we finde in our selves that may any way deserve the kinde respects and affectionate regards of an infinite and glorious Majesty what that may be lookt upon as a fit object of Divine Love Have not we just reason the very best of us with the Psalmist to hold up our hands in admiration and bless our selves saying What is man that thou art mindeful of him or takest any knowledge of him or the son of man that thou visitest him that thou makest any account of him He doth not want us nor is our goodness any thing to him neither can our welfare adde ought to his infinite glories nor our miscarriage substract ought from them It is our duty and our happiness to boot to serve him nor is he a whit obliged to us when we have done all we ought to do we are to him still unprofitable Servants If we are good we are good to our selves and if we are otherwise we shall have the worst on 't And yet to see how all his thoughts and cares run upon us how he has made man the darling of heaven and the charge of Angels what blessings he daily dispenses among us and what unconceivable good things he has prepar'd for us if we will but fit our selves for them how his providence waits upon us at our up-rising and our down-lying and in all our wayes constantly attends us and takes that particular care of us that he has the very hairs of his head in numerato will abundantly convince us of his undeserved love to us and of that love we owe to him again O may those passionate concernments he has for us move us at least to be concern'd for our selves The Apostle to justifie this Allegorical exposition of that Text in the old Law Thou shalt not muzzle the ox which treadeth out the corn out of which he argues the maintenance of Gospel-Ministers seems to ask a strange question to shew that those words could not well be taken literally Doth God sayes he take care of Oxen Why learned Apostle does not God take care of Oxen I sure and of all his other creatures too His meaning is that God's thoughts and designs are so much busied and taken up about man that He seems to be the only object of his care insomuch that this very Law of mercy towards the labouring Beast witness to go no further the very fourth Commandment where the poor Ass as well as the Ox comes in for his share in the priviledge of Sabbath-rest was by the Apostle's argument primarily and ultimately intended for the temporal support and incouragement of such men as are set aside for spiritual ministrations to labour in the word Oves boves pecora campi Sheep and Oxen and all Beasts of the Field he has so absolutely put under man's feet as if he took no further care of them then as they may be for his use and service If God so freely love us how ought we to love one another and to help one another with all kinde of courtesie and assistance but above all in a due imitation of Divine Charity not to let it be a carnal affection or express it only in service to the outward man but to improve it spiritually that it may be a love from the soul and a love to the soul of one another In love to my soul. This soul-Soul-love is the best of loves This is to oblige a man into the other world with an immortal benefit to do his soul any good to serve him any way in that 'T is the Christian complement which the great preacher of love St. John uses in his Epistle to his friend Gaius Beloved I wish above things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth Let worldlings think what they will our health and prosperity is as our soul prospers and does well All our worldly enjoyments unless we have the art to spiritualize them and can by grace make them serviceable to our souls are but dry chips and can afford no true real comfort The very Breasts of providence from whence our peace plenty liberty and all outward blessings flow without this are but Winde-bags and those that draw them most will finde they get nothing but vanity and emptiness fill themselves with vexation and distemper if God by his Grace do not sanctifie his providences to the good of their souls This is that which makes blessings to be blessings indeed And indeed God does design all his temporal mercies to our spiritual advantage if we would but comply with his designs And thus it was here with Hezekiah whose soul was repriev'd from the Grave at once and preserv'd from Hell for the pit of corruption in Scripture-style signifies both from the Grave by his recovery and from Hell by his pardon To take the words in either of those senses or in both what a mercy of God is it to us all to every one of us that are here this day that we are yet on this side Hell yet on this side the Grave and what care are we oblig'd to in our walking when we consider that All our life-time we walk upon the pit-brink We say that those that are at Sea are but so many inches remov'd from death but the Psalmist tells us that upon Land too or whereever we are at the furthest distance there is but the breadth of a span betwixt it and us Now what a madness were it for any one to dance and frolick about the mouth of such a dangerous pit where 't is so easie falling in and impossible to get out again And yet O desperate folly most people of the world are thus mad pursuing the seeming sweets of a momentany life to the hazard of an eternal ruine and the irreparable loss of their immortal souls I have heard a story and I suppose many of you have heard it too of a man that travelling late and being in drink rode over a narrow foot-Bridge where there was a great deep water underneath that the least trip of the Horses foot would have posted the rider to his long home next morning when he was come to himself being askt which way he came and brought to the place the apprehension of his last nights adventure did so surprize and astonish his sober thoughts that he fell down dead in the very place at the sight on 't And when we look back upon the follies and vanities of our past lives how can we but be justly startled when almost every step we have trod has been upon the pit's brink of destruction Those especially whose desires seem to be as bottomless as this pit is who cry Give give and never think they have enough and are immoderate in heaping up this world's goods may look upon this pit as a stop in their career when they sit down and consider that within a score or two of years hence very likely in less time all
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
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
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
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.