thy statutes may keep thy ordinances may do them and be thy people and thou our God So shalt thou make known the Name of thy holines in the midst of us shalt be sanctified in us in the presence of the Nations and we will consider in our hearts will regard and look on with our eyes will hearken unto with our eares what ere thou speakest unto us concerning all thy ordinances and thy Lawes Save thy flocke that it may not become a prey raise up Pastors thy servants that may feed it with wholsome food And let them whom thou hast set for watchmen in thine house hearken to the words of thy mouth and give warning from thee Give them a mouth opened amongst us that the sheep which are dispersed thorow the want of a shepheard and which are exposed to be devoured and they which err and are strayed out of the way over the whole surface of the earth may be drawn home and gathered in and that thou maiest feed them and give them rest seek out that which is lost bring back that which is driven away bind up that which is broken strengthen that which is sick and those that are afarr off amongst the Nations and those that are scattered upon the earth be thou unto them a safe Sanctuarie in the countries wherein they are Sanctifie thy great Name which hath been prophaned among the Nations let them know that thou art the Lord that thou maist be sanctified among them and that the earth may shine abroad with thy glorie A Prayer to be affected with Spirituall things and to renounce the world 23. LOrd we are rebellious against thy Truth and have not been obedient to thy righteousnes nor have put in practise thy Law whence our condemnation is just Yet Lord saith was imputed to Abraham for righteousnes Graunt it may be so also imputed to us and that we may obtaine mercy Seeing Christ died for us and he is the end of the Law righteousnes unto all beleevers and that whosoever beleeveth in him shall not be confounded And for that they that are according to the flesh are affectioned to the things of the flesh but they that are according to the spirit unto the things of the spirit And in as much as the affection of the flesh is death but the affection of the spirit is life and peace Let thy Spirit dwell in us and let us put on the Lord Iesus Christ and let us not be carefull for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Knowing that Christ being risen againe from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him For in that he died he died once for sinne but in that he liveth he liveth unto thee Also we summe up thus our account that we are dead unto sin but live unto thee in Iesus Christ our Lord and that we shall appeare all before his judgment-Seat and that every one of us shall render an account for himself Let then thy feare be before our eyes having in horror all evill cleaving unto that which is good that we lay no stumbling block or occasion of falling before our brother but may walk in charity loving our neighbor as our selves being fervent in spirit serving thee joyfull in hope patient in tribulations persevering in prayer That we may offer up our bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing unto thee which is our reasonable service and let us not fashion our selves unto this present world But let us be transformed by the renewing of our understanding that we may search out what thy good pleasant and perfect wil is And be it that we live we may live unto thee be it wv die we may die unto thee that whether we live or whether we die we may be thine For therefore died Christ and rose againe and returned unto life that he might have dominion both over the dead and over the living We commend unto thee all thy Churches let the weak in faith be strengthened grant there may be the obedience of faith thorow out all nations Let every knee bow before thee and let every tongue give thee praise Let all nations praise thee Lord and let all people celebrate thee Relieve the poore and afflicted and make them partakers of spirituall good things Furnish them with the things of this life assist them in every thing they stand in need of thorow Iesus Christ Grace be with us and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Iesus Christ A Thankesgiving and a Prayer on the same subject 24. O Our God and Father which raisedst from the dead Iesus Christ who gave himselfe for our sinnes to the end that according to thy will he might withdraw us out of this evill world To thee be glory for ever and ever Amen 'T is thou Lord that hast called us by thy grace and hast revealed unto us thy Sonne who hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law when he was made a curse for us that we might receive the promise of the Spirit by faith knowing that man is not justified by the works of the Law but onely by faith in Iesus Christ in whom we have believed that we might be justified by faith Give us to obey thy Truth furnish us with thy Spirit which may produce thy vertues in us And because we are thy children send the Spirit of thy Sonne into our hearts crying Abba Father so that being thy children we may be thine heires thorow Christ and that we may walk according to the spirit not fulfil the lusts of the flesh because what a man soweth that shall he reape also For he that soweth to the flesh shall reape of the flesh corruption But he that soweth to the Spirit he shall reape of the Spirit life eternall That we may live by the Spirit and may walk also in the Spirit the fruit whereof is love joy peace patience gentlenes goodnes faithfulnes meeknes temperance And as they which are Christs have crucified the flesh with the Iusts thereof that we may be crucified with Christ and may live not now we but that Christ may live in us and that what we now live in the flesh we may live in the faith of thy Son who hath loved us and gave himselfe for us that it might not happen unto us to glory in any thing save in the Crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ by whom the world may be crucified unto us and we unto the world And that in him we may be new creatures not growing carelesse of well doing seeing we shall reape in due season if we grow not slacke Wherefore whilst we have time let us do good unto al men but especially unto the houshold of faith And all they that shall walk according to this rule peace be upon them and mercy and upon thy Israel O God Work with efficacie by those unto whom the preaching of the Gospell is committed That they which know thee not and who serve those that
thanks unto thee for the same But if it be thy will yet to continue any longer or even to augment unto him this sicknes grant it may be alwayes for his good and give increase of strength and of constancie to be able to beare these thy trials with a calme and meek mind without any impatiencie or grudging and that thus in these truly christian testimonies of his faith and Patience thou maist be glorified and his neighbours edified and comforted And that even he also by this experience had of the miseries of the world and of this life may be taught to wean his heart and affections from them to raise them up heartily unto the meditation and diligent search of that repose and incomprehensible happines which is set before us in heaven and in everlasting life Grant also Lord the like graces unto all others that are sick and afflicted Comfort them and strengthen them as thou knowest shal be needfull for them and above all give them power evermore with a true and lively faith to embrace thy mercy in Iesus Christ therein to find matter of consolation Heare us Father of grace for the same thy deare Son Iesus Christ our Lord his sake as we humbly beseech thee in that forme of prayer which he himselfe hath commanded us to offer up unto thee Our Father which art in heaven c. And because Lord that without faith we cannot please thee we beseech thee so to increase the same in this thy servant and in us that he may be enabled even unto the last gasp of his life and we with him to persevere in the same and to be evermore readily disposed thereof to render unto thee a pure confession both with heart mouth as we now do I beleeve in God c. Such is his faith Lord and also ours give us grace both to live and die in the same thorow Iesus Christ thy Sonne our Lord who in the unity of the Holy Ghost liveth raigneth with thee GOD eternally When there is some likelihood that the sickenesse will be mortall there must be added other consolations such as these following SIR You must ever be of good courage in the midst of this affliction wherewith God continueth to visit you in your body then you must know that he sends it you and continues it unto you but for your good and for the salvation of your soule To teach you by this meanes to come to a true knowledge of your selfe as being a poore sinner to detest more and more your sins to despise the world to lift up your selfe wholly unto God and to call upon him so much the more fervently with assurance to be heard according to his holy promises and to obtaine from him Christian constancie which is necessary for you in this triall The assurance of Gods mercy in Iesus Christ the foundation of all comfort NOW that which ought most to comfort you and to strengthen you with courage and patience which is that assurance which you must evermore take that God for his welbeloved Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord his sake embraceth you in his love and free gracious good will hath pardoned your sins hath adopted and received you into the number of his children to make you an heire of the kingdome of heaven by vertue of that purchase which Iesus Christ hath made for you by his death Such an assurance will ever make you certaine that nothing can befall you be it in life or be it in death which shall not be unto you a favour and a blessing from your heavenly father and which by consequence shall not be an helpe and a meanes ordained by his wise providence to advance and lead you unto a happy life This assurance comes from Faith TRue it is that this assurance we cannot take of our selves but it is this our good God who gives it us when by the power of his Holy Spirit and by his Word he creates in our hearts a true and a lively faith with the which we receive and appropriate to our selves the promises of his grace which he addresseth unto us in the preaching of his holy Gospell These promises briefly import thus much That God so loved the world that hee hath given his onely Sonne to the end that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Iohn 3.16 If then God give you the grace to believe in his only Sonne and to embrace and lay hold on him for your Redeemer and Saviour as we gather you do by the profession you hitherunto have made thereof and do still make the same in the midst of his Church you may and ought to take from thence an holy assurance that God according to the infallible truth of his Word hath received you into his love that you shall not perish but you shall have eternall life Now this being so what can you be afraid of Rom. 8.30 31. If God bee for us who shal be against us He who hath not spared his onely Sonne but hath given him for us how shall he not also give us all other things with him He hath given us the greater namely his owne Sonne shall he denie you then the lesse to wit what ere may be necessary and expedient to keep you and to uphold you against all manner of evills both corporall and spirituall as well in life as in death Faith applieth unto every faithfull one the promises of the Gospell NOw this application I spake of which you ought to make of the promises of the Gospell to draw from them such an holy assurance it is necessarily to be looked for in faith For to believe in Iesus Christ is not to believe onely in the grosse that there is a Iesus Christ and that he that believeth in him hath eternall life and it is not enough to believe that the promises of the Gospell are true in general and out of us The Devill himselfe believeth indeed all this and yet hath no true faith for all that But to believe in Iesus Christ it is when the faithfull believeth that there is salvation in Iesus Christ for himself which the Devill cannot believe And true justifying faith and by which the just liveth consists properly in this that we apply unto our selves and that every one of us appropriate in his owne particular to himself the promises of salvation to be able to say every one in his owne behalfe that which Saint Paul said in the person of every faithfull man and woman Gal. 2.20 I live in the faith of the Sonne of God who hath loved me and who gave himselfe for me Also Tim. 1.2 I know in whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keepe that which I have committed unto him even unto that day And againe Rom. 8.37 38. I am assured that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things to come neither height nor depth nor any other creature shal be
able to separate us from the love of God which he hath shewed us in Iesus Christ our Lord. This same faith bringeth us not a simple opinion or conjecture of our salvation but even an assured knowledge of it according to that which Saint Iohn saith chap. 5. ver 14. We know that we are translated from death to life Also 1. Iohn 10. Wee know that wee are borne of God And I have saith he Ioh. 5.13 written these things unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you might know that you have eternall life This faith gives us to go to the throne of the grace of our God Heb. 4.10 With assurance so saith the Apostle Heb. 10.22 Yea with a true heart and in full certainty of faith As also S. Paul Ephes 2.12 saith that by Iesus Christ wee have boldnesse and accesse in confidence thorough faith which we haue in him This faith is called Heb. 11.1 an hypostasie or substance of things that are hoped for That is to say which maketh to subsist and to have a being in our minds of the things believed and hoped for nor more nor lesse then as if already we were in the actuall possession and fruition of them This faith makes us find peace and rest in our soules and consciences and drives forth of them the feares and terrours which the sense of sin brings into them and the apprehension of the judgment of God according to that which Saint Paul saith Rom. 5.1 That being justified by faith we have peace with God thorough our Lord Iesus Christ by whom also we have beene led thorow faith unto this grace in whom we hold our selves firme and boast our selves of the hope we have of the glory of God The gift of Perseverance assured to the faithfull MOreover these passages propound and set forth unto us this holy assurance of faith not onely for the present but also for the time to come and containe a promise that God will give us to persevere in this faith even unto the end Otherwise where should this assurance be whereof the holy Apostle speaketh not to be able to be separated from the love of God in Iesus Christ Where should be this subsistence and being of things hoped for How should we have in our soules a solid peace with God How should we hold our selves firm in this grace How should we be able to boast and glory in the hope of the glory of God Such then is the incomprehensible bounty goodnesse of this Heavenly Father that he begins not in us the work of our salvation to leave it imperfect according to that which Saint Paul saith to the Philippians and in their presence unto all true faithfull ones Philip. 1.6 I am assured that he that hath begun this good worke in you will perfect it even unto the day of Iesus Christ As besides he saith elswhere Rom. 11.26 That the gifts of God are without repentance that is to say that he never unsayes them nor ever retracts them Against the objection that this assurance of faith is a presumption NOr is there cause why finally this certainty of faith should be censured in us for rashnes and presumption For on the contrary it were extreame rashnes presumption in us if we vouchsafed not to give credit unto so excellent promises of our God and it is humility and obedience both to receive and to rest in them with reverence It is likewise said That he that hath receiâ—â—d the witnesse of God hath 〈◊〉 to his seale that God is true Iohn 3.33 That is to say he hath as it were subscribed and given approbation unto the truth of God which he sheweth in the accomplishment of his promises And on the contrary it is said 1. Iohn 5.10.11 That he that believeth not God hath made him a lyer because he hath not beleeved the record which God hath given of his Sonne And this is the record that God hath given to us eternall life and this life is in his Sonne Two things might make us rash and overweening in this assurance which we take of our salvation The one if we found it upon the worthines and merit of our works Rom. 3.20 For no flesh shal be justified before God by the works of the Law and all they that seeke to bee justified by them are under the curse This saith Saint Paul Galat. 3.10.2 But it is not upon our own righteousnes which is none at all that we found any such assurance but even upon the righteousnesse of him whom God hath made to be sinne for us 2 Cor. 5.21 that is to say a sacrifice for sinne to the end that wee might bee the righteousnesse of God in him and by whose obedience we are made righteous in stead as by the disobedience of Adam wee were sinners Rom. 5.19 The other point which might make us overweening in this behalfe might be this If we presumed to acquire and get any such knowledg of our salvation by the subtilty and acutenes of our owne spirits or wits it being so that the naturall man perceiveth not the things which are of God thus saith Saint Paul 1 Corinth 2.14 But surely we make account to have received as the same Apostle speaketh 1 Corinth 2.12 Not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that wee might know the things that are freely given unto us of God He saith yet further in the same place 1 Cor. 2.9.10 That the things which in regard of us are altogether incomprehensible God hath revealed unto us by his spirit He addeth finally 1. Corinth 2.16 That by this meanes we apprehend the will of Christ. Now by this spirit of God are led all they that are the children of God And this more yet saith the same Apostle Rom. 8.14 And it is called the spirit of adoption and thereby wee crye Abba Father Gal. 6.4 to wit we invoke and instantly call upon God as our Father As also it is the same Spirit saith Saint Paul Rom. 8.11.16 which witnesseth to our Spirits that wee are the children of God The same Apostle yet further saith Ephes 1.13 14. That when we believe the Gospell wee are sealed with the holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance untill the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory teaching us hereby that the record of the Holy Ghost received in our hearts with faith is unto us as a seale which the Holy Ghost imprinteth in our hearts to make us awfull of the promise of God and to assure us that we are his children and that as in contracts which are made betweene men they give somtimes earnest that is to say a part of the price agreed upon as well to begin the payment as to make the match or bargaine irrevocable And to give assurance it shal be firmly and constantly kept Even so the Holy Ghost which by faith begetteth peace and joy in our
