his repentance by a patient submission to the rod of sicknesse For sicknesse does the work of penances or sharp afflictions and dry diet perfectly well to which if we also put our wills and make it our act by an after election by confessing the justice of God by bearing if sweetly by begging it may be medicinal there is nothing wanting to the perfection of this part but that God confirme our patience and hear our prayers When the guilty man runs to punishment the injured person is prevented and hath no whither to go but to forgivenesse 10. I have learned but of one suppletory more for the perfection and proper exercise of a sick mans repentance but it is such a one as will go a great way in the abolition of our past sinnes and making our peace with God even after a lesse severe life and that is that the sick man do some heroical actions in the matter of charity or religion of justice or severity There is a story of an infamous thief who having begged his pardon of the Emperor Mauritius was yet put into the Hospital of S. Sampson where he so plentifully bewailed his sins in the last agonies of his death that the Physitian who attended found him unexpectedly dead and over his face a handkerchief bathed in tears and soon after some body or other pretended to a revelation of this mans beatitude It was a rare grief that was noted in this man which begat in that age a confidence of his being saved and that confidence as things then went was quickly called a revelation But it was a stranger severity which is related by Thomas Cantipratanus concerning a young Gentleman condemned for robbery and violence who had so deep a sense of his sin that he was not content with a single death but begged to be tormented and cut in pieces joynt by joynt with intermedial senses that he might by such a smart signifie a greater sorrow Some have given great estates to the poor and to religion some have built colledges for holy persons many have suffered martyrdom and though those that died under the conduct of the Maccabees in defence of their countrey and religion had pendants on their breasts consecrated to the idols of the Iamnenses yet that they gave their lives in such a cause with so great a duty the biggest things they could do or give it was esteemed to prevail hugely towards the pardon and acceptation of their persons An heroic action of uertue is a huge compendium of religion for if it be attained to by the usual measures and progresse of a Christian from inclination to act from act to habit from habit to abode from abode to reigning from reigning to perfect possession from possession to extraordinary emanations that is to heroick actions then it must needs do the work of man by being so great towards the work of God but if a man comes thither per saltum or on a sudden which is seldome seen then it supposes the man alwayes well inclined but abused by accident or hope by confidence or ignorance taen it supposes the man for the present in a great fear of evil and a passionate desire of pardon it supposes his apprehensions great and his time little and what the event of that will be no man can tell but it is certain that to some purposes God will account for our religion on our death bed not by the measures of our time but the eminency of affection as said Celestin the first that is supposing the man in the state of grace or in the revealed possibility of salvation then an heroical act hath the reward of a longer series of good actions in an even and ordinary course of vertue 11. In what can remain for the perfecting a sick mans repentance he is to be helped by the ministeries of a spiritual Guide SECT VII Acts of repentance by way of prayer and ejaculation to be used especially by old men in their age and by all men in their sicknesse LEt us search and try our wayes and turne again to the Lord let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens We have transgressed and rebelled and thou hast not pardoned Thou hast covered with anger and persecured us thou hast slain thou hast not pitied O cover not thy self with a cloud but let our prayer passe thorough I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men why hast thou set me as a mark against thee so that I am a burden to my self and why doest not thou pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning but I shall not be The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled against his commandments Hear I pray all ye people behold my sorrow behold O Lord I am in distresse my bowels are troubled my heart is turned within me for I have grievously rebelled Thou O Lord remainest for ever thy throne from generation to generation wherefore doest thou forget us for ever and forsake us so long time turn thou us unto thee O Lord and so shall we be turned renew our dayes as of old O reject me not utterly and be not exceeding wroth against thy servant O remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions but according to thy mercies remember thou me for thy goodnesse sake O Lord Do thou for me O God the Lord for thy Names sake because thy mercy is good deliver thou me for I am poor and needy and my heart is wounded within me I am gone like the shadow that declineth I am tossed up and down as the locust Then Zacheus stood forth and said Behold Lord half of my goods I give to the poor and if I have wronged any man I restore him fourfold Hear my prayer O Lord and consider my desire let my prayer be set forth in thy sight as the incense and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice And enter not into judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Teach me to do the thing that pleaseth thee for thou art my God let thy loving spirit lead me forth into the land of righteousnesse I will speak of mercy and judgement unto thee O Lord will I make my prayer I will behave my self wisely in a perfect way O when wilt thou come unto me I will walk in my house with a perfect heart I will set no wicked thing before my eyes I hate the work of them that turn aside it shall not cleave to me Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me Deliver me from blood guiltinesse O God from malice envy the follies of lust and violences of passion c. thou God of my salvation and my
fear with a temporall suffering preventing Gods judgement by passing one of his own let him groan for the labours of his pilgrimage and the dangers of his warfare and by that time he hath summed up all these labours and duties and contingencies all the proper causes instruments and acts of sorrow he will finde that for a secular joy and wantonnesse of spirit there are not left many void spaces of his life It was Saint Iames's advice Be afflicted and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into weeping And Bonaventure in the life of Christ reports that the H. Virgin Mother said to S. Elizabeth That Grace does not descend into the soul of a man but by prayer and by affliction Certain it is that a mourning spirit and an afflicted body are great instruments of reconciling God to a sinner and they alwayes dwell at the gates of atonement and restitution But besides this a delicate and prosperous life is hugely contrary to the hopes of a blessed eternity Wo be to them that are at ease in Sion so it was said of old and our B. Lord said Wo be to you that laugh for you shall weep but Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Here or hereafter we must have our portion of sorrows He that now goeth on his way weeping and beareth forth good seed with him shall doubtlesse come again with joy and bring his sheaves with him And certainly he that sadly considers the portion of Dives and remembers that the account which Abraham gave him for the unavoidablenesse of his torment was because he had his good things in this life must in all reason with trembling run from a course of banquets and faring deliciously every day as being a dangerous estate and a consignation to an evil greater then all danger the pains and torment of unhappy souls If either by patience or repentance by compassion or persecution by choise or by conformity by severity or discipline we allay the festival follies of a soft life and professe under the Crosse of Christ we shall more willingly and more safely enter into our grave But the death-bed of a voluptuous man upbraids his little and cosening prosperities and exacts pains made sharper by the passing from soft beds and a softer mind He that would die holily and happily must in this world love tears humility solitude and repentance SECT II. Of daily examination of our actions in the whole course of our health preparatory to our death-bed HE that will die well and happily must dresse his soul by a diligent and frequent scrutiny He must perfectly understand and watch the state of his soul he must set his house in order before he be fit to die And for this there is great reason and great necessity Reasons for a daily examination 1. For if we consider the disorders of every day the multitude of impertinent words the great portions of time spent in vanity the daily omissions of duty the coldnesse of our prayers the indifference of our spirit in holy things the uncertainty of our secret purposes our infinite deceptions and hypocrisie sometimes not known very often not observed by our selves our want of charity our not knowing in how many degrees of action and purpose every vertue is to be exercised the secret adherencies of pride and too forward complacencie in our best actions our failings in all our relations the niceties of difference between some vertues and some vices the secret undiscernable passages from lawfull to unlawfull in the first instances of change the perpetuall mistakings of permissions for duty and licentious practises for permissions our daily abusing the liberty that God gives us our unsuspected sins in the managing a course of life certainly lawfull our little greedinesses in eating our surprises in the proportions of our drinkings our too great freedoms and fondnesses in lawfull loves our aptnesse for things sensual and our deadnesse and tediousnesse of spirit in spiritual employments besides infinite variety of cases of conscience