Man ashiv le-Yahoweh, or, A serious enquiry for a suitable return for continued life,…

1. Should not you thus praise God for your preservation from danger by the Plague, Who did make this one of your Arguments to prevail with God by prayer in time of danger to preserve you? Did not you reason thus with God in time of sickness? ⟨p. 283⟩Lord lengthen out the life of thy servant, ¹O Lord deliver my soul, O save me for thy mercies sake, for in death there is no remembrance of thee; in the grave who shall give thee thanks? What profit is there in my blood, when I go down into the pit? ²Shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth? The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: ³They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living he shall praise thee. Were not these your pleadings at the throne of grace? And did not you promise to God, and purpose in your heart, that if God would spare you, you would celebrate his praises? And shall not there be a correspondence betwixt your actions when you were in fears, and your actions, when your great danger (by the Plague) is over?

1. Should not you thus praise God for your preservation from danger by the Plague, Who did make this one of your Arguments to prevail with God by prayer in time of danger to preserve you? Did not you reason thus with God in time of sickness? ⟨p. 283⟩Lord lengthen out the life of thy servant, ¹O Lord deliver my soul, O save me for thy mercies sake, for in death there is no remembrance of thee; in the grave who shall give thee thanks? What profit is there in my bloud, when I go down into the pit? ²Shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth? The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: ³