which I found the time of my fickness was very unfeasonable; I would redeem my precious time, and value those minutes of life, that God fhall lend me, at a dearer rate than formerly; I would neglect no opportunity of doing good to others, or improving my everlasting peace. How precious then was one hour of repofe, and quietnefs, and freedom from pain? and how much should I then have valued it? ' and how industriously should I then have improved it ' in the great concerns of my everlasting foul. God hath now heard my prayers, reftored my health, put that precious opportunity into my hands of per'forming my vows and promifes, which I then made ' in the sadness of my foul, and fhall I deal falfely in 'my covenant, disappointing my God that hath delivered me? No, I will up and be doing; I will per' form all my vows to him; nay, the fenfe of the mer'cy and condefcenfion of God to my requests fhall 'increase my engagements before him: as he hath added mercy to me, fo I will add new obligations to myself of better obedience, and farther duties than the fenfe of my mifery could fuggeft unto me, or 'draw from me.'

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4. Be very watchful over thyself, and remember thy Saviour's counsel, Go away and fin no more, left a worse thing befall thee. And in a special manner recollect and call to mind thofe fins that did moft trouble and difquiet thee in the time of thy adverfity; renew thy repentance for them, and take a fpecial care to avoid relapses into them; remember the mischiefs they then did thee, and let them know they fhall do thee no more: be most severe and strict against them.

5. Make a frequent uje of thy deliverance as a fingular prefervative against the power of thy temptations and corruptions. Deliverance carries in the very apprehenfion of it these two things: 1. A fuppofition of a former mifery or visitation: 2. A present enjoyment of a freedom from that mifery. Therefore if any corruption or temptation unto fin, folicit thee, improve this

confideration to this, or the like effect: I was lately • under the rack, under the rod, under extreme want, ⚫ imprisonment, disgrace, loffes, fickness, forrows, fears, and an imminent expectation of the worst of evils; ' and though these were fore and fharp afflictions, yet 'the fenfe of my former fins, and the importunate reft'leffness of that guilt that was contracted from them, were more bitter and tormenting than all the reft of my fufferings; it was that which was the fting and C venom of all my afflictions; and it hath pleased Almighty God to accept of my humiliation, and to remove my afflictions, and to give me beauty for ashes, and fhall I be fo very a fool as by committing of a new 'fin, to run the hazard of another plunge, another fcourge, which in all probability must be much more fevere than the former, because it would be the iffue ❝ not only of fin, but of prefumption? a fin committed against the experience that I have had of the bitter'nefs of fin; and with what face or hope could I expect any poffibility of deliverance from a fecond relapfe into mifery, occafioned by fo desperate a prefumptuous relapfe into fin. But fuppofe it were poffible, that notwithstanding my yielding to this temp'tation, I might efcape the vengeance, yet can I be fo 'falfe, fo ungrateful to that God that hath delivered 'me from my fufferings and from my fears, as to recompence his love, and mercy and goodness, with a prefumptuous apoftacy from him? Shall I thus requite his mercy, and goodness, that heard me in my anguish and fadnefs of foul, in my extremity and mifery, and fo heard me that he hath delivered me out * of all my troubles and miferies?' Certainly, if either common prudence or common ingenuity be left in a man, the sense of a former calamity, and the fenfe of fo great a mercy, will make a man abhor the least submission to that temptation that may at once hazard the continuance of his prefent comfort, and cannot be entertained without the prefumptuous rejection of him that thus mercifully fent deliverance.

6. Let the remembrance of thy mifery, and thy prefent mercy, make thee moft jealously and paffionately careful to keep thy intereft, and (if it be not too bold a word) thy friendship with God. Remember he was thy fupport in thy affliction, and he was thy deliverer out of thy affliction; let gratitude bind thee to it, as he was thy benefactor; and let prudence bind thee to it, thou knoweft not how foon thou mayft have the fame neceffity again, and where canft thou find fuch a friend? The truth is, when we are in extremity, and have no whither elfe to fly, O then we run to God, and we pray unto him, and promife him fair: but when once our turn is ferved, and we have gotten our ends, and think ourselves out of gun-fhot, we are like mariners after a storm, and God hears no more of us: but this is, as extreme ingratitude, fo extreme folly. Oh keep thy God thy friend! For most certain it is, thou wilt have occafion to use him again, and thou knowest not how foon: keep thine intereft in him, and estrange not thyfelf from him in thy recovery, whom thou canst not be without in thy afflictions.

7. As I would have thee recollect what were the things in thy life paft, that most troubled thee in thy affliction, that fo thou mayft avoid them; fo think what things or practices, or expence of time, in thy life past, was most acceptable and comfortable to thee in thy afflic tion, that fo thou mayst practice them after thy reftitution. Confider, whether in thy affliction thou didst remember thy paft recreations, thy merriment, thy feaftings, thy lufts, thy honours, thy greatness, with any comfort or contentment; or whether the remembrance of the hours thou haft formerly spent in prayer, reading the Scriptures, hearing fermons, relieving the poor, vifiting the fick, relieving the oppreffed, harbouring the perfecuted members of Chrift, gave thee more contentment. And I dare appeal to any man's experience under heaven, that when the former fort of transactions of our lives were either extremely bitter, or at best

very infipid, to his remembrance, yet the remembrance of thefe of the latter fort were most comfortable and contenting. Thou art now recovered, it is true; but as fure as thou fhalt die, fo fure thou fhalt pass through new afflictions, though it may not be of the fame kind, yet of fome kind. Let it be thy care, after God hath thus delivered thee from thy former affliction, to lay up a stock of good works against another evil day; fuch cordials will die warm at thy heart, even when the cold pangs of death itself fhall be ready to invade and feize upon it, and the comfort of them fhall pafs into the other world with thee.

: 8. Though the portion of thy life, before thy affliction, and under it, were very well spent ; yet remember that the mercy of God, in thy deliverance, doth call upon thee for a farther degree of goodness and perfection than thou hadst before: it calls for more humility, and more thankfulness, and more heavenly-mindedness, ..and more charity, and more devotion, and more selfdenial, and more fanctity, and more jealousy for the honour of God. For, 1. On God's part, thou hadst more engagements and obligations put upon thee than before. Every increase of mercy calls for an increase of duty. 2. On thy own part, thy experiences are greater, thou haft paft through the school of afflictions, and that is a feafon wherein God opens the ear to difcipline; the rod hath a voice, and a leffon to teach; and thou haft past through the experience of God's goodnefs, tendernefs, and faithfulnefs in thy deliverance, and that tutors thee to more dependence upon him, thankfulness to him, and love of him, and these affections carry out the heart to duty and obedience.

9. Beware that after deliverance from afflictions, -thou be not fecure. Think not with Agag, furely the bitterness of death is paft; that now thou haft efcaped this brunt, all is fafe, and the danger paft; ftill be watchful, and stand upon thy guard. 1.Thou haft

fins and corruptions within thee, that if thou art not watchful, may furprize thee, and raise new storms. 2. Thou haft watchful and vigilant enemies without thee, evil men, and evil angels that envy thee the more, because thou haft efeaped. 3. As long as thou liveft in the world, thy condition is uncertain and unstable in externals; and, though one wave be past, another may follow; and, if there were nothing else to make thee watchful, yet be fure the hour of fickness, and the hour of death will overtake thee, and that is an hour of affliction which thou must always prepare for, left it take thee unawares.