took so goodly a revenge upon the river Cyndus for his hard passage over it or did not deride or pity the Thracians for shooting arrowes against heaven when it thunders To be angry with God to quarrell with the Divine providence by repining against an unalterable a naturall an easie sentence is an argument of a huge folly and the parent of a great trouble as man is base and foolish to no purpose he throwes away a vice to his own misery and to no advantages of ease and pleasure Fear keeps men in bondage all their life saith Saint Paul and patience makes him his own man and lord of his own interest and person Therefore possesse your selves in patience with reason and religion and you shall die with ease If all the parts of this discourse be true if they be better then dreams and unlesse vertue be nothing but words as a grove is a heap of trees if they be not the Phantasmes of hypochondriacall persons and designes upon the interest of men and their perswasions to evil purposes then there is no reason but that we should really desire death and account it among the good things of God and the sowre and laborious felicities of man S. Paul understood it well when he desired to be dissolved he well enough knew his own advantages and pursued them accordingly But it is certain that he that is afraid of death I mean with a violent and transporting fear with a fear apt to discompose his duty or his patience that man either loves this world too much or dares not trust God for the next SECT IX General rules and exercises whereby our sicknesse may become safe and sanctified 1. TAke care that the cause of thy sicknesse be such as may not sowre it in the principle and original causes of it It a sad calamity to passe into the house of mourning through the gates of intemperance by a drunken meeting or the surfets of a loathed and luxurious Table for then a man suffers the pain of his own â—olly and he is like a fool smarting under the whip which his own vitiousnesse twisted for his back then a man payes the price of his sin and hath a pure and an unmingled sorrow in his suffering and it cannot be alleviated by any circumstances for the whole affair is a meere processe of death and sorrow Sin is in the head sicknesse is in the body and death and an eternity of pains in the tail and nothing can make this condition intolerable unlesse the miracles of the Divine mercy will be pleased to exchange the eternal anger for the temporal True it is that in all sufferings the cause of it makes it noble or ignoble honour or shame tolerable or intolerable For when patience is assaulted by a ruder violence and by a blow from heaven or earth from a gracious God or an unjust man patience looks forth to the doors which way she may escape and if innocence or a cause of religion keep the first entrance then whether she escapes at the gates of life or death there is a good to be received greater then the evils of a sicknesse but if sin thrust in that sicknesse and that hell stands at the door then patience turns into fury and seeing it impossible to go forth with safety rouls up and down with a circular and infinite revolution making its motion not from but upon its own centre it doubles the pain and increases the sorrow till by its weight it breaks the spirit and bursts into the agonies of infinite and eternal ages If we had seen S. Policarp burning to death or S. Laurence rosted upon his gridiron or S. Ignatius exposed to lions or S. Sebastion pierced with arrowes or S. Attalus carried about the theatre with scorn unto his death for the cause of Jesus for religion for God and a holy conscience we should have been in love with flames and have thought the gridiron fairer then the spondae the ribs of a maritall bed and we should have chosen to converse with those beasts rather then those men that brought those beasts forth and estimated the arrows to be the rayes of light brighter then the moon and that disgrace and mistaken pageantry were a solemnity richer and more magficent then Mordecai's procession upon the Kings horse and in the robes of majesty for so did these holy men account them they kissed their stakes and hugged their deaths and ran violently to torments and counted whippings and secular disgraces to be the enamel of their persons and the ointment of their heads and the embalming their names and securing them for immortality But to see Sejanus torne in pieces by the people or Nero crying or creeping timorously to his death when he was condemned to dye more majorum to see Iudas pale and trembling full of anguish sorrow and despair to observe the groanings and intolerable agonies of Herod and Antiochus will tell and demonstrate the causes of patience and impatience to proceed from the causes of the suffering and it is sin onely that makes the cup bitter and deadly when men by vomiting measure up the drink they took in and sick and sad do again taste their meat turned into choler by intemperance the sin and its punishment are mingled so that shame covers the face and sorrow puts a veil of darknesse upon the heart and we scarce pity a vile person that is haled to execution for