are gather'd together to serve the Lord. Let us give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name Let us bring our offerings and come into his courts Let us sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoycing The Lord hath chasten'd us sore but he hath not given us over unto death We shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. Thou art our God and we will praise thee thou art our God and we will exalt thee Let us give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever The voice of rejoycing and salvasion is in the tabernacles of the righteous The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy O Lord our hope is in thee Let us never be confounded Amen Glory be to thee O God FINIS ERRATA PAge 4. line 4. read understand p. 9 l. 24 r. our carnal p. 17. l. 19. r. a little p. 18. l. 9 r. sore p 21. l. 27. sor disposition r. dispensation p. 25. l. 6. r. of our head l. 11. f. this r. his l. 19. before His meaning put in line 24 25 26 27. witness Sabbath-rest p. 26. l. 21. r. all things p. 29. l. 6. for care r. tare * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uti Graecè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicere cogitare prout è contra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meditari primùm dein eloqui * Prov. 18. 4. * Ps. 69. 21. * S. Matth. 27. 34. V. 3. * See 2. Chron. 29. 1. Obs. Obs. * 2 Chron. 32. 26. 't is call'd The pride of his heart S. John 16. 21. Obs. * Job 1. 9. * So himsèlâ— complains Job 7. 5. My flesh is cloathed with worms and clods of dust my skin is broken and become loathsome Obs. The pious man serves God for God's sake Obs. * Job 3. 25. * Isa. 57. 20 Obs. Obs. Obs. * Psal. 8. 4. * Deut. 25. 4. * 1 Cor. 9. 9. * Deut. 5 14. * Psal. 8. 7. Obs. * 3 John v. 2. Obs. * Ps. 39. 5. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad f 〈…〉 mam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ap J 〈…〉 38. 11. 12 veterament 〈…〉 Ang. old caâ—â— cloats and rotten rags Obs. * S. Luke 6. 38. S. Mark 2. 9. Obs. Obs. * Prov. 28. 1 Obs. Obs. * Rom. 11. 36. * 2 Kings 5. 13. Obs. * Psal. 71. 6. * Ver. 9. Obs. Eccl. 12. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Obs. * Ver. 8. Obs.