sinned and he repented of it in some degree and as an instance of it made restitution of the price of blood but had not recourse by faith and Gospel repentance to that blood of atonement and therefore died as a sad instance and dreadful example of horrid dispair and indeed no sin except that one unpardonable one against the Holy Ghost is exempted from forgiveness upon a true repentance And to take away doubt in this the Scripture hath particularly mentioned the greatest sorts as actually forgiven to sincere Penitents As particularly The Blasphemies of Saul the Fornications of Magdalen the extortions of Zaccheus the Murder and uncleanness of David the drunkenness and incest of Noah and the Robberies of the Thief upon the Cross But as there may be an error on this hand so there may be and possibly is more frequently on the other hand toc in relying too confidently upon the pardoning mercy of God in Christ without those Gospel preparations of heart which will sit us to receive it And this seems to be the sin of those very confident but very much mistaken fiduciaries mentioned and reproved by our Saviour Mat. 7. 21 22 23. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Many will say unto me in that day Lord have we not Prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils and in thy name done many wonderful works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity And if they would guide themselves between presumption and despair it will behave them to take the Advice of St. Peter to Simon Magus so Acts 8. 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee He saith not and so certainly it shall be this possibly might be too confident a presumption to depend upon but if perhaps that an humble hope may be allowed to seek after The carriage of Benhahad to King Ahab may well become them The Kings of Israel are merciful Kings says he and so they The God of Israel is a merciful God this they may with fulness of Faith believe and peradventure he will save us this they may with an humble hope desire And to accommodate a little to this purpose that expression of Queen Esther They may go into the presence of God by humble supplication and prayer and say if we perish we will perish praying unto God we will perish imploring his Grace we will Perish rolling our selves upon his mercy in Christ Jesus and it is possible God may be more merciful to us then we are apt to think he will when we reflect upon the great defect of our death bed repentance The rest I shall refer to the Conduct of their spiritual guides of which number I am bound in duty to be one and shall request them often to read these seven Psalms 6 32 38 51 102 130 143. Paraphrased into Prayers by Bishop Taylour which I have provided for them at my own charge A small Treatise called The Penitent sinner provided for them by the care of the Court of Aldermen and these two Prayers the one taken out of Doctor Patricks Devout Christian the other from Bishop Taylour and with a small alteration accommodated to their condition A Prayer for condemned Malefactors written by Dr. Patrick in his Devout Christian O MOST holy and righteous judge of the whole world give us sinful and miserable wretches leave to prostrate our selves before the throne of thy Grace and to implore that mercy which we have formerly despised or abused We are not worthy we confess to lift up our eyes towards heaven and it becomes us in the greatest dejection of spirit to sigh and groan under the Load of our sins which have been so great and many so bold so presumptuous and shameles that when with an awakened mind we reflect upon them we are ready to sink into Hell and utterly despair of any mercy O God how have we hated instruction and our heart despised reproof And have not obeyed the voice of our teachers nor inclined our ear to them that admonished us How swift have our feet been to run into evil and how backward and averse have we been to any thing that is good O the injuries that we have done our neighbours the abuse of our selves and thy good creatures the prophane contempt or neglect of thee and the duties of thy worship and service * Here let them reckon up the blasphemies debaucheries and violences that they have been guilty of The remembrance of all this is dreadful the burden is intolerable How shall we appear before thee at whose rebuke the mountains quake since we cannot think of our appearance before an earthly judge without shame and affrightment of spirit O Lord work in us a greater dread of thee with a greater shame and confusion of face now that we are in thy presence For which end represent unto us essectually the wickedness the baseness and vileness of our evil doings as well as the guilt and just desert of thee O that we could hate and abhor them more than death which we expect shortly to suffer for them Bestow on us that ingenuous and godly sorrow which worketh repentance and unfeigned purposes of amendment of life If thou through thy great mercy and unexpected providence shouldest grant enlargement of it These purposes come too late indeed we may justly think to find acceptance with thee and therefore not without great fear and trembling and a great sense of our undeserving we look up unto thee acknowledging thy infinite goodness if thou wilt vouchsafe but the smallest hope of mercy Mercy mercy Good Lord cast us not quite out of thy sight for Jesus sake who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity It is the beginning of some mercy and an earnest we hope of more that thou hast made us sensible of our offences Help us to manifest our sincerity by making free and open confession of our crimes and taking the shame of them before others and by acknowledgment that we are unworthy to live and by earnest admonishments to all to be warned by our example and to cease betimes to do evil and learn to do well O that we could glorifie thee O God a little in our latter end after this manner And till we come to receive our deserved punishment help us to spend our time in bewailing our sins in humbling our selves before thee for them in setting our hearts against them in studying and admiring with the greatest affection the holy life of our Lord Jesus in calling other offenders to repentance and exhorting them thereby to give thee glory Deny us not we beseech thee the grace thus to employ our selves that we may have some tast of thy mercy and the fear of death may