Col. 2.15 dispoiled the principalities and powers of hell which hee openly led in show triumphing over them in the same I doubt not but this enemie of our salvation will performe his utmost against you to astonish and trouble our faith For as S. Peter saith 1. Pet. 5.8 9. Our adversarie the Devill goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devoure But Saint Peter addeth That we must resist him being strong in faith Resist you the Devill the same saith S. Iames ch 4.7 and hee will flye from you Now to resist and overcome him you must be furnished with the armour of God whereof S. Paul speaketh to the Ephesians chap. 6. ver 16. Taking above all as he saith the shield of faith by the which you may quench all the fierie darts of the Devill Against the apprehension of the judgement of God THere remaineth the feare you may happily take of the judgement of God before whom you must appeare But wheron now shall this apprehension be founded Seeing your sinnes shall not be imputed unto you seeing you shall not be condemned thereby unto death seeing it shall be to no purpose for Satan there to accuse you you being there absolv'd and justified by the grace of God This is the doctrine which S. Paul affords us Rom. 8.32.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen againe who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Thus then you must indeed appeare before God but not as before a severe and rigorous judge but rather as before a mercifull and an appeased Father towards us in Iesus Christ By Iesus Christ I say whom you have himselfe for an Advocat and Intercessor with the Father Now he shall not be denied by the Father in his request for you by Iesus Christ whose member you are Now there is no condemnation to them that are in Iesus Christ saith Saint Paul Rom. 8.1 By Iesus Christ in the end in whom you believe Now he that believeth in me saith he hath eternall life and he shall not come into condemnation but rather is passed from death unto life Is not this then Sir your faith and firm beliefe that by the benefit of our Lord Iesus Christ you have the remission of your sins Iohn 5.24 That you are saved from eternall death and set free from the rigor of the judgment of God and that by consequent Satan cannot prejudice or bring you any hurt by his accusations and temptations and that your bodily death cannot but he happy and profitable to you every way One must also draw from the sicke a protestation of his charity towards his neighbour FInally Sir it being so that faith worketh by charity and necessarily produceth it seeing it hath pleased God that you are at peace with him by faith you must also be at one and in peace with all your brethren and neighbours thorow true Christian charity And therefore tell us if you renounce from your heart all hatred rancour and enmity against all men without any exception and do desire the welfare and salvation of all in generall and of every one in particular as your very owne Yes I do Do you not forgive honestly and with a good heart all them who have any way whatsoever it be offended you as also reciprocally you do ask forgivenes of all them whom you have any way offended Yes Now Sir must we herewithall addresse our prayer unto God to the end it would please him to strengthen you in the faith which he hath given you and to make more and more to abound in you all graces it is your part to humble your selfe with us before him and to lift up unto him your heart to implore his mercy from the depth of your soule A Prayer for the sicke in whom there shal be likelihood of death O Lord our good God and mercifull Father we are indeed every way unworthy to lift up our eyes towards thee for the multitude and grievousnesse of our sinnes and transgressions wherewith we are tainted and blemished before thy face But it is not in the confidence of our owne worthinesse that we dare presume to present our selves at the feet of thy sacred Majestie but rather in the assurance of thy great compassions and the perfect obedience which thy deare Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord hath performed unto thee in our name with whose righteousnesse we beseech thee to cover and adorne us with thy grace that thorow him and in thy favour we may be reconciled and acceptable But now we beseech thee O good God be pleased particularly to impart this great mercy unto this thy poore child and servant cast downe under thy mighty hand a poore sinner indeed and such a sinner as should for ever remaine overwhelmed under the heavy waight and rigour of thy soveraigne justice if thou affoordest not him thy infinite mercy Graunt him grace more and more to enter into a serious examination and acknowledgment of his sinnes that thereby he may conceive a true detestation of them which may beget in him true repentance and may further him and put him on forward unto an entire and absolute deniall of himselfe to have his whole refuge unto thee and to thy mercy in the meane time receive him graciously Lord shew unto him a fatherly countenance establish him and comfort him say unto his soule I am he that is able to ensafe thee dispose his heart to receive patiently and with thankfulnesse this fatherly correction which thou sendest him and to resigne up wholly himselfe into thy hands to range himselfe peaceably unto whatsoe're it shall please thee out of thy sacred wisdome to ordaine for him Lord thou knowest better then he himself or we either whether is more expedient for him that he should live or die If thy good pleasure be he shall live let it be that he may live wholly unto thee So as that having well profited by these thy chastisements he may learn to love thee to honour and serve thee all the dayes of his life in the midst of thy Church by studying perpetually therein to bring forth the fruits of pietie and holines worthy of thy Gospell and beseeming the child of such a Father and the service of such a Master And so thou mayest be glorified in him and his neighbours edified But if otherwise it be thy will to take him out of this miserable world give him assurance that it shal be to put him in possession of thy heavenly kingdome which thou hast prepared for him before the foundation of the world and which thy Son hath purchased for him by the merit of his death To this end O Father of light from whom descendeth every good and perfect gift be pleased to give unto him a true and a lively faith wherewith he may seeke find and lay hold on
thy mercy for his sins and true righteousnes in the obedience of the same thy deare Son Iesus Christ our Lord who was delivered up unto death for our sinnes and rose againe for our justification Yea ascended into heaven to take possession thereof in our name and by that meanes give us accesse and entrance thither whence sinne had banished us Imprint in his heart by the Power of thy holy Spirit a full certainty of all these thy graces that thereby he may be enabled to repose himself peaceably in thy mercy and to overcome happily all temptations and crosses which Satan and his owne flesh would lay before him to trouble the serenitie and cleerenesse of his faith and the tranquillitie of his conscience Let not his sinnes then plunge him into despaire seeing they have been so fully payed and satisfied unto thy justice not by gold or silver but by the precious bloud of thy Christ as by that Lamb without spot and blemish Let not death affright him seeing that sinne being destroyed and abolisht in him which is the sting of death it may remaine unto him disarmed and without power to hurt him Yea that his soule being separated from his body by corporall death it shal be to go unto thee victorious and freed from the captivity of sin therby to tast thorow the fruition of it that blessed life which he hath not tasted of in this world but by hope leaving indeed his body in the earth but not for ever but rather to be refined transformed and made in due time conformable to the glorious body of his head by the benefit of his resurrection Let not Satan daunt him any more seeing he cannot hurt him but by sinne and death the dominion whereof he hath lost in his behalfe Assure him in the end that in vain that accuser shall lay ought to his charge at the throne of thy justice seeing that he being already absolved and justified by thy grace there is no Iudge that can condemn him Let it be thy good pleasure also O good God to shew thy fatherly mercy unto all other sicke persons comfort and strengthen them according as thou knowest they have need thereof And above all graunt them the grace to embrace evermore with a true and a lively faith thy mercie in Iesus Christ that therein they may find all matter of comfort Graunt also unto us all that grace Lord that by this example we may profit and learne to renounce the world and our selves to imploy those few dayes we have here below to live to meditate on thy wisdome to walk carefully in thy feare to weane our hearts from the vanities of this life to raise them up to the meditation and expectation of the celestiall life And to this end to be alwayes prepared and in a readinesse to appeare before thee in assurance to be entertained and received in thy great mercie even for thy deare Son Iesus Christ our Lord his sake In whose Name we beseech thee O Father of mercie to heare us and in all other which thou knowest better then we our selves to be necessarie for us and this for thy poore servant as we pray unto thee in that forme of prayer which he himselfe hath commanded us to offer up unto thee Our Father which art in heaven c. Lord increase that faith which thou hast planted in the heart of this thy servant and child defend him with it as with a strong shield wherewith he may be inabled to quench all the fierie darts of the evill one And graunt that persevering constantly in the same unto the last gaspe of his life he may evermore at the least in heart make thereof unto thee a pure and Christian confession as we will presently do both with heart and mouth I believe in God the Father Almighty c. Such is his Faith Lord as also ours give the grace to live and die in the same thorough Iesus Christ thy Sonne our Lord who in the unitie of the Holy Ghost liveth and raigneth with thee God eternally Amen If the sicke person continue long time and yet alwayes with appearance of danger of death it shal be good to repeate unto the sicke now and then some of the aforesaid consolations but especially those which serve to assure him and to strengthen him against the temptations and combats of conscience And if happily the sicke person bee troubled with raving and fond imaginations or otherwise be not of perfect memorie and good understanding to heare any long discourse in a continued speech there shal not be used unto him other then short sentences such short questions as these here following also such as these or others the like And but talking to him by respits and some pauses interposed SIr you must take a good heart It is the fatherly hand of God which visits you for your good and welfare For unto them that love God all things do work together for their good Lift up your heart unto God to confesse unto him your sinnes and offences and to imbrace by faith his mercy in Iesus Christ which he hath promised unto all those that repent and believe in him Have you not alwayes a good assurance in the mercie of God and a stedfast faith in Iesus Christ your Saviour Yes Do you not believe that Iesus Christ died for your sinnes and rose againe for your justification Rom. 4.25 Yes Believe you not that he hath been made unto you by the Father wisdome righteousnes sanctification and redemption 1. Cor. 1.30 I do Do you not believe that you are freely justified by the grace of God thorow the redemption which is in Iesus Christ Yes According to your faith doubt not but God will free you and securely protect you from perdition and give you everlasting life For God gave his Sonne that whosoever shall believe in him shall not perish but rather have everlasting life Iohn 16. Feare not death seeing by faith you imbrace Iesus Christ who is your life I am saith he the resurrection and the life He that believeth in me although he were dead he shall live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me he shall never die Iohn 11.25.26 If your sinnes trouble and disquiet you have recourse ever by faith unto Iesus Christ and you shall find rest for your soule Come unto me saith he Matth. 11.28 you that labour and are heavie laden and I will ease you Feare not the rigour of Gods justice For there is no condemnation to them that are in Iesus Christ So saith the Apostle S. Paul Rom. 8.1 And who is he saith he Rom. 8.32.33 who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifies who is he that shall condemne It is Christ which died or rather which is more which is risen againe who also is at the right hand of God and who maketh intercession for us Be not loath to leave this miserable life which as S. Iames saith chap. 4.14
for me As accursed upon the tree of the Crosse to free me from the curse eternall wherunto Adam had obliged me This my Saviour Iesus Christ was truly buried to burie all my sinnes with him to the end they might not be imputed unto me before God It is my Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ which went downe into hell suffering extream temporall anguish to deliver me from the eternall The Minister All this that you have now confessed of Iesus Christ was it sufficient to save you The Sicke No According as the holy Scriptures ought in every thing to be fulfilled For what had it profited me that Iesus Christ was borne crucified dead buried and went downe into hell for me only unlesse he had risen againe Wherefore I believe and confesse that my Lord my Head and Saviour Iesus Christ is risen againe from the dead to make me to rise againe with him as one of his meaner members unto life eternall The Minister Consequently it is written that he ascended up into heaven being now set downe at the right hand of God his Father But what doth this his ascention benefit you The Sicke My Lord my Head and Saviour Iesus Christ is ascended up into heaven to cause me to ascend thither after him for where the Head is there are the members also And I believe that being set downe at the right hand of God his Father he is my Advocat intereessor and onely Mediator with him assuring me exceedingly that none can hurt me seeing that Iesus Christ is my Advocate and Iudge both together Wherfore I have no occasion to feare the day of his judgment when he shall come to judge the quick and the dead For I believe and confesse in stedfast faith that there is neither judgment nor condemnation to them that are faithfull members of Iesus Christ The Minister Who hath given you the grace to understand and know all these things The Sicke It is by the grace of the Holy Ghost one only God with the Father and the Sonne by whose means we receive all the goods and gifts which are offered us in Iesus Christ The Minister Seeing you have already confessed that you are a member of Iesus Christ it thence followeth that you are withall incorporated into his Church which you must believe to be Holy Catholique and Vniversall The Sicke I do assuredy believe the Holy Catholique Church washâ— and cleansed with the Precious Bloud of Iesus Christ for the which in the greatest humility I render him thanks that he hath affoorded me the grace to be one of the meanest members of his Church being baptized into his Name he hath made me to live in the communion unity and love of the same by having instructed me in his holy Word and fed me with his true Body steeped in his precious Bloud into the hope of eternall life The Minister Well go to seeing you are so well founded upon the lively Rocke which is Iesus Christ in knowing so well your selfe you must confesse and acknowledge the principall good which you have received from this good Iesus Christ The Sicke It is very reasonable for I would not be ingratefull in not acknowledging the goods and gifts which I have received from God Wherefore I confesse that I poore miserable sinner have offended without end and without ceasing the goodnesse and justice of God having transgressed all thy holy Commandements In the doing wherof I have deserved death and eternall damnation Neverthelesse appealing to Gods mercy I cry him mercy and do believe and confesse without all manner of doubt or wavering that full and perfect forgivenes of all my sinnes is graunted me by the sole merit of the Death and Passion of my Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ in the effusion of his precious Bloud wherein I assure my self to be sufficiently and entirely washed and purged which is the most transcendent good and contentment that I could ever have received and such is my faith wherein I will live and die by the helpe of the grace of Gods Holy Spirit The Minister Seeing you have received so great a good from God by the means of his Sonne Iesus Christ it is fitting also that you do his commandement For even as he hath pardonned you and remitted all your sinnes in like manner must you pardon heartily all those which may have offended you Otherwise you walk not according to God Sick In this thing I have knowne the Law of Iesus Christ to be the singular sacred and perfect Law commanding us to love our neighbours friends and enemies as our selves Wherefore I also intreat all those to whom I have done wrong or said wrong to pardon me as heartily as I pardon all them that have offended me desiring to do them all good offices of love and kindnes as to my good brethren and friends The Minister Now sith it is ordained by God that all men shall die we cannot resist his ordinance rather we ought evermore to conforme our selves to his holy will Wherefore my brother you must not think it strange if I declare unto you the same which the good Prophet Esay declared unto King Ezechias saying unto him from the Lord Set thy house in order for thou shalt die not live This good advice ought to stirre you up thorowly to set your selfe in good order spiritually in your conscience And that is first of all to convert and turne you unto God to bewaile your sinnes as that good King did To implore his mercy in begging pardon at his hands and saying alwayes in your heart Lord God be propitious and mercifull unto me poor miserable sinner for thy Sonne Iesus Christ his sake my Lord and Saviour And then you must not forget your house and familie which you ought so well to set in good order and so to dispose of by a good testament and last will that it may remaine in peace and tranquillitie after you But the better to give you to understand how to dispose aright and to set in order your house it is that you give unto every one what belongeth unto him without defrauding of any man that you leave your wife endow'd with what is due to her your children and kinsfolkes in good agreement and charitie that after your decease they may have no occasion to fall to dissention and division This being done you must quite forget all worldly eares and affection to the world which passeth away withall the concupiscence thereof But he that doth the will of God abideth for ever Touching your children you are only their naturall father for a time but God is perpetually their Spirituall Father having them in his holy keeping and protection to preserve and sustaine them to keep and deliver them from all evill whilst they will but walk in his wayes Besides in that you are a Christian regenerate in the holy Sacrament of Baptisme long since you knew that we have not here any Citie of continuance for we looke for a better
then this which is eternall Wherfore I pray you in the Name of God that you disquiet not your selfe for any affection you may have to this world For here we are all but strangers as our fathers when as then the Lord God shall have ordained and decreed that you must dislodge flit and go before us will not you conform your self unto his holy will and ordinance As on the other side if he see it expedient for your salvation to prolong unto you your life as he did to that good King Ezekias would you not content your selfe with whatsoever it shall please him to do with you Yes assuredly for he is Lord and Master you are but his servant He is your Creator you are his Creature and the work of his hands For this cause then will he dispose of you according to his will Vnto the which alone you ought to conforme and humble your selfe saying from your heart LOrd God thou knowest my necessitie if it shal be thy good pleasure to prolong and lengthen my life thy will be done if it be thy good pleasure also to call me hence unto thee even thy will be likewise done For thy creature Lord hath no other will but thine Now brother comfort your selfe with God who if he hath ordained to call you your Calling shall be happy For you must believe and hope in firme faith that he will make you rise againe in your owne body unto glorious immortalitie to make you raigne with him in life eternall which is purchase and given you by the vertue of the precious Bloud of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ In whose name the Lord God blesse and protect you and make his face to shine upon you and be mercifull unto you The Lord turn his face towards you and preserve you in all happines Amen THis done if it appeare he growes worse and worse and draweth on towards death and tending to his appointed end forthwith in his deadly agonie we must not faile to repeate with a lowde voice before him the Christian Consolation which is heere below promised This doing GOD graunt him grace well and and faithfully to die in him Amen HEB. XIII Remember them that are afflicted as being your selves of the body of the Church and subject to undergoe the like afflictions A PRAYER AGAINST the Apprehensions of Death PSAL. XVIII IIII The sorrowes of death compassed mee round about and the flouds of the ungodly men made me afraid O Lord my gracious Saviour when sorrowes presse us and death threatens us we looke up unto thee that art our life Death thought to have daunted thee in the garden of Geth-semane in such sort that thou knowest well what the distresses are which it brings unto men But as thou haâ—t vanquisht and overcome it graunt me also the grace to vanquish overcome it to beare patiently affliction to submit my selfe to the will of my heavenly Father Thou hast seene how the wicked did compasse thee about as the flouds of waters But now thou art in the happy haven of thy celestiall glory But being there on high despise not â—or sleight nor thy Church which is as yet in the midst of the waves and stormes of the world Gather us also unto that happy life draw us unto that wished port still the furie of the winds which trouble the earth for Lord thou art our Lord we are thy people A Continued Sequell OR An Vnintermitted Course of Comforts MOunsieur d' Ambesaignes a Domestique Gentleman of the late Mounsieur the Marquesse of Moussay being sicke in the Castle of Plouer in Bretagne Madame the Marquesse of Moussay sent to fetch Mounsieur Pallory of Richelieu Pastor and Author of this Booke to be comforted by him and as they expected from houre to houre his death for hee was in an agony from Munday evening the ninth of March 1626. Vntill the morning of Thursday the tenth in that sort that hee was required after diverse consolations to redouble during the space of that night prayers hourely and oftener for him And because there are but two prayers in this preceding Booke to be said when the Sicke is in anguish the first whereof is in the leafe 231. The other in the leafe 344. To satisfie the devotion of certaine good men the Authour hath caused to bee added these prayers following which he then said unto this second Edition to serve hereafter unto the comforters who shall assist the Sicke COMFORTS for the Sicke 1. A Prayer to be said when the sicke is in perplexitie 34. O Lord our good God and gracious Father the onely comfort of our soules the gladnes of our hearts our sole solace and refuge yea our singular sweetnesse amidst the sharpest bitternesses and anguishes which oppresse us we beseech thee to cast thy sweet and mercifull eyes upon this sicke person which hath received this honour together with us by thy speciall favour to bee delivered from the power of darknesse and to be transported unto the Kingdome of the Sonne of thy love having opened his heart as ours to receive the Word of life which alone can save our soules And as thou hast given him the wil to do wel grant unto him and unto us also this happines to give him to perfect the same according to thy good pleasure and to finish his course in thy feare that persevering in the confession of thy holy Name thy light and thy truth may lead him and bring him into the mountaine of thy holinesse O Heavenly Shepheard that hast sent thy deare Sonne to seeke the lost sheep and who repellest not the languishing soule that casts it selfe into thy bosome accomplish in such sort thy strength in the weaknesse of this sicknes that he may say with his whole heart the Lord is my portion and my succour therefore will I hope in him unto the end And seeing thou hast engraven and imprinted the seale of thine election upon the soule of this sick person Yea sith thou hast sealed him with the seale of thy Spirit for the Day of redemption purchased unto the glory of thy Name And seeing thy comforts are welcom to good soules give unto this sicke person amidst the anguishes he suffers in his body a vigorous and a constant soule sweetly bedewd from the springs of sweet comforts in the midst of the hot fits of his disease and the which may make to flie up and to sparkle forth the flames of a sacred desire even unto the Sanctuarie of thy Holines there to behold with the eyes of his mind the ineffable love thou bearest to thine Elect and the glory inestimable which thou keepest in heaven for thy children And to this end give him a gracious refreshing repaire his enfeebled forces wasted and spent by the violence of his disease quicken his heart by the sweetnes of thy grace kindle afresh his zeale inflame his prayers animate his sighes restore unto him the joy of his salvation and let the bones which
