WITH A RETURN OF PRAISE. 155
^Tiither can a man go from this arrow, but that God being everywhere, might smite him with the pestilence ? Now, in that he hath watched over us, and kept us from this noisome contagious sickness, and hath brought us altogether here quietly and freely, that so there may be intercourse between man and man in trading and other calling, this is the fourth ground of ' praising of God.'
5. And that it did not rarje in other j^iarts. In former time God scattered the pestilence more over the kingdom. It is a great matter to bless God for. I beseech you, let us say with the same spirit as this holy man here, ' Oh that men, therefore, would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for the wonders that he doth for the children of men ! ' — for his goodness, that he would rather correct us here than damn us ; for his goodness, that he would not give US' up to our enemies ; for his goodness, that he stayed the infection so suddenlj^, and that he stayed the spreading of it further ; for his goodness unto us in particular, that he hath kept us all safe.
"What shall we do now but consecrate and dedicate these lives of ours ; for he gives us our lives more than once, at the beginning. There is never a one here but can say by experience, God hath given me my life at such a time and such a time. Let us give these lives again to God, labour to reform our former courses, and enter into a new covenant with God. This is one part of thanksgiving, to renew our covenant with God, to please him better ; and indeed, in every thanksgiving that should be one ingredient. Now, Lord, I intend and resolve to please thee better. Whatsoever my faults have formerly been, I resolve by thy grace and assistance to break them o&\ Without this, all the other is but a dead performance.
Now, briefly, by way of analogy and proportion, to raise some medita- tions from that that hath been delivered concerning the body, to the soul ; for God is the physician both to soul and body.
If God with his word can heal our bodies, as the psalmist saith here, much more can he with his word heal our soul. There are many that their bodies are well, thanks be to God, but how is it with their souls ? Here you have some symptoms to know their spiritual state ; and oh that people were apprehensive of it ! Have you not many that their ' soul loatheth all manner of meat,' and they ' draw near the gates of death ? ' Their souls are in a desperate state. They are deeply sick. How shall we know it ? Their soul ' abhorreth all manner of wholesome meat.' How many are there that relish poets and history, any trifle that doth but feed their vain fancy, and yet cannot relish the blessed truth and ordinances of God? Where is spiritual life when this spiritual sense is gone, when men cannot rehsh holy things ? If they relish the ordinance of God, it is not the spiritual part of it, so far as the Spirit toucheth the conscience, but some- thing that, it may be, is suitable to their conceit, expressions, or phrases, or the like. But it is a symptom and sign of a fearful declining state when men do not rehsh the spiritual ordinances of God, which should be, as it were, 'their appointed food;' when they do not ' delight to acquaint them- selves with God,' in hearing of the word, and reading, and the hke. Let such, therefore, as delight not in spiritual things, know that their souls lie gasping ; they are at the ' gates ' of spiritual death. All is not well. There is some fearful obstruction upon the soul that takes away the appetite. The soul runs into the world over much. They cloy themselves with the world. When men cannot relish heavenly things, they are ate up with the delight and joy of other things, pleasui'cs, and profits.
li5G A RESCUE FROM DEATH,
Let them search the cause, and labour for purging, sharp, things that may procure an appetite.
Let them judge themselves, and see what is the matter, that they do not dehght more in heavenly things ; let them purge themselves by confession to God, and consideration of their sins, and labour to recover their appe- tite. For it is almost a desperate estate, * they are at the gates of death.'
Especially now when avc come to the communion. What do we here, if we cannot relish the food of our souls ? Let us examine if we desire to taste the love of God, and to be acquainted with God here. If not, what shall we do in these spiritual distempers ?
Desire of God, cry to God, that he would forgive our sins and heal our souls by his Holy Spirit, that he would make us more spiritual, to relish heavenly things better than we have done before, that as the things that are heavenly are better in their kind than other things are, so they may be better to our taste.