the poor that are cured in the Hospital of St. Bartholomews at the time of their delivery from thence upon their knees in the Hall before the Hospitaler and two Masters of the House at the least WE magnifie and praise thee O Lord that so mercifully and favourably hast looked upon us miserable and wretched sinners which so highly have offended thy Divine Majesty that we are not worthy to be numbred among thy elect and chosen People our sins being great and grievous are daily before our eyes we lament and be sorry for them and with sorrowful heart and lamentable tears we call and cry unto thee for mercy Have mercy upon us O Lord have mercy upon us 〈…〉 d according to thy great mercy 〈…〉 way the multitude of our sins and grant us now O Lord thy most holy and working Spirit that setting aside all vice and idleness we may in thy fear walk and go forward in all vertue and godliness And for that thou hast moved O Lord the hearts of Godly men and the Governours of this House to shew their exceeding charity towards us in curing of our maladies and diseases we yield most humble and hearty thanks to thy Majesty and shall incessantly laud and praise thy most holy and glorious name Beseeching thee most gracious and merciful Lord according to thy holy word and promise so to bless this thine own dwelling House and the Faithful Ministers thereof that there be here found no lack but that their riches and substance may encrease that thy holy name may thereby be the more praised and glorified to whom be all laud honour and glory world without end Amen CHAP. VII Instructions for those that have been restored to their senses in the Hospital of Bethleem IT hath been already observed in this small Treatise to the great Glory of this City that there is scarce any infirmity to which humane nature is liable but some Provision hath been made against it by the generous charity of the Honourable and Worshipful Patriots thereof and as in other Hospitals this hath been manifested so also it is very demonstrable from the worthy intents of this charitable foundation where very ample provision is made for Physick and Lodging and attendance and all other things requisite for the cure and welfare of those miserable people that are crazed in their brains To the Governours of this place there is no need to address any advice Their worthy performances supply abundant matter for praise and leave no room for further directions to do any thing more then they do already The Poor people under cure are not capable of it for it would be a piece of madness to direct advice to such as are under actual phrensy and so are not capable of it The only men therefore to whom applications of this nature must be made must be such as have received cure in this House and by that means have been restored to the enjoyment of heir senses and use of their reason To these My first direction shall be that they would endeavour to be thankful to God for so great a mercy We usually value mercies by the want of them as those that have been sick know how to put an estimate upon health those that have been confined upon Liberty and those that have been exercised with any other affliction know how to prize those enjoyments which others have and undervalue for the commonness of them and therefore if any know how to put a due esteem upon this great mercy the undisturbed use of their sense and reason these men do Those that are under the care and Provision of other Hospitals are not half so miserable as they lately were Christ-Church is a receptacle of poor mens Children but poverty though a great misery is not wholly without relief and remedy if men have the use of their sense and reason whereby to learn and practise honest and ingenuous arts for their relief and maintenance In St. Bartholomews and St. Thomas's there are lame and decrepit and infirm People exercised with diverse pains but seeing their distemper doth not touch their brain they can enjoy the sweet and delightful converse of Friends and acquaintance and communicate pleasant and useful discourse with them and both the former and the latter of these have opportunities for the working out their Salvation with fear and trembling But the Patients of Bethleem want all this if they be poor they want the use of reason to attend upon a beneficial calling and if surrounded with a multitude of Friends they are not bettered by their converse as not understanding what they say or what they do but if they have been addicted to any course of mortal sin they are as it were locked up under a state of impenitence having not sense to apprehend the error of their former ways nor reason to direct them how to return to the wisdom of the just But by being restored to their senses they are restored to all these advantages They are