murder or for treason but we say he deserves it and that every man is concerned in it that he should dye If lust brought the sicknesse or the shame if we truly suffer the reward of our evil deeds we must thank our selves that is we are fallen into an evil condition and are the sacrifice of the Divine justice But if we live holy lives and if we enter well in we are sure to passe on safe and to goe forth with advantage if we list our selves 2. To this relates that we should not counterfeit sicknesse For he that is to be carefull of his passage into a sicknesse will think himself concerned that he fall not into it through a trap door for so it hath sometimes happened that such counterfeiting to light and evil purposes hath ended in a real sufferance Appian tells of a Roman Gentleman who to escape the proscription of the Triumvirate fled and to secure his privacy counterfeited himself blinde on one eye and wore a plaister upon it till beginning to be free from the malice of the three prevailing princes he opened his hood but could not open his eye but for ever lost the use of it and with his eye paid for his libertie and hypocrisie And Celius counterfeited the gout and all its circumstances and pains its dressings and arts of remedy and complaint till at last the gout really entred and spoiled the pageantry His arts of dissimulation were so witty that they put life and motion into the very
God will give thee to exercise any vertue to do him any service or thy self any advantage be careful that thou losest not this for to eternal ages this never shall return again 9. Or if thou peradventure shalt be restored to health be carefull that in the day of thy thanksgiving thou mayest not be ashamed of thy self for having behaved thy self poorly and weakly upon thy bed it will be a sensible and excellent comfort to thee and double upon thy spirit if when thou shalt worship God for restoring thee thou shalt also remember that thou didst do him service in thy suffering and tell that God was hugely gracious to thee in giving thee the opportunity of a vertue at so easie a rate as a sicknesse from which thou didst recover 10. Few men are so sick but they believe that they may recover and we shal seldom see a man lie down with a perfect persuasion that it is his last hour for many men have been sicker and yet have recovered but whether thou doest or no thou hast a vertue to exerâ—ise which may be a handmaid to thy patience Epaphroditus was sick sick unto death and yet God had mercy upon him and he hath done so to thousands to whom he found it useful in the great order of things and the events of universal providence If therefore thou desirest to recover here is cause enough of hope and hope is designed in the arts of God and of the Spirit to support patience But if thou recoverest not yet there is something that is matter of joy naturally and very much Spiritually if thou belongest to God and joy is as certain a support to patience as hope and it is no small cause of being pleased when we remember that if we recover not our sicknesse shall the sooner sit down in rest and joy For recovery by death as it is easier and better then the recovery by a sickly health so it is not so long in doing it suffers not the tediousnesse of a creeping restitution nor the inconvenience of Surgeons and Physitians watchfulnesse and care keepings in and suffering trouble fears of relapse and the little reliques of a storm 11. While we hear or use or think of these remedies part of the sicknesse is gone away and all of it is passing And if by such instruments we stand armed and ready dressed before hand we shall avoid the mischiefs of amazements and surprize while the accidents of sicknesse are such as were expected and against which we stood in readinesse with our spirits contracted instructed and put upon the defensive 12 But our patience will be the better secured if we consider that it is not violently tempted by the usual arrests of sicknesse for patience is with reason demanded while the sicknesse is tolerable that is so long as the evil is not too great but if it be also eligible and have in it some degrees of good our patience will have in it the lesse difficulty and the greater necessity This therefore will be a new stock of consideration Sicknesse is in many degrees eligible to many men and to many purposes SECT VI. Advantages of Sicknesse 1. I Consider one of the great felicities of heaven consists in an immunity from sin then we shall love God without mixtures of malice then we shall enjoy without envy then we shall see fuller vessels running over with glory and crowned with bigger circles and this we shall behold without spilling from our eyes those vessels of joy and grief any signe of anger trouble or a repining spirit our passions shall be pure our charity without fear our desire without lust our possessions all our own and all in the inheritance of Jesus in the richest soil of Gods eternall kingdom Now half of this reason which makes heaven so happy by being innocent is also in the state of sicknesse making the furrows of old age smooth and the groans of a sick heart apt