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
the said Church being composed of many quarters and it not being possible for me to be with them all necessitie required that they often supplie my absence in the visitation of the sicke whereunto they required my assistance by this small President my purpose was to cause some few copies to bee printed to put into their hands and by that meanes to give them that assistance with more ease and with more conveniencie But when it was further alleaged unto me it might serve also for the use of others either in regard of their obligation therunto by the same charge or for that they were so mooved out of their Christian zeale imployed themselves in that pious and charitable dutie of visiting and comforting the sicke And that moreover and besides the reason hereof would not bee unprofitable to any of the faithfull in particular who even in his best health should ever prepare himselfe for sicknesse and death I yeelded to make it publique with this word of information which I suppose will arme thy ingenuitie to acquit me of all blame I doubt not but thou wilt excuse the plainenesse of the stile having respect both to the nature of the subject withal unto whom and for whom it was directed As for them that shall think good to make use of it I intreat them to beare with the length of it Which I could not well avoid as I desired in a subject so fertile and so hard to be contracted This remedie there is for it that this writing being composed of many disjointed parcels and accomodated to the sundry dispositions of the sicke they may be contented to cull out of them sometimes one sometimes another as they shall be adjudged more for their purpose according to the circumstances of the persons they visit A FAMILIAR Instruction to comfort the Sick When the sicknes shall not as yet have any probabilitie to be mortall there may be said to the sicke for his comfort that which here followeth SIR You must first of all know that this sickenesse came not to you casually nor by chance but rather by the wise government of the providence of God our Creatour and Father who so disposeth of prosperity and adversity of health and of sicknesse towards his children that he never sendeth them either the one or the other but it is for his owne glory and for their good and salvation Which the Apostle Saint Paul setteth forth Ro. 8.28 That to them that love God all things worke together for good Now hee there speakes expresly of afflictions in the ranke whereof are sicknesses Now they love God who first of all are beloved of him and as the same Apostle saith called according to his determinate purpose That you are of this number you have occasion to take your assurance thereof by the faith he hath given you in making you to believe that he is your Father and Sauiour in his welbeloved Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord and causing you to receive his spirit of adoption which is he that giveth testimonie and beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God his heires and co-heires with CHRIST Rom. 8.11.16.17 Hereof ought you to take yet further assurance from the sanctification of his Spirit thorough the which you are led and guided in his obedience For they that are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God Now unto them that are such the Apostle Saint Paul saith that all things worke together for good afflictions sicknesses death it self All are turned unto them by the grace of God unto their great good and profit to serve unto the furthering of their salvation There are three speciall fruits which God causeth us to reape from our sicknesses and afflictions The first is the amendment of our life awakening us out of our sinnes In health and in prosperity it is a thing too ordinary with us to flatter and to lull our selves asleep in our sinnes by reason of the great corruption of our nature which maketh us inclinable unto all evill and unprofitable unto all good Very necessary then is it for us to be awakened and to be made sensible of our sinnes to be displeased with them and to recover our selves out of them All which is wrought by the meanes of sicknesses and other adversities of this life which are the issues of sinne and oftentimes are sent unto us from God to chasten and correct us for our sinnes And therein our gracious heavenly Father sheweth how he loveth us withholding us by this meanes that we perish not in our dissolutions as a good Father and one that loveth his children he chastiseth them and gives them the rod when need requires it to stay them they run not upon their owne destruction This is it which Saint Paul saith 1. Cor. 11.32 That when we are afflicted wee are chastened of the Lord that wee should not be condemned of the world And elswhere he saith Hebr. 12. ver 6.7 11. That the Lord chasteneth him whom he loveth and scourgeth every childe he approoveth if you suffer chastisement saith the Apostle God presenteth himselfe unto you as unto his children For what sonne is he whom the Father correcteth not And although all chastisement for the present time seemeth not to bee joyous but grievous neverthelesse afterward it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnes unto them that are exercised thereby Wee must then in the first place gather this excellent fruit of our sicknesses to have a sensible apprehension by them of our so many and so grievous delicts and offences whereof we stand guilty before God to the end to crave pardon for them with repentance and humility and to make unto him an holy protestation to mâ—ke better performance of our duties hereafter to walk in his obedienee and feare thorough the assissance of his grace and conduct of his Spirit Which we must ask of him by our fervent prayers with faith and assurance to be heard according to his promisâ—s And so shall we be able to say to him with David that excellent sâ—rvant of God Psal 119.67 72. Ere thou didst touch mee with thy rod I er'd and went astray But now I have thy holy Word And make it all my stay And also O happy time may I well say When thou didst me correct For as a guide to know thy Lawes Thy Word did me direct And behold how the maladies of our bodies are unto us thorough Gods grace good and wholesome medicines for our soules The second benefit sicknes brings us is to unloose and pluck up our hearts from the earth to lift them up unto heaven Experience shewes us that our hearts remaine over much fastened and rooted here below whilst we are here in health and at our ease we could be content never to budge hence Nay we could be content our felicity were here assigned us and our soveraign happines so farre are wee blinded But God who hath ordained us for a
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
