Christ So saith he 1 Cor. 15.32 I protest by your rejoycing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord I die daily He was so acquainted with death that he made it his daily practice to put himself into a frame and posture to die and so many a Christian hath got such acquaintance with death by sickness that he lives in a continual frame and readiness to die besides his sickness makes him less fearful of men for he knows when they have killed the body they have no more that they can do they have done their worst which is no more then an ordinary disease can do and therefore as the Philosopher told the Tyrant when he threatned to kill him that a Fly could do that so Believers need not fear what men can do because they can do no more then a Fever Dropsie Consumption or any other disease can do and thus he is prepared by sickness for other afflictions End 16. To prepare them for great mercy Beloved sometimes mercies are more dangerous for Gods people then afflictions they are often worse in plenty then in poverty in credit then in disgrace more secure in health and ease then in pains and sickness This happens when our mercies are too big for our graces as when we have great credit and little humility or else when our outward mercies do most feed our inward corruptions as when riches do meet with a heart much inclined to covetousness and health and ease are given to a Christian who is apt to be idle and secure now therefore God melts his people in the Furnace of Affliction to prepare them to be vessels of mercy Hence we read Hebr. 12.11 That no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby As whilst a Childe is under the discipline of the Rod he receives the fruit of his dulness and idleness in the smarting of the Rod but afterwards he receives the fruit of his learning and education in honours and preferments So whilst Gods children are corrected with sickness and other afflictions they receive the bitter fruit of their sins of their pride frowardness security and creature-confidence c. and this is not for the present joyous but grievous but afterwards they reap the fruit of righteousness and holiness of faith fear love prayer c. and this is sweet and peaceable fruit we have a pertinent proof of this Psal 126.5 6. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him As the Husbandman in a year of famine when corn is dear and seed scarce he sows he ventures it in the ground but he sows in tears he goes out with his seed weeping Ah thinks he this corn would have made so much bread for my poor wife and children or would have given so much money towards paying my rent Thus with a sad heart he sows his seed but when harvest comes and brings forth a plentiful crop then he reaps in joy and brings home his sheaves with singing shouting and rejoycing Thus it is with Gods childe in affliction as suppose in sickness his grief is great and his pains grievous yet he sows though it be in sorrow he believes in tears and hopes in tears and prays in tears well after comes the harvest of health and he reaps the fruit of faith hope and prayer and he goes about rejoycing and praising God and carrying his sheaves of mercy and comfort about with him Our Saviour speaks fully to this case Joh. 16.20 21. Ye shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned into joy A woman when she is in travel hath sorrow because her hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of the childe she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world As a woman with childe when the hour of her travel is come is full of sorrow with the throws and pains of her travel but when she is delivered she forgets her sorrow and with a joyful heart falls a kissing and imbracing her childe So my Brethren when the hour of sickness or other affliction comes upon us we are full of sorrow with the pains and travels of our affliction but when we are delivered and see what mercy our affliction hath brought forth the joy and comfort of our graces and experiences and deliverances doth swallow up the sorrow of our affliction We have a special instance of the glorious chain of Gods wonderful Providence towards Joseph to confirm the truth in hand his afflictions lasted about thirteen years for he was seventeen years old when he visited his Brethren Gen. 37.2 and thirty years old when he was preferred in Pharaohs Court Gen. 41.46 Now in all this time his afflictions were sad he was parted from his tender father he was bought and sold after this unjustly defamed and imprisoned he was put like a Rogue in irons Psal 105.18 his afflictions were so great that the afflictions of Gods people were long after and ever will be to the end of the world called the afflictions of Joseph Amos 6.6 yet he was after all this raised up in great mercie and was made a blessed instrument to save the Church and Israel of God from perishing with famine We have another instance in Job I shall say no more of him but onely apply to his afflictions what the Apostle saith of his patience Ye have heard of the afflictions of Job and have seen the end of the Lord for as we read Job 42.12 The Lord blessed the latter end of Job David upon this ground incouraged himself in his afflictions because he believed a good issue out of them Psal 71.20 21. Thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth Thou shalt increase my greatness and comfort me on every side Consider further that sickness when sanctified exceedingly fits a man both for Spiritual and Temporal mercies for then a man comes out of sickness as one who is raised from the grave and so he is filled with the thoughts of death and eternity and this is a frame of heart which gives a kindly relish to all spiritual mercies this makes him taste God and Christ to be exceeding gracious in the likeness and enjoyment of whom he sees himself blessed and satisfied through all eternity And this also fits him for Temporal mercies for it teacheth him to use friends lands food and all his temporal injoyments for eternity he hereby learns to turn his treasures in earth into treasures in heaven This makes him at the will of God to leave father and mother and lands and life knowing that he shall receive the comfort of all in another world so he cheerfully gives to Christ in his members