better enabled to maintain their charge better enabled to enjoy their Friends better enabled to serve their God And as it is a complicated mercy so it deserves a complicated thankfulness And they that are restored to their senses ought to return a several acknowledgment to the Divine goodness as for the fundamental mercy it self so for all those that are contained in it Men are Instruments in the hand of God and as such there is due to them a gratitude proportionable to their care over them but God is the principal agent and therefore he may claim their highest praise and adoration Secondly My second exhortation to those that have a happy cure in this Hospital is to take care of those sinful passions that heretofore have either caused or hastened their former distraction upon them For seldom it is that a man of a sedate temper or a quiet mind or of moderate propensions or that hath bounded his desires within the limits of reason and Religion that arrives at these phrensies which have their cure in this House But usually some inordinate passion transports us first beyond our duty and then beyond our wits Some are vain glorious and because they meet with scorn where they looked for respect it is a disturbance first to their thoughts then to the very constitution of their brain and then perverts their senses some guide their Love more by fancy then by reason not regarding the consent of Parents nor approbation of Friends nor any of those circumstances which a wise man ought to consider and that passion which was but the issue of an unreasonable lust concludes at last in a more unreasonable phrensy And some disturb their minds with unreasonable scruples and Religion which hath a natural tendency to compose mens Spirits disturbs theirs My advice to all such is that when they are restored to their senses they would correct their passions by reason and Religion and they will find the benefit of it in the
they shall give a very dreadful account for all those mercies that they have abused here and therefore very little reason have they that are righteous to murmur at those afflictions which shall so soon end or to envy to the wicked those mercies for which they must give so sad a reckoning Secondly When good men suffer under that Imprisonment which is the result rather of their misfortune then their 〈◊〉 they have little reason to complain as if they suffered more then they did deserve for how innocent soever we may be before men there is no man but is guilty before God He that punisheth a man of upright intentions and just purposes meerly because he cannot pay the Debt which he hath contracted and which he desires if he could to satisfie is cruel and unmerciful and as he hath shown Iudgment without mercy so there is a time coming wherein he shall want the mercy himself which he denied to others and as he hath shown no mercy to others so in his Case also mercy shall rejoyce against Iudgment St. Iam. 2. 13. But whatsoever may be said of the prosecutor God is not unjust to punish those that are sinners against him by the hands of those that are more sinful then themselves nay very frequent it is for God to correct the sins of those that belong to him by the hands of those that are more unrighteous than they Thus the sins of Israel are punished by the Caldeans of David by Saul of Ioseph by his wicked Brethren and in these cases they that afflict shall bear their sin because they have used severity to those that have not deserved it at their hands but those that are afflicted have no reason to repine at the Justice of God as if he were unrighteous to make use of wicked men as his Rod and his Scourge and the Instruments of his displeasure against them for their particular transgressions committed against him Thirdly Another consideration to allay the impatience of such mens spirits may be this that those very miseries which they groan under are sent by God with designs of love and mercy the afflictions of their Bodies are sent as Physick to their Souls and the sufferings of one as improvements of the other To this import are those many assertions in Scripture that all things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8. 28. That our light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. and while our outward man perisheth our inward man is renewed day by day ver 16. of the same Chapter And therefore it would be spiritual prudence to convert our murmurings into spiritual cautions and holy diligence how we may improve all our sufferings to so great and to so spiritual purposes which if we should do we shall have no reason to grieve that we have suffered so much but much reason to rejoyce that these our sufferings have proved unto us so happy an opportunity of enhancing our Crown of glory Thirdly A third duty which I shall direct such Prisoners to is to pray to God for an happy deliverance out of their troubles but with the reserve of a quiet submission unto his Will if he shall see the continuance under their afflictions more fit for them Both parts of this duty are recommended in the example of our Saviour before cited When he was to dye he prayed for the averting of that bitter Cup but when he perceived that God had determined otherwise concerning it he declares his desire to submit rather to the Will of God than choose his own Prayer is a proper remedy against all sorts of afflictions If any man be afflicted let him pray James 5. 