then I have loved heaven I preferred the preservation of my goods before the setting forth of thy glory earthly repose before eternall happinesse Alas Lord what punishments am I worthy of What torments have I deserved For my conscience accuseth me my sinnes call for vengeance against me and surely if the wages of the least of our sinnes be eternall death and if it be impossible for me to number my sinnes or to conceive the enormiousnesse of them how O thou God of vengeance how whilst I consider my selfe in my selfe shall I expect from thee with unspeakeable feare eternall and infinite punishments Yet O gracious God thy word teacheth us and experience witnesseth to us that thou wilt not the death of a sinner but that he turne unto thee and live so also hast thou thy selfe found out in thine eternall counsell the meanes of our deliverance and hast in the fulnesse of time sent into the world the eternall Sonne of thy love thy darling even he in whom thou art well pleased thou hast establisht him a Saviour and Redeemer for all those that hope in him by converting them unto thee He was made for us wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption his bloud cleanseth us from all sinne he was despised to raise us unto glory he hath taken our nature to make us partaker of his he was borne the Sonne of Man to make us the Children of God he was full of sorrow to fill us with happinesse he was wounded for our sins and bruised for our iniquities upon him was laid the penaltie which brought us peace and by his bruises are we healed he came into the world to lead us to heaven he died to give us life he rose againe for our justification To conclude Lord thou so lovedst the world that thou gavest that spotlesse Lamb to the end that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have life everlasting And seeing O my God and Father of mercy that out of thy speciall favour it hath pleased thee in the midst of my errour even in mine infidelitie ingratitude to take pitie on me to give me thy knowledg and the resolution to follow thy Gospell seeing thou hast endued me with true faith in thy Sonne seeing thou hast touched my heart wherefore Lord shall I not have accesse unto thee with confidence Why shall I not approch with assurance to the throne of thy grace to obtaine mercy and to be releeved by thee in due time For though I be miserable art not thou mercifull If I be unrighteous wilt thou not cloath me with the righteousnesse of my Saviour Mine iniquitie amazeth me but thy goodnesse assureth me my unworthinesse estrangeth me from thee but the worthinesse of thy Sonne recalleth me back inviteth me and conducteth me to thee unto thee that art the God of my salvation that hast redeemed my soule from death that hast purchased me life everlasting and most happy O my God how great is my comfort how excellent the joy how precious and unspeakeable the repose which my soule enjoyeth in the meditation of these things Vnto thee onely then it is that I now addresse my selfe as to confesse my sinnes so also to acknowledge thy mercie as to condemne my selfe so withall to find absolution in thy Sonne If to be sorrowfull and to grieve for my sinnes so also to rejoyce and to comfort my selfe in thy bounty who shall lay any thing to my charge Is it not thou which justifiest me Who shall condemne me seeing that Christ died for me Seeing he is risen againe seeing that for me he is at thy right hand making request for my salvation and quest conservation Nothing O my God shall separate me from the love thou bearest me and seeing thou hast loved me in thy Sonne I shall in all things be more then victorious But what shall I render unto thee O Lord unto thee that hast delivered my soule from death mine eyes from teares and my feet from sliding Vnto thee O Lord that hast loosed the bands of death which compassed me about Vnto thee that hast converted and turned into joy the sorrowes of the grave which had overtaken me What shall I render unto thee O Eternall Lord for all thy benefits conferred upon me I will take the cup of salvation I will call upon thy Name I will pay my vowes before the people I am thy servant thou hast unloosed my bands I will sacrifice unto thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving I will offer unto thee the fruit of my lips I will confesse thy Name thou hast purchased me with a price I will glorifie thee in my body and in my soule I am thine unto thee therefore will I present my selfe as a lively and holy sacrifice that may be pleasing and acceptable unto thee To this end O my God I crave strength from thee the conduct of thy Spirit thou hast already given me a will to serve thee produce O Lord in me not onely the will but withall perfect it with efficacie and according to thy good pleasure Of my selfe I can do nothing to thy glorie I perceive not the things which are of thy Spirit all the imaginations of the thoughts of my heart are altogether continually evill the wisdome the desires of the flesh is enmitie against thee It will not it cannot be subject to thy Law and yet by thy Spirit thou hast already given me the beginning of my regeneration Yet Lord though I will the thing that is good yet find I not the meanes to performe the same I do not the good that I would but I do the evill that I would not do It is to thee then that I have my recourse thou art the Author of every good gift the fountaine of life lyeth in thee in thy cleare light we see clearely and from thee onely is all our sufficiencie illuminate me by thy Spirit that being directed by the same I may render unto thee the service which I owe in the acknowledgment of all thy benefits Give me grace that to serve thee I may do nothing but what may be acceptable to thee that I may frame my selfe not unto mine owne fancie but according to thy will that I may do not what seemes good unto my selfe but what thou approovest that I may performâ— not mine owne designes but thy will not mine owne intentions but thy commandements not my will but thy Word Graunt I may propound unto my selfe for my end not the vanitie of the world but thy glory not my reputation but the manifestation of thy holy Name not my establishment on earth but the advancement of thy truth and of thy Church Give me to serve thee not unwillingly and by constraint but freely and with a good heart that I may be pricked forward not by the rigour of Menaces and the chastisements of thy Law but incited by the sweetnesse of the promises and benefits of thy Gospell that I may be not possessed with the Spirit of
thou hast so graciously preserved us unto this present houre by reason of our sinnes our life is exposed to an infinitnes of inconveniences and in the mean time we still subsist and are filled with thy good things Our being and our welbeing Lord we should hold it of thee we ow it to thy free grace and meere mercy to thee alone for the same be all glory for evermore But O our most gracious God it is most necessary for us that thou continue thy gracious favours unto us otherwise what thou hast hitherto done for us would turn to our confusion Leave us not then for then we shall perish thou hast created and redeemed us not to destroy us but that we might have eternall life Shed forth then upon us thy more especiall favours and above all the grace of thy holy Spirit Thou that hast washt us from our sins in the precious bloud of thy Sonne Sanctifie also our soules by thy Word and according to thy promise For Lord shall we enjoy Iesus Christ and his benefits without our serving of thee without magnifying of thee And what honour shall we render unto thee or what acknowledgment unlesse thou thy self confer upon us both the will and hability of performance The will and desire to honour thee We already have of thy free grace give us also the power of performance Give it us Lord with efficacy and according to thy good pleasure graunt it unto us and at the most humble and fervent request which we make unto thee for the same Give us not over neither to the malice of our enemies nor to our own perversnes let neither of them hinder us in thy service nor let us not give them any subject of dishonoring thee let our example serve for our conversion That they seeing the holines of our lives may lose their wils to hurt us and may gain an affection to know thee aright to acknowledg thee O God according to thy Truth according to their duty Let us not O Lord abuse our health and present prosperity Grant we may imploy them to the glorifying of thee and to the advancement of thy work with faithfulnes and every one according to his vocation whereunto thou hast called us above all that in the midst of our greatest repose we may prepare our selves for afflictions to the houre of death and for the fruition of our eternall rest When thou shalt visit vs with thy rods that it may be in thy mercy and for our amendment when thou shalt call us that it may be in thy grace and for our salvation whether in prosperity or in adversity whether sound or sick whether living or dying we may evermore confesse thy truth and do nothing which may be unworthy of our profession nothing which not seriously testifies our repentance for our sinnes our desire of thy grace our seeking of thy glory the peace of our soules the comfort of our consciences and the assurance of our salvation in thy welbeloved Sonne IESVS CHRIST In his Name we further pray thee to conferre the same good things on all our kinsfolks and friends call unto thee those that know thee not and strengthen those that already have thy feare Establish maintaine every where and make effectuall the Ministerie of thy Word for the conversion consolation of al thine Elect and for the enlarging of thy glory of the Kingdome of Iesus Christ Keep our King and all His grant Him a long Raigne in thy feare and for the good of of thy Church Let his subjects O Lord and above all we who are instructed by thy Gospell render unto him and unto all our Superiours all obedience unto which thy Word obligeth us Make thine own sensible of the bitternes of thine afflictions rejoyce them also in the sweetnesse of thy comforts so moderate and terminate thy corrections that they may be wholsome unto them Above all we beseech thee for them which have need of thy succours in this Church deny them not thine assistance heare their prayers and ours comfort them and deliver them that they and we may praise thee solacing our selves in thy goodnes And because O God it is onely our sins which are able to hinder us from hoping to receive from thee that which we ask of thee as thou pardonest us our sins in thy Son graunt us grace voluntarily to renounce all iniquitie so shal not the course of thy grace be interrupted so shall we have experience both in our prayers of the Truth of thy promises and in our whole life Yea even unto the last gasp therof the continuance of thy fatherly mercy in the same thy welbeloved Sonne in whose Name c. A Prayer for him who after he hath beene worthily prepared to receive the holy Communion approcheth to the Lords Table 9. O My God O my Father I have had experience of thy mercy in the whole course of my life especially since thou gavest me the knowledge of thy Truth and of my salvation and at this present time Lord thou openest before me the treasure of all thy riches thou presentest and offer'st unto me whole Iesus Christ with all his benefits Seeing then O God of my salvation seeing thou wilt that I should obey thy Word that I should draw neare unto thy Table Alas suffer not nor permit that it shal be to my condemnation But O good God far be it from me that I should admit any such feare For thou hast touched my heart with serious repentance I am right sensible that thou strengthenest my faith and reachest forth unto me thy hand thy selfe to receive me this day thou that art the Authour of my salvation O happy day wherein I protest before thee to detest my sinnes to renounce mine iniquity to be admitted unto the participation of the Sacrament of the New Testament Good God give me now the grace to shew forth the death of my Saviour grant that in his sufferings I may discern how great was thy wrath how exact thy justice against our sinnes seeing that to blot them out thou hast not spared thine owne Sonne Graunt also I may acknowledg thankfully thy infinite mercy towards us in that for us thine enemies thou hast given unto death the just thine onely Sonne But Lord give me to admire the never to be paralel'd love which thy Sonne beareth me in that he hath undergone both my sins and thy wrath to affoord unto me the food of eternall life O how wonderfull art thou in thy bounties Seeing that this day thou wilt by visible and sacred signes augment my joy and present to the view of mine eyes thy celestiall and invisible graces At this instant thou wilt give me an assured pledge of my conjunction with Iesus Christ And by him with thee O my Father as also with thy holy Spirit Now shall I be assured that Christ is in me and I in him O excellent Vnion sith it bringeth to passe that I have peace with thee
Paul saith Rom. 8.14 Courage then Sir say boldly with that holy Apostle in the midst of your combats I am assured that nothing shal be able to separate me from the love of God which he hath shewed me in Iesus Christ our Lord To assure the sicke against the temptations and terrors of conscience FOure things there are indeed which in this spirituall combat may give you terror stagger your faith and trouble the peace of your conscience Namely the sense of your sinnes the apprehension of death the feare of the Devill and the horrour of the judgement of God before whom we are to appeare at our going forth of this life But against the feare of al these things the goodnesse of God in the benefits of Christ and in the testimonies he gives us in his Word furnisheth you with good and sufficient remedies thorowly to assure and establish you in invincible constancie Against the terrors proceeding from the sense of his sinnes FIrst for the regard of your sinnes it is indeed very necessarie to have a thorow sensible apprehension and lively feeling of them to humble you before God But in as much as you protest you have a true and serious repentance of them and do seek and lay hold of by faith the satisfaction and expiation of them in the bloud of Iesus Christ assure your self they can in no sort hinder the effect of your salvation If you be a sinner why Iesus Christ also came into the world to save sinners 1. Tim. 1.15 He is that Lamb of God that takes away the sinnes of the world Iohn 1.29 It is his bloud which cleanseth us from all iniquitie 1 Ioh. 1.7.9 And whosoever shall believe in him shall receive remission of his sins thorow his name Act. 10 43. For this cause is it that there should be preached in his name repentance and remission of sinnes Luke 24 47. Yea he himselfe invites us to himselfe to endow us with the fruition of such a good come unto mee all yee that labour and are heavie laden and I will give you rest Matth. 11.28 Go you then unto him if you feele your selfe overwhelmed with the burthen of your sinnes in assurance to find remedie and rest to your soule And for this selfe same cause performes he yet still dayly the office of an Advocat with the Father for us If we have sinned saith Saint Iohn ch 2. ver 1 2. We have an Advocat with the Father to wit Iesus Christ the righteous who is the propitiation for our sinnes Against the feare of death NOW as touching death why should you feare it seeing your sinnes are not imputed unto you For by sin it is that death entred into the world thus saith Saint Paul Rom. 5.12 and by consequent where there is no sinne there can be no death And indeed as for eternall death which the Scriptures call the second death you have from it a full and a perfect release by the meanes of this faith which God hath given you Verily saith the Son of God Iohn 5.24 I say unto you that hee that heareth my Word and believeth in him that sent me he hath eternall life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death vnto life And as for the death of the body whereunto we remaine still subject it is not unto the faithfull a testimonie of Gods anger upon them as it is ever such unto the reprobate but rather a great and singular favour of his bounty and which bringeth them an infinitenes of excellent commodities First of all it delivereth and setteth us free from all manner of evils and dangers putting an end unto such a number of miseries vexations and griefs which exercise and disquiet us uncessantly both in our bodies and in our mindes during the course of this miserable life or rather of this continuall death wherein we languish here below and by drawing us out of this corrupt world imbrued in malignitie with the corruption wherof we cannot chuse but be infected as with a contagious ayre to see our selves brought to this unhappy necessity of offending daily the goodnesse of our heavenly Father so many wayes as we do Secondly corporall death is an entrance to us into a true life by the benefit of Iesus Christ who hath himselfe passed thorow this death to make the passage happy and dangerlesse unto us it is a safe bridge unto us to passe us and convay us out of the world unto God from earth to heaven and out of the calamities of this transitorie life unto the incomprehensible blessednesse of life eternall unto that fulnesse of joyes which is as David saith Psal 16.11 in beholding the face of the Lord. This is the happinesse which your soule shall injoy even from your very instant departure out of this body And as for your body which shal be put into the earth this shall not be for it there to perish for ever but rather there to rest only for a time in expectation of a blessed resurrection For this cause is it that the death of the faithfull is called a sleepe in the Scriptures and they are called they that are asleepe in regard of their bodies which at the last day shal be awakened and raised up out of the dust to possesse together with their soules glorious immortality being made conformable unto the glorious body of our Lord Iesus Christ Philip. 3.21 He is the head and they are the members And therefore it must needs be that the members be made like and conformable to their head What do you then find now in death which should astonish or affright you seeing it will deliver and set you free from all evill and will mount you up to the highest pitch of all happinesse But rather you shall find in it nothing which makes not fâ—â— your comfort and to settle and warrant you and which for that cause ought not to make you wait for it with resolution and repose of spirit yea to breath and long after it with all your heart when the houre therof shall come And to say with Saint Paul My desire tendeth and endeavoureth to go hence to be with Christ Against the feare of the Devill AS for the feare you may have of the Devill you see now how you have no great subject to fearâ—â—im seeing that death cannot hurt you but by that death whereof he hath the empire and power thereof Now the Apostle witnesseth that Iesus Christ hath not onely by death destroyed death but also him that had the power of death to wit the Devill Heb. 2.14 Our Lord saith himself that the Prince of this world hath nothing in him Nor then hath he ought in those that â—ire his members of the number of whom by the grace of God you are one Besides for us and for our profit it was that the Son of God fought with and hath vanquished and overcome him upon the Crosse upon the which he hath as Saint Paul speaketh
