When Sick (1)

Consider how we are to behave ourselves in sickness.
(1) Know and consider, 'Sickness comes not. from the dust' (Job 5:6); but consider your ways, especially your antecedent course of life, which of late you have passed over right before your sickness. For God corrects not for sin in general so much as for the sin that rules. If it appears not, pray to God to help you in your search: and when you have found out that Achan that troubles you, then judge yourself and justify God.
(2) 'Judge yourselves, that you be not judged of the Lord' (1 Cor. 11:31); lay yourself open by confession; renew your repentance, and confess yourself thoroughly, and spare not yourself. It is cruelty to be merciful to yourself in this thing. And justify God; say with the holy prophet, 'Just are you, O Lord, and righteous are your judgments' (Psa. 119:75). God uses it as a messenger to call us to meet with him. Until David confessed his sin, 'his bones waxed old with roaring, and his moisture was turned to the drought of summer.' But when he confessed his sins, 'You forgave the iniquity of my sin' (Psa. 32:3-5). For indeed the sickness of the body begins from the iniquity of the soul. Begin with it; look to heal it, and comfort in your bodily state will follow.
(3) Look for the evidence of comfort. Desire God to witness to your soul his peace; and upon every warning of sickness, look for your evidence afresh. This will strengthen you as it did Job. Whatever discomforts he saw, 'yet I know my Redeemer lives, and that I will see him' (Job 19:26).
(4) Labour for love. Consider how the world is with us. Begin with justice, in giving every man his own, and then with bounty; then forgive. We cannot go to heaven with anger. It is what Christ did, 'Father, forgive them' (Luke 23:34); and Stephen, 'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge' (Acts 7:60). Be far from revenge. This is hard to fleshly minds, but it must be done.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Of the Providence of God, Works, vol. 5, pp. 43-44
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