13. and as God hath made it our duty to pray so he hath made it his particular style that he is a God learning prayer And if he be attentive to any prayers more than others he is so to the prayers of the afflicted This is more than once asserted in the 102. Psalm He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer ver 17. He hath looked down from the height of his Sanctuary from Heaven did the Lord behold the Earth to hear the groanings of the Prisoners to loose those that are appointed to dye ver 19. 20. Our poverty is the time of our destitution from men and though the rich hath many friends the poor is forsaken of his Neighbours but that which discommends us to men most potently recommends us to God who in divers places of Scripture hath made it his most peculiar stile that he is a Father to the Fatherless a Husband to the Widow adjutor in opportunitatibus a ready help in time of trouble and therefore it is not only our duty that we should but our priviledge and advantage that we may cast our care upon him who careth for us 1 Pet. 5. 7. Among all these duties it is not only allowable but very commendable for those that are Prisoners to endeavour their liberty by all just and prudent methods such as are receiving such supplies as they can get from their more wealthy friends accepting of such contributions as they may have from the charity of merciful and well minded men the offering of such compositions as the meanness of their circumstances will enable them to make and such honest methods as these For our endeavours are very consistent with Gods Providence and our diligence with his blessing and so far is our dependence upon God from discouraging our industry that it is rather proper to promote it for God hears not the prayers of the Lazy but sends an answer to our Petitions in his blessing upon our Diligence But above all things we must be careful that our streights prove not our temptations that our trouble put us not upon any indirect courses to deliver us from it for he that thus endeavours to draw his foot out of the snare doth but by fluttering intangle himself the faster and change not his trouble but his Prosecutour and as man hath been his adversary hitherto so makes God to be so for the time to come and discharges himself from the first rank of men to whom I designed these directions and hath placed himself into the second that of ungodly Debtors And so men may be upon a double account either First with reference to the beginning of their troubles when they fall into these streights by their own profuseness or prodigality or Luxury or negligence or ill husbandry or secondly with reference to the means that they use to extricate themselves out of their troubles as fraudulent compositions or unrighteous arts or unjust concealment of that estate with which they might pay their Debts or any other such ungodly Methods as these The Directions suitable to such as these may be First That they would not appropriate to themselves any of those promises which the Scripture give
order to this their reclaim they would take occasion from that degree of Punishment which at present they endure to reflect seriously upon those several evils and inconveniencies which by the just Judgment of God attend upon sin even in this life And for this meditation they may find abundance of matter supplyed by observing the circumstances of their present condition They are in restraint and other men enjoy their liberty and so might they have done too if they had used their liberty more soberly they are exposed to scorn and contempt disgrace and obloquy while other men live in Credit and repute among their neighbours and thus they might have lived too if they had sought the praise of God and man by a Faithful continuance in well doing They are employed at hard drudgery and severe Labour under their fierce and Aegyptian Task-masters while others follow their callings with mirth and cheerfulness maintain their Families by a prudent and moderate industry take paines in an honest way but are forced to take no more then the conveniency of their concerns engages them to and what is the condition of other men might have been theirs if they had so pleased themselves but because they refused an honest labour they are brought now to this forced and constrained drudgery Surely no way is so foolish as the path of iniquity and no Fool so unwise as the sinner is He loses his ends by those very methods whereby he pursues them and runs upon mischief by those very ways by which he seeks to avoid it the pride of his heart made him ungovernable and in Bridewel he finds a severe check for his pride He hated labour and there he finds a drudgery more toilsome than any of those labours that industrious men are usually engaged in he was of a gadding and a vagrant humour but there he hath a close restraint he loved sloth and pleasure but there he wants both and instead of them meets with the Lash and the working-house to correct the riot and laziness of his former conversation It is possible that sinners when they are under the smart may murmur at God and his providence towards them in all this but if they will but seriously consider the tendency of things they will have reason to acknowledge that what they call severity is the greatest mercy imaginable for it is much for our interest that sin should be made uneasie to us that the Paths of it should be hedged with Thorns and that sinners should meet with rubbs and blocks in their way for fear the pleasure of sin should prove a bate to them to tempt them to swallow the hook more glibly and the more uninterruptedly to pursue those ways the end of which will be destruction and perdition at that dreadful day of judgment when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels In flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1. 