to be joyned to the musick of Angels and though they sound harsh to our untuned ears and discomposed Organs yet those accents must needs be in themselves excellent which God loves to hear and esteems them as prayers and arguments of pity instruments of mercie and grace and preparatives to glory In sicknesse the soul begins to dresse her self for immortality and first she unties the strings of vanity that made her upper garment cleave to the world and sit uneasily First she puts off the light and phantastic summer robe of lust and wanton appetite and as soon as that Cestus that lascivious girdle is thrown away then the reins chasten us and give us warning in the night then that which called us formerly to serve the manlinesse of the body and the childishnesse of the soul keeps us waking to divide the hours with the intervals of prayer and to number the minutes with our penitential groans Then the flesh sits uneasily and dwells in sorrow and then the spirit feels it self at ease freed from the petulant sollicitations of those passions which in health were as buisie and as restlesse as atomes in the sun alwayes dancing and alwayes busie and never sitting down till a sad night of grief and uneasinesse draws the vail and lets them dye alone in seâ—ret dishonour 2. Next to this the soul by the help of sicknesse knocks off the fetters of pride and vainer complacencies Then she drawes the curtains and stops the lights from coming in and takes the pictures down those phantastic images of self-love and gay remembrances of vain opinion and popular noises Then the Spirit stoops into the sobrieties of humble thoughts and feels corruption chiding the forwardnesse of fancy and allaying the vapours of conceit and factious opinions For humility is the souls grave into which he enters not to die but to meditate and iâ— terre some of its troublesome appendages There she sees the dust and feels the dishonours of the body and reads the Register of all its sad adherencies and then she layes by all her vain reflexions beating upon her Chrystall and pure mirrour from the fancies of strength and beauty little decayed prettinesses of the body And when in sicknesse we forget all our knotty discourses of Philosophy and a Syllogisme makes our head ake and we feel our many and loud talkings served no lasting end of the soul no purpose that now we must abide by and that the body is like to descend to the land where all things are forgotten then she layes aside all her remembrances of applauses all her ignorant confidences and cares onely to know Christ Iesus and him crucified to know him plainly and with much heartinesse and simplicity And I cannot think this to be a contemptible advantage for ever since man tempted himself by his impatient desires of knowing and being as God Man thinks it the finest thing in the world to know much and therefore is hugely apt to esteem himself better then his brethren if he knowes some
the Holy Ghost and Adoption and the inheritance of sons and to be coheirs with Jesus and to have pardon of our sins and a divine nature and restraining grace and the grace of sanctification and a rest and peace within us and a certain expectation of glory * who can choose but love him who when we had provoked him exceedingly sent his Son to die for us that we might live with him who does so desire to pardon us and save us that he hath appointed his Holy Son continually to intercede for us * That his love is so great that he offers us great kindnesse and intreats us to be happy and makes many decrees in heaven concerning the interest of our soul and the very provision and support of our persons * That he sends an Angel to attend upon every of his servants and to be their guard and their guide in all their dangers and hostilities * That for our sakes he restrains the Devil and puts his mightinesse in fetters and restraints and chastises his malice with decrees of grace and safety * That he it is who makes all the creatures serve us and takes care of our sleeps and preserves all plants and elements all mineralls and vegetables all beasts and birds all fishes and insects for food to us and for ornament for physick and instruction for variety and wonder for delight and for religion * That as God is all good in himself and all good to us so sin is directly contrary to God to reason to religion to safety and pleasure and felicity * That it is a great dishonour to a mans spirit to have been made a fool by a weak temptation and an empty lust and to have rejected God who is so rich so wise so good and so excellent so delicious and so profitable to us * That all the repentance in the world of excellent men does end in contrition or a sorrow for sins proceeding from the love of God because they that are in the state of grace do not fear hell violently and so long as they remain in Gods favour although they suffer the infirmities of men yet they are Gods portion and therefore all the repentance of just and holy men which is certainly the best is a repentance not for lower ends but because they are the friends of God and they are full of indignation that they have done an