that do occur in the life of every man and in all entercourses of every life and that the productions of sin are numerous and increasing like the families of the Northern people or the genealogies of the first Patriarks of the world from all this we shall find that the computations of a mans life are buisie as the Tables of Signes and Tangents and intricate as the accounts of Eastern Merchants and therefore it were but reason we should summe up our accounts at the foot of every page I mean that we call our selves to scrutiny every night when we compose our selves to the little images of Death 2. For if we make but one Generall account and never reckon till we die either we shall onely reckon by great summes and remember nothing but clamorous and crying sins and never consider concerning particulars or forget very many or if we could consider all that we ought we must needs be confounded with the multitude and variety But if we observe all the little passages of our life and reduce them into the order of accounts and accusations we shall finde them multiply so fast that it will not onely appear to be an ease to the accounts of our death-bed but by the instrument of shame will restrain the inundation of evils it being a thing intolerable to humane modesty to see sins increase so fast and vertues grow up so slow to see every day stained with the spots of leprosie or sprinkled with the marks of a lesser evil 3. It is not intended we should take accounts of our lives onely to be thought religious but that we may see our evil and amend it that we dash our sins against the stones that we may go to God and to a spirituall Guide and search for remedies and apply them And indeed no man can well observe his own groweth in Grace but by accounting seldomer returns of sin and a more frequent victory over temptations concerning which every man makes his observations according as he makes his inquiries and search after himself In order to this it was that Saint Paul wrote Before receiving the Holy Sacrament Let a man examine himself and so let him eat This precept was given in those dayes when they communicated every day and therefore a daily examination also was intended 4. And it will appear highly fitting if we remember that at the day of judgement no onely the greatest lines of life but every branch and circumstance of every action every word and thought shall be called to scrutiny and severe judgement insomuch that it was a great truth which one said Wo be to the most Innocent life if God should search into it without mixtures of mercy And therefore we are here to follow S. Pauls advice Iudge your selves and you shall not be judged of the Lord. The way to prevent Gods anger is to be angry with our selves and by examining
tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousnesse The sacrifice of God is a broken heart a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Lord I have done amisse I have been deceived let so great a wrong as this be removed The prayer for the grace and perfection of Repentance I. O Almighty God thou art the great Judge of all the world the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies the Father of men and Angels thou lovest not that a sinner should perish but delightest in our conversion and salvation and hast in our Lord Jesus Christ established the Covenant of repentance and promised pardon to all them that confesse their sins and forsake them O my God be thou pleased to work in me what thou hast commanded should be in me Lord I am a dry tree who neither have brought forth fruit unto thee and unto holinesse nor have wept out salutary tears the instrument of life and restitution but have behaved my self like an unconcerned person in the ruins and breaches of my soul But O God thou art my God earnestly will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee in a barren and thirsty land where no water is Lord give me the grace of tears and pungent sorrow let my heart be as a land of rivers of waters and my head a fountain of tears turn my sin into repentance and let my repentance proceed to pardon refreshment II. SUpport me with thy graces strengthen me with thy Spirit soften my heart with the fire of thy love and the dew of heaven with penitentiall showers make my care prudent and the remaining portion of my dayes like the perpetuall watches of the night full of caution and observance strong and resolute patient and severe I remember O Lord that I did sin with greedinesse and passion with great desires and an unabated choice O let me be as great in my repentance as ever I have been in my calamity and shame let my hatred of sin be great as my love to thee and both as neer to infinite as my proportion can receive III. O Lord I renounce all affection to sin and would not buy my health nor redeem my life with doing any thing against the Lawes of my God but would rather die then offend thee O dearest Saviour have pity upon thy servant let me by thy sentence be doomed to perpetuall penance during the abode of this life let every sigh be the expression of a repentance and every groan an acccent of spiritual life and every stroke of my disease a punishment of my sin and an instrument of pardon that at my return to the land of innocence I may eat of the votive sacrifice of the supper of the Lamb that was from the beginning of the world slâ—in for the sins of every sorrowful and returning sinner O grant me sorrow here and joy hereafter through Jesus Christ who is our hope the resurrection of the dead the justifier of a sinner and the glory of all faithful souls Amen A prayer for pardon of sins to be said frequently in time of sicknesse and in all the portions of old age I. O Eternal and most gracious Father I humbly throw my self down at the foot of thy mercy seat upon the confidence of thy essential mercy and thy commandment that we should come boldly to the throne of grace that we may finde mercy in time of need O my God hear the prayers and cries of a sinner who calls earnestly for mercy Lord my needs are greater then all the degrees of my desire can be unlesse thou hast pity upon me I perish infinitely and intolerably and then there will be one voice fewer in the quire of singers who shall recite thy praises to eternal ages But O Lord in mercy deliver my soul. O save me for thy mercy sake For in the second death there is no remembrance of thee in that grave who shall give thee thanks II. O Just and dear God my sins are innumerable they are upon my soul in multitudes they are a burden too heavy for me to bear they already bring sorrow and sicknesse shame and displeasure guilt and a decaying spirit a sense of thy present displeasure and fear of worse of infinitely worse But it is to thee so essential so delightful so usual so desired by thee to shew mercy that although my sin be very great and my fear proportionable yet thy mercy is infinitely greater then all the world and my hope and my comfort rise up in proportions towards it that I trust the Devils shall never be able to reprove it nor my own weaknesse discompose it Lord thou hast sent thy Son to die for the pardon of my sins thou hast given me thy holy Spirit as a seal of adoption to consigne the article of remission of sins thou hast for all my sins still continued to invite me to conditions of life by thy ministers the prophets and thou hast with variety of holy acts softned my spirit and possessed my fancie and instructed my understanding and bended and inclined my will and directed or overruled my passions in order to repentance and pardon and why should not thy servant beg passionately and humbly hope for the effect of all these thy strange and miraculous acts of loving kindnesse Lord I deserve it not but I hope thou wilt pardon all my sins and I beg it of thee for Jesus Christ his sake whom thou hast made the great endearment of thy promises and the foundation of our hopes and the mighty instrument whereby we can obtain of thee whatsoever we need and can receive III. O My God how shall thy servant be disposed to receive such a favour which is so great that the ever blessed Jesus did die to purchase for us so great that the falling angels never could hope and never shall obtain Lord I do from my soul forgive all that have sinned against me O forgive me my sins as I forgive them that have sinned against me Lord I confesse my sins unto thee daily by the accusations and secret acts of conscience and if we confesse our sins thou hast called it a part of justice to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse Lord I put my trust in thee and thou art ever gracious to them that put their trust in thee I call upon my God for mercy and thou art alwayes more ready to hear then we to pray But all that I can do and all that I am and all that I know of my self is nothing but sin and infirmity and misery therefore I go forth of my self and throw my self wholly into the arms of thy mercy through Jesus Christ and beg of thee for his death and passions sake by his resurrection and ascension by all the parts of our redemption and thy infinite mercy in which thou pleasest thy self above all the works of the creation to be pitifull and compassionate to thy servant
