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
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
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
preserve thee in the faith and fear of his holy Name to thy lives end and bring thee to his everlasting Kingdom to live with him for ever and ever Amen Then let the sick man renounce all heresies and whatsoever is against the truth of God or the peace of the Church and pray for pardon for all his ignorances and errors known and unknown After which let him if all other circumstances be fitted be disposed to receive the Blessed Sacrament in which the Curate is to minister according to the form prescribed by the Church When the rites are finished let the sick man in the dayes of his sicknesse be imployed with the former offices and exercises before described and when the time drawes neer of his dissolution the Minister may assist by the following order of recommendation of the soul. I. O Holy and most Gracious Saviour Jesus we humbly recommend the soul of thy servant into thy hands thy most mercifull hands let thy Blessed Angels stand in ministery about thy servant and defend him from the violence and malice of all his ghosâ—ly enemies and drive far from hence all the spirits of darknesse Amen II. LOrd receive the soul of this thy servant Enter not into judgement with thy servaant spare him whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood deliver him from all evil and mischief from the crafts and assaults of the Devil from the fear of death and from everlasting death Good Lord deliver him Amen III. IMpute not unto him the follies of his youth nor any of the errors and miscarriages of his life but strengthen him in his agony let not his faith waver nor his hope fail nor his charity be disordered Let none of his enemies imprint upon him any afflictive or evil phantasme let him die in peace and rest in hope and rise in glory Amen IIII. LOrd we know and beleeve assuredly that whatsoever is under thy custody cannot be taken out of thy hands nor by all the violences of hell robbed of thy protection preserve the work of thy hands rescue him from all evil for whose sake thou didst suffer all evil Take into the participation of thy glories him to whom thou hast given the seal of Adoption the earnest of the inheritance of the Saints Amen V. LEt his portion be with Abraham Isaac and Iacob with Iob and David with the Prophets and Apostles with Martyrs and all thy holy Saints in the arms of Christ in the bosome of felicity in the Kingdom of God to eternall ages Amen These following prayers are fit also to be added to the foregoing offices in case there be no communion or entercourse but prayer Let us Pray O Almighty and eternall God there is no number of thy dayes or of thy mercies thou hast sent us into this world to serve thee and to live according to thy lawes but we by our sins have provoked thee to wrath and we have planted thorns and sorrows round about our dwellings and our life is but a span long and yet very tedious because of the calamities that inclose us in on every side the dayes of our pilgrimage are few and evil we have frail and sickly bodies violent and distempered passions long designes and but a short stay weak understandings and strong enemies abused fancies perverse wils O Dear God look upon us in mercy and pity let not our weaknesses make us to sin against thee nor our fear cause us to betray our duty nor our former follies provoke thy eternall anger nor the calamities of this world vex us into tediousnesse of spirit and impatience but let thy Holy Spirit lead us thorow this vally of misery with safety and peace with holiness and religion with spirituall comforts and joy in the Holy Ghost that when we have served thee in our generations we may be gathered unto our Fathers having the testimony of a holy conscience in the communion of the Catholike Church in the confidence of a certain faith and the comforts of a reasonable religious and holy hope and perfect charity with thee our God and all the world that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature may be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen II. O Holy and most gracious Saviour Jesus in whose hands the souls of all faithfull people are laid up till the day of recompence have mercy upon the body and soul of this thy servant and upon all thy elect people who love the Lord Jesus and long for his coming Lord refresh the imperfection of their condition with the aids of the Spirit of grace and comfort and with the visitation and guard of Angels and supply to them all their necessities known onely unto thee let them dwell in peace and feel thy mercies pitying their infirmities and the follies of their flesh and speedily satisfying the desires of their spirits and when thou shalt bring us all forth in the day of Judgement O then shew thy self to be our Saviour Jesus our Advocate and our Judge Lord then remember that thou hast for so many ages prayed for the pardon of those sins which thou art then to sentence Let not the accusations of our consciences nor the calumnies and aggravation of Devils nor the effects of thy wrath presse those souls whâ—ch thou lovest which thou didst redeem which thou doest pray for but enable us all by the supporting hand of thy mercy to stand upright in judgement O Lord have mercy upon us have mercy upon us O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us as our trust is in thee O Lord in thee have we trusted let us never be confounded Let us meet with joy and for ever dwell with thee feeling thy pardon supported with thy graciousnesse absolved by thy sentence saved by thy mercy that we may sing to the glory of thy Name eternall Allelujahs Amen Amen Amen Then may be added in the behalf of all that are present these ejaculations O spare us a little that we may recover our strength before we go hence and be no more seen Amen Cast us not away in the time of age O forsake us not when strength faileth Amen Grant that we may never sleep in sin or death eternall but that we may have our part of the first resurrection and that the second death may not prevail over us Amen Grant that our souls may be bound up in the bundle of life and in the day when thou bindest up thy Jewels remember thy servants for good and not for evil that our souls may be numbred amongst the righteous Amen Grant unto all sick and dying Christians mercy and aids from heaven and receive the souls returning unto thee whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood Amen Grant unto thy servants to have faith in the Lord Jesus a daily meditation of death a contempt of