act against the honour of their Patron and their dearest Lord and Father * That it is a huge imperfection and a state of weaknesse to need to be moved with fear or temporall respects and they that are so as yet are either immerged in the affections of the world or of themselves and those men that bear such a character are not yet esteemed laudable persons or men of good natures or the sons of vertue * That no repentance can be lasting that relies upon any thing but the love of God for temporal motives may cease and contrary contingencies may arise and fear of hell may be expelled by natural or acquired hardnesses and is alwayes the least when we have most need of it and most cause for it for the more habitual our sins are the more cauterized our conscience is the lesse is the fear of hell and yet our danger is much the greater * that although fear of hell or other temporal motives may be the first inlet to a repentance yet repentance in that constitution and under those circumstances cannot obtain pardon because there is in that no union with God no adhesion to Christ no endeerment of passion or of spirit no similitude or conformity to the great instrument of our peace our glorious Mediatour for as yet a man is turned from his sin but not converted to God the first and last of our returns to God being love and nothing but love for obedience is the first part of love and fruition is the last and because he that does not love God cannot obey him therefore he that does not love him cannot enjoy him Now that this may he reduced to practise the sick man may be advertised that in the actions of repentance * he separate low temporal sensual and self ends from his thoughts and so do his repentance * that he may still reflect honour upon God * that he confesse his justice in punishing that he acknowledge himself to have deserved the worst of evils * that he heartily believe and professe that if he perish finally yet that God ought to be glorified by that sad event and that he hath truly merited so intolerable a calamity * that he also be put to make acts of election and preference professing that he would willingly endure all temporal evils rather then be in the disfavour of God or in the state of sin for by this last instance he will be quitted from the suspicion of leaving sin for temporal respects because he by an act of imagination or fained presence of the object to him entertains the temporal evil that he may leave the sin and therefore unlesse he be a hypocrite does not leave the sin to be quit of the temporal evil And as for the other motive of leaving sin our of the fear of hell because that is an evangelical motive conveyed to us by the spirit of God and is immediate to the love of God if the Schoolmen had pleased they might have reckoned it as the hand-maid and of the retinue of contrition but the more the considerations are sublimed above this of the greater effect and the more immediate to pardon will be the repentance 8. Let the sick persons do frequent actions of repentance by way of prayer for all those sins which are spiritual and in which no restitution or satisfaction material can be made and whose contrary acts cannot in kinde be exercised For penitential prayers in some cases are the only instances of repentance that can be An envious man if he gives God hearty thanks for the advancement of his brother hath done an act of mortification of his envy as directly as corporal austerities are an act of chastity and an enemy to uncleanness and if I have seduced a person that is dead or absent if I cannot restore him to sober counsels by my discourse and undeceiving him I can onely repent of that by way of prayer and intemperance is no way to be rescinded or punished by a dying man but by hearty prayers Prayers are a great help in all cases in some they are proper acts of vertue and direct enemies to sin but although alone and in long continuance they alone can cure some one or some few little habits yet they can never alone change the state of the man and therefore are intended to be a suppletory to the imperfections of other acts and by that reason are the proper and most pertinent imployment of a Clinick or death-bed penitent 9. In those sins whose proper cure is mortification corporal the sick man is to supply that part of
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
it he never stirred up the holy fire among the Magi nor touched his God with the sacred rod according to the Laws he never offered sacrifice nor worshipped the Deity nor administred justice nor spake to his people nor numbred them but he was most valiant to eat and drink and having mingled his wines he threw the rest upon the stones This man is dead Behold his Sepulchre and now hear where Ninus is Some times I was Ninus and drew the breath of a living man but now am nothing but clay I have nothing but what I did eat and what I served to my self in lust that was and is all my portion the wealth with which I was esteemed blessed my enemies meeting together shall bear away as the mad Thyades carry a raw Goat I am gone to Hell and when I went thither I neither carried Gold