The works of George Swinnock, M.A

Further, I may read the sinfulness of sin in others sickness. That Parent must needs be a deformed monster, that begets such uncomely and ill-favoured children. In the dreadful effects I may behold the poisonous cause. Man had never known sickness in his body, if he had not known sin experimentally in his soul; Tis the plague and stone of the heart, that causeth those in the flesh. When I behold the sick man labouring under his distemper, how he is chastened with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain, so that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat; How his flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen, and his bones stick out; he is filled with tossings too and fro, unto the dawning of the day: When I behold his eyes sinking, his heart panting, hi• ⟨p. 607⟩Wife and Children wailing and wringing their hands, his friends weeping, his tongue faltering, his throat rattling, his breath failing, his strength languishing, his whole body in a cold clammy sweat, wrestling with his pain and disease; may I not well cry out, O what an evil is sin, which bringeth all this upon the poor Children of men! My Redeemer is therefore said to bear our sicknesses, because he bare our sins in his body on the tree, 1 Pet. 2. 24. Mat. 8. 17. And in all his applications for the cure of the diseased, he had an eye to the root of the malady; To one that was diseased, he said, Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee; To another, Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. When the Angel was smiting Israel with a Pestilence, holy Davids thoughts ran upon the procuring cause, I have sinned, I have done very wickedly; My God teacheth Israel the grievous nature of their defilement, in the greatness of those judgements which they brought upon them. Speaking of his severity towards them, he tells them, Thy way and thy doings have procured those things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart, Jer. 4. 18. Our bodies are full of natural corruption, because our souls are full of moral corruption. O how fitly may I therefore, when I behold the evil of affliction on others, abhor and bewail the evil of sin in my self!