sinner with sickness or other afflictions if he scorn his Rod it must needs be an unspeakable provocation for as it savours much of the spirit and grace of a Childe of God to be suitably affected to the various manifestations of God so that it is his most inward pleasure to have God pleased this puts gladness into his heart Psal 4.6 7. and if God in displeasure hide his face he is troubled Psal 30.7 so on the contrary it is a sign of a base spirit when as it is said of Miriams disease God spits in his face then to be so shameless and impudent as if he could out-face the frowns of his Majesty Secondly This speaks a mans condition to be incurable Isa 1.5 Why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more as if they were grown so desperate that corrections made them worse Beloved this stupidity doth frustrate the end and use of Gods Visitation for they cannot hear the rod if they do not feel the rod because the rod speaks by its strokes therefore they lose its teachings when they do not feel it smart the condition then of such wretches must needs be hopeless when they make Gods last remedy useless as when a man is sick first you seek to restore him by keeping him warm and by wholesome diet if this fail you send to the Physitian but if the Physick do not stir the body if he will not vomit nor purge nor bleed then you look for nothing but death So when mercies will not melt nor Sermons change a sinner and after all God sends sickness or other judgments and yet these do not work what remains but a fearful looking for of eternal judgment And now to conclude this we may see the dreadful condition of senseless and secure sinners on their death-beds they say they have made their peace with God when it is but a peace with sin and an agreement with hell and that they hope for salvation when perhaps the Pulse hath not many strokes to beat before they are sure of damnation yet they will go confidently with the foolish Virgins as it were to the door of heaven till Christ tell them there to their faces he knows them not and thus they die being wholly at ease and quiet and carnal friends think they have made a comfortable end when for my part I do not doubt to say it is as comfortable to see men die drunk as die secure Fourthly This doctrine reproves those who in their diseases trust to Physitians for health Diseases you see are not at the command of Physitians but of Christ This was Asa his sin 2 Chron. 16.12 in his disease he sought not to the Lord but to the Physitians His sin was not in seeking to the Physitians but in not seeking to the Lord. I know it is a great sin upon pretence of Gods power to be disobedient to his will in despising Physick which God hath ordained to be his means to restore us to health this sin is a tempting God wherein we will try what God can do and yet neglect what he commands but we must use the Physitian yet so as to live by faith and not by Physick and therefore the rule is to honour and use them as Gods Instruments but not to put them in Gods place Fifthly It reproves those who usurp Authority and use their own power to hurt or disease the bodies of men I mean not those who have authority from God and man to execute bodily punishments as Magistrates Parents Masters c. nor would I abrogate the Law of self-preservation in the case of a violent and unavoidable assault but my aim is to convince those of their sin who delight in quarrelling and fighting who are said to enter into contention Prov. 18.6 who neglect their callings to go to Cock-pits Bear-baits c. on purpose to quarrel and fight and such who upon every little provocation will be at daggers drawing no more with them but a word and a blow a lye and a stab and such mankeen beasts who delight to feed on the wounds and blood of men accounting it a piece of gallantry and bravery to beat hurt wound and maim others Now if all diseases are at the command of Christ so that he bids them go c. then thou shouldst not usurp Christs Authority to hurt or disease others Now that you may for ever abhor and be afraid of this sin lay to heart these five Considerations First This is a damnable sin without speedy repentance it will bring thee to hell I say unto thee as Paul said to Ananias Acts 23.3 God shall smite thee thou whited wall for smiting thy brother Oh look upon those strong arms and limbs burning with thy body and soul in hell Oh consider what a poor credit it is to go valiantly to hell for this will be thy case for if he that gives his brother but a foul word be in danger of hell-fire Mat. 5.22 how much greater danger art thou in who woundest and hurtest that body which God hath bound thee upon pain of damnation in the sixth Commandment to preserve Secondly Consider what spirit worketh in thee when thou art fighting and quarrelling with others I say to thee as Job in another case to his friend Job 26.4 Whose spirit came from thee Is this the holy loving humble patient meek and peaceable spirit which is so precious and savoury to God and men Is this the way to please and honour the God of thy life and limbs and strength who stands by and looks thee in the face and sees thee like a fool in thy rage The Apostle clearly determines that these fightings are fruits of your lusts James 4.1 And is this thy valour and gallantry to fight so stoutly to fulfil a base lust Thirdly Consider how thou dost hereby abuse thy own body Is thy body a member of Christ and thy hands and arms parts of Jesus Christ and wilt thou make a member of Christ a murderer Fourthly Consider the person whom thou smitest Is he not one towards whom thou shouldst put on bowels of compassion and whose salvation thou art bound to seek and dost thou think to bring him to heaven by Club-law Is he not fearfully and wonderfully made by God in whose book all his members are written and wilt thou by thy inhumane and merciless blows mar such a choice piece of Gods workmanship Is not or may not his body be the Temple of the Holy Ghost and an instrument to serve God and his generation and wilt thou by maiming and wounding him make him less serviceable Nay further he is made after the Image of the Invisible God and I tell thee in striking him thou dost as it were strike God in the face Lastly Consider the many sad and fearful consequences of this sin it breeds malice and revenge and causeth further quarrels and contentions among persons and families it begets many chargeable suits at Law
is alter ego another self but we must obediently give up our friends to the will of God I shall tell you what this is thus quietly to resign our friends to God It is that whereby we solemnly worship God acknowledging and praising his Name and subjecting our hearts to his will as he is a God of this dispensation As for example God smites a Husband with a disease now saith God by this Providence to the Wife What if I make thee a Widdow and thy Children Fatherless Why Lord saith the Wife thou art herein a wise holy and good God and I will still own and trust and love and rejoyce in thee Thus the heart must worship and praise God as he appears in this sad Providence and so the heart agrees with the Will of God as it is signified by this dispensation Now if there appear any rising of discontent we must quiet all such tumults with the Will of God as Eli did 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his sight We have an excellent pattern of this in Job Cap. 1.20 21. when amongst other sad Providences he heard of the sudden death of his sons he fell down and worshipt God whom he saw in the Providence saying The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away blessed be the Name of the Lord. Thus he worshippeth and praiseth God as it appeared in taking away his Children And thus when any friends are diseased labour to get thy heart into this frame this will make the mercy more sweet if they live and the affliction less bitter if they die I know your thoughts will now be full of the goodness of your friends Oh such a wise faithful loving Husband such a careful meek loving Wife c. Well look upon them at the very best and as such offer them up to God offer to God the best of thy flock the best of thy friends