Father hath given you all things F. S. N. Be strong in Iesus Christ who calls and inuites you by his Prophets Apostles and Evangelists to resort and freely to make towards him saying you that thirst come unto the great fountaine come unto me all you that travell and are heavie laden and I will ease you F. S. N. Believe stedfastly that Iesus Christ hath discharged and set you free from all your sins and hath reconciled you unto God his Father Vnto whom in all humilitie and repentance say from the bottom of your heart LOrd God Almighty have mercy upon me a poore miserable sinner for thy Sonne Iesus Christ my Lord and Saviour his sake and by the merit of his death passion be pleased to receive my soule which I commend into thy hands F. S. N Bee of good hope For assuredly he will receive your soule as his for his Sonne Iesus Christ our Lords sake who is the Saviour and Redeemer of all those that believe in him Moyses and all the Prophets have testified that all Nations shall receive salvation and blessednes by Iesus Christ The Apostles and Evangelists do testifie that Iesus Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and to give his life for the redemption of many for he hath shed his bloud for the remission of sinnes Believe then and doubt not in any wise for Iesus Christ hath made you cleane from all your sinnes having promised that all they that shall believe in him and in his Father that sent him shall have eternall life and shall not come into judgement but shall passe from death unto life Well then F. S. N. take a good courage in Iesus Christ For he hath loved you and washed you from your sinnes in his bloud Have then this stedfast faith to fight valiantly against the adversarie use no other buckler to defend your selfe withall but this precious bloud of Iesus Christ which by vertue of his Death and Passion hath reconciled you unto God his Father unto whom in great humility and repentance offer up this Prayer O Lord God Almighty have mercy upon me a poore miserable sinner for thy Sonne Iesus Christ my Lord and Saviour his sake and by the merit of his Death and Passion be graciously pleased to receive my soule which I commend into thy hands F. S. N. Let this be your hope stedfast faith that that good God full of all mercy will receive your soule as his into his hands for his Sonne Iesus Christs sake For there is no other Name under heaven given unto men wherby we must be saved nor is there salvation in any other but in Iesus Christ Arme your self then indeed with this gracious Iesus Christ for he hath done all for you he hath fulfilled the Law for you he hath overcome all for you Well then F.S.N. cheer up your self in God be you ever unmooveable in this lively faith follow and imitate you the holy Patriarks Prophets and Apostles who are all saved in this faith who assure you all of them that the adversarie can no wayes hurt you For your suit is won by Iesus Christ who is both your Iudge and Advocat together Wherfore say evermore in this stedfast faith that though I should walke thorow the midst of the shadow of death yet would I feare no manner of evill For thou Lord God art with me F. S. N. Also cease not to say from the bottome of your heart in great humility and repentance LOrd God Almighty have mercy upon me poore miserable sinner for thy Sonne Iesus Christ my Lord and Saviour his sake and by the merit of his Death and Passion let it please thee to receive my soule which I commend into thy hands So be it A singular Prayer for a person greatly afflicted with sicknes which seemeth to approach nearer to death then to life With a short Catechisme purposely made to instruct the sicke and to make him contemplate by faith the great mysterie of our redemption Eccles c. 18. v. 19.20 Vse Physicke ere ever thou be sick before judgement examine thy selfe and in the day of visitation thou shalt find mercy NOw the Lord admonisheth us to pray continually especialy when we are touched with his rods wherefore all kinsfolks and faithfull friends that visit the sick person ought not only to visit and be carefull for the body but withall to seek and ask for the spirituall physick for his Soule This must he do by good prayers confession of sinnes and Christian exhortation according to the Word of God without which man cannot live and to this end that all things may be done in good order and with zeale First of all it is meet to cast downe himselfe before the Majestie of God and to call upon him by beginning Our helpe is in the Name of the Lord c. Then to present unto him the generall confession of sinnes and consequently this present prayer as it followeth O Lord God Almighty and Father of mercy we are here assembled together in the Name of thy welbeloved Son our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ thorow whom we are bold to present our selves before thee to call upon thy holy Name having our sole refuge unto thy Soveraigne and transcendent goodnes which we not only desire to be sensible of and to tast in our selves but also in the necessitie of thy poore creature here afflicted with corporall sicknes and with the affliction and calamity of mind We know Lord that justly thou visitest and chastnest him with thyrods to make him to understand thy fatherly affection But thy great mercies which thou hast used towards our fathers are not extinguisht nor exhausted For thou art that great eternall God gracious and mercifull that never changest with whom there is no variablenes nor shadow of change Thy holy Word teacheth us most evidently that the whole earth is full of thy mercies which are farre above thy justice Wheâ—fore Lord mitigate thy rigour towards thy creature have pity and compassion on him for thy Sonne Iesus Christ our Lords sake Looke not upon his sins but looke upon the face of thy Christ who hath fully satisfied thee for him by offering up unto thee that great sacrifice of his body upon the Crosse We beseech thee then O most gracious God full of mercy to make him sensible of thy grace which thou hast never denied to thy children And because thou art our eternal Father well knowing whatsoeveâ— is needfull and expedient for our salvation We pray not unto thee to lengthen unto him his life or to abridge it for we repose our selves upon thy holy will whereunto onely we desire to be conformable Thou art wise without counsell to dispose of thy creature according to thy good pleasure That if it shal be thy pleasure to call him hence who is he that shal be able to resist thee But if it be thy good pleasure to send him health againe who is he that shall reprehend
thee For all things are in thy hand and nothing is done without thy will and holy providence Yet Lord if out of thy grace thou prolong unto him his dayes thy rod shall serve him for a chastisement to amend him and to convert him unto thee and we together with him will render unto thee thanks and praises But if thy will be determined to make him passe hence into a better life wee beseech thee for thy Sonne Iesus Christ his sake to forget all his sins and transgressions which thou hast been pleased to blot out and towaâ—â— away by the effusion of his precious bloud be graciously pleased thorow the merit of the Death and Passion of thy Sonne to receive his soule into thy hands when as thou wilt call him out of this world Lord God despise not the work of thine owne hands for behold here thy poore creature as it were wholly overwhelmed who calleth upon thee out of the depth of all these evills presenting unto thee his sad and penitent soule with his dejected and humbled heart which we beseech thee to be pleased to accept as well pleasing unto thee for thy Sonne Iesus Christ our Lords sake in whose Name thou hast promised to heare our requests Wherefore Lord we beseech thee to receive us into thy holy protection to illuminate our hearts and understandings to addresse our selves unto thee to call upon thy holy Name as thy Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord hath taught us to pray unto thee for the relieuing of all our necessities saying Our Father which art in heaven c. Finally O God most gracious Father full of mercy be pleased evermore to support us by thy grace and power that by the infirmity of our flesh we fall not away And because that of our selves we are so fraile that we are not able to continue firm one minute of time graciously strengthen us by thy Holy Spirit and arme us with thy graces that we may bee enabled to persevere constantly in the faith without which it is not possible to please thee Bee graciously pleased then to confirme and establish us daily in the same whereof we will make confession with heart and mouth I believe in God the Father Almighty c. Prayers being ended notice shal be taken how the sicke person doth and hee may bee asked how he feeleth himselfe touching the state of his health with gracious talke and Christian Speeches But if it appeare that he decline and no token of recoverie appeare a while after a fit time shall be chosen to speak unto the said sicke person and to aske him whether he be not willing to heare talk of God and to hearken to his Word Whilst he is still in perfect memorie So that if he be inclinable to entertaine discourse concerning God the short Catechisme following shall be begun A SHORT CATEchisme which is not onely to instruct the sicke but also to refresh his memorie with the great mysterie of our Redemption For the better understanding and retaining whereof in his latter dayes he ought to make confession of his faith before the assistance of the faithfull whereof one of them in the Ministers absence must question him as followeth The Minister F. S. N. EVery man that rightly knows himselfe and is not ignorant of his owne condition and qualitie certainly he ought to acknowledge that although he was created after the image and likenesse of God neverthelesse he is conceived and borne in the sinne of old Adam whereby he is made a poore and miserable sinner ignorant inconstant and full of iniquitie and consequently subject unto all miseries afflictions adversities and finally unto death all which sinne hath caused which God not willing to leave unpunished daily afflicts us for or to speake more properly hee chastiseth us in this world that he might not condemne us with the world Wherefore F. S. N. be patient in your sicknesse and you shall possesse your soule in spirituall ioy Acknowledge your sins and accuse you your selfe before the Majestie of God whom you must looke up unto and behold by faith making confession thereof with heart and mouth before this whole assistance for it is written that wee believe with the heart unto justification and confesse with the mouth unto salvation Hearken then unto the questions which I will now propound unto you and answer them faithfully according to that understanding which you have received of the Lord. Which if you cannot answer by reason of your weakenesse and hinderance of your sicknesse I will answer for you and it shal be sufficient for you to give us to understand your heart and constancie of your faith in which you must live and die Go to then I demand of you wherefore and to what end were you created in this world The Sicke To know God The Minister Was it necessary for youâ—â— know God The sicke Yes verily For seeing he is my soveraigne good without the knowledge of him I had been more miserable then the bruit beasts The Minister Seeing you know God you well know that he is power wisedome and infinite goodnesse one God alone in three persons Father Sonne and Holy Ghost He is that one God whom Abraham Isaac and Iacob worshipped in spirit and truth hee is that one God Eternall who created heaven and earth and all things that are therein not such the knowledge of God which you have The Sicke Yes The Minister But can such and this simple knowledge of God conduct and guide you straight to eternall life The Sicke Very hardly For it is life eternall to confesse and know one onely God and him whom he hath sent his onely eternall Sonne our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ The Minister Why is it necessarie for you to confesse and know the Lord Iesus Christ The Sicke Because in Iesus Christ I must recover all that I have lost in my selfe by reason of the sinne of old Adam in whom I am borne and conceived Wherfore it hath been behooffull for my salvation that Iesus Christ true God and true man being clothed with our flesh should give unto me of his free grace all that which I had lost in Adam The Minister It is very well said Behold why Iesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost borne of the Virgin Mary to purge and sanctifie you For absolutely contrary hereunto him you are conceived and borne in sinne and of sinfull parents Why do you not confesse that without Iesus Christ you had remained a poore miserable sinner in eternall death The Sicke Yes assuredly But I believe and confesse that that good Iesus Christ hath reconciled me unto God his Father The Minister But how hath he reconciled you unto God his Father The Sicke By his Death and Passion in the shedding forth of his precious Bloud for to deliver me from all eternall paines This good Iesus Christ hath suffered for me under Pontius Pilate many afflictions injuries and troubles Iesus Christ it is that was crucified
thou hast broken rejoyce As then thou didst that favour unto the Israelites even then when they were in the desarts to make them to tast of the fruits of the terrestriall Canaan to the end to incourage them to make them to walk on forward with boldnesse towards the Land of Promise So Lord give unto this sick person and unto us that are in the wildernesse of this world an assurance of the forgivenes of our sins in the bloud of thy Welbeloved who was wounded for our trespasses and bruised for our iniquities peace in our consciences a continuall acknowledgment of thy favours a firm reliance on thy love and joy in our soules which are the fruits of the Celestiall Canaan to the end that relishing that sweetnes we may aspire with zeale and courage towards the end of our Spirituall Calling in Iesus Châ—â—st to be filled not with 〈◊〉 and hony but with 〈◊〉 beams of thy glorious 〈◊〉 and with the rivers of thâ— pleasures with thee for evermore For in possessioâ— of thee great God we shall possesse all things and in thee and thorow thee we shal be all radiant with thy glory and shining as the brightnes of the firmament and as the Sun which shineth in his strength And during this small time which remains for us to live in this world give uâ— grace that thorow good works we may make sure 〈◊〉 Vocation and Election to the end that thus doing 〈◊〉 â—ntrance into the eterâ—â—â—â—â—ingdome of our Saviour Iesus Christ may be abâ—ndâ—ntly accommodated unto us bearing evermore in â—â—nd those words of thy Sonne Iesus Christ that he that shall persevere and shall overcome shal be clothed with white garments and I will not blot his name out of the booke of life But I will confesse his name before my Father and before his Angells And to the end we may receive death which is the end of our miseries in good part make us seriously to think on the future resurrection of our bodies for as this day according as thy Prophet Amos teacheth us shal be a day of darknes not of brightnes of heavines not of joy of destruction not of salvation to the wicked so shall it be the acceptable day of the Lord for the good for as thy Son our Saviour teacheth us we ought to lift up our heads and to rejoyce in that day because our redemption is neare In that day shall it be according to thy Prophet Malachie that the register or book of remembrance which is written before thee of them which think of thy Name shal be opened If King Assuerus had in his Palace a Booke of the worthy exploits of his subjects wherein he found written the good deeds of Mardochâ— to recompence it and shalt not thou have O great King by whom the Kings of the earth raigne Thy book of life and retribution wherin are writ the names of thy children whom by a singular prerogative thou hast adopted for such in thy Son Iesus Christ David surely knew this mysterie when as in his sorest afflictions he said unto thee Lord thou tellest my wanderings my tears are in thy bottle are they not in thy Book Now to the end we may bee acceptable to thee whilst we are incompassed with this mortall flesh graunt us the grace to live in this present world soberly justly and religiously expecting that happy day of the last resurrection and appearing of thy deare Son our Saviour Iesus Christ who in the same shall transforme our vile bodies to the end they may be made like to his glorious body according to the effectuall power wherby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Vnto thee O great God thorow thy Son Iesus Christ in the Vnity of the Holy Ghost be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen 2. Another Prayer when the sicke is neare unto death 35. O Lord our good God and Father who out of thy great goodnes daily showrest downe upon us a sea of bounty and blessings and who hast in thy hand rest and labour health and sicknes life and death We poore sinners setling our selves upon the assurance of thy goodnes which is continually ready to relieve those that resort thereunto in the interim of their grievous assaults unto the blessed haven of thy sacred mercy We are bold in the name of this sick person who fighteth against death to lift up our hearts and our eyes towards thee to the end that thy favour and grace may serve unto him for a starre of light and a guide in that voyage which his soule maketh from earth to heaven and from this mortall life unto the immortall to persist firmly in the faith even unto the end without being terrified or shaken by temptation illusion or by any other stratageme of the enemie Thou art O great God the light of all them that hope in thee and who leddest thy people Israel thorow the ghastly wildernes by a pillar of fire in the dark night therfore we beseech thee to enlighten with thine assistance and holy protection this thy childe in the darkesome passage of death And surely Lord experience shewes us that when humane means seeme most to faile us then is it that thou keepest nearest unto thine to comfort them with thy right hand handling them with thy helpfull hand with gentle and cherishing fomentations and that thou makest them sensible that the point of their extreame need is the opportunitie of thy succours And therefore is it that now the heart of this sicke person sobbeth that his eyes are duskish and heavy his eares deafe his mouth dry and juycelesse and as the outward man falleth in him it would please thee to give him strength in his inward man and to fill his soule with gladnes and joy in that last conflict making him powerfully to relish those celestiall gifts which are laid up for us in heaven by the merits of thy deare Sonne our Saviour who to make us to live againe in heaven after he had by his death reconciled us unto thee ascended into heaven there to prepare a place for us In the interim then of this small time which remaines for this thy child to live in this world give him grace that his spirit may alwayes acknowledge thee that his heart may adore thee whilst he shall breath that he may be assured stedfastly that in the end of his mortall sweat he may find unspeakable happines with his bride-groome Iesus Christ unto whom with thee in the unitie of the Holy Ghost be honour and glorie for ever Amen 3. Another prayer in distres 36. LOrd God and Father of all mercy that sentest from heaven an Angell to comfort thy Son when in the depth of his Passion bearing our sorrowes and loaden with our griefs wounded for our offences and bruised for our iniquities his soule was heavie even unto death We beseech thee from the bottome of our hearts to comfort this thy sick child whom thou hast regenerated and incorporated