the renewings of devotion and in the way of prayer and that is to be continued as long as life and voice and reason dwell with us SECT X. Acts of charity by way of prayer and ejaculation which may also be used for thanksgiving in case of recovery O My soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord my goodnesse extendeth not to thee But to the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup thou maintainest my lot As for God his way is perfect the word of the Lord is tried he is a buckler to all those that trust in him For who is God save the Lord or who is a rock save our God It is God that girdeth me with strength and maketh my way perfect Be not thou far from me O Lord O my strength haste thee to help me Deliver my soul from the sword my darling from the power of the dog save me from the lions mouth and thou hast heard me also from among the horns of the Unicorns I will declare thy Name unto my brethren in the midst of the Congregation will I praise thee Ye that fear the Lord praise the Lord ye sons of God J Glorifie him and fear before him all ye sons of men For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted neither hath he hid his face from him but when he cryed unto him he heard As the hart panteth after the water brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before the Lord. O my God my soul is cast down within me all thy waves and billows are gone over me as with a sword in my bones I am reproached yet the Lord will command his loving kindnesse in the day time and in the night his song shall be with me and my prayer unto the God of my life Blesse ye the Lord in the congregations even the Lord from the fountains of Israel My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousnesse and thy salvation all the day for I know not the numbers thereof I will go in the strength of the Lord God I will make mention of thy righteousnesse even of thine onely O God thou hast taught me from my youth And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works But I will hope continually and will yet praise thee more and more Thy righteousnesse O God is very high who hast done great things O God who is like unto thee thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up again from the depth of the earth Thou shalt encrease thy goodnesse towards me and comfort me on every side My lips shall greatly rejoyce when I sing unto thee And my soul which thou hast redeemed Blessed be the Lord God the God of Israel who only doth wondrous things And blessed be his glorious name for ever and let the whole earth be filled with his glory Amen Amen I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplication The sorrows of death compassed me I found trouble and sorrow Then called I upon the name of the Lord O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous yea our God is merciful The Lord preserveth the simple I was brought low and he helped me Return to thy rest O my soul the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee For thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints O Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid thou shalt loose my bonds He that loveth not the Lord Jesus let him be accursed O that I might love thee as well as ever any creature loved thee He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God There is no fear in love The prayer O Most Gracious and eternal God and loving Father who hast powred out thy bowels upon us and sent the son of thy love unto us to die for love and to make us dwell in love and the eternal comprehensions of thy divine mercies O be pleased to inflame my heart with a holy charity towards thee and all the world Lord I forgive all that ever have offended me and beg that both they and I may enter into the possession of thy mercies and feel a gracious pardon from the same fountain of grace and do thou forgive me all the acts of scandall whereby I have provoked or tempted or lessened or disturbed any person Lord let me never have my portion amongst those that divide the union and disturb the peace and break the charities of the Church and Christian communion And though I am fallen into evil times in which Christendom is divided by the names of an evil division yet I am in charity with all Christians with all that love the Lord Jesus and long for his coming and I would give my life to save the soul of any of my brethren and I humbly beg of thee that the publike calamity of the severall societies of the Church may not be imputed to my soul to any evil purposes II. LOrd preserve me in the unity of the holy Church in the love of God and of my neighbours let thy grace inlarge my heart to remember deeply to resent faithfully to use wisely to improve and humbly to give thanks to thee for all thy favours with which thou hast enriched my soul and supported my estate and preserved my person and rescued me from danger and invited me to goodnesse in all the dayes and periods of my life Thou hast led me thorow it with an excellent conduct and I have gone astray after the manner of men but my heart is towards thee O do unto thy servant as thou usest to do unto those that love thy Name let thy truth comfort me thy mercy deliver me thy staffe support me thy grace sanctifie my sorrow and thy goodnesse pardon all my sins thy Angels guide me with safety in this shadow of death and thy most holy Spirit lead me into the land of righteousnesse for thy Names sake which is so comfortable and for Jesus Christ his sake our Dearest Lord and most Gracious Saviour Amen CHAP. V. Of visitation of the sick or the assistance that is to be done to dying persons by the ministery of their Clergy Guides SECT I. GOd who hath made no new Covenant with dying persons distinct from the Covenant of the living hath also appointed no distinct Sacraments for them no other manner of usages but such as are common to all the spirituall necessities of living and healthfull persons In all the dayes of our religion from our baptisme to the resignation and delivery of our soul God hath appointed
his brother nor give to God a ransome for him for the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth for ever that he should still live for ever and not see corruption But wise men die likewise the fool and the brutish person perish and leave their wealth to others but God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave for he shall receive me As for me I will behold thy face in righteousnesse I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likenesse Thou shalt shew me the path of life in thy presence is the fulnesse of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. Let us Pray ALmighty God Father of mercies the God of peace and comfort of rest and pardon we thy servants though unworthy to pray to thee yet in duty to thee and charity to our brother humbly beg mercy of thee for him to descend upon his body and his soul One sinner O Lord for another the miserable for the afflicted the poor for him that is in need but thou givest thy graces and thy favours by the measures of thy own mercies and in proportion to our necessities we humbly come to thee in the Name of Jesus for the merit of our Saviour and the mercies of our God praying thee to pardon the sins of this thy servant and to put them all upon the accounts of the Crosse and to bury them in the grave of Jesus that they may never rise up in judgement against thy servant nor bring him to shame and confusion of face in the day of finall inquiry and sentence Amen II. GIve thy servant patience in his sorrows comfort in this his sicknesse and restore him to health if it seem good to thee in order to thy great ends and his greatest interest And however thou shalt determine concerning him in this affair yet make his repentance perfect and his passage and his faith strong and his hope modest and confident that when thou shalt call his soul from the prison of the body it may enter into the securities and rest of the sons of God in the bosome of blessednesse and the custodies of Jesus Amen III. THou O Lord knowest all the necessities and all the infirmities of thy servant fortifie his spirit with spirituall joyes and perfect resignation and take from him all degrees of inordinate or insecure affections to this world and enlarge his heart with desires of being with thee and of freedome from sins and fruition of God IV. LOrd let not any pain or passion discompose the order and decencie of his thoughts and duty and lay no more upon thy servant then thou wilt make him able to bear and together with the temptation do thou provide a way to escape even by the mercies of a longer and a more holy life or by the mercies of a blessed death even as it pleaseth thee O Lord so let it be V. LEt the tendernesse of his conscience and the Spirit of God call to mind his sins that they may be confessed and repented of because thou hast promised that if we confesse our sins we shall have mercy Let thy mighty grace draw out from his soul every root of bitternesse lest the remains of the old man be accursed with the reserves of thy wrath but in the union of the Holy Jesus and in the charities of God and of the world and the communion of all the saints let this soul be presented to thee blamelesse and intirely pardoned and thorowly washed through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here also may be inserted the prayers set down after the Holy Communion is administred The Prayer of S. Eustratius the Martyr to be used by the sick or dying man or by the Priests or assistants in his behalf which he said when he was going to martyrdom I Will praise thee O Lord that thou hast considered my low estate and hast not shut me up in the hands of my enemies nor made my foes to rejoyce over me and now let thy right hand protect me and let thy mercy come upon me for my soul is in trouble and anguish because of its departure from the body O let not the assemblies of its wicked and cruell enemies meet it in the passing forth nor hinder me by reason of the sins of my passed life O Lord be favourable unto me that my so I may not behold the hellish countenance of the spirits of darknesse but let thy bright and joyfull Angels entertain it Give glory to thy Holy Name and to thy Majesty place me by thy mercifull arm before thy seat of Judgement and let not the hand of the prince of this world snatch me from thy presence or bear me into hell Mercy sweet Jesu Amen A Prayer taken out of the Euchologion of the Greek Church to be said by or in behalf of people in their danger or neer their death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I. BEmired with sins and naked of good deeds I that am the meat of worms cry vehemently in spirit Cast not me wretch away from thy face place me not on the left hand who with thy hands didst fashion me but give rest unto my soul for thy great mercy sake O Lord. II. SUpplicate with tears unto Christ who is to judge my poor soul that he would deliver me from the fire that is unquenchable I pray you all my friends and acquaintance make mention of me in your prayers that in the day of Judgement I may find mercy at that dreadfull Tribunall III. Then may the by-standers pray WHen in unspeakable glory thou dost come dreadfully to judge the whole world vouchsafe O gracious Redeemer that this thy faithfull servant may in the clouds meet thee cheerfully They who have been dead from the beginning with terrible and fearfull trembling stand at thy Tribunall waiting thy just O Blessed Saviour Jesus None shall there avoid thy formidable and most righteous judgement All Kings and Princes with servants stand together and hear the dreadfull voyce of the Judge condemning the people which have sinned into hell from which sad sentence O Christ deliver thy servant Amen Then let the sick man be called upon to rehearse the Articles of his Faith or if he be so weak he cannot let him if he have not before done it be called to say Amen when they are recited or to give some testimony of his faith and confident assent to them After which it is proper if the person be in capacity that the Minister examine him and invite him to confession and all the parts of repentance according to the foregoing rules after which he may pray this prayer of absolution OUr Lord Jesus Christ who hath given Commission to his Church in his Name to pronounce pardon to all that are truly penitent he of his mercy pardon and forgive thee all thy sins deliver thee from all evils past present and future