evil into an intolerable it hinders prayers and fills up the intervalls of sicknesse with a worse torture it makes all spiritual arts uselesse and the office of spiritual comforters and guides to be impertinent Against this hope is to be opposed and its proper acts as it relates to the vertue and exercise of patience are 1 Praying to God for help and remedy 2 sending for the guides of souls 3. using all holy exercises and acts of grace proper to that state which who so does hath not the impatience of despair every man that is patient hath hope in God in the day of his sorrows 2. Our complaints in sicknesse must be without murmure Murmur sins against Gods providence and government by it we grow rude and like the falling Angels displeased at Gods supremacy and nothing is more unreasonable it talks against God for whose glory all speech was made it is proud and phantastic hath better opinions of a sinner then of the Divine justice and would rather accuse God then himself Against this is opposed that part of patience which resignes the man into the hands of God saying with old Eli It is the Lord let him do what he will and Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven and so by admiring Gods justice and wisdom does also dispose the sick person for receiving Gods mercy and secures him the rather in the grace of God The proper acts of this part of patience are 1. To confesse our sins and our own demerits 2. It increases and exercises humility 3. It loves to sing praises to God even from the lowest abysse of humane misery 3. Our complaints in sicknesse must be without peevishnesse This sins against civility and that necessary decency which must be used toward the ministers and assistants By peevishnesse we increase our own sorrowes and are troublesome to them that stand there to ease ours It hath in it harshnesse of nature and ungentlenesse wilfulnesse and Phantastic opinions morosity and incivility Against it are opposed obedience tractability easinesse of persuasion aptnesse to take counsel The acts of this part of patience are 1. To obey our Physitians 2. To treat our persons with respect to our present necessities 3. Not to be ungentle and uneasy to the ministers and nurses that attend us But to take their diligent and kinde offices as sweetly as we can and to bear their indiscretions or unhandsome accidents contentedly and without disquietnesse within or evil language or angry words without 4. Not to use unlawful means for our recovery If we secure these particulars we are not lightly to be judged of by noises and postures by colours and images of things by palenesse or tossings from side to side For it were a hard thing that those persons who are loaâ—en with the greatnesse of humane calamities should be strictly tyed to ceremonies and forms of things He is patient that calls upon God that hopes for health or heaven that believes God is wise and just in sending him afflictions that confesses his sins and accuses himself and justifies God that expects God will turne this into good that is civil to his Physitians and his servants that converses with the guides of souls the ministers of religion and in all things submits to Gods will and would use no indirect means for his recovery but had rather be sick and die then enter at all into Gods displeasure SECT IV. Remedies against impatience by way of consideration AS it happens concerning death so it is in sicknesse which is deathâ— handmaid It hath the fate to suffer calumny and reproach and hath a name worse thâ—n its nature 1. For there is no sicknesse so great but children endure it and have natural strengths to bear them out quite through the calamity what period soever nature hath allotted it Indeed they make no reflexions upon their sufferings and complain of sicknesse with an uneasy sigh or a natural groan but consider not what the sorrows of sicknesse mean and so bear it by a direct sufferance and as a pillar bears the weight of a roof But then why cannot we bear it so to For this which we call a reflexion upon or a considering of our sicknesse is nothing but a perfect instrument of trouble and consequently a temptation to impatience It serves no end of nature it may be avoided and we may consider it onely as an expression of Gods Anger and an emissary or procurator of repentance But all other considering it except where it serves the purposes of medicine and art is nothing but under the colour of reason an unreasonable device to heighten the sicknesse and increase the torment But then children want this act of reflex perception or reasonable sense whereby their sicknesse becomes lesse pungent and dolorous so also do they want the helps of reason whereby they should be able to support it For certain it is reason was as well given us to harden our spirits and stiffen them in passions and sad accidents as to make us bending and apt for action and if in men God hath heightned the faculties of apprehension he hath increased the auxiliaries of reasonable strengths that Gods rod and Gods staffe might go together and the beam of Gods countenance may as well refresh us with its light as scorch us with its heat But poor children that endure so much have not inward supports and refreshments to bear them through it they never heard the sayings of old men nor have been taught the principles of severe philosophy nor are assisted with the results of a long experience nor know they how to turn a sicknesse into vertue and a Feaver into a reward nor have they any sense of favors the remembrance of which may alleviate their burden and yet nature hath in them teeth and nails enough to scratch and fight against the sickness and by such aids as God is pleased to give them they wade thorough the storm and murmur not and besides this yet although infants have not such brisk perceptions upon the stock of reason they have a more tender feeling upon the accounts of sense and their flesh is as uneasy by their natural softnesse and weak shoulders as ours by our too forward apprehensions Therefore bear up either you or I or some man wiser and many a woman weaker then us both or the very children have endured worse evil then this that is upon thee now That sorrow is hugely tolerable which gives its smart but by instants and smallest proportions of time No man at once feels the sicknesse of a week or of a whole day but the smart of an instant and still every portion of a minute feels but its proper share and the last groan ended all the sorrow of its peculiar burden and what minute can that be which can pretend to be intolerable and the next minute is but the same as the last and the pain flowes like the drops of a river or the
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