honour and glory for evermore So be it 7. Another Prayer wherein supplication is made unto God to assist with his holy Spirit the Sick in his agonie 40. O Lord God and most gracious Father when we enter into a serious consideration of our estate certaine it is that we are in this world as upon a rough and tempestuous sea and that the winds and storms of temptations advance themselves and arise every minute against us and therefore is it that we humbly beseech thee that in this perillous passage thy Spirit may conduct and strengthen our brittle vessell that by the assistance thereof at the last we may happily arive at the haven of eternall salvation And especially we beseech thee for this thy sicke child to the end it may please thee to imprint by the effectuall power of thy Holy Spirit more and more in his heart charity and the love of thy Sonne in whose name we have remission of our sinnes that Persevering with invincible constancie unto the end in the faith and confession of the Name of his Saviour he may find undoubtedly in him whatsoever is requisite unto his assured blessednes Let that thy Spirit which inflameth that which is cold which erecteth what is fallen which giveth breath unto that which is weary cheare up by his vertue the feeblenes of this sick person and produce in him ardent sighs Which may be dissolved into the sweet raine of teares fruitfull unto his soule Let the Same thy Spirit be unto this sick person that which it was unto Elias the whirle-wind and the chariot of fire wherein he may be carried up to heaven Let it be the same that was the New Starre to the Wisemen of the East that by the guiding thereof he may come unto Iesus Christ not laid in the manger not any more passible but glorious and risen againe sitting at thy right hand above all powers and principalitie victorious over death triumphant over hell and Head and Consummatour of our faith And as thou shewedst unto three of thy Apostles in the mountaine when as thy Sonne was transfigured having his face shining as a radiant Sun a skantling and patterne of the glory and celestiall beauty which they should injoy whom thou hast chosen and incorporated into thy said Son So we beseech thee that during the small time which remaineth for us to passe the course of this life it may please thee to give us a continuall tast of that heavenly happinesse and an holy sense of thy glory with a firme and an assured peace of conscience founded upon thy love to walke in the strength of this consolation unto thy holy mountaine For in as much as this world is but a pilgrimage and a way wherein there is nothing to be found firme and wherein the more that men digge to build in it the more do they find unstable sand and unconstant agitations Where ought we Lord to seeke for the true foundation of our expectation and hope but in heaven And seeing that where the body is thither gather together the Eagles We beseech thee to raise up aloft the heart of this sicke person and ours unto thee that thy love may be a precious ointment to make us run and aspire after thee If David in the midst of his great riches thought himselfe a stranger and a forraigner as his Fathers if he said that his dayes were as a shadow upon the earth wherein there is no stay if he looked upon his Royall Pallace as upon an Inne whereout he was every houre to dislodge if he looked upon his Throne as upon a seat which he must leave and resigne over to another And if looking upon his Crowne as on a thing which was subject to fade in these terrestriall places he breathed after an incorruptible Crowne of glory how much more ought we out of the midst of the dust of this world to desire and to breathe after that glorious eternall Crowne where our heavines shal be turned into gladnes our poverty into eternall riches and our ignominie into incorruptible honours Graunt us this grace then O great God not only to despise the things which the world admires but also make us to take patiently the afflictions which invirone and assault us whilst we run this our mortall race For seeing thou hast ordained that they whom thou hast chosen should be made like to the image of thy Sonne not only in suffering but also in glory graunt us grace firmely to be sensible of in this world and truly to injoy in the other the effect of this holy promise which thy Sonne who is holy and true hath made unto those that partake in his afflictions namely that he will give unto him that shall overcome to sit with him upon his Throne so as he also that hath overcome sitteth upon the Throne of his Father For it is certaine if we beare here below the Crosse of his Son we shall weare also the Crowne of glory with him in heaven That if we drink gall and vinegar out of the cup of his Passion we shal be watered and thorowly moistened with the rivers of his pleasures and if we beare in our bodies the mortification of the Lord Iesus even so also the life of the Lord Iesus shal be manifested in our mortal flesh then al of us casting forth bright beams of glory and shining with splendor we shal be not only like unto Angels but even withall we shal be like unto thee to injoy thorow thee and with thee that thy glory and felicitie the which because our words fall farre short of our thoughts yet shorter of the greatnesse therof eye cannot behold eare cannot heare nor heart comprehend Graunt us these things O God who art goodnes it self love it self holines it self who givest us what ere we have wilt give us out of thy bounty and mercy the fruition of what ere we hope for in all eternity thorow thy deare Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be honor and glory Our Father which art in heaven c. A prayer to be said after the sicke hath rendred his soule unto God for the comfort of the by-standers 41. O God and most merciful Father who hast created all things without necessitie who governest them without labour and who changest them thou thy selfe being unchangeable and whose sacred and perfect will is daily done on earth as in heaven We thank thee for this that it hath pleased thee to withdraw unto thee the soule of our brother making us to know in his death what our infirmity is and making us to behold as in a glasse the accomplishment of thine irrevocable sentence by which dust must returne to dust and the soule goe to heaven to him that gave it Graunt us this grace that this death may serve to make a serious impression in our thoughts not onely how his day is this day to die ours shal be tomorrow and that
as the last of our dayes shal be the first of our rest Yet that the death of the righteous is the sun-set of their woes and the sun-rising of their felicities but herewithall it may be also unto us an example to contemne this world where we do but offend thee to breath after with our whole hearts the celestiall Ierusalem wherein we shall injoy with Iesus Christ our Spouse unspeakeable and eternall pleasures whose excellencies surpasse all understanding according to that holy promise which he hath made us to be gone up thither there to prepare us a place to be with him injoying eternall glory Expecting then that most happy houre when thou wilt call us out of this world and where our salvation which is shut up in hope shal be fully revealed unto us Inable us powerfully to comprehend the excellencie of our Calling and what are the riches of thy glory in that heavenly inheritance of thy Saints and what the excellent greatnes of that power is to us ward that believe thorow operation of the power of thy strength which thou hast effectually exprest in thy Sonne Iesus Christ when thou raisedst him from the dead and madest him sit at thy right hand in heavenly places above all principalitie and power strength and dominion and above every name which is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come To the end that being strengthened and corroborated in the inward man we might walk on as becommeth that Calling whereunto we are called in all humilitie and meeknes and with a patient mind bearing with one another in deare love being carefull to keepe the Vnitie of the Spirit in the Bond of peace seeing we are called into the hope of our Calling To thee O great God Father of all which art above all amongst all and in us all with thy Sonne in the unitie of the Holy Ghost be honour and glory for ever Amen Vnto him that feareth God to die is to be borne FINIS A PRAYER to be said in the Morning at our Vprising O Most glorious God most gracious Father and most mercifull Saviour seeing it hath pleased thee to graunt me the gracious favour to have passed this night and to come unto this present day be likewise graciously pleased to adde herewith also unto me the benefit and abilitie to imploy the same wholly and altogether unto thy service in such sort that I may neither thinke say nor doe any thing but what may bee well pleasing unto thee And comply with the obedience unto thy blessed will and pleasure That so all my words may tend to the glory of thy Name and edification of my neighbours And as it hath pleased thee to make thy Sunne to shine upon the earth to inlighten our bodies so likewise be pleased by the bright beames of thy Spirit to illuminate my understanding â—nd my heart to direct and guide me in the saving way of thy righteousnesse so that unto whatsoever I apply my selfe evermore my principall end and Intention may bee to walk in thy feare to serve and honour thee expecting all my happinesse and welfare from thy onely blessing that so I may take nothing in hand but what is agreeable to thy blessed Will and Commandements As also that so travelling for the body and this present life that I may ever looke further namely unto that heavenly life which thou hast promised unto thy children Yet so Lord that it may please thee both in body and soule to bee my protector strengthening me against all the temptations of the Devill and delivering me from all dangers which may befall mee And because it is nothing to begin well unlesse it be seconded with perseverance Reâ—â—â—â—me not onely for this day into thy sacred protection but even for the whole course of my life coâ—tinâ—e and daily augment and increase in thee thy Heaâ—â—â—ly Grace â—ntill thou hast brought me unto the full fruition of thy Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord who is the true Sunne of 〈◊〉 soules that shineth day and night without end and for ever And that I may obtaine these graces from thee bee pleased to forget all my sinnes past and by thy infinite mercies to forgive mee them as thou hast promised unto all them that by faith in Iesus Christ the Sonne of thy love accompanied with true repentant sorrow for their sinnes heartily seeke thy mercie in the pardon of their sinnes by Iesus Christ to whom with thee and thy Holy Spirit one true and everliving God bee all honour and glory now and for evermore Amen A PRAYER TO 〈◊〉 said before going to bed O Lord God sith it hath pleased thee to create the night for the rest of man as thou hast ordained him the day for his travell Graunt me the grace so to take rest this night in body as that my soule may alwayes watch unto thee and that my heart may be raised up in thy love and that I may so cast off and lay asâ—de all earthly cares that I may bee refreshed as mine infirmitie shall require that I never forget thee but that the remembrance of thy bounty and grace may remaine evermore so deepely imprinted in my memorie that by that means my conscience may have as well her spirituall rest as the body taketh his And withall let not my sleepe bee excessive inordinately to please the ease of the flesh but onely to satisfie the frailtie of nature the better to dispose me to thy service Be also pleased to keep me unpolluted in my body as in my minde And to preserve mee against all dangers that my sleep may bee to the glory of thy Name And seeing there hâ—th not a day passed whâ—â—â— I have not many wayes ofâ—â—â—â—â—â— thee according as I am a poorâ— wretched sinner even as all a now covered by the darkenesse which thou sendest upon the earth graunt likewise all my sinnes may bee buried thorow thy mercy that by them I may not bee deprived of the light of thy countenance Heate mee most gracious God and loving Father for Iesus Christ his sake Amen THE MANNER of questioning those that are to bee received to the Supper of our LORD IESVS CHRIST Question IN whom believest thou Answer In God the Father in Iesus Christ his Sonne and in the Holy Ghost Q The Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost are they more then one God A. No. Q Must we serve God according to hi◠〈◊〉 or according to the traditions of â—â—n A. We must serve him according to his Commandements and not according to the commandements of men Q. Canst thou fulfill Gods Commandements of thy selfe A No. Q. Who is it then taht fulfill them in thee A. The Holy Ghost Q And when God hath given thee his Holy Spirit canst thoâ— perfectly fulfill them A. No in no wise Q And yet God curseth and reiecteth all those that doe not perfectly and entirely fulfill his Commandements A. It is true Q By what meanes then canst thou be saved and delivered from the curse of God A. By the Death and Passion of our Lord Iesus Christ Q How by the meanes of his Death and Passion A. Because by his Death he hath purchased us life and hath reconciled us unto God his Father Q. Vnto whom prayest thou A. Vnto God Q In whose name prayest thou A. In the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ who is our Mediator and Intercessor Q. How many Sacraments are there in the Christian Church A Two Q. Which are they A. Baptisme and the Lords Supper Q. What is the signification of Baptisme A. It hath two parts For our Lord doth therein set forth unto us the remission of our sins and then our regeneration or spirituall renewing Q. And what signifâ—â—th the Sâ—pper A. It setteth forth unto vs that by the Communion of the Body and bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ our soules are nourished in the hope of eternall life Q What do the Bread and Wine set forth unto us in the Lords Supper A. They set forth unto us that the Body and Bloud of Iesus Christ have such vertue and strength unto our soules as Bread and Wine have unto our bodies Q Conceivest thou that the Body of Iesus â—hrist is inclosed and contained uâ—der the Bread and his Bloâ—d under the Wine A. No Q Where then must we seeke Iesus Christ to have the fruition of him A. In heaven in the glory of God his Father Q What is the meanes to come unto heaven where Iesus Christ is A. It is faith Q. We must then have true faith before we can have the right use of this holy Sacrament A. So we must Q. And how can we come by this faith A We attaine unto it by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in our hearts and assureth us of the Promises of God which are made unto us in the Gospell FINIS
faithfull Soule Touching the present affliction of the Church 1. O LORD our good God and gracious Father wee thy poore creatures humbled before thy face are bold to present our selves before thy holy and high majesty although we be but dust and ashes thou dwellest in inaccessible light but wee by nature are plunged in darknesse thou art a consuming fire but we are as the chaffe thou art soveraigne righteousnesse and we are poore sinners thou art the fountaine of life and we by nature are in death Yet O Lord thou hast commanded vs to call vpon thee in our necessities with promise to heare vs and hast given us thine owne Sonne to be our Intercessor promising vs to give us the things we shall aske in his Name thou hast called us with an holy calling and amidst the thick darknes of ignorance wherewith the earth is couered thou hast enlightened us with thy knowlege and received us into the number of thy children yea every one of us severally hath beene sensible of thy particular assistance and fatherly succours in the whole course of his life But O Lord the greater thy favours are towards us the guiltier are we of ingratitude for we have abused thy graces and thy feare hath not beene before our eyes Wee have despised thy word and have not reverenced it After the fires and massacres whereof we are but a remnant and as a firebrand pluckt out of fire thou hast re-establisht us and hast given us dayes of peace and of refreshing but we have abused our repose and turned it into licentiousnesse and loosenes We have had more care to build againe our owne houses then to advance thine we have run after the gaine and vanity of this world In stead of cloathing the poore we haue arrayed our owne bodies sumptuously Wee have rent and torne our selves with quarrels and enmities and are thereby become contemptible to our adversaries our prayers have beene cold our zeale languishing our almes skanted and therefore hath our iniquitie abounded and our charity been frozen In stead of drawing the ignorant unto the knowledg of thee by our good life we have scandalized exasperated them by our evil conversation When we have had humane strength and meanes and when thou raisedst up among us Princes and Potentates who seemed they would be a firme prop unto thy Church and and an assured shelter and place of retrait during the storme we have leaned on the arme of flesh in stead of relying on thee alone O God which castest downe and abatest the pride of the loftiest and raisest up the miserable out of the dust thou liftest up and bringest low the degree therfore hast thou cast us downe and humbled us and hast made us know the vanitie of our thoughts contrary to thy counsells yea even the Ministers and Preachers of thy word have failed in their charges and in many places evill and prophanation is issued and come foorth frâ—m the Prophets and indeed in these yeares of peace are seene the revolts of many which had the leading of thy flocke For these causes O Lord God thou just Iudge thy wrath is kindled against thy people being confounded in our selves wee acknowledge that thy chastisements are just yea Lord far lesse then we have deserved thou hast covered our faces with confusion thou hast glutted us with bitternesse thou hast caused us to drinke of the cup of thine anger thou hast called us to weeping and sighing in sacke-cloath and ashes thou hast lifted up the hand of our adversaries and hast exposed us unto scorne and hast made thy hand heavie upon us thou hast plucked up the plants which thou hadst planted and beaten downe the Churches which thou hadst erected by the blood of thy Martyrs by the preaching of thy Gospell Thou hast broken downe the hedge of thy providence which environed thy Church and hast exposed it as a prey to wilde beasts And now Lord we see that in the places where thy Gospell was purely preached even there at this day ecchoeth forth alowd forgerie and idolatrie is againe established and the enemies of thy truth insolently triumph and insult over the ruines of thy house Hereupon we have cryed unto thee but thou hast turned away thy face Thou hast covered thee with a cloud that our prayers might not come up unto thee and we see thy hand lifted up to smite us yet more rigorously and the rods prepared which thou displayest in thy displeasure Lord God justice belongeth to thee but unto us confusion of face wee acknowledg in all this which is come to passe the tokens of thy just displeasure and there is no evill in the Cittie which the Lord hath not done So it is that thou art our Creator and wee are the worke of thine hands thou art God we are thy people thou art our Redeemer and we are thine own purchase thou hast purchased us with a great price a people whom thou hast honored with thy knowledge thou art a mercifull God and of great benignitie slow to anger and dost not alwayes keepe it that takest no pleasure in the destruction of thy work It is thy goodnesse that we have yet any being It is of thy tender compassion that we are not utterly consumed thou dweilest in the highest heavens and in the humblest hearts the broken and contrite spirit unto thee is an acceptable sacrifice Now then O God look downe from the place of thy Sanctuarie to wit from the heavens heare the prayer of thy servants and accept their humiliation pardon Lord pardon the iniquitie of thy children for thine owne sake for the greater it is by so much the more admirable is thy goodnesse in pardoning it the greatnesse of our sinnes serveth to exalt thy mercie and withall thou hast received a sufficient ransome of thine owne Sonne and a redemption of infinite pricâ— whereon relying we dare approch unto the throne of grace to obtaine grace in due time For O God in these anguishes we see no meanes on earth but our eyes are towards thee Heare then from thy habitation and regard for thou art able to releeve us thou art not a God that art onely a God at hand and not a God a farre off even then when all humane meanes faile then is it that thou displayest thy strength and when thorough our foolishnesse we have procured unto our selves evils thou usest our foolishnesse for our good that the subsisting of thy Church might not bee a work of mans wisdom but of thy sacred providence Thou it is that in all former times hast succoured thy people and drewest them forth of the iron fornace with a strong hand and with an outstretched arme and hast carried them as upon the wings of an Eagle who even in our time hast made us sensible of thy succours by many deliverances and who deliveredst our fathers from many cruell persecutions having caused them to passe thorow many more grievous tryals then this thy tender compassions are not