our gardens and spiders and flies in the palaces of the greatest Kings How few men in the world are prosperous what an infinite number of slaves and beggers of persecuted and oppressed people fill all corners of the earth with groans and Heaven it self with weeping prayers and sad remembrances how many Provinces and Kingdoms are afflicted by a violent war or made desolate by popular diseases some whole countreyes are remarked with fatal evils or periodical sicknesses Gran Cairo in Egypt feels the plague every three years returning like a Quartan ague and destroying many thousands of persons All the inhabitants of Arabia the desert are in continuall fear of being buried in huge heaps of sand and therefore dwell in tents and ambuâ—atory houses or retire to unfruitful mountains to prolong an uneasy and wilder life and all the Countreyes round about the Adriatic sea feel such violent convulsions by Tempests and intolerable Earthquakes that sometimes whole cities finde a Tombe and every man â—inks with his own house made ready to become his Monument and his bed is crushed into the disorders of a grave Was not all the world drowned at one deluge and breach of the Divine anger and shall not all the world again be destroyed by fire Are there not many thousands that die every night and that groan and weep sadly every day But what shall we think of that great evil which for the sins of men God hath suffered to possess the greatest part of Mankinde Most of the men that are now alive or that have been living for many ages are Jews Heathens or Turcs and God was pleased to suffer a base Epileptic person a villain and a vitious to set up a religion which hath filled almost all Asia and Africa and some parts of Europe so that the greatest number of men and women born in so many kingdoms and provinces are infallibly made Mahumetans strangers and enemies to Christ by whom alone we can be saved This consideration is extremely sad when we remember how universal and how great an evil it is that so many millions of sons and daughters are born to enter into the possession of Devils to eternal ages These evils are the miseries of great parts of mankinde and we cannot easily consider more particularly the evils which happen to us being the inseparable affections or incidents to the whole nature of man 2. We finde that all the women in the world are either born for barrennesse or the pains of Child-birth and yet this is one of our greatest blessings but such indeed are the blessings of this world we cannot be well with nor without many things Perfumes make our heads ake roses prick our fingers and in our very blood where our life dwells is the Scene under which nature acts many sharp Feavers and heavy sicknesses It were too sad if I should tell how many persons are afflicted with evil spirits with spectres and illusions of the night and that huge multitudes of men and women live upon mans flesh Nay worse yet upon the sins of men upon the sins of their sons and of their daughters and they pay their souls down for the bread they eat buying this dayes meal with the price of the last nights sin 3. Or if you please in charity to visit an Hospital which is indeed a map of the whole world there you shall see the effects of Adams sin and the ruines of humane nature bodies laid up in heaps like the bones of a destroyed town homines precarii spiritus malè haerentis men whose souls seem to be borrowed and are kept there by art and the force of Medicine whose miseries are so great that few people have charity or humanity enough to visit them fewer have the heart to dresse them and we pity them in civility or with a transient prayer but we do not feel their sorrows by the mercies of a religious pity and therefore as we leave their sorrows in many degrees unrelieved and uneased so we contract by our unmercifulnesse a guilt by which our selves become liable to the same calamities Those many that need pity and those infinites of people that refuse to pity are miserable upon a several charge but yet they almost make up all mankinde 4. All wicked men are in love with that which intangles them in huge variety of troubles they are slaves to the worst of Masters to sin and to the Devil to a passion and to an imperious woman Good men are for ever persecuted and God chastises every son whom he receives and whatsoever is easy is trifling and worth nothing and whatsoever is excellent is not to be obtained without labour and sorrow and the conditions and states of men that are free from great cares are such as have in them nothing rich and orderly and those that have are stuck full of thorns and trouble Kings are full of care and learned men in all ages have been observed to be very poor honestas miserias accusant they complain of their honest miseries 5. But these evils are notorious and confessed even they also whose felicity men stare at and admire besides their splendour and the sharpnesse of their light will with their appendant sorrows wring a tear from the most resolved eye For not only the winter quarter is full of storms and cold and darknesse but the beauteous spring hath blasts and sharp frosts the fruitful teeming summer is melted with heat and burnt with the kisses of the sun her friend and choaked with dust and the rich Autumn is full of sicknesse and we are weary of that which we enjoy because sorrow is its biggest portion and when we remember that upon the fairest face is placed one of the worst sinks of the body the nose we may use it not only as a mortification to the pride of beauty but as an allay to the fairest outside of condition which any of the sons and daughters of Adam do possesse For look upon Kings and conquerours I will not tell that many of them fall into the condition of servants and their subjects rule over them and stand upon the ruines of their families and that to such persons the sorrow is bigger then usually happens in smaller fortunes but let us suppose them still conquerers and see what a goodly purchase they get by all their pains and amazing fears and continual dangers They carry their arms beyond Ister and passe the Euphrates and binde the Germans with the bounds of the river Rhyne I speak in the stile of the Roman greatnesse for now adayes the biggest fortune swells not beyond the limits of a petty province or two and a hill confines the progresse of their prosperity or a river checks it But whatsoever tempts the pride and vanity of ambitious persons is not so big as the smallest star which we see scattered in disorder and unregarded upon the pavement and floor of Heaven And if we would suppose the pismires had but
thou think then to be more alive then now thou art We do not die suddenly but we descend to death by steps and slow passages and therefore men so long as they are sick are unwilling to proceed and go forward in the finishing that sad imployment Between a disease and death there are many degrees and all those are like the reserves of evil things the declining of every one of which is justly reckoned amongst those good things which alleviate the sicknesse and make it tolerable Never account that sicknesse intolerable in which thou hadst rather remaine then die And yet if thou hadst rather die then suffer it the worst of it that can be said is this that this sicknesse is worse then death that is it is worse then that which is the best of all evils and the end of all troubles and then you have said no great harme against it 6. Remember that thou art under a supervening necessity Nothing is intolerable that is necessary and therefore when men are to suffer a sharp incision or what they are pleased to call intolerable tie the man down to it and he endures it Now God hath bound this sicknesse upon thee by the condition of Nature for every flower must wither and droop it is also bound upon thee by speciall providence and with a designe to try thee and with purposes to reward and to crown thee These cords thou canst not break and therefore lie thee down gently and suffer the hand of God to do what he please that at least thou mayest swallow an advantage which the care and severe mercies of God forces down thy throat 7. Remember that all men have passed this way the bravest the wisest the best men have bin subject to sicknes sad diseases and it is esteemed a prodigy that a man should live to a long age and not be sick and it is recorded for a wonder concerning Xenophilus the Musitian that he lived to 106 years of age in a perfect and continual health No story tells the like of a Prince or a great or a wise person unlesse we have a minde to believe the tales concerning Nestor and the Euboean Sibyl Old age and healthfull bodies are seldome made the appendages to great fortunes and under so great and so universal precedents so common fate of men he that will not suffer his portion deserves to be something else then a man but