the better they are the better is thy patience and obedience in parting with them and withall all remember that if God will have thy friends to Eternity there is no ransome to be taken for them but they must be gone Thou mayst cry after them as Elisha did by Elijah 2 Kings 2.12 My Father my Father but Elijah never stops to answer him So thou mayst cry My Husband my Husband my Wife my Wife my Childe my Childe but to Eternity they will go and never stay to answer thee for God taketh away and who can hinder him or who can say unto him What dost thou We cannot hinder him and we must not question him but resigne all to him End 12. Christ visits his people with sickness to fill their hearts with prayer Solomon tells us Prov. 15.8 The prayer of the upright is his delight For a Believer being in Christ and found in his Righteousness at the Throne of Grace there ariseth such a sweet smell and savour to God which makes the Believer and his prayers pleasant and delightful to him and therefore God often sends sickness to stir up a spirit of prayer in the hearts of his people Hence we read of that sick man Job 33.26 He shall pray unto God and he will be favourable unto him and he shall see his face with joy So when Hezekiah was sick he turned his face to the wall as he lay in bed and wept and prayed unto the Lord Isa 38.2 14. So David as appears by Psal 30 and 38 and 39. when his body was full of sickness his heart was full of prayer See further Psal 107.17 18 19. That was a savoury speech of a Reverend Divine in his sickness to his friends Sinite me Psittaci instar cum Domino meo balbutire Suffer me to stammer like a Parret with my Lord by prayer The hearts of Gods people are called as Mr. Brightman observes on Rev. 5.8 Vials full of Odâ—urs that is hearts full of sweet and savoury prayers Oh when the bodies of the godly are as a sink full of filthy humors their hearts are as Vials full of the precious odours of prayer This is the blessed priviledge of a Believer that in the most sad and deplorate condition in the world he hath always access with boldness into the presence of God Ephes 2.18 Through Christ we have access by one Spirit unto the Father Hebr. 10.19 Having boldness to enter into the Holiest viz. into heaven by the Blood of Christ Thou mayst by faith and prayer step out of thy sick bed into heaven Job saith in his affliction Chap. 31.37 As a Prince would I go near unto him Sirs the Spirit of Prayer is a Royal Spirit whereby a Believer goes with a Princely boldness and confidence unto God Now indeed sickness is a most special season for prayer because of our present need of those things which we are bound to pray for not only in regard of our need of ease and health and life though the want of these is a reason of prayer Isa 38.14 I am oppressed with pain and trouble undertake for me Hence David prays Psalm 39.13 O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be seen no more But now our present need of soul-saving mercies should set awork our hearts in prayer now a man is perhaps just in his fall into Eternity and is like to finde within a few hours whether Heaven or Hell be his portion This man hath need to pray earnestly for sound repentance and saving faith and pardon of sin and everlasting salvation End 13. To fill the hearts of the godly with sympathy to one another as a distemper in a toe or finger afflicts all the rest of the members so when one member of Christ is visited all the members about him are called to sympathize and condole with him 1 Cor. 12.26 If one member suffer all the members suffer with it Hence we finde that when a Christian is diseased there is a spirit of prayer poured out in his behalf from all the Christians about him When Melancthon was sick it 's reported that Lutheri Crucigeri precibus non tam convaluit quà m revixit By the prayers of Luther and Cruciger he was not only restored from sickness to health but as it were from death to life Melch. Adam in vita Melancth So when Myconius was sick Luther affectionately prays Peto ut loco tuo me faciat Dominus aegrotum I pray that the Lord would make me sick in thy stead Melch. Adam in vita Mycon David had this charity for his enemies in their sickness Psal 35.13 But as for me when they were sick my clothing was sackcloth I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into my own bosom I behaved my self as though he had been my friend or brother I bowed down heavily as one that mourned for his Mother Shall David thus fast and pray for his sick enemies and shall not we for our sick friends Job professeth what his carriage should have been
knowing that this fruit will abound to his account when Christ and he come to reckon and that this is laid up in store as a good foundation against the time to come 1 Tim. 6.19 As a man that intends to transplant himself beyond the Seas turns his stock here into such things which will make his life comfortable when he comes there So a Saint knowing that he is upon a journey beyond this world turns his stock and estate to Gods glory here believing that it will be returned to him a thousand fold in the glory and joys of heaven when he comes there End 17. Which is the last that I shall mention is to gain to himself praise and glory in recovering his people from their sickness Hence we read Job 11.3 4. when it was told Christ that Lazarus whom he loved is sick Christ answers This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby Beloved recovery from sickness is a great mercy both to a mans self and others as St. Paul acknowledgeth of Epaphroditus Phil. 2.27 He was sick nigh unto death but God had mercy on him and not on him onely but on me also lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow And therefore upon this reason the hearts of Gods people have been filled with the praises of God Psal 103.1 2 3. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy name And this is one ground of this Who healeth all thy diseases This was Hezekiah his practice in this case Isa 38.19 The living the living they shall praise thee as I do this day See also 2 Cor. 1.9 10 11. We had the sentence of death in our selves that is our danger was so great whether by sickness or persecution or rather both I shall not inquire that we looked on our selves as sentenced to dye and this sentence was in us and did fill us but saith he God who raiseth the dead delivered us from so great a death for this end that thanks may be given by many on our behalf Beloved sometimes our sicknesses are very grievous and dangerous as Job cries out cap. 23.2 My stroke is heavier then my groaning and saith Job 10.16 Thou shewest thy self marvellous upon me that is thou exercisest thy marvellous power and greatness in afflicting me Now this should cause us to make the praises of God more glorious for our recovery and therefore in such cases the godly have acknowledged this mercy to be a kinde of resurrection from the dead as Psal 30.3 O Lord thou hast brought up my soul from the grave 1 Sam. 2.6 Who bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up Job 33.28 29 30. He will deliver his soul from going down into the pit and his life shall see the light And this is the Providence that all are to observe and acknowledge Loe all these things worketh God oftentimes with man to bring back his soul from the pit to be inlightened with the light of the living Vses First Vse of Information to inform us of five things First Information is that Jesus Christ is a terrible God this appears in that he hath all diseases at command to bid them go and come and do what he will The Scripture makes known God to be a terrible God Deut. 7.21 He is a mighty God and terrible Nehem. 