Now if the occasions for joy and thankfulness are so similar, ought not our expressions of thankfulness to be similar also ? Ought we not to render unto God according to the benefits he hath conferred upon us ? Yes, surely. Did Hezekiah then make his deliverance a matter of universal praise ? let us stir up both ourselves and others to a devout and holy joy on ac- count of the recovery of our king. Did he determine that he would make it a subject of public thanksgiving? let us do the same : and did he determine to remember it and sing of it all his days? let us endeavour to keep upon our minds a lively sense of this mercy, and not provoke God to withdraw it from us by our ingratitude.]
2. To excite our gratitude for the mercies of re- demption—
[We all without exception are sick nigh unto death : what Isaiah says of the Jews is applicable to every nation upon earth : " the whole head," says he, " is sick ;" that is, the kings and nobles, and all the governors in church and state, are infected with a mortal disease ; " and the whole heart is faint," that is, the people at large, without any exception, are dying of the same malady : " from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in us, but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores." Sin is this deadly disorder, and unless we be recovered from it, the consequence must be dreadful to us all. We are not left to conjecture what this may be ; we know ; we know for certain; we know that no temporal calamity whatever can be compared with it : we know that our disorder, if not speedily cured, must issue in everlasting death; in an everlasting separation of soul and body from God, and in an everlasting suffering of divine vengeance. But we are fullv warranted to say with Hezekiah in the text, " the Lord is ready to save us." Of all the thousands and tens of thousands who came to our Lord for healing when he was on earth, not so much as one applied in vain : nor did ever any one call upon him for spiritual healing without experiencing his readiness to save. And is he not " the same yesterday, to-day, and
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