nothing that is better 8. We finde in story that many Gentiles who walked by no light but that of reason opinion and humane examples did bear their sicknesse nobly and with great contempt of pain and with huge interests of vertue When Pompey came from Syria and called at Rhodes to see Posidonius the Philosopher he found him hugely afflicted with the gout and expressed his sorrow that he could not hear his Lectures from which by this pain he must needs be hindred Posidonius told him but you may hear me for all this and he discours'd excellently in the midst of his tortures even then when the torches were put to his feet that nothing was good but what was honest and therefore nothing could be an evil if it were not criminal and summed up his Lectures with this saying O pain in vain doest thou attempt me for I will never confesse thee to be an evil as long as I can honestly bear thee And when Pompey himself was desperately sick at Naples the Neopolitans wore crowns and triumphed and the men of Puteoli came to congratulate his sicknesse not because they loved him not but because it was the custome of their countrey to have better opinions of sicknesse then we have The boyes of Sparta would at their Altars endure whipping till their very entrails saw the light thorow their torn flesh and some of them to death without crying or complaint Caesar would drink his potions of Rhubarb rudely mixt and unfitly allayed with little sippings and tasted the horror of the medicine spreading the loathsomnesse of his physick so that all the parts of his tongue and palate might have an intire share and when C. Marius suffered the veins of his leg to be cut out for the curing his gout and yet shrunk not he declared not onely the rudenesse of their physick but the strength of a mans spirit if it be contracted and united by the aids of reason or Religion by resolution or any accidentall harshnesse against a violent disease 9. All impatience howsoever expressed is perfectly uselesse to all purposes of ease but hugely effective to the multiplying the trouble and the impatience and vexation is another but the sharper disease of the two it does mischief by it self and mischief by the disease For men grieve themselves as much as they please and when by impatience they put themselves into the retinue of sorrows they become solemne mourners For so have I seen the rayes of the Sun or Moon dash upon a brazen vessel whose lips kissed the face of those waters that lodged within its bosome but being turned back and sent off with its smooth pretences or rougher waftings it wandred about the room and beat upon the roof and still doubled its heat and motion So is a sicknesse and a sorrow entertained by an unquiet and a discontented man turned back either with anger or with excuses but then the pain passes from the stomack to the liver and from the liver to the heart and from the heart to the head and from feeling to consideration from thence to sorrow and at last ends in impatience and uselesse murmur and all the way the man was impotent and weak but the sicknesse was doubled and grew imperious and tyrannicall over the soul and body Massurius Sabinus tels that the image of the goddesse Angerona was with a mufler upon her mouth placed upon the Altar of Volupia to represent that those persons who bear their sicknesses and sorrows without murmur shall certainly passe from sorrow to pleasure and the ease and honours of felicity but they that with spite and indignation bite the burning coal or shake the yoak upon their necks gall their spirits and fret the skin and hurt nothing but themselves 10. Remember that this sicknesse is but for a short time If it be sharp it will not last long If it be long it will be easie and very tolerable And although S. Eadsine Archbishop of Canterbury had twelve years of sicknesse yet all that while he ruled his Church prudently gave example of many vertues and after his death was enrolled in the Calender of Saints who had finished their course prosperously Nothing is more unreasonable then to intangle our spirits in wildnesse and amazement like a Partrich fluttering in a net which she breaks not though she breaks her wings SECT V. Remedies against Impatience by way of exercise THe fittest instrument of esteeming sicknesse easily tolerable is to remember that which indeed makes it
God will give thee to exercise any vertue to do him any service or thy self any advantage be careful that thou losest not this for to eternal ages this never shall return again 9. Or if thou peradventure shalt be restored to health be carefull that in the day of thy thanksgiving thou mayest not be ashamed of thy self for having behaved thy self poorly and weakly upon thy bed it will be a sensible and excellent comfort to thee and double upon thy spirit if when thou shalt worship God for restoring thee thou shalt also remember that thou didst do him service in thy suffering and tell that God was hugely gracious to thee in giving thee the opportunity of a vertue at so easie a rate as a sicknesse from which thou didst recover 10. Few men are so sick but they believe that they may recover and we shal seldom see a man lie down with a perfect persuasion that it is his last hour for many men have been sicker and yet have recovered but whether thou doest or no thou hast a vertue to exerâ—ise which may be a handmaid to thy patience Epaphroditus was sick sick unto death and yet God had mercy upon him and he hath done so to thousands to whom he found it useful in the great order of things and the events of universal providence If therefore thou desirest to recover here is cause enough of hope and hope is designed in the arts of God and of the Spirit to support patience But if thou recoverest not yet there is something that is matter of joy naturally and very much Spiritually if thou belongest to God and joy is as certain a support to patience as hope and it is no small cause of being pleased when we remember that if we recover not our sicknesse shall the sooner sit down in rest and joy For recovery by death as it is easier and better then the recovery by a sickly health so it is not so long in doing it suffers not the tediousnesse of a creeping restitution nor the inconvenience of Surgeons and Physitians watchfulnesse and care keepings in and suffering trouble fears of relapse and the little reliques of a storm 11. While we hear or use or think of these remedies part of the sicknesse is gone away and all of it is passing And if by such instruments we stand armed and ready dressed before hand we shall avoid the mischiefs of amazements and surprize while the accidents of sicknesse are such as were expected and against which we stood in readinesse with our spirits contracted instructed and put upon the defensive 12 But our patience will be the better secured if we consider that it is not violently tempted by the usual arrests of sicknesse for patience is with reason demanded while the sicknesse is tolerable that is so long as the evil is not too great but if it be also eligible and have in it some degrees of good our patience will have in it the lesse difficulty and the greater necessity This therefore will be a new stock of consideration Sicknesse is in many degrees eligible to many men and to many purposes SECT VI. Advantages of Sicknesse 1. I Consider one of the great felicities of heaven consists in an immunity from sin then we shall love God without mixtures of malice then we shall enjoy without envy then we shall see fuller vessels running over with glory and crowned with bigger circles and this we shall behold without spilling from our eyes those vessels of joy and grief any signe of anger trouble or a repining spirit our passions shall be pure our charity without fear our desire without lust our possessions all our own and all in the inheritance of Jesus in the richest soil of Gods eternall kingdom Now half of this reason which makes heaven so happy by being innocent is also in the state of sicknesse making the furrows of old age smooth and the groans of a sick heart apt to be joyned to the musick of Angels and though they sound harsh to our untuned ears and discomposed Organs yet those accents must needs be in themselves excellent which God loves to hear and esteems them as prayers and arguments of pity instruments of mercie and grace and preparatives to glory In sicknesse the soul begins to dresse her self for immortality and first she unties the strings of vanity that made her upper garment cleave to the world and sit uneasily First she puts off the light and phantastic summer robe of lust and wanton appetite and as soon as that Cestus that lascivious girdle is thrown away then the reins chasten us and give us warning in the night then that which called us formerly to serve the manlinesse of the body and the childishnesse of the soul keeps us waking to divide the hours with the intervals of prayer and to number the minutes with our penitential groans Then the flesh sits uneasily and dwells in sorrow and then the spirit feels it self at ease freed from the petulant sollicitations of those passions which in health were as buisie and as restlesse as atomes in the sun alwayes dancing and alwayes busie and never sitting down till a sad night of grief and uneasinesse draws the vail and lets them dye alone in seâ—ret dishonour 2. Next to this the soul by the help of sicknesse knocks off the fetters of pride and vainer complacencies Then she drawes the curtains and stops the lights from coming in and takes the pictures down those phantastic images of self-love and gay remembrances of vain opinion and popular noises Then the Spirit stoops into the sobrieties of humble thoughts and feels corruption chiding the forwardnesse of fancy and allaying the vapours of conceit and factious opinions For humility is the souls grave into which he enters not to die but to meditate and iâ— terre some of its troublesome appendages There she sees the dust and feels the dishonours of the body and reads the Register of all its sad adherencies and then she layes by all her vain reflexions beating upon her Chrystall and pure mirrour from the fancies of strength and beauty little decayed prettinesses of the body And when in sicknesse we forget all our knotty discourses of Philosophy and a Syllogisme makes our head ake and we feel our many and loud talkings served no lasting end of the soul no purpose that now we must abide by and that the body is like to descend to the land where all things are forgotten then she layes aside all her remembrances of applauses all her ignorant confidences and cares onely to know Christ Iesus and him crucified to know him plainly and with much heartinesse and simplicity And I cannot think this to be a contemptible advantage for ever since man tempted himself by his impatient desires of knowing and being as God Man thinks it the finest thing in the world to know much and therefore is hugely apt to esteem himself better then his brethren if he knowes some