heart is infinitely deceitful unknown to it self not certain in his own acts praying one way and desiring another wandring and imperfect loose and various worshipping God and entertaining sin following what it hates and running from what it flatters loving to be tempted and betrayed petulant like a wanton girle running from that it might invite the fondnesse and enrage the appetite of the foolish young man or the evil temptation that followes it cold and indifferent one while and presently zealous and passionate furious and indiscreet not understood of it self or any one else and deceitful beyond all the arts and numbers of observation 8. That it is certain we have highly sinned against God but we are not so certain that our repentance is reall and effective integral and sufficient 9. That it is not revealed to us whether or no the time of our repentance be not past or if it be not yet how far God will give us pardon and upon what condition or after what sufferings or duties is still under a cloud 10. That vertue and vice are oftentimes so neer neighbours that we passe into each others borders without observation and think we do justice when we are cruel or call our selves liberal when we are loose and foolish in expences and are amorous when we commend our own civilities and good nature 11. That we allow to our selves so many little irregularities that insensibly they swell to so great a heap that from thence we have reason to fear an evil for an army of frogs and flies may destroy all the hopes of our harvest 12. That when we do that which is lawful and do all that we can in those bounds we commonly and easily run out of our proportions 13. That it is not easie to distinguish the vertues of our nature from the vertues of our choice and we may expect the reward of temperance when it is against our nature to be drunk or we hope to have the coronet of virgins for our morose disposition or our abstinence from marriage upon secular ends 14. That it may be we call every little sigh or the keeping a fish-day the dutie of repentance or have entertained false principles in the estimate and measures of vertues and contrarie to the Steward in that Gospel we write down fourscore when we should set downe but fifty 15. That it is better to trust the goodnesse and justice of God with our accounts then to offer him large bits 16. That we are commanded by Christ to sit down in the lowest place till the Master of the house bids us sit up higher 17. That when we have done all that we can we are unprofitable servants and yet no man does all that he can do and therefore is more to be despised and undervalued 18. That the self-accusing Publican was justified rather then the thanksgiving and confident Pharisee 19. That if Adam in Paradise and David in his house and Solomon in the Temple and Peter in Christs family and Iudas in the College of Apostles and Nicholas among the Deacons and the Angels in heaven it self did fall so foully and dishonestly then it is prudent advice that we be not high minded but fear and when we stand most confidently take heed lest we fall and yet there is nothing so likely to make us fall as pride and great opinions which ruined the Angels which God resists which all men despise and which betrayes us into carelesnesse and a wretchlesse undiscerning and an unwary spirit 4. Now the main parts of the Ecclesiastical ministery are done and that which remains is that the Minister pray over him and reminde him to do good actions as he is capable * to call upon God for pardon * to put his whole trust in him * to resigne himself to Gods disposing * to be patient and even * to renounce every ill word or thought or undecent action which the violence of his sicknesse may cause in him * to beg of God to give him his holy Spirit to guide him in his agony and * his holy Angels to guard him in his passage 5. Whatsoever is besides this concerns the standers by that they do all their ministeries diligently and temperately * that they joyn with much charity and devotion in the prayer of the Minister * that they make no outcries or exclamations in the departure of the soul * and that they make no judgement concerning the dying person by his dying quietly or violently with comfort or without with great fears or a cheerful confidence with sense or without like a lamb or like a lyon with convulsions or semblances of great pain or like an expiring and a spent candle for these happen to all men without rule without any known reason but according as God pleases to dispense the grace or the punishment for reasons onely known to himself Let us lay our hands upon our mouth and adore the mysteries of the divine wisdome and providence and pray to God to give the dying man rest and pardon and to our selves grace to live well and the blessing of a holy and a happy death SECT VII Offices to be said by the Minister in his visitation of the sick IN the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Our Father which art in Heaven c. Let the Priest say this prayer secretly O Eternal Jesus thou great lover of souls who hast constituted a ministery in the Church to glorifie thy Name and to serve in the assistance of those that come to thee professing thy discipline and service give grace to me the unworthiest of thy servants that I in this my ministery may purely and zealously intend thy glory and effectually may minister comfort and advantages to this sick person whom God assoil from all his offences and grant that nothing of thy grace may perish to him by the unworthinesse of the Minister but let thy Spirit speak by me and give me prudence and charity wisdom and diligence good observation and apt discourses a certain judgement and merciful dispensation that the soul of thy servant may passe from this state of imperfection to the perfections of the state of glory thorough thy mercies O Eternal Jesus Amen The Psalm OUt of the depths have I cryed unto thee O Lord Lord hear my voice let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications If thou Lord should mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand but there is forgivenesse with thee that thou mayest be feared I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope my soul waiteth for the Lord more then they that watch for the morning Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption and he shall redeem his servants from all their iniquities Wherefore should I fear in the dayes of evil when the wickednesse of my heels shall compasse me about No man can by any means redeem
so have I known passionate women to shrike aloud when their neerest relatives were dying and that horrid shrike hath stayed the spirit of the man a while to wonder at the folly and represent the inconvenience and the dying person hath lived one day longer full of pain amazed with an undeterminate spirit distorted with convulsions and onely come again to act one scene more of a new calamity and to die with less decency so also do very many men with passion and a troubled interest they strive to continue their life longer and it may be they escape this sickness and live to fall into a disgrace they escape the storm and fall into the hands of pyrats and instead of dying with liberty they live like slaves miserable and despised servants to a litle time and sottish admirers of the breath of their own lungs Paulus Aemilius did handsomly reprove the cowardice of the King of Macedon who begged of him for pities sake and humanity that having conquered him and taken his kingdom from him he would be content with that and not lead him in triumph a prisoner to Rome Aemilius told him he need not be beholding to him for that himself might prevent that in despite of him But the timorous King durst not die But certainly every wise man will easily believe that it had been better the Macedonian Kings should have dyed in battel then protract their life so long till some of them came to be Scriveners and Joyners at Rome or that the Tyrant of Sicily better had perished in the Adriatic then to be wafted to Corinth safely and there turn Schoolmaster It is a sad calamity that the fear of death shall so imbecill mans courage and understanding that he dares not suffer the