9. And this brings me to another direction suitable to the condition of those that are concerned in the Meditations of this Chapter and that is Thirdly When these offenders have in their most retired thoughts considered the several inconveniencies which attend sin and sinners in this life it would be a very useful instance of spiritual wisdom in them to carry their thoughts further to those punishments which are due to it in the world to come Suitable in this case is the counsel of our Saviour to the impotent man whom he found and healed at the Pool of Bethesdah sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee S. John 5. 14. For although heavy are those afflictions which they are under already more heavy are those which they may still expect unless the grace of God and a timely repentance prevent both in this world and in the next grievous it is for men to consider that they are slighted by their friends that their kindred and acquaintance forsake them that they are accounted and that justly the fiâ—th and off-scouring of the world but more grievous is it for them to think that they are rejected of God accounted by him as reprobate Silver Vessels in which there is no pleasure Vessels of dishonour here hereafter likely to be Vessels of wrath and indignation Now at present accursed children without Christ aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel strangers from the Covenants of promise Without hope without God in the world hereafter like to be of the number of those Goats which shall be cast to Christs left hand those tares whose end shall be to be burned those unprofitable Servants whose lot it shall be to be cast into utter darkness and whose dreadful sentence that shall be which our Saviour mentions St. Mat. 25. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devils and his Angels Shame is burdensome to an ingenious spirit and God hath planted a keen and quick sense of it in our natures for this very purpose that it may be a check to sin and a present punishment to those that do things deserving shame and however mildly men or women may be used when they come to Bridewel yet a punishment it is barely to be sent thither in that it brings a blot to their Name and a stain to their reputation and will be a note of infamy upon them even after they are delivered from that place Now if shame be grievous as indeed it is there is another shame and a more lasting one attends the wicked after they are delivered from this For as the righteous shall go into everlasting glory so also the wicked shall go into a place of shame and everlasting contempt Dan. 12. 2. Here only our grosser actions and such are scandalous are exposed there our very secret thoughts Here the greater miscarriages of our lives there the naughtiness of our hearts Here men only and usually but few are spectators of our infamy and disgrace but there we shall be made in a worse sense then that in which the Apostle spoke it Aspectacle to the world and to Angels and men Even God himself the God of mercy and all consolations shall laugh then at their destructions The Good Angels who rejoyce in Heaven at the Conversion of one sinner that repenteth shall shout at the ruine of those transgressours against their own souls and the Devils who were their tempters to sin here shall be their tormentours for it there and all mankind shall behold their shame and none shall endeavour to cover it none shall pity it But if the sense of shame be but a weak argument to those that have cast off all shame let them consider that that is a place of pain too If fire be tormenting there they shall converse with everlasting burnings if the gnawing of a Viper in
a brand in the hand some the lash and publick whippings but those are violations of the Eighth Commandment and both of them place men in the Number of those Thieves of whom St. Paul hath said expresly that they shall not enter into the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 10. He that shall kill a man in his heat and passion is counted here not guilty of Murder but Manflaughter but both these are violations of the sixth Commandment and both make us liable to the judgment to come Nay more that very passion which we make the alleviation of our crimes here is counted Murder in the the sight of God For so our Saviour expresly asserts Math. 5. 21. 22. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say unto his Brother Racha shall be in danger of the Councel but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of Hell-fire Where we see different degrees of causeless anger have different degrees of punishment but all of them are violations of that Commandment Thou shalt do no murder and all punishable more or less in the judgment to come And as for those that are acquitted here let them examine whether they are clear before God and if of that crime whether of others as great perchance and as crying in the account of God And to them who escape with life and liberty as well as to others is appliable that of our Saviour unless ye repent ye shall all likewise perish My second exhortation to such is that for the time to come they would endeavour to live without offence in the sight of God and man New mercies require new acknowledgments and we have no way of shewing our gratitude to God but by doing things that are pleasing in his sight God hath granted them life let them improve it to his honour they have had the pardon of the King let them seek forgiveness of God also they have dishonoured themselves and their