our passions turned into fear and the whole state into suffering God in complyance and mans infirmity hath also turned our religion into such a duty which a sick man can do most passionately and a sad man and a timorous can perform effectually and a dying man can do to many purposes of pardon and mercy and that is prayer For although a sick man is bound to do many acts of vertue of several kindes yet the most of them are to be done in the way of prayer Prayer is not onely the religion that is proper to a sick mans condition but it is the manner of doing other graces which is then left and in his power For thus the sick man is to do his repentance and his mortifications his temperance and his chastity by a fiction of imagination bringing the offers of the vertue to the spirit making an action of election and so our prayers are a direct act of chastity when they are made in the matter of that grace just as repentance for our cruelty is an act of the grace of mercie and repentance for uncleannesse is an act of chastity is a means of its purchase an act in order to the habit and though such acts of vertue which are onely in the way of prayer are ineffective to the intire purchase and of themselves cannot change the vice into vertue yet they are good renewings of the grace and proper exercise of a habit already gotten The purpose of this discourse is to represent the excellency of prayer and its proper advantages which it hath in the time of sicknesse For besides that it moves God to pity piercing the clouds making the Heavens like a pricked eye to weep over us and refresh us with showers of pity it also doth the work of the soul and expresses the vertue of his whole life in effigie in pictures and lively representments so preparing it for a never ceasing crown by renewing the actions in the continuation of a never ceasing a never hindred affection Prayer speaks to God when the tongue is stiffned with the approachings of death prayer can dwell in the heart and be signified by the hand or eye by a thought or a groan prayer of all the actions of religion is the last alive and it serves God without circumstances and exercises material graces by abstraction from matter and separation and makes them to be spiritual and therefore best dresses our bodies for funeral or recovery for the mercies of restitution or the mercies of the grave 5. In every sicknesse whether it will or will not be so in nature and in the event yet in thy spirit and preparations resolve upon it and treat thy self accordingly as if it were a sicknesse unto death For many men support their unequall courages by flattery and false hopes and because sicker men have recovered beleeve that they shall do so but therefore they neglect to adorn their souls or set their house in order besides the temporall inconveniences that often happen by such perswasions and putting off the evil day such as are dying Intestate leaving estates intangled and some Relatives unprovided for they suffer infinitely in the interest and affairs of their soul they die carelesly and surprized their burdens on and their scruples unremoved and their cases of conscience not determined and like a sheep without any care taken concerning their precious souls Some men will never beleeve that a villain will betray them though they receive often advices from suspicious persons and likely accidents till they are entered into the snare and then they beleeve it when they feel it and when they cannot return but so the treason entred and the man was betrayed by his own folly placing the snare in the regions and advantages of opportunity This evil looks like boldnesse and a confident spirit but it is the greatest timerousnesse and cowardize in the world They are so fearfull to die that they dare not look upon it as possible and think that the making of a Will is a mortall signe and sending for a spirituall man an irrecoverable disease and they are so afraid lest they should think and beleeve now they must die that they will not take care that it may not be evil in case they should So did the Eastern slaves drink wine and wrapt their heads in a vail that they might die without sense or sorrow and wink hard that they might sleep the easier In pursuance of this rule let a man consider that whatsoever must be done in sicknesse ought to be done in health onely let him observe that his sicknesse as a good monitor chastises his neglect of duty and forces him to live as he alwayes should and then all these solemnities and dressings for death are nothing else but the part of a religious life which he ought to have exercised all his dayes and if those circumstances can affright him let him please his fancy by this truth that then he does but begin to live But it will be a huge folly if he shall think that confession of his sins will kill him or receiving the holy Sacrament will hasten his agony or the Priest shall undo all the hopefull language and promises of his Physitian Assure thy self thou canst not die the sooner But by such addresses thou mayest die much the better 6. Let the sick person be infinitely carefull that he do not fall into a state of death upon a new account that is at no hand commit a deliberate sin or retain any affection to the old for in both cases he falls into the evils of a surprize and the horrors of a sudden death For a sudden death is but a sudden joy if it takes a man in the state and exercises of vertue and it is onely then an evil when it finds a man unready They were sad departures when Tegillinus Cornelius Gallus the Praetor Lewis the son of Gonzaga Duke of Mantua Ladislaus king of Naples Speusippus Giachettus of Geneva and one of the Popes died in the forbidden embraces of abused women or if Iob had cursed God and so died or when a man sits down in despair and in the accusation and calumny of the Divine mercy they make their night sad and stormy and eternall When Herod began to sink with the shamefull torment of his bowels and felt the grave open under him he imprisoned the Nobles of his Kingdom and commanded his Sister that they should be a sacrifice to his departing ghost This was an egresse fit onely for such persons who meant to dwell with Devils to eternall ages and that man is hugely in love with sin who cannot forbear in the week of the Assizes and when himself stood at the barre of scrutiny and prepared for his finall never to be reversed sentence He dies suddenly to the worst sense and event of sudden death who so manages his sicknesse that even that state shall not be innocent but that he is surprized in the
thoughts and sanctifie the accidents of my sicknesse and that the punishment of my sin may be the school of vertue In which since thou hast now entred me Lord make me a holy proficient that I may behave my self as a son under discipline humbly and obediently evenly and penitently that I may come by this means neerer unto thee that if I shall go forth of this sicknesse by the gate of life and health I may return to the world with great strengths of spirit to run a new race of a stricter holinesse and a more severe religion Or if I passe from hence with the out-let of death I may enter into the bosome of my Lord and may feel the present joyes of a certain hope of that Sea of pleasures in which all thy Saints and servants shall be comprehended to eternall ages Grant this for Jesus Christ his sake our Dearest Lord and Saviour Amen An act of resignation to be said by a sick person in all the evil accidents of his sicknesse O Eternall God thou hast made me and sustained me thou hast blessed me in all the dayes of my life and hast taken care of me in all variety of accidents and nothing happens to me in vain nothing without thy providence and I know thou smitest thy servants in mercy and with designes of the greatest pity in the world Lord I humbly lie down under thy rod do with me as thou pleasest do thou choose for me not onely the whole state and condition of being but every little and great accident of it Keep me safe by thy grace and then use what instrument thou pleasest of bringing me to thee Lord I am not sollicitous of the passage so I may get thee Onely O Lord remember my infirmities and let thy servant rejoyce in thee alwayes and feel and confesse and glory in thy goodnesse O be thou as delightfull to me in this my medicinal sicknesse as ever thou wert in any of the dangers of my prosperity let me not peevishly refuse thy pardon at the rate of a severe discipline I am thy servant and thy creature thy purchased possession and thy son I am all thine and because thou hast mercy in store for all that trust in thee I cover my eyes and in silence wait for the time of my redemption Amen A Prayer for the grace of Patience MOst Mercifull and Gracious Father who in the redemption of lost Mankind by the passion of thy most holy Son hast established a Covenant of sufferings I blesse and magnifie thy Name that thou hast adopted me into the inheritance of sons and hast given me a portion of my elder Brother Lord the crosse falls heavy and sits uneasie upon my shoulders my spirit is willing but my flesh is weak I humbly beg of thee that I may now rejoyce in this thy dispensation and effect of providence I know and am perswaded that thou art then as gracious when thou smitest us for amendment or triall as when thou releevest our wearied bodies in compliance with