3. What ground of thankfulness to Christ —
[1.] That he hath made our peace with God at so dear a rate. All your repentings, if you had wept out your eyes for sin, would not have made your peace with God, nor have satisfied his justice, nor procured pardon and life for you. Now God is appeased, Christ having ' slain the enmity by his cross,' Eph. ii. 16.
[2.] That the new covenant is procured, wherein pardon and salva- tion is offered to you, as sealed by the blood of Christ, who hath paid our debts: Luke xxii. 20, 'This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.' There had been else no place for your repentance, faith, prayer, or hopes.
[3.] That such free and easy conditions of mercy, with power to per- form them, are propounded in the gospel : ' Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us, for thou also hast wrought all our works in us,' Isa. xxvi. 12.
[4.] That he should call us, and have such favourable thoughts to us, who for a long time were dead in sin, and in hostility against him : Kom. V. 10, ' For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.'
PREACHED ON A DAY OF PUBLIC THANKSGIVIiNG.
But Hezekiah rendered not according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart loas lifted up : therefom^e ivraih ivas upon him, and upon Judah and. Jerusalem. — 2 Chron. xxxii. 25.
That I may not detain you in a preface, let me tell you the words hold forth —
1. A sin, ' But Hezekiah rendered not according to the benefit done unto him.'
2. The proof and argument of it, ' For his heart was lifted up.'
3. The sad effects and punishment of it, both as to his own person and the people under his government.
Let me explain these branches, and then come to observe something in order to the work of the day. I know, christians, you look not for things luscious, but savoury.
1. In the sin there was a benefit done unto him, and Hezekiah's fault is that he ' rendered not accordingly.' The benefit done him implieth a complication of mercies ; not only his miraculous recovery out of sickness, and fifteen years added more to his life, but also the destruction of his enemies the Assyrians ; mercies which fell out near about the same time ; though I dare not say, with the Jewish Avi-iters, that three days before the slaughter of the Assyrians this sickness and recovery fell out ; yet certainly they were near together, as appeareth from 2 Kings xx. 6, ' And I will add unto thy days fifteen years, and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria.' The report of which flying abroad, all the princes round about him stood in awe of him ; his neighbours sent him presents ; his treasures were increased ; yea, nations remote, and those of no small power, as the king of Babylon, reckoned to be seven hundred mUes distant from Jerusalem, sent congratulatory embassies to his court. Well, then, Hezekiah was looked upon as one highly in favour with God, honoured of men, coiu'ted on every side with costly and precious presents, and so grew full of treasure and wealth. When such strong winds fill the sails, it is hard to steer right. This was the benefit done to him ; all things fell out according to his heart's desire, and concurred to the lift-
384 SERMON PREACHED ON A DAY OF PUBLIC THANKSGIVING.
ing up his heart : ' Hezekiah rendered not according.' How can that be ? He was a holy man and a thankful man. He penneth a psalm of thanksgiving, and sung it yearly as a memorial of God's mercies to him ; Isa. xxxviii. 9, ' The writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness.' God will not be complimented with. It is not words and ceremonies, formal acknow- ledgments and days of thanksgiving, that God standeth upon, but holy and humble carriage under mercies ; and therefore Hezekiah, though he rendered somewhat to God, he ' rendered not according.' There was a defect which is here charged as his sin. He should have carried it more humbly, as holding his life and kingdom and everything of the grace of God.
2. The proof and argument. How doth it appear that he rendered not according ? ' His heart was lifted up.' There is a twofold lifting up of the heart — in a way of zeal and encouragement in the Lord's ways. So it is said of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xvii. 5, 6, that he had ' presents, and riches, and honours in abundance ; and his heart was lifted up in the way of the Lord : moreover he took away the high places and groves out of Judah.' This is a good lifting up, when a man groweth cheerful and undaunted in the Lord's work, and therefore falleth a-reforming, whatever it cost him. He knoweth the God of his mercies will bear him out. But there is a carnal lifting up of the heart, in a way of pride and vainglory, or daring violence and oppression. Thus it is said of Amaziah, after he had smitten the Edomites, 2 Chron. XXV. 19, 'That his heart was lifted up to boast ; ' and this was in part Hezekiah's sin. Indeed it is not easy to state the kind of his pride.