whatsoever we shall ask in his name Receive then his Passion and his obedience for satisfaction for all our sins and in thy contemplation of his intercession be mercifull and favourable unto us give us thy holy Spirit to touch our hearts unto true repentance to enlighten our understanding with thy knowledge and to warme our spirits in thy love so that we may ever have thy glory for our end thy will for our rule thy providence for our guide and thy promises for our comfort And because we are inclined unto incredulitie and distrustfulnesse and are assaulted with diverse temptations strengthen us in faith and imprint in our hearts thy holy promises giving us inwardly a lively sense and feeling of thy love and the witnesse of our election to the end that we may stand against all temptations and may drive away all feares griefes and unprofitable sorrowes by the assurance that thou lovest us and art our Father in Iesus Christ our Lord. And as it hath pleased thee to have kept us this night past conduct us also this day by causing to shine upon us the brightnesse of thy face by directing us in all our actions so that our deeds our words and our thoughts may be conformable to thy holy will Blesse our studies open our understandings preserve our memories prosper our labours strengthen us in our callings wherein let us not have for our end our owne humour but the glory of thy Name nor our owne temporall profite but the salvation of our soules For the effecting hereof give us the grace to set our affections not on earthly things but that we may acknowledge our selves pilgrims and strangers upon earth may use the things of this world as though we used them not and as ready to lose them tending alwayes to the end of our heavenly calling expecting with joy and assurance that last houre wherein thou wilt draw forth our soules out of these bodies to make them partakers of thy heavenly glory And seeing it hath pleased thee to graunt us the favour to be borne in thy Church and hast receiued us even from our infancie into thy sacred Covenant grant us the grace seriously to acknowledge the greatnesse of so inestimable a benefit and to keepe even unto the end our soules unpoluted of all Idolatrie ready to beare the opprobrie of Iesus Christ and to suffer for the defence of thy truth if it shall please thee to call us thereunto To this end give us thy holy Spirit which may guide us and teach us rightly to imploy our time and to husband the occasions of learning by obeying our superiours whom thou hast given us to conduct and teach us that we may at length bring forth fruits which may serve unto thy glorie and may glorifie thee by our works and by our words both in life and in death Have pittie also upon thy Church diversly tossed defend it against the complots of thine enemies and ours repaire her breaches give her increase in thy graces and in the number of persons give us faithfull Pastors whose preaching may be pure and their life holy and Princes which may be nursing Fathers to thy Church Blesse and preserve our King enrich him with Christian and Royall Vertues Guide and direct the Queene be mercifull to our kinsfolks and friends grant both them and us grace to live in thy feare and to die in thy favour and to be received into thy glorie These things we humbly intreat thee for in the prayer which thy Sonne hath taught us Our Father which art in heaven c. I beleeve in God c. EVENING PRAYER 3. O Lord our good God we prostrate our selves before thy holy Majestie offering up unto thee our evening sacrifice in the acknowledgment of thy gracious benefits and of the speciall care which thou hast of us thy poore creatures thou hast kept us and led us forth this day thou hast given us things necessarie for this present life Be graciously pleased O good God to keepe us also this night and give good repose so that in our morning-wakeing wee may be sounder in bodie and fitter for our vocation wherein we pray thee that thou wilt be pleased to guide and direct us by thy holy Spirit making our labour fruitfull unto thy glory and to the edification of our neighbours and unto our owne salvation Whereof be graciously pleased to give a full assurance and to ingrave in our hearts the promises of thy holy Gospell that we being strengthened in saith may overcome all temptations and finish holily and couragiously our begunne course walking on not as before men but as before thee which proovest our hearts And seeing that a great combat is set before us and Satan is strong and the world contrary and we weak and slow and inclined unto evill hold us up by thy succours defend us by thy providence sanctifie us by thy holy Spirit and cloath us with strength from above and let thy Word imprinted in our hearts instruct our ignorance correct our perversity and heat our coldnesse and negligence in thy service give us fervent charity towards our neighbours a pure conscience faith unfained and fervent zeale unto the setting forth of thy glory Drive away from our hearts evill cares earthly sorrowes and unprofitable melancholies teaching us to repose our selves upon thy providence and to trust in thy promises to be sorrowfull onely for having offended thee but comforted in the assurance of thy mercies in Iesus Christ our Lord. Give us also things necessary for this present life not according to our vaine desires but according to thy wisdome what may suffice for the following of our Callings without lett and passe this our race with sobrietie whilst we advance on forward towards that eternall and most happy life which thy Sonne hath purchased for us And whilst we are in this temporall abode grant us the favour to see the kingdome of thy Sonne advanced and thy truth manifested and the ignorant yea even our enemies to be brought to thy knowledge to this end give us faithfull Pastors and Princes that may imploy their government to the establishment of the kingdome of thy Sonne give thy holy Spirit to the king and to the Queene and a good wholesome Councell for the repose and advancement of thy Church Take care of our kinsmen and friends and give them things neâ—dfull both for body and soule and that our iniquities may not stay the course of thy benefits pardon them Lord and blot them out by the precious bloud of thy Son in whose Name we ask these things of thee in the prayer he hath taught us saying Our Father which art in heaven c. I beleeve in God c. Amen A Prayer of Thanksgiving for finishing the Answer made to Mounsieur the Cardinall of Perron by Peter du Moulin 4. O Lord my God and Father I close this travell with thanks giving to thy Soveraigne Majestie I should be ungratefull to thy goodnesse if I
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
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
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
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