profession let them endeavour to adorn the Gospel for the time to come by a more spotless conversation Let them heartily repent of all their publick and private crimes against God and against men that when they come to dye they may be fitter to dye than they were when they were Tried for their Lives and for this among other things let them pray in this or such like address to God A PRAYER O LORD our God we acknowledge before thee our manifold transgressions the sins of our hearts the sins of our Lips the sins of our Lives our unclean thoughts our filthy discourses all our unrighteous actions we are here Prisoners in one place but very different is the Lot which thy Providence hath assigned to us such of us O Lord whose days thou hast measured out to the oppressour give us grace to repent of those sins which have caused this punishment and the less mercy we find with men the more let us find with God As many of us as have found thy mercy in our Lives and Liberties give us grace to be sensible of thy mercies and to live closer with our God who hath delivered our feet from falling and our soul from the snare and our life from the Grave Let the shame we endure make us truly sensible of those sins that have caused it and however we have had disgrace here let us not be confounded when we stand in judgment make us mindful of thy eternal judgment and prepare us for it that when we come to die we may be fitter to die and fitter to give an account to God Lead us O Lord by thy councel guide us by thy grace give repentance and pardon here and bring us to thy glory hereafter through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ In whose c. CHAP. IV. Considerations suited to the condition of Malefactors as are actually under the sentence of condemnation for death WHat hath been already written in this discourse is designed to prevent if possible mens wretched arrival at the height of wickedness and by such considerations as the nature of the subject would suggest to stop their carier in wickedness before they proceed from lesser crimes to those that are Capital But there always was and always will be a generation â—f men that are reprobates to every good work that have their consciences seared with a hot Iron that turn a deaf ear against all good Counsel and harden their hearts against all good advice and as for these seeing milder Methods will do no good upon them necessity enforces to practice those that are more severe God says nay which is more swears that he does not delight in the death of a sinner but that he should turn from his wicked way and live but yet it is consistent both with his Justice and mercy to make death the Portion of such as by their wickedness pursue it and to make Perdition the inheritance of those that by the obstinacy and perverseness of their way unavoidably run upon it And the same method is very consistent with the rules of Justice and mercy among men Nay very often it is that severity upon offenders is mercy to the innocent and compassion to the wicked is cruelty to the just for the slackening of Justice encreases the number of Malefactors and if severe laws were not made and executed against Malefactors honest men would not be safe but the Nation would be soon overrun with Robbers and Murderers and all sorts of evil doers for as Solomon observed long ago Because Sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore it is that the heart of the Sons of men is thoroughly set in them to do evil Eccl. 8. 11. Righteous therefore and just it is that the wages of sin should be death death eternal by the Law of God and death temporal by the Laws of God and man but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord But to what acts of Faith and repentance to direct the Malefactor that he may lay hold of that eternal life will require much Spiritual skill and prudence The Right Reverend Bishop Taylour and the Learned Doctor Hammond and some others have written diverse things very accurately towards the Lessening of that esteem which some men have of the efficacy of a death-bed repentance If I should here lay down their opinions in express terms as they have delivered them in all probability I should drive those whom I now write to into utter despair but if I should endeavour to assert and maintain the contrary those surriving Malefactors into whose hands this Book shall come would in all likelyhood make use of it as a further encouragement to delay their repentance to the hour of death Seeing therefore it is hard to Minister to the comfort of some without giving occasion to the Presumption of others I
be abated by some hope that when our soul shall be parted from the body it may be received into everlasting mansions through Jesus Christ our Lord In whose name and words c. A Prayer for Penitents by Bishop Taylour SON of David Blessed Redeemer Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world have mercy upon us O Jesu be a Jesus unto us thou that sparedst thy servant Peter that denied thee thrice thou that didst cast seven Devils out of Mary Magdalene and forgavest the woman taken in adultery and didst bear the convert Thief from the Cross to the joys of Paradise have mercy upon us also for although we have amassed together more sins than all these in conjunction yet not their sins nor ours nor the sins of all the world can equal thy glorious mercy which is as infinite and eternal as thy self We acknowledge O Lord that we are vile but yet redeemed with thy precious blood we are blind but thou art the light of the world we are weak but thou art our strong Rock we have been dead