9.32 The great the mighty and terrible God Job 37.22 With God is terrible Majesty Psal 47.2 For the Lord most high is terrible And we finde this inference made from Gods visiting men with sickness Deut. 28.58 That thou mayst fear this glorious and fearful Name The Lord thy God Beloved it is one of the most devouring delusions of the Devil to perswade men that God is so merciful that he will never question them for their sins Hence we read that the wicked man who contemns God and his judgements saith in his heart God will not require it Psal 10.13 They think in their hearts and conscience that God will never trouble them for their sins this secure temper of the ungodly is seen by that of the prophet Ezek. 7.7 The morning is come upon thee the time is come the day of trouble is near and not the sounding again of the mountains or as Junius and Termellius read it not the Eccho of the mountains implying that they feared no more the threatnings of the Prophets then a vain airy noise or Eccho in the mountains this makes secure sinners to bear no fear of God Psal 36.1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes Their sins are so notorious and visible that they declare in the very hearts and consciences of the godly that there is no fear of God before their eyes Now to awaken you out of this damnable security I shall propound four Considerations to convince you that God is a very terrible God 1. Consider that when the terrors of all bodily evils are past yet then God falls upon men with everlasting terrors we usually account great men very terrible but God tells the wicked Isa 47.3 I will take vengeance and I will not meet thee as a man thou hast been afraid oftentimes of meeting with thy Creditor or of meeting with the Magistrate c. but consider when thou comest to meet God in his taking vengeance for sin he will not meet thee as a man as a hard Creditor or as a harsh Landlord or a furious Souldier or a severe Magistrate but he will meet thee as a God of wrath and vengeance Upon this ground our Saviour presents God terrible Luk. 12.4 5. And I say unto you My friends be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom you should fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Observe that what our Saviour saith of men is true of all bodily evils when they have killed the body they have no more that they can do then the fear of them is past there is no fear of Pestilence or Fever or Consumptions in eternity but now a wicked man can never say the worst is past because he can never be past hell for God after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell so that when you think it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a merciless Usurer or a cruel Landlord or a bloudy man or to fall into the fire or water or to fall into the Pestilence Fever Dropsie c. then consider that It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Secondly consider God is not onely a God of mercy but also a God of judgment the Devil devours most men by perswading them either that God hath no wrath which makes them presumptuous or that he hath no mercy which makes
the Devil may bewitch you into sickness another by as bad a league will as it is termed bless you into health but though these seem to counter-work one another yet the Devils in both agree to devour your souls 3. It is enough to deter thee from ever seeking to such when they are branded with the names of Witches Wizards Conjurers c. When they are so reputed not onely by some malicious slanderers for Christ himself was slandered as one who had commerce with the Devil Matth. 12.24 but also by the voice of the country and by the sober wise charitable and godly Ministers and people who hear of their Clyents and of their practice Lastly this is a sufficient reason for all to abhor the thoughts of seeking to them because they use such means upon the use of which thou hast no Scripture-ground to believe or call upon God for a blessing as when they use inchanting words spells circles herbs salt stones c. which have no natural virtue to work such effects for these are but signes upon the use of which the Devil hath bound himself to his confederates to do what they trust him for For as Peter Martyr well observes the Devil is herein Gods Ape to imitate him and therefore as God hath made a covenant of grace with his people and hath ordained Sacramental signes and seals upon the faithful use of which he is present to believers to perform all that he hath promised in the Covenant So the Devil makes a covenant with Witches and appoints them to use certain signes and tokens upon the use of which he is present to do so far as he can and God permits all that they call upon him and trust to him for And thus you may see the nature evil and danger of this horrid wickedness of seeking in your sicknesses to Witches and Wizards for health that such as are guilty may repent and pray to God that the thoughts of their hearts may be forgiven them and that others who may be tempted to this sin may hear and fear and do no more any such wickedness Secondly This Doctrine reproves those who are full of murmuring and discontent when Christ visits them or their friends with sickness If Christ commands diseases to go there can be no reason to murmur if Christ doth it no body must finde fault yet most people are very apt to this sin in time of sickness for this is the property of a man that what ever is most in his heart when he is troubled it presently riseth and works up into his affections thoughts looks words and actions I shall illustrate this by a clear similitude Take two bottles of wine the one with sugar the other with dregs at the bottom now shake them and the sugar and dregs will rise and work up and the one fills the wine with a sweet and pleasant taste and the other will make it muddy and unpleasant both to taste and look upon so if a godly man and ungodly man be visited with sickness when the godly man is stirred and troubled his graces will presently work and the man will be full of faith love patience and prayer which makes his words and carriage exceeding sweet and savoury but when the wicked man is visited the dregs of sin presently rise and work up and his words and actions are then full of pride anger and discontent which make him sinful and unsavory so that I say a murmuring and discontented spirit usually prevails with men in sickness or other afflictions The Jews are often branded for this sin which was so notorious in them that the Scripture warns all people to take heed of murmuring for their sake 1 Cor. 10.10 Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Now to arm you against this sin I shall briefly 1. Shew you the Nature and Properties of it 2. The Causes 3. The sad Consequences