remedie of all his calamities but that he lives to say as Liberius did I have lived this one day longer then I should either therefore let us be willing to die when God calls or let us never more complain of the calamities of our life which we feel so sharp and numerous And when God sends his Angel to us with a scroll of death let us look on it as an act of mercy to prevent many sins and many calamities of a longer life and lay our heads down softly and go to sleep without wrangling like babies and froward children For a man at least gets this by death that his calamities are not immortal But I do not onely consider death by the advantages of comparison but if we look on it in it self it is no such formidable thing if we view it on both sides and handle it and consider all its appendages 2. It is necessary and therefore not intolerable and nothing is to be esteemed evil which God and nature have fixed with eternal sancâ—ions It is a law of God it is a punishment of our sins and it is the constitution of our nature Two differing substances were joyned together with the breath of God and when that breath is taken away they part asunder and return to their several principles the soul to God our Father the body to the earth our Mother and what in all this is evil Surely nothing but that we are men nothing but that we were not born immortall but by declining this change with great passion or receiving it with a huge naturall fear we accuse the Divine Providence of Tyranny and exclaim against our naturall constitution and are discontent that we are men 3. It is a thing that is no great matter in it self if we consider that we die daily that it meets us in every accident that every creature carries a dart along with it and can kill us And therefore when Lysimachus threatned Theodorus to kill him he told him that was no great matter to do and he could do no more then the Cantharides could a little flie could do as much 4. It is a thing that every one suffers even persons of the lowest resolution of the meanest vertue of no breeding of no discourse Take away but the pomps of death the disguises and solemn bug-bears the tinsell and the actings by candle-light and proper and phantastic ceremonies the minstrels and the noise-makers the women and the weepers the swoonings and the shrikings the Nurses and the Physicians the dark room and the Ministers the Kinred and the Watchers and then to die is easie ready and quitted from its troublesome circumstances It is the same harmelesse thing that a poor shepherd suffered yesterday or a maid-servant to day and at the same time in which you die in that very night a thousand creatures die with you some wise men and many fools and the wisdom of the first will not quit him and the folly of the latter does not make him unable to die 5. Of all the evils of the world which are reproached with an evil character death is the most innocent of its accusation For when it is present it hurts no body and when it is absent 't is indeed troublesome but the trouble is owing to our fears not to the affrighting and mistaken object and besides this if it were an evil it is so transient that it passes like the instant or undiscerned portion of the present time and either it is past or it is not yet for just when it is no man hath reason to complain of so insensible so sudden so undiscerned a change 6. It is so harmelesse a thing that no good man was ever thought the more miserable for dying but much the happier When men saw the graves of Calatinus of the Servicij the Scipio's the Metelli did ever any man among the wisest Romans think them unhappy And when S. Paul fell under the sword of Nero and S. Peter died upon the crosse and S. Stephen from an heap of stones was carried into an easier grave they that made great lamentation over them wept for their own interest and after the manner of men but the Martyrs were accounted happy and their dayes kept solemnly and their memories preserved in never dying honours When S. Hilary Bishop of Poictiers in France went into the East to reproove the Arian heresie he heard that a young noble Gentleman treated with his daughter Abra for marriage The Bishop wrote to his daughter that she should not ingage her promise nor do countenance to that request because he had provided for her a husband fair rich wise and noble farre beyond her present offer The event of which was this She obeyed and when her father returned from his Eastern triumph to his Western charge he prayed to God that his daughter might die quickly and God heard his prayers and Christ took her into his bosome entertaining her with antepasts and caresses of holy love till the day of the marriage Supper of the Lamb shall come But when the Bishops wife observed this event and understood of the good man her husband what was done and why she never left
guilt of a new account It is a signe of a reprobate spirit and an habituall prevailing ruling sin which exacts obedience when the judgement looks him in the face At least go to God with the innocence and fair deportment of thy person in the last scene of thy life that when thy soul breaks into the state of separation it may carry the relishes of religion and sobriety to the places of its abode and sentence 7. When these things are taken care for let the sick man so order his affairs that he have but very little conversation with the world but wholly as he can attend to religion and antedate his conversation in heaven alwayes having entercourse with God and still conversing with the Holy Jesus kissing his wounds admiring his goodnesse beging his mercy feeding on him with faith and drinking his blood to which purpose it were very fit if all circumstances be answerable that the narrative of the passion of Christ be read or discoursed to him at length or in brief according to the stile of the four Gospels But in all things let his care and society be as little secular as is possible CHAP. IV. Of the practise of the graces proper to the state of sicknesse which a sick man may practise alone SECT I. Of the practise of Patience NOw we suppose the man entring upon his Scene of sorrows and passive graces It may be he went yesterday to a wedding merry and brisk and there he felt his sentence that he must return home and die For men very commonly enter into the snare singing and consider not whither their fate leads them nor feared that then the Angel was to strike his stroak till his knees kissed the earth and his head trembles with the weight of the rod which God put into the hand of an exterminating Angel But whatsoever the ingresse was when the man feels his blood boil or his bones weary or his flesh diseased with a load of a dispersed and disordered humour or his head to ake or his faculties discomposed then he must consider that all those discourses he hath heard concerning patience and resignation and conformity to Christs sufferings and the melancholy lectures of the Crosse must all of them now be reduced to practise and passe from an ineffective contemplation to such an exercise as will really try whether we were true disciples of the Crosse or onely beleeved the doctrines of religion when we were at ease and that