in trespasses and sins but thou art our resurrection and our life Thou O Lord lovest to shew mercy and the expressions of thy mercy the nearer they come to infinite the more proportionable they are to thy essence and like thy self Behold then O Lord fit objects for thy pity Our sins are so great and many that to forgive us will be an act of glorious mercy and all the praises which did accrue to thy name by the forgiveness of David and Manasses and St. Paul and the adulteress and the Thief and the Publican will be multiplied to thy honour in the forgiveness of us so vile so unworthy wretches that we have nothing to say for our selves but that the greatness of our miseries are fit objects for thy miraculous and infinite mercy Despise us not O Lord for we are thy creatures despise us not for thou didst die for us cast us not away in thine anger for thou camest to seek us and to save us Prepare us for death and take away the bitterness of it Pardon our sins and purge us from them first of thy Grace make us fit for the inheritance of the Saints in Light and then bring us to it for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ In whose name c. CHAP. V. Instructions suited to the Condition of those who have their Education in the Hospital of Christ Church HItherto I have discoursed such things as I thought proper for the Instruction of Prisoners and among those the worst of them Malefactors and if I had consulted the order of Dignity I should have placed these last but I purposed in this discourse to pursue the rules not of honour but of Christian Charity and therefore have allotted the greatest share of my directions to those that most need it the greatest offenders herein following the example of my Saviour who bestowed a great part of his time and pains upon Publicans and sinners and came with a design not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance I proceed now to such as may be supposed to be of a more teachable temper more succeptive of instruction and have more opportunities for it as living under a strict Discipline and under the happy opportunities of a very advantagious education in the Hospital and School of Christ Church And here before I proceed any farther it will not be improper thankfully to take notice of the goodness of God towards this City in that he hath from time to time raised up so many generous Spirits among us and enclined them to such noble instances of Christian Charity For there is scarse any necessity that humane nature is lyable to but here Provision is made for the relief of it If men be infirm in their senses and disturbed in their brains there is provision for them in the Hospital of Bethlehem If weak and infirm in their Limbs or wounded in St. Bartholomews and if Children be Fatherless or which is the next degree of misery to it discended of such Parents as have not where withal to bring them up they are cloathed and fed and Educated in Christ-Church an Hospital erected by King Edward the sixth a Protestant Prince to the confutation of that Vulgar calumny then and still common among the Papists that men of our Religion have renounced not only the merit but also the practice of good works and as this Hospital is of Royal extraction so is it of Honourable Government The Governours of it being always some of the most Eminent Senators and Commonours of London and in the House they have all things necessary for the feeding and cloathing and lodging and instructing of those Children Male or Female that are under their care and therefore to those that are here Educated My first Direction shall be to be thankful to God who hath so plentifully provided for them There is a gracious promise in the Psalmist When my Father and Mother forsake me the Lord taketh me up Psal 27. 10 and again to the same import Psalm 146. 9. the Lord careth for the strangers he helpeth the Fatherless And again Psal 147. He feedeth the young Ravens when they call upon him the observation is common out of Plin. 10. 12. and Aristo Hist Animal 6. 6. that of all other Birds the Ravens are observed soonest to forsake their young ones and therefore by an argument à majori ad minus If God so sufficiently provide for the young Ravens when the dams forsake them much more will he provide for us who stampt with his Image are much more valuable then many Ravens when our Parents either through want cannot or through unnaturalness will not maintain us Of this providence of God towards such helpless Children there are diverse instances in profane stories that famous one of Cyrus exposed by his own relations and by a wonderful providence nourished by strangers Of Romulus and Remus deserted by their Parents and nursed by a Wolf and harboured by a Shepherd Or if the credit of these relations be as suspected as the Faithfulness of their first reports There are instances in sacred writ to prove his Faithfulness to the abovementioned promise and that when Parents have forsaken Children he hath taken them up When Ishmaels Mother despairing of his life had forsaken him and laid him gasping his last for ought she knew or could do to help it in the Wilderness the Lord took him up He opened a new Spring of Water and opened her eyes to see it and so the Child was preserved Gen. 21. 19. When Moses his Parents also had forsaken him for they durst not stand by him any longer and laid him down among the rushy flags the Lord took him up He provided him of a Saviour the Kings own Daughter and of a Nurse the Child 's own Mother and so he was preserved too But to the Children here maintained I need not multiply instances of