of it For the first observe the nature of it in this description The sin of murmuring is an unruly disobedient and unquiet frame of spirit whereby the heart riseth against God so as to question and quarrel with him as if he were unholy cruel unjust and unmerciful in his proceedings against us As by the grace of contentation the heart doth quietly and obediently yeild to the Will of God so as to approve and praise all his dealings as holy just and fatherly to him so a discontented spirit doth resist God and judge of all his dispensations as if they were unworthy and injurious to him This sin is further known by these four filthy properties 1. It is a rebellious rising of the heart against God especially as he appears in that Providence which is the present occasion of his murmuring Hence murmurers are called rebels Numb 16.41 for now all the powers of a man are up in a tumult and insurrection against God the affections and thoughts rise up in a quarrel with him Oh what a fearful case is this that when a mans body is so weak that he cannot rise out of bed yet his corruptions are so strong that they rise in an uproar against the Will and Authority and Justice of God! 2. It is an unjust judging of God for whatever the murmurer pretends his quarrel is against God as the cause of his visitation Perhaps in thy sickness thy discontented spirit flies out towards thy husband wife children or servants which are about thee but they may say with Moses to the Israelites Exod. 16.8 What are we did we make thee sick are we the causes of thy aches and pains thy murmurings are not against us but against the Lord Nay sometimes the spirit riseth so high that it expresly complains of God as if the parties grieved would set themselves above him and call him to their bar and be the judges of God and his dispensations so did the Israelites Numb 14.3 Wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land Oh horrid pride and insolencie they challenge God as if he had wronged and deceived them in bringing them from Egypt Such men practice what Jobs wife tempted him unto in his sickness Job 2.9 Curse God and dye they have cursed and blasphemous thoughts of God and his Providence it appears that men do thus judge God Psal 51.4 That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thoâ— judgest implying that God is judged and condemned by wicked men and therefore he is said to justifie and clear himself Oh thou proud worm thou conceited clay judge thy self and not God for he giveth not account of any of his matters and to be sure he will overcome when he is judged 3. A murmuring spirit makes his mercieâ— little and his afflictions great This cursed property is seen in the Israelites for although their deliverance from Egypt was such a Providence as God delights to be owned by Hence he is so often called The God that brought them
about the City that is they go about like the Devils beagles hunting Gods people Well saith David vers 14. seeing they love the sport so well At evening let them return and make a noise like a dog and go round about the City that is let thy judgements so afflict them that they may like hungry and angry Curs go crying and yelling about the City so that here the murmuring of a man in trouble is compared to the yelling of a dog so this sin is compared to the roaring of Bears Isa 59.11 We roar all like bears and Zanchy observes that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated murmurers Phil. â— 14 signifies a noise like the grunting of a swine nay this sin makes a man like the very Devil who is a most restless and discontented spirit and therefore is said Matth. 12.43 To walk about seeking rest and finding none And it is true of many on their sick-beds which we read Hos 7.14 They have not cryed unto me when they have howled viz. like beasts upon their beds Now what a fearful case is this that when in thy sickness thou shouldst have been full of the thoughts and language and savour of a Christian so as to be praying unto and praising and pleasing God and saving and edifying others and quieting and solacing thy own soul that thou shouldst by murmuring and discontent be yelling like a Dog roaring like a Bear howling like a Beast grunting like a Swine and be like a restless and desperate Devil Secondly discontent unfits the soul for every duty you cannot indure to see your children go grumbling to meat and grumbling to School and grumbling to bed and grumbling to ask you blessing so it greatly provokes God to see people go murmuring to prayer and murmuring to Sermons and murmuring to Sacraments Beloved lay this up as a rule and let it always reign in your hearts viz. That a man can never go holily and comfortably to any duty except his heart be reconciled to these three things To God to all men and to all Gods Providences Therefore when a man is quarrelling with God and men and murmuring at all Gods dealings always either complaining that his mercies are too little or his afflictions too great how miserably unfit is such a man to look God in the face in any duty Thirdly murmurers are always miserable according to our Proverb An angry person never wants woe as if a man that hath his body full of sores come in a crowd where he is always jogged and thrust this must needs hurt and vex his sores Beloved a discontented spirit is a sore spirit and the least touch of affliction doth vex it and therefore for such a man to live always in a croud of miseries wherewith he is continually hurt and vext this must needs be a miserable man It is observable that God himself is set to cross such a man Lev. 26.27 28. If ye walk contrary to me I will walk contrary to you As thus God would have you to believe love fear and please him Now you walk contrary to God you deny hate despise and provoke him Well you would have God to bless preserve pardon and save you Oh but God wiâ—l walk contrary to you he will curse destroy and damn you Now they cannot but be in an unquiet condition who have God himself always crossing and thwarting them See Psal 18.26 With the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward If you will be cross with God he will be cross with you and therefore observe when you are discontented something falls out from Wife Children Servants or Neighbours to exasperate and fret you more so that I say this sin makes a man spend his days in bitterness and sorrow Lastly murmurers shall be judged at the last day as ungodly men Jude v. 14 15 16. where we see that when the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints one great work of that day will be to execute judgement on ungodly murmurers and complainers therefore as you fear the portion of murmurers then do not live the life of murmurers now Thirdly this Doctrine reproves those who are so stupid and senceless in their sickness as not to own the hand of Christ in their visitation for seeing all diseases come from him we are to receive them as the good messengers of Christ saying with Naomi Ruth 1.13 The hand of the Lord is gone out against me This stupidity of spirit is that sin whereby men slight and despise the judgments of God so as neither to be affected in the sense of their sins nor of Gods displeasure for them We have a clear instance of this sin Jerem. 