drawne dry thy arme is not shortened nor thine eare growne heavie of hearing but our iniquities are they which make this sepation between thee and us which take thou away by thy mercy and by the intercession of our Saviour Iesus Christ It is thou that hast crusht the Dragon and bruised the head of that old Serpent and who by the blood of thy Covenant hast drawne us out of the pit where there was no water having vanquished hell by the death of thy Sonne thou then great God that hast pluckt us from out the talons of the Divell wilt thou not deliver us from the hands of men thou which hast saved us from hell wilt thou not deliver us from the power of the world O Eternall Lord thou wilt do it and wilt not forsake us but rather having chastised us in measure thou wilt make us sensible of thy comforts and wilt cause to shine upon us thy face in ioy and in salvation least wee faint thorow our infirmity and least we be overcome through the length and hardnesse of the temptation for so also Lord hast thou promised and thy promises are certain thy word more firm then heauen and earth thou hast promised us by the mouth of thine own Sonne not to forsake us and to be with us even to the end of the world thou numberest our haires thou receivest our sighes thou puttest up our teares into thy bottles he that toucheth thy children toucheth the apple of thine eye thou causest thine Angels to pitch their camps about them that feare thee deare and precious is their death in thy presence Doe then O God according to thy word and let the Angell of thy face march before us let thy protection be round about us as a wall of fire thou that stillest the waves of the sea and the insurrections of the people and which holdest the hearts of Kings in thine hands as the rivers of waters curbe the furie of the people and give unto our King thoughts of peace estrange farre from him the Counsels of violence frustrate the expectation of our enemies who alreadie have devoured us in hope dissipate their counsels thou that surprisest the wise in their subtilties which knowest the depths of Satan and piercest with thine eyes into the counsels of the sonne of perdition whom thou wilt discomfite with the breath of thy mouth and wilt beate downe all power which opposeth it selfe against thine but if our iniquities beare witnesse against us and make us unworthy to see so excellent a worke do it for thine owne sake for though we be unworthy to be heard thou art worthy to be glorified wherefore suffer not Satan to triumph and reioyce at the dissipation of thy Church and that thy holy Name is without punishment blasphemed Awake then O God thy jealousie and the blustering motions of thy fatherly affections unbare and tucke up the arme of thy holinesse and let the ends of the earth see thy salvation remember thy ancient compassions and thy covenant with thy people Remember the bloud of thy children spilt in abundance which cryeth for vengeance from the earth We confesse indeed that we have need to be humbled and that thy Church hath need to be purged againe and therefore it is that thou takest the fanne into thy hand to repurge thy floore and raisest the wind of persecution which serveth to carry away chaffe and to expell hypocrites But withall O good God amidst this tribulation the weak do faint and the good are oppressed and partake in the affliction and Idolatrie gathereth strength and the night of ignorance groweth thicker and thy holy Name is blasphemed and the doctrine of salvation trampled under foot by thy adversaries Therefore is it that we beseech thee O Father of mercie that if thou wilt afflict us that we may not fall into the hands of men but that we may fall into thine owne hands for thy compassions are great for men hate us not for that we have offended thee but because wee defend thy quarrell and because thy Name is called upon by us and renouned upon us the blood-suckers thirst after our blood not to ease the patient but to satisfie their lust Above all things O God and most gracious Father continue unto us thy word and afflict us rather with all other manner of affliction in this life then to take from us that light sith it is the testimonie of thy favor towards us our priviledge amongst all people and the way to come to thy kingdome that our children may be instructed therein and mâ—y be heires of thy Coveâ—â—nt after us and that our dayes may be finished in thy favour may be followed with an age wherin thy truth may shine forth againe and the kingdome of thy Sonne Iesus Christ may take a great increase and by preserving unto us this preaching of the Gospell in the purity thereof give it efficacie in our hearts and breake not in thy anger the strength of this spirituall bread Rather Lord make the feare of this light incite and rowse us up to make our profit thereof and to redeeme the time and to further and carrie us on forward in this way whilst we have the light and let evils wherewith thou visitest us be wholesome remedies unto us and an instruction for our soules and let them serve to recollect our faith and to draw from out our hearts fervent prayers and that the deliverance which it shal please thee to graunt us may make us know thy fatherly love towards us which shall accompanie us the rest of our dayes till we be retired out of this vale of miserie to put us in possession of thy kingdome that we may leave after us thy Church peaceable the breaches of thy house repaired and thy service purely establisht to the glory of thy great Name and the salvation of many by thy Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen Es c. 26. v. 12. 13. Lord thou wilt ordaine peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our workes in us O Lord our God other Lords besides thee have had dominion over us but by thee onely will we make mention of thy name Ver. 20. Come my people enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doores about thee hide thy selfe as it were for a little moment untill the indignation be overpast Morning Prayer 2. O Our good God and gracious Father we thy poore creatures present our selves before thy face acknowledging that we are great sinners who cease not to offend thee in thought word and deed ingratefull for thy benefits full of diffidence and incredulitie more affectioned to the things of this world then unto thy service But there is mercie with thee for thou lovest not the death of a sinner but that he should convert and live and hast given us thine own Sonne that we beleeving in him might not perish but have life everlasting Thou hast commanded us to call upon thee with promise to give us
servitude but ledd by the spirit of feare and true filiall love Remove from my understanding all darknesse of error and ignorance make me know thy works cause mee to see in the mirrour of nature the excellent works which thou madest in six dayes and thine admirable providence in the upholding and preservation of all thy creatures there appeares before our eys both thine eternal power and Godhead and there is not the least of the world which is not a faithfull witnesse of the glory which is due to thee by reason of thy wisdome power and infinite goodnesse but Lord give me eyes to looke into the mirrour of thy Word in which are represented most clearely unto us the mysteries of our redemption that in it I may see thy Sonne that in thy Sonne I may behold thee For O good God as we beseech thee that thou wouldest not looke upon us but in thy Sonne for that in him onely thou findest us righteous and unblameable so can we not behold thee but in him because in him onely thou manifestest thy selfe unto us not as a rigorous Iudge as thou doest to the reprobate but a gracious and mercifull Father to thy children Moreover Lord in such sort inspire mee that having beene soundly and faithfully instructed in the knowledge of thy Truth I may judge uprightly of all thy counsells of thy whole Word of all thy actions for seeing it hath pleased thee to lodge me in the midst of all thy creatures and to put as it were into my hands the quiers of all thy Actions namely thy holy Word ought I not to avouch that thou art just wise good mightie and mercifull and that glory is due unto thee upon occasion of every one of thy works and wherefore hast thou brought me up in the Schoole of thy Church but to the end to forme in me a jâ—dgement and to teach me to speake against all the reasons of men be it that the Lord spareth be it that he afflicteth be it that he blesseth be it that he punisheth or what ere he doth it is every way justice equitie and wisedome and his sole will is the most perfect rule of all righteousnesse But O my God graunt that I may not know thee unto my condemnation with science give me conscience illuminate my understanding rectifie also my will accompanie it with a franke affection to thy service Graunt my heart may burn within me let it be inflamed with the desire of thy glory let my soule be continually ravisht with admiration above all seeing that to save us thou hast turned our darknesse into light our evils into good our death into life and us that were thine enemies thou hast made not onely thy friends and servants but of thy household but even thy children without any desert of ours notwithstanding our contrary demerits even of thy meere free grace and mercy and without sparing of thine owne Sonne O Lord our God let thy Name be magnified thorough out all the earth but as thy works be admirable but as thou art mercifull in thy Church thou hast done great things for us thou hast wrought powerfully by thine arme and in such sort above my capacitie that I cannot but crie out ô the depth of the riches of thy wisdome and of the knowledge of God! Grant Lord that I may not be stupid nor insensible in these things but care that my soule may be affected with gladnesse my heart with joy and solid contentment If the Devills and all thine enemies wonder at thy works it is but in despight of themselves it is but in their murmuring against thee but have not I wherein to rejoyce have not I cause to put farre away from me all sorrow every vaine apprehension seeing that I assuredly know that thou art not onely wise and mighty in thy selfe nor good to others but wise mighty and good unto me and unto my salvation and redemption Yet O my God that I may keepe measure in my mirth beget in my heart true humilitie which may serve to counterpoise it so that whilst I rejoyce in thee I may be humbled in my selfe that I may adore in all reverence thy divine Majestie that I may be exempt from all pride acknowledging how lamentable the poverty and weaknesse of my condition should be were it not that I wholly depend on thy grace and on thy good pleasure For it is thou that resistest the proud and that givest grace to the lowly it is thou that abhorrest every man of an haughty heart he shall not from hand to hand abide scotfree and unpunished In stead whereof thy favours flow downe upon them which come unto thee in humilitie and reverence Forme Lord forthwith in my foule a true feare of thy Name which may withold me and keepe me from offending thee for thou seest thou understandest all things thou art he that wilt judge all the thoughts words works of men But why should I not feare infinitely to offend thee to provoke thee by mine iniquities thou that hast alwaies bin a most gracious and mercifull Father unto me suffer not my heart to be hardened for then should I fall into all calamity but make me happie in fearing continually Let me feare Lord not to out-passe the traditions of men but the rules and instructions of thy Word Let me apprehend not some imaginary punishments but the rigour of thy just judgments Let me have not the feare of the damned and of Devils which tremble with horrour but the feare of thy children To this end O my God give me thy love to season my feare and to warrant me from despaire The wicked feare thee onely for the apprehension of thy punishments but as for me I wil feare thee Lord because in my heart shall lodge thy love Also good God whâ—refore shall I not love thee when I consider what heretofore thou hast done for me that which now thou doest in me and that which hereafter thou wilt do with me thou hast elected me before all eternity thou hast justified me in calling me unto thy selfe in the fulnesse of time daily thou sanctifiest me by thy Spirit and hereafter thou wilt glorifie me in everlasting life I will love thee then with all hearty affection and wholly accursed shall I account him that shall practice the contrary For my Saviours sake I will deprive my selfe of all things I will account them all as dung for thou hast loved me not simply the first or before I knew thee but Alas Even then when I was of the number of thine enemies And to sum up all art not thou Lord the Soveraigne Good Without thee and out of thee is there any thing amiable Let the world love it selfe let men be Idolaters of their concupiscences of their goods of their lives and of their reputations on earth As for me Lord if I hate not all things for thy sake and in case thou so requirest and that it be expedient for thy glory I am
most assured that I am unworthy of thee I will love thee O my God and give me grace to put my whole trust and confidence in thee onely and so to repose and relie upon thy goodnesse and holy providence that from thee onely almighty and most gracious I may hope for and expect patiently whatsoever is expedient and necessary for me Cursed be the man that trusteth in man that maketh flesh his arme and whose heart withdraweth it selfe from the Lord It is better Lord to cleave unto thee then to trust in the Princes of the people Let worldlings and the reprobate live full of diffidence and distrust let them be bereau'd of judgement in their adversitie let them be daunted and forlorne in the first difficultie that befalls them let them have recourse to unlawfull meanes and those that are forbidden by thy Word As for me O God of my salvation in thee only will I place my hope that I may not be confounded Yea rather thus beholding with a setled and fixed eye what ere shall come to passe I shall abide stedfast as the mountaine of thy holines But O my God horrid should my condemnation be if I hoorded up in my heart the precious gift of thy knowledge how inexcusable my proceeding if I should boast of thy feare of thy love without my testifying thereof in my outward actions I beseech thee then so to strengthen me that I may shew forth by an holy conversation that it is thou Lord that sanctifiest me by thy spirit Touch my soule worke so in my heart and in my conscience that I may be freed from hypocrisie that my religion may not be a cloke to vaile from men the irregularitie of my passions the violence of mine affections but that being well ordered in my mind from thence as out of a purified fountaine may flow forth the streames of all sorts of good works agreable to thy Word meet for thy glory and profitable to my neighbours befitting my Vocation and unto my salvation To this end O Lord I beseech thee that thou wilt be pleased to give me courage to testifie what I have in my heart by my outward actions that I may glorifie thee every where and upon all occasions in making free and publike profession of thy Truth That I may not be ashamed of thy Word that I may not passe by thy bountie in silence but that I may shew forth thy strength even from thee Lord that hast called me out of darknesse into thy marvelous light that with my mouth I may give unto thy works praise conformable to the judgment and approbation I have already made of them in my soule that I may never cease to magnifie thee and that my heart may take no other pleasure but to see thee glorified in the world For if even the livelesse creatures celebrate thee why should I thorow ingratitude be mute in the acknowledgment of thy benefits Wherefore Lord hast thou given me a tong but chiefly to serve as an instrument to blesse and praise thee And that I may speak nothing but what may tend to thy glory Let me not take thy Name in vaine nor give my self to evill speaking nor detraction let no rotten speech go forth of my mouth but let all my talke tend to edification Moreover O Lord give and enable me to confesse not only in prosperity and whilst all things smile upon me according to the world but even in the greatest adversity that even in the midst of persecution if it please thee not to exempt me from the same I may answer alwayes with meeknes and reverence every one that shall demaund of me a reason of the hope that is in me I know Lord that very great is my weaknesse but is thy hand shortened or lesse strong for me then for the rest of thy children Is it thou that art pleased to perfect thy strength in our weaknes and infirmity Thou wilt give me then the constancie and that perseverance which shall be necessary for me that without feare and without being troubled I may be happy in suffering for righteousnes Give me grace also that all my actions may be void of vanity and presumption accompanied and seasoned with humility and reverence that I may humble my selfe under thy mighty hand that the world may see I wholly depend on thy goodnes and mercy that I hold my life being and all things of thee only that thou only hast the power to do with me thy poore and miserable creature what shall seem good unto thee And seeing thou hast given me to feare thee and to love thee give me also the strength to do what thou hast commanded me to avoid what thou hast forbidden me enable me to order my life according to thy commandements thou hast given us in thy Law As also Lord in that which displeaseth thee it may be seen that I have thy feare and that I have thy love whilst I do that which thou requirest of me Thy feare shall estrange me from that familiarity which hath no place but amongst companions and shall containe me within that respect which I ow unto thee and thy love shall exempt me from that feare which shall euer ceaze upon thine enemies Lastly O my God above all the things which in all humility I desire of thee I beseech thee that often thou wouldst often graunt the leasure and desire to call upon thee as thou now hast done Thou dost familiarly speak to me by thy Word graunt that I may confidently speak to thee by my prayers that often I may withdraw my selfe apart that I may shut my self up in my closet to impart unto thee my griefs to confesse unto thee my sinnes to bewaile before thee my poverty and my miserie and to implore from thee thine assistance and thy mercy For Lord prayer wil be unto me an unspeakable comfort as an evident testimonie that thou hast not left me to my self that I am in the number of thy children that thou wilt blesse me and powre forth upon me thy mercy and after I have called upon thee I shall carry my self in my vocation with much more zeale standing upright with thee I will not feare the world having discharged my conscience in thy presence I will march with my head born aloft having carefully recommended my self unto thy guidance I shall have rest in my soule and shal be most assured that notwithstanding the rage and subtilty of all mine enemies which are also thine thou wilt give me to continue faithfully my life in thy feare and end it in thy holy favour even then when out of this vale of misery thou wilt receive me into thy glory unto everlasting and most happy rest Another Prayer 8. O Lord our gracious God and almighty Father as thou hast alwaies thy hand opē to do us good thy wil is that our mouthes likewise should be so heartily to render unto thee thanksgiving Now then we praise and blesse thee for that