our infirmity I rejoyce O Lord in thy rare and mysterious mercy who by sufferings hast turned our misery into advantages unspeakable for so thou makest us like to thy Son and givest us a gift that the Angels never did receive for they cannot die in conformity to and imitation of their Lord and ours but blessed be thy Name we can and dearest Lord Let it be so Amen II. THou who art the God of patience and consolation strengthen me in the inner man that I may bear the yoak and burden of the Lord without any uneasie and uselesse murmurs and ineffective unwillingnesse Lord I am unable to stand under the crosse unable of my self but thou O Holy Jesus who didst feel the burden of it who didst sink under it and wert pleased to admit a man to bear part of the load when thou underwentest all for him be thou pleased to ease this load by fortifying my spirit that I may be strongest when I am weakest and may be able to do and suffer every thing thou pleasest through Christ which strengthens me Lord if thou wilt support me I will for ever praise thee If thou wilt suffer the load to presse me yet more heavily I will cry unto thee and complain unto my God and at last I will lie down and die and by the mercies and intercession of the Holy Jesus and the conduct of thy blessed Spirit and the ministery of Angels passe into those mansions where Holy souls rest and weep no more Lord pity me Lord sanctifie this my sicknesse Lord strengthen me Holy Jesus save me and deliver me thou knowest how shamefully I have fallen with pleasure in thy mercy and very pity let me not fall with pain too O let me never charge God foolishly nor offend thee by my impatience and uneasie spirit nor weaken the hands and hearts of those that charitably minister to my needs but let me passe through the valley of tears and the valley of the shadow of death with safety and peace with a meek spirit and a sense of the divine mercies and though thou breakest me in pieces my hope is thou wilt gather me up in the gatherings of eternity Grant this eternall God Gracious Father for the merits and intercession of our mercifull high Priest who once suffered for me and for ever intercedes for me our most gracious and ever Blessed Saviour Jesus A Prayer to be said when the sick man takes Physick O Most blessed and eternall Jesus thou who art the great Physician of our souls and the Sun of righteousnesse arising with healing in thy wings to thee is given by thy heavenly Father the Government of all the world and thou disposest every great and little accident to thy Fathers honour and to the good and comfort of them that love and serve thee Be pleased to blesse the ministery of thy servant in order to my ease and health direct his judgement prosper the medicines and dispose the chances of my sicknesse fortunately that I may feel the blessing and loving kindnesse of the Lord in the ease of my pain and the restitution of my health that I being restored to the society of the living and to thy solemn Assemblies may praise thee and thy goodnesse secretly among the faithfull and in the Congregation of thy redeemed ones here in the outer-courts of the Lord and hereafter in thy eternall temple for ever and ever Amen SECT III. Of the practise of the grace of Faith in the time of sicknesse NOw is the time in which faith appears most necessary and most difficult It is the foundation of a good life and the foundation of all our hopes it is that without which we cannot live well and without which we cannot die well it is a grace that then we shall need to support our spirits to sustain our hopes to alleviate our sickesse to resist temptations to prevent despair upon the belief of the articles of our
in the abolition of all my sins so shall I praise thy glories with a tongue not defiled with evil language and a heart purged by thy grace quitted by thy mercy and absolved by thy sentence from generation to generation Amen An act of holy resolution of amendment of life in case of recovery O Most just and most mercifull Lord God who hast sent evil diseases sorrow fear trouble and uneasinesse briars and thorns into the world and planted them in our houses and round about our dwellings to keep sin from our souls or to drive it thence I humbly beg of thee that this my sicknesse may serve the ends of the Spirit and be a messenger of spirituall life an instrument of reducing me to more religious and sober courses I know O Lord that I am unready and unprepared in my accounts having thrown away great portions of my time in vanity and set my self hugely back in the accounts of eternity and I had need live my life over again and live it better but thy counsels are in the great deep and thy footsteps in the water and I know not what thou wilt determine of me If I die I throw my self into the arms of the Holy Jesus whom I love above all things and if I perish I know I have deserved it but thou wilt not reject him that loves thee But if I recover I will live by thy grace and help to do the work of God and passionately pursue my interest of Heaven and serve thee in the labour of love with the charities of a holy zeal and the diligence of a firm and humble obedience Lord I will dwell in thy temple and in thy service religion shall be my imployment and alms shall be my recreation and patience shall be my rest and to do thy will shall be my meat and drink and to live shall be Christ and then to die shall be gain O spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Amen SECT VIII An Analysis or resolution of the Decalogue and the speciall precepts of the Gospel describing the duties injoyned and the sins forbidden respectiuely for the assistance of sick men in making their confessions to God and his Ministers and the rendring their repentance more particular and perfect I THou shalt have none other Gods but me Duties commanded are 1. To love God above all things 2. To obey him and fear him 3. To worship him with prayers vows thanksgivings presenting to him our souls and bodies and all such actions and expressions which the consent of Nations or the Lawes and Customs of the place where we live have appropriated to God 4. To designe all to Gods glory 5. To enquire after his will 6. To beleeve all his word 7. To submit to his providence 8. To proceed toward all our lawfull ends by such means as himself hath appointed 9. To speak and think honourably of God and recite his praises and confesse his Attributes and perfections They sin against this Commandement 1. Who love themselves or any of the creatures inordinately and intemperately 2. They that despise or neglect any of the Divine precepts 3. They that pray to unknown or false gods 4. They that disbeleeve or deny there is a God 5. They that make vows to creatures 6. Or say prayers to the honour of men or women or Angels as Pater nosters to the honour of the Virgin Mary or S. Peter which is a taking a part of that honour which is due to God and giving it to the creature it is a religion paid to men and women out of Gods proper portion out of prayers directed to God immediately and it is an act contrary to that religion which makes God the last end of all things for this thâ—ough our addresses to God passes something to the creatures as if they stood beyond him for by the intermediall worship paid to God they ultimately do honour to the man or Angel 7. They that make consumptive oblations to the creatures as the Collyridians who offered cakes and those that burn incense or candles to the Virgin Mary 8. They that give themselves to the Devil or make contracts with him and use phantastic conversation with him 9 They that consult Witches and Fortune-tellers 10. They that rely upon dreams and superstitious observances 11 That use charmes spels superstitious words and characters verses of Psalms the consecrated elements to cure diseases to be shot free to recover stolne goods or inquire into secrets 12. That are wilfully ignorant of the lawes of God or love to be deceived in their perswasions that they may sin with confidence 13. They that neglect to pray to God 14. They that arrogate to themselves the glory of any action or power and do not give the glory to God as Herod 15. They that doubt of or disbeleeve any article of the Creed or any proposition of Scripture or put false glosses to serve saecular or vitious ends against their conscience or with violence any way done to their reason 16. They that violently or passionately pursue any temporall end with an eagernesse greater then the thing is in prudent account 17 They that make religion to serve ill ends or do good to exil purposes or evil to good purposes 18. They that accuse God of injustice or unmercifulnesse remissenesse or cruelty such as are the presumptuous and the desperate 19. All hypocrites and pretenders to religion walking in forms and shadows but denying the power of godlinesse 20. All impatient persons all that repine or murmur against the prosperities of the wicked or the calamities of the godly or their own afflictions 21. All that blaspheme God or speak dishonourable things of so Sacred a Majesty 22. They that tempt God or rely upon his protection against his rules and without his promise and besides reason entring into danger from which without a miracle they cannot be rescued 23. They that are bold in the midst of judgement and fearlesse in the midst of the Divine vengeance and the accents of his anger II. Comm. Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image nor worship it The morall duties of this commandement are 1. To worship God with all bodily worship and externall forms of addresse according to the custom of the Church we live in 2. To beleeve God to be a spirituall and pure substance without any visible form of shape 3. To worship God in wayes of his own appointing or by his proportions or measures of nature and right reason or publike and holy customes They sin against this Commandement 1. That make any image or pictures of the Godhead or fancy any likenesse to him 2. They that use images in their religion designing or addressing any religious worship to them For if this thing could be naturally tolerable yet it is too neer an intolerable for a jealous God to suffer 3.
