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.
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
whose very name is luscious in the mouth and speaks sweetness We say Variety is delightful and 't is the condition of the sublunary world to be whirl'd about in perpetual vicifsitudes to be as mutable and full of changes as the Moon it self who has the Dominion over it And I confess that the day-break brings comfortable tidings after telling the Clocks of a tedious and restless night the verdant Spring is welcome that has been usher'd in by a hard Winter and the Sun-shine shews pleasant which follows a bitter storm But on the contrary which was Hezekiah's case here out of a prosperous state to be tumbled into adversity to have new troubles tread upon the heels of our peace out of health to be thrown upon a bed of bitter sickness this is a sad change and must needs go to the heart of the stoutest and wisest when the remembrance of their former good estate serves only to aggravate their present ills Yet so it seems good to the all wise God to exercise his Children to try their sincerity to the utmost whether they have any by-ends in their service whether their piety be real or only a pretense whether when their conditions are alter'd their resolutions will not change too and when a storm comes take to the hedge and keep a dangerous persecuted profession company no longer whether they will go along with their Religion when it goes as Christ did to be crucified or with the Disciples desert him and leave him to himself This was Satan's argument Doth Job serve God for nought and therefore strips him to the very skin and makes that very skin uneasie too by cloathing it all over with blisters and sores that by that time Job had done scraping with his pot-sheard he had no skin at all left to cover him but was fain to get him a new covering out of the ashes he roll'd himself in Yet Job when he had lost all would not let go his integrity but prov'd in despight of the Devil's suggestions that he serv'd God for God's sake and could fairly trust him for his reward in the next world Wherefore 't is a brave challenge of that Heroick Apostle Rom. VIII 35. Who sayes he shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or nakedness or peril or sword as if he had said Let me see that Man or Devil or Thing in the world that can drive me from my just confidences and blessed assurances of God's love And for death he makes nothing of it vouchsafes it not the mention but in a parenthesis in the next verse looks upon it as a meer scare-crow a thing he has been used to and now fears it not but gets him upon a place of Scripture and defies it As it is written sayes he For thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter And then in the two last verses of that Chapter 't is as bravely by him resolv'd upon the question I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come Nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So then for peace let bitterness come nay let great bitterness come yet such a resolution will weather the point of the worst change But yet to aggravate this change there is another consideration still behinde that 't was by way of surprize it came strangely and unexpectedly Behold for peace I had great bitterness When Scripture bids us behold 't is worth our while to stand and look about and this word gives us this lesson that A Christian must stand upon his guard prepare for changes and be provided in omnem eventum for what ever may happen In this posture Job stood which made him bear the brunt and receive the shock the better The thing which I fear'd sayes he is come upon me But it should seem Hezekiah did not make that preparation entertain'd no such jealousies We read in the Chapter before that the Angel had discomfited the Assyrian Host and that Sennacherib himself the Monarch was assassin'd by his Sons which quit the King of Judah utterly of all apprehensions he is wrapt up in security yet see he is no sooner rid of this fear but another arrest is serv'd upon him In those dayes sayes the first verse of this Chapter was Hezekiah sick unto death There surprizes him a bile worse then Rabshakeh sticks close to him and sends him once more to his prayers So apt are good men upon little respite to forget themselves Judgement comes like a thief in the night and steals upon us it concerns us therefore to watch and to set a good centry that we may not be caught unawares But alas how do we generally sleep over our great concerns and never heed evils till they befal us which are with far more difficulty cured then they might have been prevented Nothing can be more dreadful then when judgements give us a camisade set upon us in the dead of our security beat up our quarters and catch us unprovided And still this affliction has a higher step taking it in the spiritual sense for the disquiet of minde and trouble of Conscience arising possibly from the sense of sin or from the distrust of God's favour in this his sickness to which the deliverance with its improvement hath reference Hezekiah's minde as well as body was fore and the Bile was not so much it should seem in his side as 't was in 's very heart He had stitches and pains of Conscience and his inner man was more afflicted then the outward and his spirit labour'd under no less distempers then his flesh did And this is sure a very afflictive condition when not only the Cisterns of earthly comfort are filled with waters of Marah but even the spring of consolations from within I mean a good conscience runs in troubled streams of Meribah when a godly man's thoughts work and boyl and as the wicked man is compar'd by the Prophet he becomes like the troubled Sea which casts up mire and dirt And yet thus God deals sometime with his own to take their peace from them to leave them as it were in a state of desertion to themselves that so they may put a higher estimate upon his favour and walk humbly and carefully in the sense of it A troubled conscience then is not alwayes an evil conscience The best of Saints are sometimes put upon these conflicts to struggle under the burden of their sins and the apprehension of wrath due to them when God loosens and slacks their confidences blots and obscures their evidences staggers their assurances fills them full of doubts and perplexities and jealousies of their own estate and so pursues them with legal terrors that he drives them to fly before