they never passed thorow the ear to the heart and dwelt not in our spirits But every man should consider God does nothing in vain that he would not to no purpose send us Preachers and give us rules and furnish us with discourse and lend us books and provide Sermons and make examples and promise his Spirit and describe the blessednesse of holy sufferings and prepare us with daily alarums if he did not really purpose to order our affairs so that we should need all this and use it all there were no such thing as the grace of patience if we were not to feel a sicknesse or enter into a state of sufferings whether when we are entred we are to practise by the following rules The practise and acts of patience by way of rule 1. At the first addresse and presence of sicknesse stand still and arrest thy spirit that it may without amazement or affright consider that this was that thou lookedst for and were alwayes certain should happen and that now thou art to enter into the actions of a new religion the agony of a strange constitution but at no hand suffer thy spirits to be dispersed with fear or wildnesse of thought but stay their loosenesse and dispersion by a serious consideration of the present and future imployment For so doth the Lybian Lion spying the fierce huntsman first beats himself with the stroaks of his tail and curles up his spirits making them strong with union and recollection till being strook with a Mauritanian spear he rushes forth into his defence and noblest contention and either scapes into the secrets of his own dwelling or else dies the bravest of the forrest Every man when shot with an arrow from Gods quiver must then draw in all the auxiliaries of reason and know that then is the time to try his strength and to reduce the words of his religion into action and consider that if he behaves himself weakly and timerously he suffers never the lesse of sicknesse but if he turns to health he carries along with him the mark of a coward and a fool and if he descends into his grave he enters into the state of the faithlesse and unbeleevers Let him set his heart firm upon this resolution I must bear it inevitably and I will by Gods grace do it nobly 2. Bear in thy sicknesse all along the same thoughts propositions and discourses concerning thy person thy life and death thy soul and religion which thou hadst in the best dayes of thy health and when thou didst discourse wisely concerning things spirituall For it is to be supposed and if it be not yet done let this rule remind thee of it and direct thee that thou hast cast about in thy health and considered concerning thy change and the evil day that thou must be sick and die that you must need a comforter and that it was certain thou shouldst fall into a state in which all the cords of thy anchor should be stretched and the very rock and foundation of faith should be attempted and whatsoever fancies may disturb you or whatever weaknesses may invade you yet consider when you were better able to judge and governe the accidents of your life you concluded it necessary to trust in God and possesse your souls with patience Think of things as they think that stand by you and as you did when you stood by others that it is a blessed thing to be patient that a quietnesse of spirit hath a certain reward that still there is infinite truth and reality in the promises of the Gospel that still thou art in the care of God in the condition of a son and working out thy salvation with labour and pain with fear and trembling that now the Sun is under a cloud but it still sends forth the same influence and be sure to make no new principles upon the stock of a quick and an impatient sense or too busie an apprehension keep your old principles and upon their stock discourse and practise on towards your conclusion 3. Resolve to bear your sicknesse like a child that is without considering the evils and the pains the sorrows and the danger but go straight forward and let thy thoughts cast about for nothing but how to make advantages of it by the instrument of religion He that from a high tower looks down upon the precipice and measures the space through which he must descend and considers what a huge fall he shall have shall feel more by the
he is to do is to secure his hold which he can do no way but by prayer and by his interest And by this Argument or instrument it was that Socrates refreshed the evil of his condition when he was to drink his aconite If the soul be immortall and perpetuall rewards be laid up for wise souls then I lose nothing by my death but if there be not then I lose nothing by my opinion for it supports my spirit in my passage and the evil of being deceived cannot overtake me when I have no being So it is with all that are tempted in their faith If those Articles be not true then the men are nothing if they be true then they are happy and if the Article fails there can be no punishment for beleeving but if they be true my not beleeving destroyes all my portion in them and possibility to receive the excellent things which they contain By faith we quench the fiery darts of the Devil but if our faith be quenched wherewithall shall we be able to endure the assault therefore seiz upon the Article and secure the great object and the great instrument that is the hopes of pardon and eternall life through Iesus Christ and do this by all means and by any instrument artificiall or inartificiall by argument or by stratagem by perfect resolution or by discourse by the hand and ears of premisses or the foot of the conclusion by right or by wrong because we understand it or because we love it super totam materiam because I will and because I ought because it is safe to do so and because it is not safe to do otherwise because if I do I may receive a good and because if I do not I am miserable either for that I shall have a portion of sorrows or that I can have no portion of good things SECT IV. Acts of faith by way of prayer and ejaculation to be said by sick men in the dayes of their temptation LOrd whither shall I go thou hast the words of eternall life I beleeve in God the Father Almighty and in Jesus Christ his onely Son our Lord c. And I beleeve in the Holy Ghost c. Lord I beleeve help thou mine unbelief I know and am perswaded by the Lord Jesus that none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords If God be for us who can be against us He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners O grant that I may obtain mercy that in me Jesus Christ may shew forth all long-suffering that I may beleeve in him to life everlasting I am bound to give thanks unto God alway because God hath from the beginning chosen me to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth whereunto he called me by the Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace Comfort my heart and stablish me in every good word and work The Lord direct my heart into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. O that our God would count me worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodnesse and the work of faith with power That the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in me and I