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quently, not that distemper which the libertine world would infinuate.

THE fame thing appears alfo, as I

appre

hend, from fome of those Pfalms which

David wrote upon his recovery *. Thus,

in Pfalm ciii. he bleffes GOD, who healed all his difeafes, that his youth was renewed like the eagle's. Now it is generally underftood of the eagle, that when his feathers molt, and fall off gradually, and new ones fucceed, his youth is renewed with his plumage. Which carries no unapt or unnatural allufion, to a man whose old skin, rough and scaled with the small-pox, falls off piecemeal, and is fucceeded by another, smooth and youthful: although I am in

*Thefe, as I apprehend, are four in all: Psalm xxx. ciii. cxvi. and cxlvi.

+ Now I am well affured, that these feathers fall by pairs, one in each wing; and that those which fall at once, are the two feathers exactly correfponding to each other, in each wing; and that this pair is renewed by a new growth, before the next pair falls. A plain appointment of providential wifdom and goodnefs! for by thus preferving the exact balance of the wings, which a very little inequality (the difference of lefs than half a feather) in either would deftroy, the eagle is never utterly disabled from pursuing his prey; though it be evident he cannot pursue it with full vigour, till all his feathers be renewed; and therefore his youth is then faid to be reftored.

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clined to believe from the text, that it may also carry another allusion.

upon

COMMENTATORS, in their comments this text, quote St. Auguftin, and St. Epiphanius, as afferting, that when the eagle grows old, and that crooked, incrufted fubftance of his bill increases to fuch a degree, that he cannot eat, he ftrikes his bill against a rock, till he beats off his excefs of beak, and is again in a condition to take food; by which his ftrength is renewed, and with that, apparently, his youth. Now (if I am rightly informed) it is no uncommon cafe, in the fmall-pox, for men to have their mouths fo incrufted with it, that they are utterly incapable of taking any food, or any fuftenance, but from liquids; and that with great difficulty: but when that incruftation falls off, they are then in a condition to take proper nourishment; by which their strength is reftored. And if that was David's cafe, then is the beauty and propriety of the allufion in the text, fufficiently evident. For then might he truly fay of his God, who fatisfied thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

THAT

THAT David's diftemper was the smallpox, is, I think, again confirmed from another Pfalm; written also in thanksgiving for his recovery: I mean the cxlvith.

LET it then be previously observed, that a man, confined to his bed by fickness, may very properly be confidered as a prifoner; and confequently, his recovery may be confidered, as a restoration to freedom. Now suppose a man recovered from the Small-pox, in which he was blind and hungry; under an incapacity of eating, for fome time; in what words could that man more naturally celebrate the goodness of GOD to him, than in thofe of David, in this Pfalm? Ver. 1. Praife the Lord, O my foul. Ver. 2. While I live, will I praife the Lord, &c. Ver. 7. Which executeth judgment for the oppreffed, which giveth food to the hungry: the Lord loofeth the prisoners. Ver. 8. The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind; the Lord raifeth them that are bowed down..

THE reader will please to obferve, that the expreffion of opening the eyes of the blind*,

*This fingle circumftance fufficiently evinces David's diftemper not to have been that other infection, whofe blindness is not temporary.

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very naturally points out the condition of a man recovered from the small-pox; whose blindness arofe, like Job's, not from any defect or diftemper in his eyes; but from their being shut up, by the clofing of his eye-lids*.

THE fame thing is, I think, yet further confirmed, from the accounts which David himself hath left us, of the conspiracy formed against him in his fickness, in the thirty-eighth and forty-first Pfalms. Now I will venture to fay, that there is no fickness incident to man, in which a confpiracy could be more naturally encouraged, and yet at the fame time, fo effectually discovered to the person concerned, as the small-pox, of the confluent kind, in which the patient is often obferved to lie, for fome days, feemingly speechlefs, and utterly infenfible; and yet in reality, is fometimes fenfible and intelligent.

I HAVE often heard a man of known veracity (yet living) affirm, that he very

* I know the expreffion is used in the gospel, in relation to our Saviour's miraculous cure of blindness : but there is no reason to believe, that any such cure was wrought in the days of David.

well

well remembers himself in that very condition, under that evil disease, in which he frequently heard himself pronounced speechlefs, infenfible, and past all hopes of recovery; under this very fingular and happy circumstance, that he had a thorough contempt of the ignorance and stupidity of all who pronounced him in that state.

Now David says of himself, in his diftemper, Pfal. xli. ver. 5. Mine enemies Speak evil of me: When fhall be die, and his name perish?

6. And if he come to fee me, he speaketh vanity: and his heart conceiveth falfbood within himself; and when he cometh forth, he telleth it.

7. All mine enemies whisper together against me: even against me do they imagine this evil.

8. An evil difeafe, fay they, cleaveth faft unto him; and now that he lieth, he shall rife up no more *.

* Some have imagined, that David's diftemper was the leprofy; but they forget, that, in that cafe, he must have been depofed, as Uzziah the greatest of his fucceffors was, and shut up in a feveral-houfe, where he remained for many years, to the day of his death.

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