10.19 I said truly This is my grief and I must bear it In the beginning of the verse the people sadly bewail their present afflictions Woe is me for my hurt my wound is grievous now it aggravates their present misery to be upbraided with their former stupidity I said viz. in my trouble heretofore truly this is my grief and I must bear it off as well as I can implying that they formerly thought that they could easily bear off the strokes of God We often hear the like confident language from many stupid sinners on their sick beds saying Indeed I am not well I am something out of order but I will strive with it and hope to shake it off shortly and so go on with my building or trading or purchasing c. Thus usually men flatter themselves in their sickness talking as if they were but beginning to live when perhaps they are ready to die these strive to put far from them the evil day Amos 6.3 Like those who boasted that they had made a covenant with death and an agreement with hell Isa 28.15 as if they had made some bargain with Death and Hell and had them in Bond and Covenant not to hurt them this sensless spirit possest those Hos 7.9 Isa 42.25 This sin is forbidden Prov. 3.11 My son despise not the chastening of the Lord. Beloved it is a fearful thing to despise any affliction perhaps yet it is but little but it comes from a great God and upon a great Errand therefore remember Psalm 2.11 If his wrath be kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him Consider further the evil and danger of this sin in two particulars First It doth greatly provoke and call forth the wrath of God Isa 26.11 When thy hand is lifted up they will not see they will take no notice of thy displeasure but they shall see Oh then is the judgment of God fearful on the ungodly when Gods wrath puts them past security when the seared conscience is turned into a gnawing conscience I tell thee sinner if sickness will not awaken thee hell will You know if a Father whip his Childe to humble and melt him it cuts the very heart of his Father to see his Childe laugh in his face So when God visits a
their curses to pass We read of a Mother that in a passion cursed her Son thus Get thee gone I would thou mightest never come again alive and the same day her Son went into the water and was drowned Another woman said in her anger to her Childe The Devil take thee and presently the poor childe was possessed with the Devil These and many more such dreadful examples should make all afraid of such or any other words of cursing Consider once more that every man should have his heart filled with love unto and earnest desires of the good of all men and should be always in a frame to offer up these desires in prayer to God Now how contrary to this is that devillish spirit which inclines thee to hate and to curse others The Apostle James sets out the great hypocrisie and wickedness of a man who with the same tongue will bless God and curse men James 3.9 10. Therewith bless we God even the Father and therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing My brethren these things ought not so to be Lastly This Doctrine reproves those who hasten diseases and death to themselves by their own sins I may reason with such sinners in Solomons words Eccles 7.17 Be not over-much wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldst thou die before thy time It is not meant the time absolutely appointed by God for that cannot be prevented but it 's meant that time which in the course of nature they might have probably lived unto as a Lamp will burn till the Oyl be spent but it may be quencht or blown out sooner So in the course of nature many a man might have probably lived many a year but oftentimes either by a sudden blast of God or by some diseases which are bred by his own sins the lamp of his life is quickly blown out and some of such sins I shall here particularly reprove I might instance in that horrible sin of self-murder which ordinarily proceeds from pride unbelief revenge covetousness discontent or despair when men cannot despite God and man enough by their lives they will attempt to do it by their deaths and will venture with their own hands to cut the thred of their own lives and to loose themselves out of the troubles of earth into the torments of hell I might also mention the horrid sins of Treason Murder Witchcraft Theft c. which sins binde their bodies to the wrath and justice of men and their souls and bodies to the wrath and vengeance of God These sins bring men to be hanged like dogs because they could not be contented to live like men I shall instance in these five sins which do provoke God to visit men with diseases some of which do of their own nature bring men to untimely sickness and death 1. Persecution of Gods people This is a sin which doth not only bring everlasting damnation hereafter but usually it also brings some fearful judgments on the bodies and families of Persecutors here Hence we read Psalm 55.23 Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their daies It would take up far more room then I can here spare to instance in the fearful examples of Gods vengeance upon the very bodies of the cruel enemies of Gods Church and people whereby we might see that all the cruelty which the most barbarous persecutors have invented to torment the Christians with hath not been comparable to those torments wherewith God hath tortured their Enemies with fearful and strange diseases We read of that bloody Herod who murdered the Infants Matth. 2.16 that he was smitten by the hand of God with a most shameful and painful disease so that his body boiled and burnt with heat and his bowels were gnawn he was tormented with a ravenous and insatiable appetite after meat his privy parts were rotten and full of filthy vermine and after he had endured a while the horririble pangs of a lingring death he died in desperate madness and misery See Eusebius Ecclesiastic Histor Lib. 1. Cap. 8. Tertullian amongst other examples of the like kinde reports that one Claudius Herminianus in Cappadocia being enraged that his Wife was turned Christian to revenge himself did exercise much cruelty upon the precious Christians for which God did smite him with a fearful plague wherewith after a while he was tormented he dyed ad Scapulam cap. 3. Steven Gardiner a bloudy butcher in Queen Maries days hearing that Bishop Ridley and Master Latimer were burned at Oxford rejoyced greatly and being at dinner ate his meat merrily but whilst the meat was in his mouth the wrath of God came upon him so that he was taken from his board to bed where continuing fifteen days in intolerable anguish by reason he could not expel his urine his body being miserably inflamed within he was brought to a wretched end with his tongue all black and swoln hanging out of his blasphemous mouth I shall conclude this by warning all that either love their souls lives or posterity or country to take heed of wronging the precious people of God the truth is the Nation which persecutors are a curse unto and the souls of persecutors themselves are dearer to godly Christians then all their own private interest which persecution can take from them and therefore