He gives them, and takes them away at pleasure, or having taken them away, he can give them back when he pleaseth. He kills and he makes alive, he bringeth down to the Grave, and bringeth up, as Hannah said in her Song (1 Sam: 2.6.) How low soever a man is brought by sickness, either proper or metaphorical, the Lord is able to raise him up again. We read (v. 21.) in how pitiful a plight, the sick man was, how rather like a carcass then a living man he looked, His flesh was consumed, that it could not be seen, and his bones which were not seen, stood out; as much as to say, He was nothing but skin and bones; yet, when in that case all hopes were gone, and all natural helps failed, it was no hard matter with God to cure him. When the skill of the Physician, and the virtue of medicines fail, the power of God faileth not. As it is in reference to those outward dangers and desperate exigents, which we meet with in this world by enemies and persecutors, when we look upon our selves as dead men, when all hope of deliverance seems past & gone, then the Lord always can and often doth deliver. The Apostle gives us his experience of it (2 Cor: 1.9, 10.) We had the sentence of death in our selves; he spake not thus in regard of sickness, but of trouble and persecution; As if he had said, The malice and wrath of our enemies was such, that we thought we should never escape, We had the sentence of death in our selves, but providence suffered it to be so, that we should not trust in our selves, but in God who raiseth the dead. As it is (I say) in such dangers, so in dangerous deadly sicknesses; when a poor creature hath the sentence of death in himself, when he makes no other reckoning but to dye, as good King Hezekiah said of himself in his sickness (Isa: 38.13.) I ⟨p. 418⟩reckoned till morning, that, as a Lyon, so will he break all my bones, from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me; yet then as in his case, so in many cases the Lord stretcheth forth a healing hand and takes the sick man up again, to continue in the land of the living.
He gives them, and takes them away at pleasure, or having taken them away, he can give them backe when he pleaseth. He kills and he makes alive, he bringeth downe to the Grave, and bringeth up, as Hannah sayd in her Song (1 Sam: 2.6.) How low soever a man is brought by sickness, either proper or metaphoricall, the Lord is able to rayse him up againe. We read (v. 21.) in how pitifull a plight, the sick man was, how rather like a carkasse then a living man he lookt, His flesh was consumed, that it could not be seene, and his bones which were not seene, stood out; as much as to say, He was nothing but skin and bones; yet, when in that case all hopes were gone, and all natural helps fayled, it was no hard matter with God to cure him. When the skill of the Physician, and the vertue of medicines fayle, the power of God fayleth not. As it is in reference to those outward dangers and desperate exigents, which we meete with in this world by enemies and persecutors, when we look upon our selves as dead men, when all hope of deliverance seems past & gone, then the Lord alwayes can and often doth deliver. The Apostle gives us his experience of it (2 Cor: 1.9, 10.) We had the sentence of death in our selves; he spake not thus in regard of sickness, but of trouble and persecution; As if he had sayd, The malice and wrath of our enemies was such, that we thought we should never escape, We had the sentence of death in our selves, but providence suffered it to be so, that we should not trust in our selves, but in God who rayseth the dead. As it is (I say) in such dangers, so in dangerous deadly sicknesses; when a poore creature hath the sentence of death in himselfe, when he makes no other reckoning but to dye, as good King Hezekiah sayd of himselfe in his sickness (Isa: 38.13.) I ⟨p. 418⟩reckoned till morning, that, as a Lyon, so will he breake all my bones, from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me; yet then as in his case, so in many cases the Lord stretcheth forth a healing hand and takes the sick man up againe, to continue in the land of the living.
