Tho' be fuffer us to be evil intreated: yet helpeth he the meek out of mifery, or maketh all his bed in his fickness, Pfal. xli, 3.

For it is neither herb, nor mollifying plaifter, that reftoreth men to health: but thy word, O Lord, which healeth all things, Wild. xvi, 12.

My time is always in thy hand; unto God the Lord belong the illues of life and death, Pfal. xxxi. 17.

lxviii. 20.

All creatures wait upon thee: when thou openest thy hand they are filled with good, Pfal. civ. 27.

When thou fendeft forth thy Spirit, they are created; when thou hideft thy face, they are troubled; when thou takeft away their breath, they die, and are turned again to their duft, ver. 28, 29, 30,

I will fing to the Lord as long as I live: I will praife my God, while I have my being, ver. 33. My meditation of him fhall be fweet fhall be in the Lord, ver. 34.

and my joy

When thou faidft, Seek ye my face: my heart faid unto me, Thy face, Lord, will I feek, Pfal. xxvii. 8. O hide not thy face from me: nor caft away thy fervant in difpleafure, ver. 9.

Thou hast been my helper: leave me not, neither forfake me, O God of my falvation, ver. 10.

Some put their trust in ftrength of nature; and fome in medicines: but I will remember the name of the Lord our God, Pfal. xx. 7.

O put not your trust (in phyficians, nor) in any child of man for there is no help in them, Pfal. cxlvi. 2.

But blessed is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help: and whofe hope is in the Lord his God, ver. 4.

Save, Lord, and hear me, O King of Heaven: when I call upon thee, Pfal. xx. 9.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, &c.
As it was in the Beginning, &c.

PRAYER.

Almighty God, the father of the spirits of all flesh, whofe never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth: I defire, with the profoundest humility and reverence, to proftrate both my foul and body before thee, begging that thou would't give me grace, to behold and admire thy providence, in all thy difpenfations towards my felf and the rest of mankind. I acknowledge it thy bounty, that I ever was at all; and adore thy mercy and long Juffering, for preferving me thus long in the land of the living. My many days and years of health and comfort were thy gift; and the recoveries from former fickneffes, as well as the prevention of thofe dangers and difeafes I never felt, are owing to thee alone. Man doth not live by bread and care, nor is relieved by medicines only, but by the word and bleffing which proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Grant me, I beseech thee, a ftrong and due fenfe of my entire dependance upon thee, and grace to improve under, and behave my felf in conformity to that unques tionable truth. That whether the means used for my eafe and relief fucceed, I may afcribe all the glory and thanks to thee alone: Or whether thou thinkeft fit to deny them their intended effects, I may humble my felf under thy mighty hand, and remember that thou, Lord, haft done it. Infpire me, I beseech thee, with that true and heavenly wisdom, which may help me to Bbb 2 difcern

difcern aright the reafons, and enable me to anfwer the ends of this correction, and all other thy dealings with me. That I may patiently bear the rod, and glorify him who hath appointed it; and, in all conditions, fubmit my felf entirely to thy good pleasure, and praife God in the day of my vifitation. So fhall this weakness of my body contribute to the ftrengthning of my virtues, and the health of my foul; through the merits of him, who redeemed them both at the price of his own precious blood; even thy fon, my ever blessed Saviour, Jefus Christ our Lord.

and Amen.

MED. II.

Of the power of God, and the affections arifing from thence, viz. Dread of his anger, and trust in his protection.

I.

WH

HICH way foever we turn our eyes, ten thousand objects meet us, which all prove and preach to us the almighty power of God. The glorious fabrick of the univerfe, and every thing contained therein, nay even the meaneft, and, in human esteem, most despicable creature, proclaims aloud the omnipotence of its maker. And the good order, in which these are contained, does as much magnify his preferving, as their existence does his creating, power. But man needs not look abroad : Himself is ten thousand arguments to demonstrate this to himself. The curious ftructure of his body, the excellencies of its divine inhabitant the foul, and the wonderful amazing union, and mutual correspondence

refpondence of both thefe, could be the workmanship of nothing lefs than omnipotence. This mixture of spirit and matter, of perifhing and immortal; the fagacity of the one to influence and govern, the readiness of the other to obey, and be actuated; the sprightliness and vigor, or else the heaviness and diforder, and reciprocal difabilities, which each of thefe convey to the other, are most certainly the Lord's doing, and ought to be marvellous in our eyes. Alas! how should man fubfift one moment, even in the state of his greatest perfection, did not this great artificer watch over his own work, and conftantly fuftain it; did not he check and moderate that conflict, which the warring elements of our body are continually engaging in? But efpecially, now that the corruption of our nature, and the tranfgreffion of our first parent, hath let death and diseases look upon us; there needs no repeated infliction. For, if God be but paffive, and withdraw his restraint, the enemy is always ready to devour us, and we carry the feeds of torment and deftru tion about our own perfons. And God hath fo decreed, that every man fhall once fall by the stroke of death. A decree, which, in our greatest ftrength, in the very bloom and beauty of youth, contrary to our own expectations, or the fears of our most beloved friends, he fometimes executes: To teach us, that our being is wholly precarious, that we have nothing ftable here, no title even to life it felf; but are all concluded by a fentence already pafs'd. For all our days are in the nature of a reprieve; the prolonging whereof is an act of mere mercy, as the cutting it fhort is exempt from the leaft appearance of injuftice. God then cannot want means and op

portunities

portunities for this. All nature is his; the malice of wicked men, the fpight of our foes, the miftaken kindness of our friends, the errors of our phyficians, and the mifapplication of their medicines, are all directed and over-ruled to this end. The humours of our bodies, the temper of the air, and every element indeed when he gives the word, turns Executioner; or, in truth, if he but pleafe to permit, the thing will do it felf. He burns us up by fevers, or drowns us in dropfies; ftrikes us dead in a moment by apoplexies, buries us alive by palfies, confumes us by flow and imperceptible degrees, with lingering confumptions. Thou feeft, my foul, how eafily God can do these things, by a thousand instances of friends and acquaintance gone before thee, and by thy own yet more fenfible experience, in this declining and languishing body of thine. Thou art fenfible now, that no flesh is able to ftand before God, and how quickly we are blafted by the breath of his displeasure. That, to him alone belong power and ftrength, and to poor mortal man, nothing but mifery and weakness, and vanity.

II. Surely (my foul) had these impreffions been fresh and deep upon me heretofore, they would have reftrained my wild career in fin, and prevented many grievous and bold tranfgreffions, which I have reafon to fear might provoke the divine majefty to caft me upon this bed of fickness. For do we provoke the Lord to jealoufy? Are we ftronger than he? Alas! my own condition has taught me, how vain and fool-hardy it is, not only to fight against God, but not to fear and ftand in perpetual awe of him: How fatal to play with this confuming fire:

And