I say to all malicious enemies as Tertullian said to Scapula a Ruler in Carthage and a cruel enemy to Christians Parce tibi si non nobis parce Carthagini si non tibi Spare thy self if thou wilt not spare us spare Carthage if thou wilt not spare thy self So I say if ye will not spare the holy people of God spare your selves if ye will not spare your selves spare your families spare your poor children if you will not spare your families spare the precious nation spare London spare England for you swallow up all by swallowing up Gods people The second sin which I shall here reprove is unworthy receiving the Lords Supper God often punisheth this sin with bodily diseases Hence we read 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Now that you may know the evil and danger of this sin I shall shew you what it is to eat and drink the Lords Supper unworthily A man eats and drinks the Lords Supper unworthily when he is without the gracious qualifications which make the heart fit and meet and agreeable to this blessed Ordinance The best way to understand this is to consider what is in the Ordinance and what is in the heart and then by comparing them together to see whether they do meet and agree as for example in the Lords Supper Jesus Christ crucified with all the blessings of the Gospel are shewed forth 1 Cor. 11.26 well and there is a Believer who by faith sees and discerns the Lords Body as it is set forth therein now such a heart and the
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
then that time must needs be precious which gives thee an opportunity to gain these The Apostle determines this 2 Cor. 6.2 Now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation Now God is offering Christ for thy Salvation now the Spirit is striving for thy Salvation now Ministers are praying preaching and travelling for thy Salvation Thus God fills thy time with salvation-work Oh then what a mercy it is to be restored to such precious opportunities when perhaps if thou hadst dyed in thy last sickness thou wast in great danger to be damned and now thou hast time to labour to be saved The second Duty to be performed by those who are restored to health is this Keep up a frequent remembrance of thy visitation and of the Lords dealing with thee therein It seems by the contents of it that David penned Psalm 38. in a time of great sickness and it 's very observable that he gives that Psalm this title A psalm of David to bring to remembrance Implying that one special use of this Psalm was to bring his sickness to remembrance Whence we may learn that it is our duty in our health to be often remembring the hand of God in our sickness when thou art full of mirth and findest thy heart apt to be loose from God in thy recreations then remember the pains of sickness and this will cause a spirit of moderation and sobriety to rule thy heart when thou art going to worship God it may much quicken thee with a new and fresh spirit to consider how near thou wast to eternity in such a sickness and to go to duty as one that is newly risen out of a sick-bed and that thou art still praying hearing receiving Sacraments as it were in the very gates of death So when thou art tempted to any sin remember thy sickness consider Wilt thou bring again upon thy self an Ague Fever Dropsie Consumption c Beloved in abundance of cases it will do your souls much good to be often remembring your visitation Thirdly examine what good thou hast got by thy visitation Beloved many come out of a sickness like Rogues out of a gaol Rogues they went in and worse Rogues they come out So they were Drunkards Whoremongers Persecutors of Gods people when they went into sickness and are far worse and more hardned in their sins when they come out of sickness Let us therefore all examine what good we have got by our sickness as you know after a man hath been in a course of Physick he observes whether he coughs less or burns less c. and whether his stomack be better and strength better and sleep better so if thou hast been in a course of sickness observe whether thy corruptions abate and whether thy heart be better since thy visitation is pride less and peevishness less and covetousness less and canst thou pray better and sanctifie Sabbaths better and hear Sermons better and is thy discourse better and thy life better David upon search found sweet experience of the blessed effect of his affliction Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy statutes So canst thou say Before I was sick I could not endure to be provoked I was very light and loose in company I was very apt to be proud and self-conceited but now I bless God I am more patient and more serious and more humble Fourthly take special care to avoid sin after thy recovery I say to thee as Christ said to another upon the same occasion Joh. 5.14 Thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Thou thoughtest thy disease was very bad and grievous but consider there are worse things then thy sickness was worse pains and worse miseries Oh then sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee I shall press this duty in these four Particulars First watch especially against those sins which thou wast most inclined unto before thy sickness Some conceive that the impotent man before-mentioned was visited especially for some particular sin which our Saviour did particularly aim at in bidding him sin no more The Apostle tells us of some 2 Pet. 2.22 that return with the dog to his own vomit where he compares those that seemed to loath sin and after return to the same sin to a sick dog which when he hath eased himself by vomiting up that which made him sick goes and licks up again his own loathsome vomit and so we see very many who lick up in time of health those very sins which they seemed to loath and vomit up in time of sickness Beloved sin appears in its actings most strong when the instruments are most strong therewith a man commits it and the weakness of the instruments causeth a weakness in the actings of sin and therefore when the body is weak all those sins which are fulfilled by the body seem weak too but now when the body gathers strength as a man hath strength to eat and strength to work and strength to walk so without the mighty power of the Spirit strength will also return into sin Therefore I say Watch and pray and fight against those sins which thou wast most apt to commit before thy sickness Secondly take heed of surfetting with the profits and pleasures and preferments of the world for as a man after long fasting is apt to surfeit when he returns to his meat so when a man by sickness hath been long with-held from the creature there appears such a fresh kinde of pleasure and delight in the world and the heart is so eager in the desires of it that there is great danger of being glutted with it We should therefore receive all the blessings of the creature as the Israelites did eat the Pass-over Exod. 12.11 where we finde that they were to eat the Pass-over as those that were ready to go out of Egypt towards Canaan with their loyns girt their shoes on their feet their staves in their hands and they were to eat it in haste So my Brethren we should eat drink buy fell work take our recreations as those that are hasting away into eternity and as if we were ready drest to go to heaven Thirdly Beware of security for we are apt herein to be like Pharaoh who when one plague was past thought himself safe enough from that or any other So when one fit of sickness is past we look for no more but dream of a long time of ease and peace and health before us but we should be rather like one that is sick of an Ague who when the fit is over eats drinks and is merry but yet he looks for another fit So Sirs is a sickness over and past why I do not deny but that God who hath given thee a stomach and provided food would have thee to eat and drink and he that hath created matter for thy delight and made thee a risible creature doth allow thee to be merry and
