I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her (or, I will earnestly speak to her heart, as the Hebrew reads it?) yes. Have you not found, that God hath so sweetened and sanctified afflictions to you, as to make them a means to discover ⟨p. 137⟩many sins that lay hid, and to purge you from many sins that cleaved close unto you, and to prevent you from falling into many sins, that would have been the breaking of your bones, and the loss of your comfort? yes. Have you not found, that you have1 been like the Walnut tree, the better for beating; and like the Vine, the better for bleeding; and like the ingenious child, the better for whipping? yes. Have you not found afflictions to revive, quicken, and recover your decayed graces? have they not inflamed that love that hath been cold, and put life into that Faith that hath been dying, and quickened those hopes that have been withering, and put spirits into those joys and comforts that have been languishing? yes. O then stand up, and declare to all the world, That times of affliction have been the times, wherein you have seen the face of God, and heard the voice of God, and sucked sweetness from the breasts of God, and fed upon the delicates of God, and drunk deep of the consolations of God, and have been most satisfied and delighted with ⟨p. 138⟩the presence and in-comes of God. When Hezekiah in his great affliction lamentingly said, I shall go mourning 2to my grave, I shall not see the Lord in the Land of the living; he will cut me off with pining sickness, he will break all my bones. Like a Crane, or a Swallow, so did I chatter; I did mourn as a Dove; mine eyes fail with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me. So now, God comes in a way of mercy to him, and prints his love upon his heart, Vers. 17. Thou hast, in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption, or rather as the Hebrew reads3 it, Thou hast loved my soul from the grave; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. Ah, says Hezekiah, I have now found, that in my afflictions, thy affections have been most strongly carried towards me, as towards one whom thou art exceedingly taken with. O, now, thou hast warmed me with thy love, and visited me with thy grace, thou hast made my darkness to be light, and turned my sighing into singing, and my mourning into rejoicing.
I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her (or, I will earnestly speak to her heart, as the Hebrew reads it?) yes. Have you not found, that God hath so sweetned and sanctified afflictions to you, as to make them a means to discover ⟨p. 137⟩many sins that lay hid, and to purge you from many sins that cleaved close unto you, and to prevent you from falling into many sins, that would have been the breaking of your bones, and the loss of your comfort? yes. Have you not found, that you have1 been like the Walnut tree, the better for beating; and like the Vine, the better for bleeding; and like the ingenious childe, the better for whiping? yes. Have you not found afflictions to revive, quicken, and recover your decayed graces? have they not inflamed that love that hath been cold, and put life into that Faith that hath been dying, and quickned those hopes that have been withering, and put spirits into those joyes and comforts that have been languishing? yes. O then stand up, and declare to all the world, That times of affliction have been the times, wherein you have seen the face of God, and heard the voice of God, and sucked sweetness from the brests of God, and fed upon the delicates of God, and drunk deep of the consolations of God, and have been most satisfied and delighted with ⟨p. 138⟩the presence and in-comes of God. When Hezekiah in his great affliction lamentingly said, I shall go mourning 2to my grave, I shall not see the Lord in the Land of the living; he will cut me off with pining sickness, he will break all my bones. Like a Crane, or a Swallow, so did I chatter; I did mourn as a Dove; mine eyes fail with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me. So now, God comes in a way of mercy to him, and prints his love upon his heart, Vers. 17. Thou hast, in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption, or rather as the Hebrew reads3 it, Thou hast loved my soul from the grave; for thou hast cast all my sins behinde thy back. Ah, says Hezekiah, I have now found, that in my afflictions, thy affections have been most strongly carried towards me, as towards one whom thou art exceedingly taken with. O, now, thou hast warmed me with thy love, and visited me with thy grace, thou hast made my darkness to be light, and turned my sighing into singing, and my mourning into rejoycing.
- 1Musk, saith one, when it hath lost its sweetness, if it be put into the sink amongst filth, it recovers it; so doth afflictions recover and revive decayed graces.
- 2Isai. 38. 9. to 21.
- 3[Greek or Hebrew]〈non-Latin alphabet〉