of the Divine mercy in pardoning sinners If it be thought a great matter that I am charged with originall sin I confesse I feel the weight of it in loads of temporall infelicities and proclivities to sin But I fear not the guilt of it since I am baptized and it cannot do honour to the reputation of Gods mercy that it should be all spent in remissions of what I never chose never acted never knew of could not help concerning which I received no commandement no prohibition But blessed be God it is ordered in just measures that that originall evil which I contracted without my will should be taken away without my knowledge and what I suffered before I had a being was cleansed before I had an usefull understanding But I am taught to beleeve Gods mercies to be infinite not onely in himself but to us for mercy is a relative terme and we are its correspondent of all the creatures which God made we onely in a proper sense are the subjects of mercy and remission Angels have more of Gods bounty then we have but not so much of his mercy and beasts have little rayes of his kindnesse and effects of his wisdom and graciousnesse in petty donatives but nothing of mercy for they have no lawes and therefore no sins and need no mercy nor are capable of any Since therefore man alone is the correlative or proper object and vessell of reception of an infinite mercy and that mercy is in giving and forgiving I have reason to hope that he will so forgive me that my sins shall not hinder me of heaven or because it is a gift I may also upon the stock of the same infinite mercy hope he will give heaven to me and if I have it either upon the title of giving or forgiving it is alike to me and will alike magnifie the glories of the Divine mercy And because eternall life is the gift of God I have lesse reason to despair for if my sins were fewer and my disproportions towards such a glory were lesse and my evennesse more yet it is still a gift and I could not receive it but as a free and a gracious donative and so I may still God can still give it me and it is not an impossible expectation to wait and look for such a gift at the hands of the God of mercy the best men deserve it not and I who am the worst may have it given me * And I consider that God hath set no measures of his mercy but that we be within the Covenant that is repenting persons endeavouring to serve him with an honest single heart and that within this Covenant there is a very great latitude and variety of persons and degrees and capacities and therefore that it cannot stand with the proportions of so infinite a mercy that obedience be exacted to such a point which he never expressed unlesse it should be the least and that to which all capacities though otherwise unequall are fitted and sufficiently enabled * But however I finde that the Spirit of God taught the writers of the New Testament to apply to us all in general and to every single person in particular some gracious words which God in the Old Testament spake to one man upon a special occasion in a single and temporal instance such are the words which God spake to Ioshuah I will never fail thee nor forsake thee and upon the stock of that promise S. Paul forbids covetousnesse and perswades contentednesse because those words were spoken by God to Ioshuah in another case If the gracious words of God have so great extension of parts and intension of kinde purposes then how many comforts have we upon the stock of all the excellent words which are spoken in the Prophets and in the Psalms and I will never more question whether they be spoken concerning me having such an authentic precedent so to expound the excellent words of God all the treasures of God which are in the Psalms are my own riches and the wealth of my hope there will I look and whatsoever I can need that I will depend upon for certainly if we could understand it that which is infinite as God is must needs be some such kinde of thing it must go whither it was never sent and signifie what was not first intended and it must warm with its light and shine with its heat and refresh when it strikes and heal when it wounds and ascertain where it makes afraid and intend all when it warms one and mean a great deal in a small word and as the Sun passing to its Southern Tropic looks with an open eye upon his sun-burnt Aethiopians but at the same time sends light from its posterns and collateral influences from the backside of his beams and sees the corners of the East when his face tends towards the West because he is a round body of fire and hath some little images and resemblances of the infinite so is Gods mercy when it looked upon Moses it relieved S. Paul and it pardoned David and gave hope to Manasses and might have restored Iudas if he would have had hope and used himself accordingly * But as to my own case I have sinned grievously and frequently But I have repented it but I have begged pardon I have confessed it and forsaken it I cannot undo what was done and I perish if God hath appointed no remedie if there be no remission but then my religion falls together with my hope and Gods word fails as well as I but I believe the article of forgivenesse of sins and if there be any such thing I may do well for I have and do and will do that which all good men call repentance that is I will be humbled before God and mourn for my sin and for ever ask forgivenesse and judge my self and leave it with haste and mortifie it with diligence and watch against it carefully and this I can do but in the manner of a man I can but mourn for my sins as I apprehend grief in other instances but I will rather choose to suffer all evils then to do one deliberate act of sin I know my sins are greater then my sorrow and too many for my memory too insinuating to be prevented by all my care but I know also that God knowes and pities my infirmities and how far that will extend I know not but that it will reach so far as to satisfie my needs is the matter of my hope * But this I am sure of that I have in my great necessity prayed humbly and with great desire and sometimes I have been heard in kinde and sometimes have had a bigger mercy instead of it and I have the hope of prayers and the hope of my confession and the hope of my endeavour and the hope of many promises and of Gods essential goodnesse and I am sure that God hath heard my prayers and verified his promises
communication from an Angel or the sâ—ock of acquired notices here below it may the rather endear us to our charities or duties to them respectively since our vertues use not to live upon abstractions and Metaphysical perfections or inducements but then thrive when they have materiall arguments such which are not too far from sense However it be it is certain they are not dead and though we no more see the souls of our dead friends then we did when they were alive yet we have reason to beleeve them to know more things and better And if our sleep be an image of death we may also observe concerning it that it is a state of life so separate from communications with the body that it is one of the wayes of Oracle and prophecy by which the soul best declares her immortality and the noblenesse of her actions and powers if she could get free from the body as in the state of separation or a clear dominion over it as in the resurrection To which also this consideration may be added that men long time lived the life of sence before they use their reason and till they have sumished their head with experiments and notices of many things they cannot at all discourse of any thing but when they come to use their reason all their knowledge is nothing but remembrance and we know by proportions by similitudes and dissimilitudes by relations and oppositions by causes and effects by comparing things with things all which are nothing but operations of understanding upon the stock of former notices of something we knew before nothing but remembrances all the heads of Topicks which are the stock of all arguments and sciences in the world are a certain demonstration of this And he is the wisest man that remembers most and joyns those remembrances together to the best purposes of discourse From whence it may not be improbably gathered that in the state of separation if there be any act of understanding that is if the understanding be alive it must be relative to the notices it had in this world and therefore the acts of it must he discourses upon all the parts and persons of their conversation and relation excepting onely such new revelations which may be communicated to it concerning which we know nothing But if by seeing Sacrates I think upon Plato and by seeing a picture I remember a Man and by beholding two friends I remember my own and my friends need and he is wisest that drawes most lines from the same Centre and most discourses from the same Notices it cannot but be very probable to beleeve since the separate souls understand better if they understand at all that from the Notices they carried from hence and what they find there equall or unequall to those Notices they can better discover the things of their friends then we can here by our conjectures and craftiest imaginations and yet many men here can guesse shrewdly at the thoughts and designes of such men with whom they discourse or of whom they have heard or whose characters they prudently have perceived I have no other end in this discourse but that we may be ingaged to do our duty to our Dead lest peradventure they should perceive our neglect and be witnesses of our transient affections and forgetfulnesse Dead persons have religion passed upon them and a solemn reverence and if we think a Ghost beholds us it may be we may have upon us the impressions likely to be made by love and fear and religion However we are sure that God sees us and the world sees us and if it be matter of duty towards our Dead God will exact it if it be matter of kindnesse the world will and as Religion is the band of that so fame and reputation is the endearment of this It remains that we who are alive should so live and by the actions of Religion attend the coming of the day of the Lord that we neither be surprized nor leave our duties imperfect nor our sins uncanceld nor our persons unreconciled nor God unappeased but that when we descend to our graves we may rest in the bosome of the Lord till the mansions be prepared where we shall sing and feast eternally Amen Te Deum laudamus THE END BEsides this Rule of Holy Dying the Author hath in Print 1. The Rule of Holy Living 2. The Liberty of Prophesying 3. Episcopacie asserted 4 o 4. The History of the Life and Death of the ever blessed Iesus Christ. 4 o 5. An Apologie for Authorized and â—et forms of Lyturgie 4 o 6. A Sermon Preached at Oxon. on the Anniversary of the fifth of November 4 o 7. Together with 28. Sermons Preached at Golden grove fol. Lately published viz. SErmon 1.2 Of the Spirit of Grace Rom. 8. ver 9.10 Sermon 3.4 The descending and entailed curse cut off Exodus 20. part of the 5. verse Sermon 5.6 The invalidity of a late or death-bed repentance Ier. 13.6 Sermon 7.8 The deceitfulnesse of the heart Ierem. 17.9 Sermon 9.10.11 The faith and patience of the Saints Or the righteous cause oppressed 1 Pet. 4.17 Sermon 12.13 The mercy of the Divine judgements or Gods method in curing sinners Rom. 2.4 Sermon 14.15 Of groweth in grace with its proper instruments and signes 2 Pet. 3.18 Sermon 16.17 Of groweth in sin or the severall states and degrees of sinners with the manner how they are to be treated Iude Epist. ver 22 23. Sermon 18.19 The foolish exchange Matth. 16. ver 26. Sermon 20.21.22 The Serpent and the Dove or a Discourse of Christian Prudence Matth. 10. latter part of ver 16. Sermon 23.24 Of Christian simplicitie Matt. 10. latter part of ver 16. Sermon 25.26.27 The Miracles of the Divine Mercy Psal. 86.5 A Funerall Sermon Preached at the Obsequies of the right Honourable the Countesse of Carbery 2 Sam. 14.14 A Discourse of the Divine Institution necessity sacrednesse and separation of the Office Ministeriall Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-Lane * Vel quia nil rectum nisi quod placuit â—ibi ducunt Vel quia turpe putant parere minoâ—ibus quae Imberbes didicere senes perdenda fateri * Tenellis adhuc infantiae suae persuasionibus in senectute puerascunt Mamertus Concil Trid. hist lib 4. * Tertul de Monog S. Cyprian l. 1. ep 9 Sa. Athan q. 33. S. Cyril myst cat 5. Epiphan Haeres 75. Aug. de haeres c. 33. Concil Carth. 3. c. 29 * Dii majorum umbris tenuem sine pondere terram Spirantesque crocos in urna perpetuum yer Pers. Sat. 7. Otia das nobis sed qualia forat ulioâ— Meccenas Placco Virgilio que m◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4 James 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nihil sibi quisquam de futuro debet promittere Id quoque quod teâ—etur per 〈◊〉 anus exit