that Iesus Christ taketh upon him all my evill and bestoweth on me all his benefits that he quickneth me by his Holy Spirit that I am united unto all the faithfull that nothing shall separate me from thy love that none shall pluck me neither out of the hands of my Saviour nor out of the bosome of his Church I feare neither my sins for behold here the bloud of my Saviour which blotteth them out nor thy wrath for loe here the seale of my reconciliation with thee nor the Devill for behold here Christ who hath overcome Nor death for this day I receive the Sacrament of life everlasting this day is promise made unto me and the scale of it is given me that the heavens are opened unto me that my habitation shal be in the house of God for ever Lord increase my faith Lord raise up my heart unto thee graunt that unto thy glory graunt that unto salvation I may comprehend the excellency and the benefit of these things and that thence I may take up a firm resolution to renounce the world to walk therein as a pilgrim as keeping on my way towards my Saviour to draw unto him my neighbours to edifie them by mine example to adhere to thy Truth to continue their profession thereof against the rage and against the subtilties of all the enemies of thy Truth to my singular comfort even unto the last gasp of my life Amen A Thanksgiving to be rendred unto God after we have been partakers of the holy Communion 10. LOrd my God how is my soule ravisht in contemplation of the good things which thou commest to give me thy poore servant Alas Lord I am farr lesse then the least of thy mercies and then all the truth thou usest towards me it is thou that assurest me that thy Sonne that thine onely Sonne died for me It is thou that hast given me the seales of thine inviolable Covenant But what say I the seales O God thou knowest what ardor I feele at this present within me an assured testimonie that Iesus Christ is come to dwell in my heart by the precious faith thou hast given me Yea Lord I feele that he dwelleth in me I feele he engraveth in my heart the efficacie of his death and passion he died once upon the Crosse for my sinnes But he liveth for ever in my heart for my salvation I know it I beleeve it with as much certainty as with truth I have been partaker of the outward signes of thy grace O let my soule enjoy so great repose against her enemies O let it have an unspeakeable contentment in thy mercy As Iesus Christ died for me let Iesus Christ live in me O God it is so for thou wilt have it so for I am sensible of it and my faith is greatly strengthened Surely Lord thou wilt be my God for ever for thou art with me thou givest me the bread of life thou cloathest me with the innocency and righteousnes of thy Son O good God finish in me thine own work thou hast rescued me out of the dangers of eternall death thou hast assured me of most happy rest graunt me Lord yet this period unto my prayer that I may not repay thee with ingratitude that I may not die in sin but may live to righteousnes that I may deny my selfe may edifie my neighbours may consecrate my self to thy glory that in the sobriety righteousnes and religion of my life I may affect nothing so heartily have nothing so often before mine eyes as my leaving of this world And whilst thou preservest me therein O God as long as thou keepest me in the same I may expect with all thine Elect the most blessed hope and appearance of the glory of the great God which is our Saviour Iesus Christ to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be honour and glory from this time and for evermore Amen A Confession 11. O Lord God Eternall and Almighty Father we confesse and acknowledge unfainedly before thy sacred Majestie we are poore miserable sinners conceived and born in iniquity and corruption inclined unto evill doing unprofitable unto every good work and that by our sins we transgresse continually and without ceasing all thy holy Commandements In doing wherof we purchase to our selves by thy just judgment destruction and utter ruine Yet Lord we are displeased with our selves for having displeased offended thee we condēn ourselves our sins with true repentance humbly praying thy grace may relieve our misery and calamity Have mercy then upon us O God and most gracious Father and full of mercy for Iesus Christs sake thy Sonne our Lord. And blotting out our sins and blemishes inlarge in us and increase daily the graces of thy Holy Spirit that we acknowledging heartily all our unrighteousnes may bee toucht with true displeasure which may beget in us sound repentance which mortifying us unto all sinne may bring forth the fruits of righteousnesse and innocency which may be acceptable and wel pleasing unto thee thorough the same Iesus Christ thy welbeloved Sonne our Saviour Amen A Morning Prayer 12. O Lord God Eternall Father seeing it hath pleased thee to bring us safely unto this present day be pleased also to give us grace we may passe the same without offending thee and what ere we shall do say or think may be to the glory and praise of thy Name and edification of our neighbours And look not Lord upon our infirmities upon our sinnes and on our unthankfulnesse But looke upon thine accustomed goodnes and according to the same turn not away thy face from us but ever hold us up by thy hand that we fall not from thee at all and let not those threatnings which thou hast pronounced against them that have knowne thee and have not glorified thee as they ought fall upon us But Lord hold us ever in thy feare and forsake us not teach us to do thy will and give us the will and the power to do it for without thee we can do nothing Above all Lord make us alwayes with our whole hearts imbrace the memory and the merit of the death of thy Sonne And especially when the houre of our owne death shall come graunt that in the same we may have such faith recourse and assurance that we may be in the ranke of those which die in the Lord. And even then also graunt us that we may leave this world without all discontent thereat and that all our desire may be to be with thee Also Lord thou hast taught us to pray that thy Kingdome may come be pleased to advance forward the same and in so doing touch our Kings heart and the hearts of his Councill and illuminate them with thy brightnesse that thou maist be King and rule every where And that thine enemies may be made thy footstoole looke downe Lord in mercy upon all the poore afflicted ones persecuted and oppressed especially for thy Word Deliver them O good God as
me thy poore creature for whether thou lookest upon the first or on the second Table of thy Commandements thou wilt find that I have offended thee many wayes Yet as the child hath alwaies recourse to his father I have my refuge and my retrait unto thee O Lord which art slow unto anger and of great compassion beseeching thee by thy goodnes to cover my sins as all things are covered thorow the darknes spread over the earth Alas my God I know Satan goeth round about us as a roaring Lion I know he is the governour of the darknes and Prince of this world But withall if thou be for me who shal be against me It is thou that hast thousands of Angels that are encamped round about us It is thou that hast created the Sun begetting heat and the Moone affording coolenes It is thou that governest the whole frame of nature and never slumberest Be pleased then to graunt me the favour to take my rest this night in peace not to suffer a sleepe unto the things of the earth but more and more to acknowledg thankfully thy goodnes untill thou callest me unto that so greatly to be desired rest which thou hast prepared for us O how sweet and amiable will that dwelling be to us when in our graves we shall heare the voice of thy Sonne to raise us up unto glorious immortalitie But in the mean time whilst we expect that last comming we commend unto thee O heavenly Father the peace and preservation of thy Church our Superiours and Magistrates and all them that have need of thy succours beseeching thee that in this decrepit age of the world wherein all the kingdomes of the earth do stagger thou wilt be the prop and shoare of thy poore people and in stead of the so many dolorous dayes and yeares which we have seen we may see some rest in the midst of thy Church Raise up Lord some nursing father and some retrait for thy children that an over-violent oppression trample them not under foot and this for thy beloved Son our Lord Iesus Christ his sake in whom I trust and on whom I repose my selfe Amen A Prayer in the time of the Plague 16. LOrd whose infinite power seemeth small being compared to thy mercy turne thine eye of pitie upon us and amidst the dangers of this pestilent infection which threatneth us on every side retaine and uphold our languishing lives which without thy grace would vanish to nothing and be turned to corruption in a moment With the same mercy wherewith thou hast cleansed our soules consecrating them to thy service by the badge of sacred Baptisme repurge and cleanse our bodies to serve as cleane vessels unto our soules and to co-operate in the mysterie of thy praise Thou drewest light out of the bottomlesse deep by thy power thou drawest away the darkenesse which obscured the earth Purge away now again by the same light the noisomnes and corruption of the ayre and in such wise powre forth thy grace that we may breath to our safety and preservation Lord thou hast justly suffered for the punishment of our sins this poison and contagious venome to raigne with power over our bodies But seeing thy deare and onely beloved Sonne hath blotted out with his bloud the sin which had provoked thee he should withall have drowned the scourges appointed for the punishment We fall againe every day into the gulfe whereout thou hast drawne us we renounce by our evill life the grace thou hast given us It is true Lord that if thou wilt judge us in thy justice we have but to be silent and to suffer but we implore thy mercy greater yet then all our sins thy mercy Lord which cannot bee invoked in vaine It sufficeth that we lift up our eyes unto thee it sufficeth that we sigh turne our heart unto thee so soone as we feele thee present and neare unto us But without thee Lord we cannot move towards thee Take us then my God and inspire into us this wholsome motion In the sequell whereof we shall undoubtedly have what ere we crave of thee in the name of thy precious Son our Saviour Iesus Christ Sith then that in his name we ask of thee the health of our bodies preserve them my God from the danger wherein they are make the ayre we breath the water we drink the victuals we use the garments wherewith we cloath our selves may be instruments of health to our life remove farr from us in every thing what is impure and pestelent fortifie the spirits that animate our bodies to the end to be able to resist all the infection they may encounter to overcome and surmount the same Give us firme and undaunted courage to wit relying and resting on thy grace thorough the which we may be enabled to passe without apprehension the dangers amidst the which it pleaseth thee that we live and make us continually sensible of thy comfort by which we may be guided with a quiet mind thorough the midst of these worldly miseries maintaining evermore that lively hope in our hearts that giving thee the glory which is due to thy holy Name we may arrive in the end to that which thou hast promised to thine Elect. Amen A Prayer upon the Creation 17. LOrd God who hast created all for thy glory especially man to be the principall instrument thereof and hast moreover received him unto the greatest honour assuring him that he shall obtaine what ere he shall ask of thee in true faith and charity raise up my thoughts purifie my heart sanctifie my tongue to the end I may sing worthily thy praises render unto thy bounty the thanksgivings which are due thereunto and ask that which is necessary for my salvation and convenient and meet for the advancement of thy glory This Lord I cannot do but thorough thy favorable assistance Not onely all good commeth forth from thee but even the hability to ask it As then with fierie tongues thou openedst the lips of thine Apostles purge now this of a poore humble sinner and instruct my heart to ask of thee what may be pleasing unto thee Give me a new spirit which may know how to conceive that good which is to be praied for from thee which therin may take content which may therin confirm and entertaine it selfe not floting and wavering but firme and surely anchored in the faith of thy promises and assurance of thy goodnes as in that safe and calm haven whither ought to be steared the whole equipage of all our desires looking alwayss for our most assured star the merit of thy most deare Sonne our Lord Iesus Christ by the intercession of whom we cannot fall from any of our hopes unto him I say be glory and honour for ever and ever Amen A Morning Prayer 18. O Light of lights which hast dispersed the darknesse to bring light into the world and to give man for a mirrour the beauty of thy works and the elegant
commit these impieties may deceive men but God they cannot who is the sole searcher of the heart Act. â— 44 And from whom nothing is hid Hee will disclose them in due time for there is nothing so secret Matth. 10.26 which when he please shall not come to light and be published even upon the house tops yea when there is the least appearance And he will one day say unto them it may be much nearer then they think if they repent not speedily no longer abusing his mercy Matth. 25.41 Goe ye cursed into eternall fire which is prepared for the Devill and his angels And in vaine then shall they cry Lord Lord Esa 2. For he will answer them I never knew you you workers of iniquitie that have loved better the praise of men then of God O how fearefull a thing is it to fall into the hands of the living God he who not only sees our actions but also is judge of our intentions and in a word he unto whose eyes all things are knowne and open let us not defer then to repent let us seek to do good as having to walk before the Lord Psal 44. Who beholdeth all our actions yea who searcheth our reines and examins our thoughts Proverb 21. there being no wisedome strength prudence hid retired nor shrouded from him knowing that it shall not be any deale the better for us for having our iniquities concealed from men which ordinarily seemeth to suffice us and so we take no further care And in all feare let us apply and imploy our our members unto righteousnesse and according as Saint Paul exhorts us Rom. 12.1 Let us offer up our bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is our reasonable serving of him Let us not any longer remaine asleepe in our vaine conversation from the which we were redeemed neither with gold nor with silver but by the most precious bloud of the Son of God And let us awake up let us awake I say unto holines of life lest it prove the sleep of eternal death let not the world nor the things of the world any longer retaine our affections to enforce us any longer to continue in this horrible hypocrisie being content with that condition whereunto it shall please the Lord to call us seeing all things turne to the good of them that feare God Rom. 5. And so then that poverty make us not afraid when it shall find us that persecution daunt us not when as for the Name of the Lord it must be undergone but let us suffer chearefully with Christ that we may raigne with him Heb. 11. Wisd 2. Let the dis-reputation and dishonour wee shall reape from worldlings grieved because we will not follow their traine be sleighted of us To conclude let nothing no not the losse even of life it self make us warpe or decline from the wayes of the Lord For the sufferings of the time present are not to be paralelâ—d with the good things to come which are laid up for us in Christ Philip. 1.21 Who iâ— gaine unto us not only living but even also in death And in our necessitie let us have recourse no more unto unlawfull meanes to shelter our selves under but unto God alone who giveth both good and evill to wit the evill of punishment life and death poverty and riches Eccles 11.14 Vnto him I say who having so much loved us as to give his onely begotten Sonne unto death for us Rom. 8.31 Will not let us want any thing though never so small as farre forth as shal be expedient for our good Yea hee Whose ever watchfull eyes O're his beyond all hope Their needfull wants in time supplies His feare his glory is their guide their scope He still their life exempts From what even death it selfe attempts And fils them with the things they want When times of famine brings them scant And by his bounty still recals The Lord his owne backe from their falls To wait on him in their distresse To him to make their firme adresse Who ever is sure castle prop and stay To those that wander not from out his way And let us remove farre away from us all vanitie let us strip and quite disvest our selves of this foolish and cursed confidence and reliance which we ordinarily have in the arme of man and in riches And henceforth for the remainder of our course of this earthly pilgrimage let us not seeke but to glorifie God to the edification of others and in him let us place our whoâ—e expectation for as David saith Psal 40. Thrice happy hee his trust doth place In God the giver of all grace And him alone his refuge makes And not vaine man for patron takes Renouncing our owne wisdome Esa 5.21 which is but foolishnes Besides the Spirit of God pronounceth a curse upon those t at are wise in their owne eyes and prudent in their owne conceits And let us not any more imagin our happines to consist in affoording our selves the fruition of our carnall lusts the totall of bruit beasts whose bodies and soules both die together For there is a soveraigne eternall happines for him that walks in the feare of God let us value it above aâ—l things knowing that the world and the concupiscence thereof passeth away And that all the glory of man is fallen Psalm 62. But that the Word of God abideth for ever And therefore let us say with David That our soule resteth onely in God for in him onely is our salvation Remembring daily this prayer Psal 90.12 Instruct us Lord to know and trie How long our dayes remaine That thus we may our hearts apply True wisdome to attaine Then teach us so our dayes Our wasting yeares to count That wisedome true our thoughts toward thee Our endlesse end may mount Attending and expecting to be fully endowed and possest of all the benefits which are purchased for us by the death and resurrection of Iesus Christ unto the participation of that eternall blessednesse and of that union which we have thorow him with God To whom only wise onely good onely mighty infinite and true our Creator and gracious benefactor be all glory and honour for evermore thorow the same Iesus Christ his Sonne our onely Saviour who in the unity of the holy Ghost liveth and raigneth with him eternally Amen A FAMILIAR INSTRVCTION to comfort the Sicke With many Prayers on the same subject Philip. 1.21 For to me to live is Christ and to die is gaine LONDON Printed by G. MILLER for GEORGE EDWARDS dwelling in Greene-Arbour without New-Gate at the signe of the Angell 1630. To the Reader COurteous Reader impute not unto my rashnes either the Title or Subject of this Booke as if I undertooke to give instruction to those from whom I ought to receive the same I had not writ it at first but in the behalfe of my deare brethren the Elders of the Church unto the guiding of whom God hath called me In regard
hearts is given us for earnest of our celestiall inheritance Rom. 14.17 to assure us by this beginning of the spirituall goods which God hath promised to his children that he holdeth us for his purchased possession unto the praise of his glory and without ever revoking his promises he will gather us finally into the full fruition of this heavenly inheritance There must if it be possible bee drawne from the mouth of the sicke a confession of his sinnes of his repentance and of his faith And if happily he have not the use of speech but yet of understanding he must be exhorted to answer by some signe NOw then M. it is now your part to be of good courage and to apply unto your selfe soundly and heartily this holy doctrine for the comfort of your soule This doctrine hath been addressed and declared unto you by the preaching of the Gospell in the bosome of the Church of God whereof you have the honour to be in the number it hath been also confirmed unto you by the use of the Sacraments in which you have communicated Have you not received them with faith Yes Do you not believe according to the same that God is not only your Creator but that sinne having made you a cast-away he is your Saviour in Iesus Christ Yes Acknowledge you not that you are a poore and miserable sinner and confesse you not that should he enter into a reckoning with you to impute your sinnes unto you you should of necessitie and unavoidably perish in death and eternall damnation Yes Do you not protest you are exceeding sorrie and much grieved for having so offended him and that you do repent the same with all your heart I do Do you not utterly renounce all conceit and confidence in your owne righteousnes to settle entirely and wholy your hope in the sole mercy of God by the which he justifieth and saveth us in his beloved Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord Yes Believe you not that he hath received you in this his mercy that he is appeased and at peace with you and hath reconciled you into his favour and grace with him in regard of and thorow the obedience and merit of the same Iesus Christ his Sonne whom you firmly believe died for your sins and rose againe for your justification Yes I do Now I beseech God to be pleased to establish you and to increase in you more and more this faith according to the which you must take a full assurance of being justified and saved seeing God hath given you this grace to believe with the heart unto righteousnesse and with your mouth to make this confession unto salvation Rom. 10.10 To induce the sicke person to set up his rest and to resolve bee it for life or be it for death according to the will of God BEing thus supported and sustained by the firme foundation of faith you must take up an holy resolution and expect constantly without all feare such issue whatsoever it shall please God to send unto your sicknes with a setled perswasion that it cannot chuse but be profitable and wholsome for you be it that it please him to cause you to injoy yet longer life here below or be it it shal be his pleasure to withdraw you hence to make you more happy If it shal be his pleasure to returne and restore you to health as he is almighty to fetch even the dead out of the grave and to make them to live againe This shal be if he please to give give you to serve yet further to his glory yea more affectionately then ever hitherto for which you have to pray unto him for the grace But if his will be to lead you by this sicknes unto the end of your course it shal be to receive you into the fruition of that perfect happinesse which the Sonne of God hath so dearly purchased for you by the price of his bloud And therefore go you unto him with an holy cheerfulnes in the assurance of his grace and favours cheere up your self and rejoice in the happy exchang which you shall make of the earth with heaven of this miserable and short life for one that 's most happy and permanent for evermore from these wretched and perishing goods unto goods celestiall and eternall which eye hath not seene nor eare heard and which farre surmount the thought of man which God hath prepared for them that love him Are you not then well resolv'd to conforme in all this your will unto the will of your Father in heauen To the end that be it whether you live you live to the Lord or be it that you dye you dye to the Lord Rom. 14.8 Being well assured that Christ shal be unto you alwayes gaine both in life and in death Yes God graunt you that grace To comfort and assure the sicke in the weaknesse of his faith IN the meane time I am not ignorant that your faith how great and strong soever it may be may yet for all that be small and weake in you For during the infirmities of this life the Holy Ghost is but given you in a certaine measure according to the which we know but in part and our spirituall renovation is but yet here begun Certaine it is we cannot attaine here below unto the perfection of faith And therefore I doubt not but your faith yet is infirme and weake and cannot chuse but be tossed with sundry temptations and skirmished with divers assaults of doubts and distrusts But you must not therefore shrinke or bee crest-fallen in courage For this combat you feele in yourselfe it is the fight which as Saint Paul saith Galat. 5. ver 17. is in the soule of every faithfull one between the flesh and the spirit and therefore it is unto you an assured testimonie that you have faith For as the flesh fighteth in you by distrust the spirit also fighteth in you by faith and this faith will never yeeld it selfe being backt and sustained by the spirit of God which will make it victorious And how imperfect soever it be God will make it sufficient unto you unto salvation For it is not said he that shall believe perfectly shall be saved but rather simply he that shall believe Besides as you feele in your self your faith weak and imperfect so I doubt not but you therewith feele an holy desire that it might be strengthened and increased and that your heart prayeth and maketh request unto God for the same Is it not true Yes it is Now sith it is so this faith this desire that it might be increased and this prayer you make for it unto God are not these fruits of the spirit and not of the flesh And seeing they are the fruits of Gods Spirit produced in you is not this a sure testimonie that you are led by the same and by consequence the child of God For all they that are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God as Saint