in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us who are of the day be sober putting on the brest-plate of faith and love and for an helmet the hope of salvation For God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him Wherefore comfort your selves together and edifie one another There is no name under heaven whereby we can be saved but onely the Name of the Lord Jesus And every soul which will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people God forbid that I should glory save in the Crosse of Jesus Christ. I desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of But the just shall live by faith Lord I beleeve that thou art the Christ the Son of God the Saviour of the world the resurrection and the life and he that beleeveth in thee though he were dead yet shall he live Jesus said unto her Said I not to thee that if thou wouldest beleeve thou shouldst see the glory of God O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord make me stedfast and unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord For I know that my labour is not in vain in the Lord. The Prayer for the grace and strengths of faith O Holy and eternall Jesus who didst die for me and for all mankind abolishing our sin reconciling us to God adopting us into the portion of thine heritage and establishing with us a covenant of faith and obedience making our souls to rely upon spirituall strengths by the supports of a holy belief and the expectation of rare promises and the infallible truths of God O let me for ever dwell upon the rock leaning upon thy arm beleeving thy word trusting in thy promises waiting for thy mercies and doing thy commandements that the Devil may not prevail upon me and my own weaknesses may not abuse or unsettle my perswasions nor my sins discompose my just confidence in thee and thy eternall mercies Let me alwayes be thy servant and thy disciple and die in the communion of thy Church of all faithfull people Lord I renounce whatsoever is against thy truth and if secretly I have or do beleeve any false proposition I do it in the simplicity of my heart and great weaknesse and if I could
the world a longing desire after heaven patience in our sorrows comfort in our sicknesses joy in God a holy life and a blessed death that our souls may rest in hope and my body may rise in glory and both may be beatified in the communion of Saints in the kingdom of God and the glories of the Lord Jesus Amen The blessing Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great shepherd of the sheep thorough the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is pleasing in his sight to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen The doxology To the blessed and onely Potentate the King of kings and the Lord of Lords who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see be honour and power everlasting Amen After the sick man is departed the Minister if he be present or the Major dome or any other fit person may use the following prayers in behalf of themselves I. ALmighty God with whom do live the spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord we adore thy Majesty and submit to thy providence and revere thy justice and magnifie thy mercies thy infinite mercies that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world Thy counsels are secret and thy wisdom is infinite with the same hand thou hast crowned him and smitten us thou hast taken him into regions of felicity and placed him among Saints and Angels and left us to mourn for our sins and thy displeasure which thou hast signified to us by removing him from us to a better a far better place Lord turn thy anger into mercie thy chastisements into vertues thy rod into comforts and do thou give to all his neerest relatives comforts from heaven and a restitution of blessings equall to those which thou hast taken from them And we humbly beseech thee of thy gracious goodnesse shortly to satisfie the longing desires of those Holy souls who pray and wait and long for thy second coming Accomplish thou the number of thine elect and fill up the Mansions in heaven which are prepared for all them that love the coming of the Lord Jesus that we with this our Brother and all other departed this life in the obedience and faith of the Lord Jesus may have our perfect consummation and blisse in thy eternall glory which never shall have ending Grant this for Jesus Christ his sake our Lord and onely Saviour Amen II. O Mercifull God Father of our Lord Jesus who is the first fruits of the resurrection and by entring into glory hath opened the kingdom of heaven to all the beleevers we humbly beseech thee to raise us from the death of sin to the life of righteousnesse that being partakers of the death of Christ and followers of his Holy life we may be partakers of his Spirit and of his promises that when we shall depart this life we may rest in his arms and lie in his bosom as our hope is this our brother doth O suffer us not for any temptation of the world or any snares of the Devil or any pains of death to fall from thee Lord let thy H. Spirit enable us with his grace to fight a good fight with perseverance to finish our course with holiness and to keep the faith with constancie unto the end that at the day of judgement we may stand at the right hand of the throne of God and hear the blessed sentence of Come ye blessed children of my Father receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world O blessed Jesus thou art our Judge and thou art our Advocate even because thou art good and gracious never suffer us to fall into the intolerable pains of hell never to lye down in sin and never to have our portion in the everlasting burning Mercy sweet Jesu Mercy Amen A prayer to be said in the case of a sudden surprise by death as by a mortal wound or evil accidents in childebirth when the forms and solemnities of preparation cannot be used O Most gracious Father Lord of heaven and earth Judge of the living and the dead behold thy servants running to thee for pity and mercy in behalf of our selves and this thy servant whom thou hast smitten with thy hasty rod and a swift Angel if it be thy will preserve his life that there may be place for his repentance and restitution O spare him a little that he may recover his strength before he go hence and be no more seen but if thou hast otherwise decreed let the miracles of thy compassion and thy wonderfull mercy supply to him the want of the usual measures of time and the periods of repentance and the trimming of his lamp and let the greatnesse of the calamity be accepted by thee as an instrument to procure pardon for those defects and degrees of unreadiness which may have caused this accident upon thy servant Lord stirre up in him a great and effectual contrition that the greatnesse of the sorrow and hatred against sin and the zeal of his love to thee may in a short time do the work of many dayes and thou who regardest the heart and the measures of the minde more then the delay and the measures of time let it be thy pleasure to rescue the soul of thy servant from all the evils he hath deserved and all the evils that he fears that in the glorifications of eternity and the songs which