nor Horse nor silver Chariot I that wore a Miter am now a little heap of dust I know not any thing that can better represent the evil condition of a wicked man or a changing greatnesse From the greatest secular dignity to dust and ashes his nature bears him and from thence to Hell his sins carry him and there he shall be for ever under the dominion of chains and devils wrath and an intollerable calamity This is the reward of an unsanctified condition and a greatnesse ill gotten or ill administred 2. Let no man extend his thoughts or let his hopes wander towards future and far distant events and accidental contingencies This day is mine and yours but ye know not what shall be on the morrow and every morning creeps out of a dark cloud leaving behinde it an ignorance and silence deep as midnight and undiscerned as are the phantasms that make a Chrysome childe to smile so that we cannot discern what comes hereafter unlesse we had a light from Heaven brighter then the vision of an Angel even the Spirit of Prophesie Without revelation we cannnot tell whether we shal eat to morrow or whether a Squinzy shall choak us and it is written in the unrevealed folds of Divine Predestination that many who are this day alive shall to morrow be laid upon the cold earth and the women shall weep over their shrowd and dresse them for their funeral S. Iames in his Epistle notes the solly of some men his contemporaries who were so impatient of the event of to morrow or the accidents of next year or the good or evils of old age that they would consult Astrologers and witches Oracles and Devils what should befall them the next Calends what should be the event of such a voyage what God had written in his book concerning the successe of battels the Election of Emperors the Heir of families the price of Merchandise the return of the Tyrian fleer the rate of Sidonian Carpets and as they were taught by the crafty and lying Daemons so they would expect the issue and oftentimes by disposing their affairs in order toward such events really did produce some litle accidents according to their expectation and that made them trust the Oracles in greater things and in all Against this he opposes his Counsel that we should not search after forbidden records much lesse by uncertain significations for whatsoever is disposed to happen by the order of natural causes or civil counsels may be rescinded by a peculiar decree of providence or be prevented by the death of the interested persons who while their hopes are full and their causes conjoyned and the work brought forward and the sickle put into the harvest and the first fruits offered and ready to be eaten even then if they put forth their hand to an event that stands but at the door at that door their body may be carried forth to burial before the expectation shall enter into fruition When Richilda the Widow of Albert Earl of Ebersberg had feasted the Emperour Henry III. and petitioned in behalf of her Nephew Welpho for some lands formerly possessed by the Earl her Husband just as the Emperour held out his hand to signifie his consent the chamber-floor suddenly fell under them and Richilda falling upon the edge of a bathing vessel was bruised to death and stayed not to see her Nephew sleep in those lands which the Emperour was reaching forth to her and placed at the door of restitution 3. As our hopes must be confined so must our designes let us not project long designes crafty plots and diggings so deep that the intrigues of a designe shall never be unfolded till our Grand children have forgotten our vertues or our vices The work of our soul is cut short facile sweet and plain and fitted to the small portions of our shorter life and as we must not trouble our inquiry so neither must we intricate our labour and purposes with what we shall never enjoy This rule does not forbid us to plant Orchards which shall feed our Nephews with their fruit for by such provisions they do something towards an imaginary immortality and do charity to their Relatives But such projects are reproved which discompose our present duty by long and future designes such which by casting our labours to events at distance make us lesse to remember our death standing at the door It is fit for a Man to work for his dayes wages or to contrive for the hire of a week or to lay a train to make provisions for such a time as is within our eye and in our duty and within the usual periods of Mans life for whatsoever is made necessary is also made prudent but while we plot and buisy our selves in the toils of an ambitious war or the levies of a great estate Night enters in upon us and tells all the world how like fools we lived and how deceived and miserably we dyed Seneca tells of Senecio Cornelius a man crafty in getting and tenacious in holding a great estate and one who was as diligent in the care of his body as of his money curious of his health as of his possessions that he all day long attended upon his sick and dying friend but when he went away was quickly comforted supped merrily went to bed cheerfully and on a sudden being surprized by a Squinzy scarce drew his breath until the Morning but by that time dyed being snatched from the torrent of his fortune and the swelling tide of wealth and a likely hope bigger then the necessities of ten men This accident was much noted then in Rome because it happened in so great a fortune and in the midst of wealthy designes and presently it made wise men to consider how imprudent a person he is who disposes of ten years to come when he is not Lord of to morrow 4. Though we must not look so far ofâ— and prey abroad yet we must be buisie neer at hand we must with all arts of the Spirit seize upon the present because it passes from us while we