and gallants of the proud presumptuous scornful unbelieving envious sâ—cure covetous world are now flaming in and consider that thou deservest to lye in the midst of them and therefore now the greatest care of thy soul should be how to be saved from those unquenchable flames Then look into heaven into thy Fathers house and behold there the high and lofty one dwelling in that high and holy place and the Lord Jesus sitting at his right hand in glory and an innumerable company of Angels looking him in the face and there see a great multitude of blessed and glorified Saints Illic Apostolorum gloriosus chorus illic Prophetarum exultantium numerus illic Martyrum innumerabilis populus There is the glorious quire of Apostles there is a company of triumphant Prophets and there is an innumerable multitude of blessed Martyrs saith Cyprian There thou mayst see those who were upon earth the poor reviled despised afflicted persecuted imprisoned banisht hang'd burnt Children of the most high God whom the world could not bear but are now happily possest of their everlasting Kingdom where they are filled and satisfied with the likeness and presence of God and are singing and rejoycing with unspeakable joy to behold his glory And then consider Yonder is the place wherein I am now to seek to enter And thus let thy sickness fill thee with the deep and serious thoughts of death judgement and the world to come Duty 3. Be sure of a well-grounded Scripture-peace setled betwixt God and thy soul It 's a good saying That the day of death is a day of truth See therefore that thou hast a peace which will prove true and sound when it comes to the great tryal of death and judgement The unbeliever is not then to be tryed at the bar of his own secure and seared conscience nor by a Jury of carnal atheistical neighbours The Believer hath then a present appeal from the â—ash and false judgement of his enemies and also from the dismal sentences of his own doubting heart and the Cause of both is presently to go to a hearing before the judgement-seat of Christ Now see that thy peace be setled on such a sure foundation that thou mayst be found in safety and glory when thou art called to appear before the Judge of quick and dead There are two main things which may assure thy heart of peace and reconciliation with God 1. If Christs righteousness be thy own so that as sure as thou art a sinner in thy self thou art righteous in and by the righteousness and obedience of Jesus Christ See therefore that all causes agree to make this righteousness thy own 1. Set the Lord before thy eyes and be able to say I know and am surely convinced that God is a good God a living kinde and merciful God and that he is good to poor sinners by the salvation of whom he hath chosen to make his goodness glorious to all eternity I know that there are forgivenesses with him that he hath a heart to pardon iniquity transgression and sin that he is inclin'd and ready to pardon according to his infinite goodness and loving kindness and this goodness is the cause of all that great Salvation revealed in the Gospel and I come to him and my soul doth cleave to him and love him and all my expectation is from him as he is a God of such infinite and incomprehensible goodness 2. I know that out of this infinite goodness he hath sent Jesus Christ to me that to me a childe is born and to me a son is given Isai 9.6 I know surely that he came out from the Father and I do believe that he hath sent him John 17.8 I know that the Son of God is come and hath given me an understanding that I might know him that is true and I am in him that is true This is the true God and eternal life 3. God hath herein commended his love to my soul in that Christ dyed for me and I know this true God the Lord Jesus Christ did in his infinite love to me as my Surety dye for me and thereby satisfied Gods justice for my sins which he bore in his body upon the tree 1 Pet. 4.24 And that he loved me and gave himself for me an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling savour 4. I know that it is the will of God concerning me that I should take this righteousness of Jesus Christ to be mine for he hath commanded me to take his â—ody as broken for me and his Bloud â—s shed for the remission of my sins And this is his commandment that I â—ould believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ 5. I know that God by his Spirit hath convinced me that I am lost without Christ and that he hath made me to see his righteousness so precious and meritorious and necessary for my Salvation that I do by the power of his Spirit willingly obediently lovingly and joyfully receive and take this righteousness of Christ for my own and rest onely upon it for the pardon of my sins and for my Salvation as it is freely offered and given by God to me in the Gospel Lastly I know that God hereupon imputes this righteousness to me and accounts it my righteousness and that I am bound to account it my own so as to own it live upon it and to glory in it and by this righteousness God justfies me being he is just and the justifier of them that believe in Jesus Rom. 3.26 And thus being justified by faith in Christs righteousness I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5.1 And hereby I have a right through the free grace of God to go from my sick-bed into the everlasting Kingdom of peace And when I am called to the Judgement-seat of Christ being found in his righteousness I shall be found of him in peace without spot and blameless 2. That thou mayst be assured of a Scripture-peace and reconciliation with God labour to finde thy self truely joyned and united to Jesus Christ thy whole body and soul joyned to all of Christ so as with him to make one self one mystical Christ that thou mayst be able to say As poor and weak as I lye here groaning on this bed of languishing yet this aking head pale face weak hands feeble limbs withered body is all a member of Christs body of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5.30 For by the grace of God I can say that whereas I am in my self a dead plant and as separated from Christ can doing nothing yet by faith my heart is truely rooted in Christ and I do receive him to rule me as my Lord according to his will and to teach and every way to save me and my minde is set upon him and my heart and affections do cleave and are fastned to him and there comes true spirit and life from him which spreads and works in