1721. MR THOMAS BOSTON. 314 OnLord's day, June 14. I clofed my fubje&of the Covenant of Grace ; my notes thereon being written fo largely, that, in tranfcribin.g them fnce for the prefs, I needed rather, for the molt part, to contra&, than to add and enlarge. On the following Sabbath, the 21 ft, having come in from the fermons, and fat down to dinner, I fell indifpofed ; endured the time of dinner; but while we were finging us ufual, (I think the pfalmwas Pfeil. cvii. 23. and downwards), after it my trouble camé to a height, and I went off, with much ado, to ruy clofet, where a prodigious vomiting and exgoitte pain feized me, which afterwards I knew to be a fit of the gravel, which I had never been acquainted with before. It kept me till the Wedneftiay thereafter ; though not always agonizing. It,was told me, that one fit of the agony lafted about five hours, another about fever hours. In the mean time of my trouble, my wife, whom all had enough ado to wait on before, was helped to go up and down flairs, betwixt he and the children, then Pick, and to be helpful to both. When all were recovered, I was thinking on ä day for a family-thankfgiving ; but was foíne way diverted from it: but that day, or the morrow after, the clouds returned after the rain : my fon John fell fick, and at the fame time our fervant- woman. His cafe was of all the molt dangerous. The fever-took no turn in the daughters till the eleventh day, in the fops till the .thirteenth ; but in the férvant-woman on the fixth. Thus was the fumrner fpent; but no breach was made on us. They all came out of their fevers infenfibly, without a diftin& crifìs ; but myeldeft fon was very long a-recovering, even . till about the middle of Auguft. Towards the end -of that. month, we had aday of family-thankfgiving ; thewhole family, except the man-fervant, having been under the rod. I was fenfibly helped to the exercife of faith in the time of our firft diftrefs and hada fweet viewof theLord Jefusas adminiftra- tor of the covenant, being a'fkilful pilot to carry us through the deep waters ; which view was kept before rue all along, after we wereentered into them. My perfonal trouble was turned to my advantage. It was fore indeed ; but kind Providence made it short, and timed it fo happily, that my public work was not interrupted by it. I law therein' a palpable dif- ference between groaning and grudging: For while in my agony I could not helpgroaning and crying, fo that I was heard. at a diftance ; yet myheart, fenfible that I had had much health, was made by grace to fay, Welcome, welcome ; and kiffed the rod, for the fakeof him who groaned and died on the crofs for me; and I was even made to weep for joy in, bis dying love to me. The foundation of faith, that " whofoever believeth, fhall not peri(h, but have everlaftiog life," John iii. 16. was my anchor-ground. I had a fatisfa&ion, in that while the rod was going about, mykind God had not forgotten me, but given 'me arty (hare. But I had a greater difiicultyto believe, upon the
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