to eternal ages thy Saints and holy Angels shall sing to the honour of thy mighty Name and invaluable mercies it may be reckoned among thy glories that thou hast redeemed this soul from the dangers of an eternall death and made him partaker of the gift of God eternall life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen If there be time the prayers in the foregoing offices may be added according as they can be fitted to the present circumstances SECT VIII A peroration concerning the contingencies and treatings of our departed friends after death in order to their buriall c. WHen we have received the last breath of our friend and closed his eyes and composed his body for the grave then seasonable is the counsell of the son of Syrach Weep bitterly and make great moan and use lamentation as he is worthy and that a day or two lest thou be evil spoken of and then comfort thy self for thy heavinesse But take no grief to heart for there is no turning again thou shalâ— not do him good but hurt tâ—y self Solemn and appointed mournings are good expressions of our dearnesse to the departed soul and of his worth and our value of him and it hath its praise in nature and in manners and publike customs but the praise of it is not in the Gospel that is it hath
our actions and condemning the Criminal by being Assessors in Gods Tribunal at least we shall obtain the favour of the Court. As therefore every night we must make our bed the memoriall of our grave so let our Evening thoughts be an image of the day of judgement 5. This advice was so reasonable and proper instrument of vertue that it was taught even to the Scholers of Pythagoras by their Master Let not sleep seiz upon the Regions of your senses before you have three times recalled the conversation and accidents of the day Examine what you have committed against the Divine Law what you have omitted of your duty and in what you have made use of the Divine Grace to the purposes of vertue and religion joyning the Iudge reason to the legislative mind or conscience that God may reigne there as a Law-giver and a Judge Then Christs kingdom is set up in our hearts then we alwayes live in the Eye of our Judge and live by the measures of reason religion and sober counsels The benefits we shall receive by practising this advice in order to a blessed death will also adde to the account of reason and fair inducements The Benefits of this exercise 1. By a daily examination of our actions we shall the easier cure a great sin and prevent its arrival to become habitual For to examine we suppose to be a relative duty and instrumentall to something else We examine our selves that we may finde out our failings and cure them and therefore if we use our remedy when the wound is fresh and bleeding we shall finde the cure more certain and lesse painfull For so a Taper when its crown of flames is newly blown off retains a nature so symbolical to light that it will with greedinesse reenkindle and snatch a ray from the neighbour fire So is the soul of Man when it is newly fallen into sin although God be angry with it and the state of Gods favour and its own graciousnesse is interrupted yet the habit is not naturally changed and still God leaves some roots of vertue standing and the Man is modest or apt to be made ashamed and he is not grown a bold sinner but if he sleeps on it and returns again to the same sin and by degrees growes in love with it and gets the custome and the strangenesse of it is taken away then it is his Master and is sweld into a heap and is abetted by use and corroborated by newly entertained principles and is insinuated into his Nature and hath possessed his affections and tainted the will and the understanding and by this time a man is in the state of a decaying Merchant his accounts are so great and so intricate and so much in arrear that to examine it will be but to represent the particulars of his calamity therefore they think it better to pull the napkin before their eyes then to stare upon the circumstances of their death 2. A daily or frequent examination of the parts of our life will interrupt the proceeding and hinder the journey of little sins into a heap For many dayes do not passe the best persons in which they have not many idle words or vainer thoughts to sully the fair whitenesse of their souls Some indiscreet passions or trifling purposes some impertinent discontents or unhandsome usages of their own persons or their dearest Relatives And though God is not extreme to mark what is done amisse and therefore puts these upon the accounts of his Mercy and the title of the Crosse yet in two cases these little sins combine and cluster and we know that grapes were once in so great a bunch that one cluster was the load of two men that is 1. When either we are in love with small sins or 2. When they proceed from a carelesse and incurious spirit into frequency and continuance For so the smallest atomes that dance in all the little cels of the world are so trifling and immaterial that they cannot trouble an eye nor vex the tenderest part of a wound where a barbed arrow dwelt yet when by their infinite numbers as Melissa and Parmenides affirm they danced first into order then into little bodies at last they made the matter of the world So are the little indiscretions of our life they are alwayes inconsiderable if they be considered and contemptible if they be not despised and God does not regard them if we do We may easily keep them asunder by our daily or nightly thoughts and prayers and severe sentences But even the least sand can check the tumultuous pride and become a limit to the Sea when it is in a heap and in united multitudes but if the wind scatter and divide them the little drops and the vainer froth of the water begins to invade the Strand Our sighes can scatter such little offences but then be sure to breath such accents frequently least they knot and combine and grow big as the shoar and we perish in sand in trifling instances He that despiseth little things shall perish by little and little So said the son of Sirach 3. A frequent examination of our actions will intenerate and soften our consciences so that they shall be impatient of any rudenesse or heavier load And he that is used to shrink when he is pressed with a branch of twining Osier will not willingly stand in the ruines of a house when the beam dashes upon the pavement And provided that our nice and tender spirit be not vexed into scruple nor the scruple turn into unreasonable fears nor the fears into superstition he that by any arts can make his spirit tender and apt for religious impressions hath made the fairest seat for religion and the unaptest and uneasiest entertainment for sin and eternal death in the whole world 4. A frequent examination of the smallest parts of our lives is the best instrument to make our repentance particular and a fit remedy to all the members of the whole body of sin For our examination put off to our death-bed of necessity brings us into this condition that very many thousands of our sins must be or not be at al washed off with a general repentance which the more general and indefinite it is it is ever so much the worse And if he that repents the longest and the oftnest and upon the most instances is still during his whole life but an imperfect penitent and there are very many reserves left to be wiped off by Gods mercies and to be eased by collateral assistances or to be groaned for at the terrible day of judgement it will be but a sad story to consider that the sins of a whole life or of very great portions of it shall be put upon the remedy of one examination and the advices of one discourse and the activities of a decayed body and a weak and an amazed Spirit Let us do the best we can we shall finde that the meer sins of ignorance