arts of religion and mortification suppresse the trouble of that fancy till at last being told that she was dead and had been buried about fourteen dayes he went secretly to her Vault and with the skirt of his mantle wiped the moisture from the Carkasse and still at the return of his temptation laid it before him saying Behold this is the beauty of the woman thou didst so much desire and so the man found his cure And if we make death as present to us our own death dwelling and dressed in all its pomp of fancy and proper circumstances if any thing will quench the heats of lust or the desires of money or the greedy passionate affections of this world this must do it But withall the frequent use of this meditation by curing our present inordinations will make death safe and friendly and by its very custom will make that the King of terrours shall come to us without his affrighting dresses and that we shall sit down in the grave as we compose our selves to sleep and do the duties of nature and choice The old people that lived neer the Riphaean mountains were taught to converse with death and to handle it on all sides and to discourse of it as of a thing that will certainly come and ought so to do Thence their minds and resolutions became capable of death and they thought it a dishonourable thing with greedinesse to keep a life that must go from us to lay aside its thorns and to return again circled with a glory and a Diadem 2. He that would die well must all the dayes of his life lay up against the day of death not only by the general provisions of holinesse and a pious life indefinitely but provisions proper to the necessities of that great day of expence in which a man is to throw his last cast for an eternity of joyes or sorrows ever remembring that this alone well performed is not enough to passe us into Paradise but that alone done foolishly is enough to send us to hell and the want of either a holy life or death makes a man to fall short of the mighty price of our high calling In order to this rule we are to consider what special graces we shall then need to exercise and by the proper arts of the Spirit by a heap of proportioned arguments by prayers and a great treasure of devotion laid up in Heaven provide before hand a reserve of strength and mercy Men in the course of their lives walk lazily and incuriously as if they had both their feet in one shoe and when they are passively revolved to the time of their dissolution they have no mercies in store no patience no faith no charity to God or despite of the world being without gust or appetite for the land of their inheritance which Christ with so much pain and blood had purchased for them When we come to die indeed we shall be very much put to it to stand firm upon the two feet of a Christian faith and patience When we our selves are to use the articles to turn our former discourses into present practise and to feel what we never felt before we shall finde it to be quite another thing to be willing presently to quit this life and all our present possessions for the hopes of a thing which we were never suffered to see and such a thing of which we may sail so many wayes and of which if we fail any way we are miserable for ever Then we shall finde how much we have need to have secured the Spirit of God and the grace of saith by an habitual perfect unmovable resolution * The same also is the case of patience which will be assaulted with sharp pains disturbed fancies great fears want of a present minde natural weaknesses frauds of the Devil and a thousand accidents and imperfections It concerns us therfore highly in the whole course of our lives not onely to accustome our selves to a patient suffering of injuries and affronts of persecutions and losses of crosse accidents and unnecessary circumstances but also by representing death as present to us to consider with what arguments then to fortifie our patience and by assiduous and fervent prayer to God all our life long call upon God to give us patience and great assistances a strong faith and a confirmed hope the Spirit of God and his Holy Angels assistants at that time to resist and to subdue the devils temptations and assaults and so to fortifie our hearts that it break not into intolerable sorrows and impatience and end in wretchlessenesse and infidelity * But this is to be the work of our life and not to be done at once but as God gives us time by succession by parts and little periods For it is very remarkable that God who giveth