is but a vapour which appeareth for a short time and then vanisheth away sith in exchange therof there shal be given you life eternall and therein the height of happines so transcendent and incomprehensible that neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard nor hath entred into the heart of man that which God hath prepared for them that love him When it shall appeare that the sicke doth notoriously draw on unto death or seemeth indeed readie to give up the ghost there may be yet further added if need require and repeated this briefe consolation with the prayer following COurage Sir you draw neare now unto the end of the combat which cannot but be happy for you as you are assured of the victorie by the meanes of your faith which is the victorie which overcommeth the world and the Prince of the world Iesus Christ your head and Saviour stretcheth out his arme unto you and stayeth attending you at the end of the fight to present unto you the incorruptible Crowne of glory which he hath purchased for you by the price of his bloud Commend and commit your selfe then unto him with your whole heart go unto him with cheerfulnesse cast your selfe into his armes and say unto him my soule into thine hands I come to yeeld for thou hast redeemed me ô God of truth Psa 31. We will beseech God againe that he will give you grace so to doe A Prayer O Lord Father of mercy and God of all consolation and comfort unfold plenteously in this exigencie thy mercies and boundlesse comforts upon the person of this thy poor servant and child Give him to reape now and to apply unto himselfe an abundant and excellent fruit and profit from those holy lessons which thou hast during the course of his life taught him in thy schoole Give him an invincible faith in this combat arme him with thy whole Spirituall armour that he may be able to stand against all the temptations and ambushes of Satan and having vanquisht them all he may abide stedfast If thy justice astonish him let thy mercy establish and comfort him if his sinnes accuse him let the obedience of thy beloved Sonne excuse and justifie him If the apprehension of death trouble him make him behold the gate of eternall life Open unto him wherunto thou goest to give him entrance Thou hast given him thy Sonne make good unto him such a gift that it may not be vaine nor unprofitable He is one of the sheepfold of that great shepheard let none take him out of thy hands Thou hast begun in him his salvation let not thine owne work remaine unperfect And seeing thou hast led him on forward to the end of a painfull course receive now his soule into thy hands and carrie it into thy celestiall paradise to that height and full accomplishment of rest and blessednesse in the companie and fellowship of thy blessed Angels and of all the holy soules of thine Elect which thou hast already gathered thither there jointly to injoy together for ever the fulnesse of joy which standeth in the beholding of thy face Heare us Father of grace for the sake of thy deare Son Iesus Christ our Lord who in the unity of the Holy Ghost liveth and raigneth with God eternally Amen A briese consolation to give unto the neare friends of the deceased person of whether sex soever especially afther their returne from the funerall DEare friends in this exigent it is that you are to call to mind that holy and Christian instruction which you have received in the schoole of Iesus Christ to make your profit thereof by bearing patitiently your affliction and resting with humilitie and with a quiet mind in the will of God whereunto evermore ours must conforme and submit it selfe Our nature indeed in such accidents carrieth us to nothing but to teares to plaints and sorrowes But the Spirit of God the author of all new-birth teacheth therein to keepe meâ—sure and not to grieve after the manner of those that are without hope 1 Thess 4.14 If we be men in mourning we must withall shew that we are Christians adorn'd with Faith and with Hope to assure us that this corporall death is unto the faithfull children of God by the benefit of Iesus Christ nothing else but a doore to enter by into everlasting life Iohn 5. vers â—8 29 and that for the regard even of their bodies themselves that the earth receiveth them but a pledge they shall heare one day the voice of the Lord that shall cause them to come forth of their graves into the resurrection of life that the partie deceased he or she may there be of the number of the children of God the witnesses and the mirks and badges that God hath given him thereof by the good profession of pietie and integritie which he practised in the midst of his Church unto the last gasp of his life ought not hereof to leave any scruple or doubt in us He lived to the Lord and he is dead to the Lord by consequent he is happy resteth from his labours Apo. 14.13 by the heavenly witnes of the Spirit of God himselfe You have then no subject matter to weepe over him in regard of his estate which is not to be bewailed he being every way most happy He hath likewise a great advantage above us that remaine still in the world after him for he is arrived at the haven of happines whereas we are still tossed under the storme and tempest of the troublesome and dangerous Sea of this miserable world And therfore farre better is it for us to breath after our going to him then to wish him here againe with us As for the regard of your selves who in that which may concern this life may receive some inconvenience by his absence you must consider that God who gave him you abideth for evermore for you who is sufficient for us without all other things whereas all other things are nothing without him He it is who will continue evermore over you the care of his Fatherly Providence if you continue alwayes to walke in his feare I beseech him to give you the grace so to do and that he will therein strengthen you with an holy resolution and with constancie Consolation for the sicke extracted out of the holy Scriptures to prepare them unto death F. S. N. HE that is of God heareth the Word of God and he not only heareth it but keepeth it and bringeth it into practice For all things shall come to an end and shall wax old as a garment but the Word of God shall abide for ever Now seeing it is so that by one man sinne came into the world and by sinne death and consequently all afflictions and adversities do thereon depend upon just occasion the life of man is but a continuall battell upon the earth in like manner the flesh fighteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Devill the world and the flesh Which
into thy welbeloved Sonne acknowledg Lord the mark of thine adoption in him We know O God of inestimable puritie that our sinnes drive us back far away from thee But thy deare Sonne who is made for us by thee wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption not only washeth us with his bloud to becom acceptable unto thee but withall maketh giveth us entrance into thy Sanctuary boldnes by his death to approch with assurance to the throne of thy grace to be heard in due time Graunt grace unto this sick person to free the point of death with an holy and Christian resolution Redouble his courage at that present houre that his soule is upon the point to behold thy face wherein is fulnesse of joy And amidst the violent dartings of those sighs which accompanie the last acts of his life give him perfect clearâ—esse of judgement accompanied with calmenesse of spirit evermore to acknowledge his true and only God that drawes him out of the desarts of this world to live happy in the Heavenly Ierusalem and who withdrawes him out of the bottomlesse depths of wretchednes to bring him to live in heaven heaped with eternall blessings Command thy holy Angels which thou incampest round about those that feare thee and which watch for the welfare and safety of thy children that they beare the soule of this thy servant up into heaven the sacred Temple of thy glory most gloriously resplendant with happinesse and honour where he shall clearely see that which his spirit adores here below and where he shall injoy that divine and celestiall harmonie which the blessed Spirits make unto thee uncessantly and the eternall joyes which cannot be valued and where he shall live in continuall admiration of those incomprehensible bounties in the presence of his Spouse thy beloved Sonne Iesus Christ To whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be honour and glory for evermore So be it 4. Another Prayer to bee said when the Sicke is in extremity 37. O Lord our good God and most mercifull Father who being overcome with the bowels of thy tender mercies hast sent down thy beloved Sonne to save sinners and hast been pleased that this thy Sonne was bound to loose us condemned to absolve and free us that he died to give us life yea that he was made a curse to the end that we might be made a blessing of God in him We beseech thee to graunt this grace unto this sick person to repose and relye himselfe on the certainty of faith for the full remission of his sinnes upon that entire and perfect satisfaction which thy deare Sonne whose bloud was once offered up to abolish the sinnes of many hath made unto theâ— upon the Crosse For it is certaine that thou wilt not the death of a sinner but that he be converted and live Thou bruisest not in thy displeasure those that thou hast redeemed by his death thou dost not precipitate into that eternall gulfe those whom thou hast ingrafted and regenerated in that great Mediator and Saviour of the world when as calling upon thy mercy they shal be converted with their whole heart unto thee That when Satan our adversarie who like a roaring Lion goeth about us endeavouring to devoure us maketh himself a party against this sick person in this his last conflict setting before him the checkroule and catologue of his sinnes and thy rigorous judgment to astonish and to precipitate him into despaire give him grace to shield and ward himselfe as with a target and buckler to repell and beat back the fierie darts of that enemie with the truth and assurance that the bloud of thy Sonne Iesus cleanseth from all sinne Fortifie then and animate O God of invincible power and our firme hope this thy child with the strength of thy Holy Spirit at this present houre that his soule being disburdened of the miseries which presse him yea set free from the captivitie of his body is ready to go unto thee And in that houre wherin the earth claimeth in his person what we have borrowed of her have pitie Lord on thine owne image and despise not the works of thy hands Behold Lord the teares the plaints the sighes the groanes and the contrition of the heart of this sicke person and our prayers that we may acknowledge in his person thy clemency the mother of our hope thy succours the source of our life and that indeed thou art our sacred and saving refuge And as for us which remaine in this vale of miserie graunt us this grace that as thy people being captive in Babilon had the comfort to direct and lift up their eyes towards Ierusalem the place wherein thou didst manifest unto them thy glorious and gracious presence that even so amidst the captivitie of this world where we see nothing but confusion and where vice raigneth and thy honour is dis-esteemed we may have our eyes towards thee as on the sole object and subject of our joy and rejoycing seeing in thy face is the fulnes of joy and at thy right hand are perfect pleasures for evermore Even so O thou God of inestimable bounty and goodnes and who hast chosen us out of the world to follow thy holy will we beseech thee that when thou shalt call us out of this world to place our soules in the company of those who by faith have overcome Kingdomes have done righteousnesse and have obtained the promises and who are written in the Booke of Life of the Lamb. In the meane time O Lord arme us with patience and in the midst of our troubles make us sensible by a lively feeling that our light affliction which is transient and soone over produceth in us a waight of glory wonderfully excellent and that leaving by death these visible things which are but of small continuance we shall injoy those that are now invisible to our eyes which are abiding for ever in Iesus Christ and by Iesus Christ to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be honour and glory for ever Amen 5. A Prayer when the sick is in some grievous perplexitie 38. O God and Father of all mercy who art wise in thy counsels true in thy word and admirable in thy works yea who keepest thy deare children as the apple of thine eye In as much as now we see that now it is even at this time that it wil be thy pleasure to withdraw this thy sick child out of this mortall world We beseech thee enter not into account with him to punish him nor reprove him in thy displeasure neither chasten him in thy wrath But remember Lord he hath beene called in thy Church and in the number of thine Elect to be washed and sanctified by thy grace in the name of Iesus Christ thy deare Sonne who took upon him our griefs and hath undergone the burden of our sorrowes that by his wounds we might receive health whereof his baptisme hath beene the badge Wash then Lord who art in
goodnesse most compleat his soule in the innocent bloud of thy deare Sonne in whose wounds and merits we inclose our present and future happines that being made cleane he may keep thee eternally in his sacred celestiall Temple Gracious Lord and full of tender compassion shew not forth thy strength at this time against a languishing body arme not thy selfe unto vengeance against one that can do nothing Crush not in thine indignation him whom thou hast in thy goodnesse created after thine owne image but rather returning thy gracious countenance towards his sorrowes make him powerfully sensible of thy clemencie the mother of our hope and thy love the source of our life Drive away Lord by thy power all dreadfulnesse all distrustfulnes and doubts which Satan our adversarie can present unto this sick person leave not at randome as prostituted unto that roaring Lion this thy creature regenerated and born anew in that great Saviour of the world but rather establish and comfort his soule Strengthen his faith redouble upon him in this last houre of his the forces of his Spirit that with a truly Christian courage he may repell and beat backe thorough thy strength all the assaults and temptations of the enemie by the merit of thy deare Son who was made man to save man and whose soule was heavie even unto death to deliver us from the hell of eternall fire and from the horrour of the deep O God of incomparable bounty the fountaine of joy and of eternall happines ravish the mind of this sick person even unto the heavens and shew unto him the share of those inestimable graces which thy Son our Redeemer hath purchased for us with thee give him grace to die in the hope of the future resurrection of our bodies and powerfully to comprehend how the resurrection of thy Sonne is the bud of our blessed immortality yea the speciall gage of eternall life and of our holy glorification And unto us that shall yet remaine in this world give grace that expecting our last day which shal be the first of our rest and the end of our miseries that our contentment may not be elswhere then under the covert of thy grace let our soules breath nothing but the sweetnes of thy love and let the continuall desire of living in the admiration of the contemplation of thy divine beauties which thou hast reserved for thine Elect. Let it be the fervent desire and the sole vote of our hearts that daily dying in Adam by the mortifying of our flesh to be borne anew in Iesus Christ we may feele more and more by thy grace our carnall concupiscences repressed our faith inflamed and our hearts cheered by thy singular blessings which thou powrest out daily with a hand more then liberall upon them that feare thee Which we crave of thee in the name of thy deare Son O our Father which 〈◊〉 in heaven c. 6. A Prayer directed unto Iesus Christ the Great and Soveraigne Shepheard of our Soules for the Sick that is in extremity 39. LOrd Iesus our sole and only Redeemer who lovest thine with an eternall love and who camest downe from heaven to raise us up to heaven who tookest our humane nature upon thee to make us the children of God Who borest upon thy back the burthen of our sins to discharge us of them and who as a celestiall Pelican after thou hadst pierced thy sides with the edge of thy love to make thy Vermilian Bloud distill forth to heale our mortall wounds and to drowne our sins in the sea of thy mercies callest us to come unto thee promising to ease all those that are heavie laden and travell assuring them they shall find rest for their soules We beseech thee from the bottome of our hearts O Soveraigne Physitian of our soules who camest not for the whole and the righteous but for the sicke and for sinners to strengthen the faith of this thy sick child redoubling the strength of his Spirit to overcome all feares to vanquish all dangers and to repell the Alarums of Satan and all the assaults of his temptations And seeing that the desire of this sicke person is before thee and that his sorrowes are not hid from thee forsake him not and be not farre from succouring of him but turning thy mercifull countenance towards his griefs make him powerfully sensible of thy succours in joy and in salvation that he may dispose himselfe and we also when it shall please thee to call us to die to thee to live againe in thee O God of our deliverance We confesse O thou Soveraigne Redeemer that our sins were infinite because Adam had offended against thee Infinite We likewise acknowledge that for the same there was requisite an infinite satisfaction which neither Angels nor men nor any finite creature could accomplish But thy bloud O Saviour of the world who by thy eternall Spirit offered thee unto God thy Father thy selfe without all blemish and who art of an infinite price art alone able to cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve the living God And seeing that by this inestimable redemption thy Name is unto thy faithfull ones a perfume spread forth abroad and powred out and that thy divinitie joyned unto our humanitie in one person is our sole comfort and the certain pledge of our union and reconciliation with God We beseech thee to present unto thy Father as a sweet odour for this sick person the merits of thy Passion seeing that thy righteousnes wherewith thou justifiest sinners is not only of inestimable vertue to sanctifie us but also thy death is incomparably admirable to quicken us And in as much as the death of thy beloved ones is precious before thy Father when he looketh upon thee We beseech thee to blesse the death of this our brother covering him with the mantle of thy protection a mantle farre more excellent then that of Elias that securely he may passe the torrent and violent streame of this life to come unto thy holy mountaine and to drink of that spirituall sweetnesse with thine Elect of the fountaine of life in heaven O Saviour of the world the lively brightnes of the eternall glory of the Father who camest downe from the highest pitch of the celestiall mountaines to seek the lost sheep and to inclose him after thou hadst found him in the parks of thy sacred custody save now and protect the soule of this thy sheep to the end the infernall wolfe devoure him not but accomplish thine owne desire touching those whom the Father hath given thee seat it and bestow it with thee in the place of consolation to the end that with all the happy spirits which have imbraced the merits of thy Passion it may behold that eternall glory which the Father who loveth thee and who alwayes heareth thee hath given thee before the foundation of the world To thee then the Redeemer of the world with the Father in the unitie of the Holy Ghost be