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heaven, Will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing, or as it might be rendered, will support him, or hold him up there*: Thou wilt make all his bed in his sicknesst: Some would literally render it, thou wilt change his bed, and explain it of turning a bed of pain and distress into a couch of pleasure and delight; supposing it alludes to their custom of lying on couches in their banquets. But I think the image which our translation suggests equally suits the original, and is, on account of its tenderness, greatly to be preferred. The good man is now supposed in his turn to be brought low by illness, so exceeding low, that he is not able so much as to sit up in his bed; and God does not disdain to represent himself under the image of an affectionate friend, or parent, who holds him up in his arms; and himself assists in turning his bed, and making it easy to him, when, being too weak to rise, he is only able to shift the sides.

Amazed and charmed with an expression of so much condescension and endearment, I set myself, with additional pleasure, as in the presence of this compassionate God, to open my mouth, and plead the cause of the poor and the afflicted; and would attempt to cultivate in your minds, and in my own, the temper which the words recommend. That I may do it in the most suitable and useful manner, I shall,

I. Represent the reasonableness of a compassionate temper, towards those in general, who are languishing on beds of sickness.

II. Shew how wise and happy a method of expressing our compassion towards such, that which is now recommended to us is likely to prove: And,

III. Conclude with the mention of some circumstances in the present situation of affairs, by which the design is peculiarly recommended to us at this time.

I. Let me represent in general how reasonable it is, that we should feel compassion in our hearts towards those, who languish under the burden of bodily disorders, and particularly are confined to beds or chambers of sickness.

And this you will not only see, but feel too, if you reflecton the calamity of their state;―on the tender sense they naturally have of the treatment they meet with in it;-and how liable we ourselves are to the same circumstances of distress.

1. Consider the calamity of their state.

Some of you know it by familiar acquaintance, by dear

כל משכבו הפכת כהליו *

יםעדנן

bought personal experience, and must have The worm-wood and the gall in a long and painful remembrance*. Go back in your thoughts to those chambers, which you were almost ready to consider as your sepulchres, and those beds, from whence perhaps you expected to rise up no more, or which seemed as racks, if not as graves, to you; and then say, whether you were not objects of compassion yourselves, and whether others, in the like circumstances, must not necessarily be so. Others of you have, no doubt, been conversant with the sick and the pained: Reflect on what you then saw and heard; and let your eye, and your ear affect your heart.

There are indeed some, who seem solicitous to keep as much as possible from the sight of such mournful objects; as if they were afraid, that in such a circumstance an involuntary kind of humanity should invade their hearts, and force them on a sudden, and as it were before they are well aware of it, to do something more generous than they care to allow themselves in. But no man, who hath lived any time in the world, can be such a stranger to human nature, and to human life, as not to know something of the various distempers and accidents to which we are liable in this feeble state, and of the sad symptoms of sorrow that attend them: Fatal effects of the entrance of sin into this world of ours, and awful monuments of the divine displeasure against the first instance of it!

I am not indeed learned enough to run over the tenth part of those names, which physicians have given to the various maladies under which their aid is demanded. But the fever, the dropsy, the gout, the stone, the rheumatism, the cholic, the asthma, the cancer, the palsy, consumptions, and the like, are words of dreadful import; to the general signification of which few are strangers, though perhaps none, who have not themselves laboured under them, can distinctly understand how much terror they express.

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Let us however think a little closely, for the thought may have an apparent tendency to humble and to humanize our hearts, into how sad an object the greatest, the richest, the strongest, and the fairest of mankind is reduced in a few weeks or days, when attacked by any of these, and crushed, as it were, into an early, and an untimely old age. When thou, Lord, with thy rebukes dost correct man for his iniquity, how dost thou cause his beauty and his vigour to consume away like a moth†, which moulders under the lightest touch! How are all the services of

*Lam. iii. 19, 20.

† Psal. xxxix. 11.

life obstructed, and all its choicest pleasures blasted at once, as the opening blossoms of spring by the severity of winds and frosts! According to that most natural description of Job, when a man is Chastened with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain, how does his life abhor bread, and his soul dainty meat; so that his flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen, and his bones, which were not seen, stick out* ! In some distempers, what convulsive strugglings, what terrible heavings and pantings for breath! In others, what deep sighs do we observe, what piercing groans, what doleful cries! Or in persons of a more resolute temper, amidst a painful silence, what earnest speaking looks, while perhaps large drops of sweat are trickling down the face, and nature seems, as it were, to be weeping its distress at every pore! And in cases less acute than these, what Months of vanity are many active souls made to possess, and what wearisome nights are appointed to them +! How slowly do the hours and the moments roll away, while In the evening they say, would to God it were morning; and in the morning, would to God it were evening! But find themselves equally disappointed in their expectations of relief, from the silence of the night, or the amusements of the day: Till at length perhaps nature is weakened to such a degree, that it can scarce bear the voice of the dearest friend, if a little louder than a whisper, or endure so much light as shall discover his countenance! God only knows, how many are at this moment in a condition sadder than I have described, while we are ourselves At ease in Zion §, and Are too little grieved for the afflictions of our brethren. Yet surely, if we have any thing of the man, and the christian, we cannot be wholly unmoved, but must feel some tender solicitude rising in our hearts, and must be casting about in our thoughts for some proper manner of expressing it; especially when we consider,

2. The peculiar tenderness of the spirits in such circumstances as these, and that exquisite sensibility, either of regard, or neglect, which is almost inseparable from them.

