* resurrection as thyself: it were better for thee the}'^ should have a resurrection now in thy heart, than to rise as witnesses against thee, when thou shalt rise out of the dust : that will be a terrible resurrec- tion indeed, when they shall come to plead against thy soul. Nothing pleads more dreadfully against a soul than abused mercy doth. But I shall come to the particulars upon which I interrogate your conscien- ces ; and I pray deal truly and ingenuously in answering these querie?^
Quej\ 1. And, first, I shall demand of you, whether you never had experience of the power and goodness of God, in restoring you to health from dangerous sickness and diseases.'* Have you not somctunes had the sentence of death in yourselves ? And that possibly when you have been in remote parts, far from your friends and relations, and destitute of all means and accommodations. Did you not say in that condition, as Hezekiah did in a like case ? Isa. xxxviii. 10, 11, 12. *' I said, m the cutting off of my da3^s, I shall go to the gates of the '* grave : I am deprived of the I'esidue of my years. I said, I shall " not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living : I shall be- " hold man no more with the inhabitants of the world :" Remem- ber thyself, Man ; canst not thou call to mind the day when the ar- rows of death came whisking by thee, and it may be, hit those next thee ; took away those that were as lively and lusty as thyself, when
• There is a double resurrection of mercy ; a resurrection of mercy in mercy, and a resur- rection of mercy in wrath. It is the first I now labour for, and that to prevent the second*
326 MEECIES AND PROMISES.
you began your voyage, and yet they were cast for death, thou for life, and that when there was but an hair's breadth betwixt thee and the grave ? Tell me, soul, what friend was' that who stood by thee then, when thou wast forsaken of all thy friends ? When it may be thy companions stood ready to throw thee over-board, who was it that pitied and remembered thee in thy low estate ? Who was it that re- buked thy disease ! or, (as * one very aptly expresses it) * restrained ' the humours of thy body from overflowing and drowning thy life ? ' For, wlien they are let out in a sickness, they would overflow and ' drown it, as the waters would the earth, if God should not say to * them, stay, you proud waves."* Who was it, man, that when thy body was brought low and weak, and like a crazy rotten ship in a storm, took in water on all sides, so that all the physicians in the world could not have stopped those leaks ? Consider what hand that was which quieted and calmed the tempestuous sea, careened and mend- ed thy crazy body, and launched thee into the world again, as whole, as sound, as strong as ever ? Was it not the Lord that hath done all this for thee ? Did he not keep back thy soul from the pit, and thy life from perishing? Yea, when thou wast chastened with pain upon thy bed, (as Elihu speaks) Job xxxiii. 19, SO, SI. and the multi- tude of thy bones with strong pains, so that thy life abhorred bread, and thy soul dainty meat ; thy flesh consumed away, that it could not be seen, and thy bones that were not seen, stuck out : Yet then, as it is ver. 28. he delivered thy soul from goi'jg down into the pit, and caused thy life to see the light. Had the lamp of life been then extinguished, thou hadst gone down into endless darkness; hell had shut her mouth upon thee. Now tell me soul, what hast thou done with this precious mercy .'^ Hast thou walked before the Lord in a deep sense thereof, and answered his end therein, which was to lead thee to repentance.'' Or hath thy stupid or disingenuous heart forgotten it, and lost all sense of it, so that God's end is frustrated, and thy salva* tion not a jot furthered thereby ? Oh ! if it be so, woe to thee ! for the blood of this mercy, which thy ingratitude hath murdered, like the blood of Abel cries to God against thee. What a wretch art thou thus to requite the Lord for such a mercy ! He saw thy tears, and heard thy groans, and said within himself, he shall not die, but live. Alas, poor creature ! if I cut him oft' now, he is eternally lost : I will send him back a few years more into the world. I will try him, once more, it mav be he will bear some fruits to me from this deli- verance; and if so, well ; if not, I will cut him down hereafter: He shall be set at liberty upon his good behaviour a little longer. And is all this nothing in thine eyes ? Wretch that thou art, dost thou for- get and slight such a favour as this.?^ is it worth no more in thine eyes ? Well, it would be worth something in the eyes of the poor damned souls, if they might have so many years cut out of their eter-
* Mr. Thomas Goodwin.
MERCIES AKI> PROMISES. S2T
nity, lor a mere intermission of tlieir tonnents, much more as a time of patience and mercy. O consider what pity and goodness thou hast abused !