and unavoidable forgetfulnesse will be enough to be intrusted to such a bank and that if a general repentance will serve towards their expiation it will be an infinite mercy but we have nothing to warrant our confidence if we shall think it to be enough on our death-bed to confesse the notorious actions of our lives and to say The Lord be merciful to me for the infinite transgressions of my life which I have wilfully or carelesly forgot for very many of which the repentance the distinct particular circumstantiate repentance of a whole life would have been too little if we could have done more 5. After the enumeration of these advantanges I shall not need to adde that if we decline or refuse to call our selves frequently to account and to use daily advices concerning the state of our souls it is a very ill signe that our souls are not right with God or that they do not dwell in religion But this I shall say that they who do use this exercise frequently will make their conscience much at ease by casting out a daily load of humor and surfet the matter of diseases and the instruments of death He that does not frequently search his conscience is a house without a window and like a wilde untutored son of a fond and undiscerning widow But if this exercise seem too great a trouble and that by such advices religion will seem a burden I have two things to oppose against it 1. One is that we had better â—ear the burden of the Lord then the burden of a base and polluted conscience Religion cannot be so great a trouble as a guilty soul and whatsoever trouble can be fancied in this or any other action of religion it is onely to unexperienced persons It may be a trouble at first just as is every change and every new accident but if you do it frequently and accustom your spirit to it as the custom will make it easy so the advantages wil make it delectable that will make it facile as nature these will make it as pleasant and eligible as reward 2. The other thing I have to say is this That to examine our lives will be no trouble if we do not intricate it with businesses of the world and the Labyrinths of care and impertinent affairs A man had need have a quiet and disintangled life who comes to search into all his actions and to make judgement concerning his errors and his needs his remedies and his hopes They that have great intrigues of the world have a yoak upon their necks cannot look back and he that covets many things greedily and snatches at high things ambitiously that despises his Neighbour proudly and bears his crosses peevishly or his prosperity impotently and passionately he that is prodigal of his precious time and is tenacious and retentive of evil purposes is not a man disposed to this exercise he hath reason to be afraid of his own memory and to dash his glasse in pieces because it must needs represent to his own eyes an intolerable deformity He therefore that resolves to live well whatsoever it costs him he that will go to Heaven at any rate shall best tend this duty by neglecting the affairs of the world in all things where prudently he may But if we do otherwise we shall finde that the accounts of our death-bed and the examination made by a disturbed understanding will be very empty of comfort and full of inconveniencies 6. For hence it comes that men dye so timorously and uncomfortably as if they were forced out of their lives by the violencies of an executioner Then without much examination they remember how wickedly they have lived without religion against the laws of the covenant of grace without God in the world then they see sin goes off like an amazed wounded affrighted person from a lost battel without honour without a veil with nothing but shame sad remembrances Then they can consider that if they had lived vertuously all the trouble and objection of that would now be past and all that had remained should be peace and joy and all that good which dwells within the house of God and eternal life But now they finde they have done amisse and dealt wickedly they have no bank of good works but a huge treasure of wrath and they are going to a strange place and what shall be their lot is uncertain so they say when they would comfort and flatter themselves but in truth of religion their portion is sad and intollerable without hope and without refreshment and they must use little silly arts to make them go off from their stage of sins with some handsom circumstances of opinion They will in civility be abused that they may die quietly and go decently to their execution and leave their friends indifferently contented and apt to be comforted and by that time they are gone awhile they see that they deceived themselves all their dayes and were by others deceived at last Let us make it our own case we shall come to that state and period of condition in which we shall be infinitely comforted if we have lived well er else be amazed and go off trembling because we are guilty of heaps of unrepented and unforsaken sins It may happen we shall not then understand it so because most men of late ages have been abused with false principles and they are taught or they are willing to believe that a little thing is enough to save them and that heaven is so cheap a purchase that it will fall upon them whether they will or no. The misery of it is they will not suffer themselves to be confuted till it be too late to recant their errour In the interim they are impatient to be examined as a leper is of a comb and are greedy of the world as children of raw fruit and they hate a severe reproof as they do thorns in their beds and they love to lay aside religion as a drunken person does to forget his sorrow and all the way they dream of fine things and their dreams prove contrary and become the hieroglyphics of an eternal sorrow The daughter of Polycrates dreamed that her Father was lifted up and that Iupiter washed him and the Sun anointed him but it proved to him but a sad prosperity for after a long life of constant prosperous successes he was surprized by his enemies and hanged up till the dew of heaven wet his cheeks and the Sun melted his grease Such is the condition of those persons who living either in the despight or in the neglect of religion lye wallowing in the drunkennesse of prosperity or worldly cares they think themselves to be exalted till the evil day overtakes them and then they can expound their dream of life to end in a sad and hopelesse death I remember that Cleomenes that was called a God by the Egyptians because when he was hang'd a serpent grew out of his