Such is the vanity of human friends, that they can do much to wound, where they can do very little to heal; their negligence can greatly afflict, where their most solicitous care can administer very little comfort. And this is more especially the case in sickness. When the blood is impoverished, when the animal

*Job xxxiii. 19, 20, 21.
§ Amos vi. 1.

VOL. III.

+ Job vii. 3.

Amos vi. 6.
N

Deut. xxviii. 67.

spirits are weakened, and when melancholy humours prevail in the body, little things impress with a very disproportionate weight. Solomon hath observed long ago, that when Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop, then a good word maketh it peculiarly glad*. And by a parity of reason, then, any thing that looks like unkindness in a friend pierces much deeper, than at another time; when nature is in all its vigour, and the business and amusements of life divert the mind from pausing on such things, and the imagination from dressing them up in colours of its own, which, unnatural as they often are, appear to the distempered mind inherent in the objects themselves. Sick people likewise, conscious to themselves that they cannot but be less agreeable than at other times, easily conclude, that they grow insupportably burdensome to those about them: And if great care be not taken to prevent it, they will be very ready to infer, that their friends are wearied out with them; and perhaps will secretly suspect, they wish them out of the way, that they may be eased of their burden: While they imagine, like Job, that were their friends in such an afflicted state as themselves, they should study all opportunities of softening their sorrows, by every circumstance of the most tender address +: And then they bemoan themselves, and think, surely it is enough to bear all this illness and pain, without having the unkindness of such and such a friend added to it: And so perhaps, the saddest complaints of Job‡, David §, and Heman ||, are thought over as applicable to their sorrowful condition.

This is indeed very often their infirmity; but we should bear it, and pity it, and study, as well as we can, to accommodate ourselves to it: For it undoubtedly makes their case much more afflicted, and therefore more compassionable. And it will especially appear so, if we reflect,

3. How liable we ourselves are, to share in these sorrows and these infirmities.

This thought is beautifully touched upon by the apostle, when he says, Remember those that suffer affliction, as being yourselves also in the body¶: As if he should have said, “In necessary consequence of being in the body, you are yourselves obnoxious to the like affliction; and therefore should readily impart to your afflicted brethren such assistances, as you in a change of circumstances would reasonably desire."

And is it not most evidently the case here? What are We

*Prov. xii, 25.

xix. 2, 3, 14-22. Ixxxviii. 8, 18.

Job vi. 14. xvi. 5. Job vi. 15. xiii. 4, 13. xvi. 2, 20. Psal. xxxviii. 11. Iv. 12, 13. Ixix. 8, 20. cxlii. 4. Psal. Heb. xiii. 3.

Sirs, better than our fathers? Better than our brethren? Better than those, who have drooped, and sunk, and died, under such burdens as those I have described? Is our strength the strength of stones, or is our flesh of brass †, that we should plead an exemption from sorrows and complaints common to our species? In all probability, they await us; and would await us, if we were nobles and princes of the earth: And God only knows, how soon we are to begin our encounter with them, or how soon they may complete their victory over us, and bring us beyond the reach of being helpful to men, or receiving help from them.

And, which is peculiarly interesting, these are probably some of our last scenes. When we have done with our merchandise, our husbandry, or our studies; when we have finished our journies, our visits, our sports, and our feasts, we must, unless death surprise us with a very sudden blow, retire into our chambers of illness to come out no more, but languish away the remainder of our days there, till the moment of our exit from life shall come. There shall we need the compassion, we are now exhorted to extend; shall need all the relief, which a generous heart may then feel, in a consciousness of having been, in its better days, an helper to the afflicted; and above all, shall need that divine consolation, which God is ready to impart to that blessed man, who has considered him that is brought low, so graciously expressed in the text, by holding him up on his bed of languishing, and by making all his bed in his sickness.

And therefore, in the conclusion of this head, let me intreat you to Suffer the word of exhortation‡, and to bear away in your hearts a firm resolution of doing all you can, to be helpful to the sick, whatever their other circumstances in life be, as providence may give you an opportunity and call. Consider those that are brought low; Reflect seriously and tenderly on their condition; for they sometimes suffer a great deal from the mere inattention of those about them, who yet could not bear on any terms deliberately to do what they apprehended cruel or unkind. Let us, as afflicted Job expresses it, (for afflicted persons know best how to speak of afflictions,) Put our souls into their souls stead. Let us inwardly commiserate their melancholy case; and let our behaviour express that commiseration in the most natural and genuine manner. Let us be ready, where it may be useful to them, to visit them; for visiting the sick is, you know, mentioned among those acts of charity, which Christ

*1 Kings xix. 4.

+Job vi. 12.

Heb. xiii. 22.

§ Job xvi. 4.

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