plenteously to all creatures he hath scattered the firmament with stars as a man sowes corn in his fields in a multitude bigger then the capacities of humane order he hath made so much varietie of creatures and gives us great choice of meats and drinks although any one of both kindes would have served our needs and so in all instances of nature yet in the distribution of our time God seems to be strait-handed and gives it to us not as Nature gives us Rivers enough to drown us but drop by drop minute after minute so that we never can have two minutes together but he takes away one when he gives us another This should teach us to value our time since God so values it and by his so small distribution of it tells us it is the most precious thing we have Since therefore in the day of our death we can have but still the same little portion of this precious time let us in every minute of our life I mean in every discernable portion lay up such a stock of reason and good works that they may convey a value to the imperfect and shorter actions of our death-bed while God rewards the piety of our lives by his gracious acceptation and benediction upon the actions preparatory to our death-bed 3. He that desires to die well and happily above all things must be carefull that he do not live a soft a delicate and voluptuous life but a life severe holy and under the discipline of the crosse under the conduct of prudence and observation a life of warfare and sober counsels labour and watchfulnesse No man wants cause of tears and a daily sorrow Let every man consider what he feels and acknowledge his misery let him confesse his sin and chastise it let him bear his crosse patiently and his persecutions nobly and his repentances willingly and constantly let him pity the evils of all the world and bear his share of the calamities of his Brother let him long and sigh for the joyes of Heaven let him tremble and fear because he hath deserved the pains of hell let him commute his eternall
of mercy to preserve their innocence to overcome temptation to try their vertue to fit them for rewards it is certain that sicknesse never is an evil but by our own faults and if we will do our duty we shall be sure to turn it into a blessing If the sicknesse be great it may end in death and the greater it is the sooner and if it be very little it hath great intervalls of rest if it be between both we may be Masters of it and by serving the ends of Providence serve also the perfective end of humane nature and enter into the possession of everlasting mercies The summe is this He that is afraid of pain is afraid of his own nature and if his fear be violent it is a signe his patience is none at all and an impatient person is not ready dressed for heaven None but suffering humble and patient persons can go to heaven and when God hath given us the whole stage of our life to exercise all the active vertues of religion it is necessary in the state of vertues that some portion and period of our lives be assigned to passive graces for patience for Christian fortitude for resignation or conformity to the Divine will But as the violent fear of sicknesse makes us impatient so it will make our death without comfort and without religion and we shall go off from our stage of actions and sufferings with an unhandsome exit because we were willing to receive the Kindnesse of God when he expressed it as we listed But we would not suffer him to be kinde and gracious to us in his own method nor were willing to exercise and improve our vertues at the charge of a sharp Feaver or a lingring consumption Woe be to the man that hath lost patience for what will he do when the Lord shall visit him SECT VII The second temptation proper to the state of sicknesse Fear of death with its remedies THere is nothing which can make sicknesse unsanctified but the same also will give us cause to fear death If therefore we so order our affairs and spirits that we do noâ— fear death our sickness may easily become our advantage and we can then receive counsel and consider and do those acts of vertue which are in that state the proper services of God and such which men in bondage and fear are not capable of doing or of advices how they should when they come to the appointed dayes of mourning And indeed if men would but place their designe of being happy in the noblenesse courage and perfect resolutions of doing handsome things and passing thorough our unavoidable necessities in the contempt and despite of the things of this world and in holy living and the perfective desires of our natures the longings and pursuances after Heaven it is certain they could not be made miserable by chance and change by sicknesse and death But we are so softned and made effeminate with delicate thoughts and meditations of ease and brutish satisfactions that if our death comes before we have seized upon a great-fortune or enjoy the promises of the fortune tellers we esteem our selves to be robbed of our goods to be mocked and miserable Hence it comes that men are impatient of the thoughts of death hence comes those arts of protraction and delaying the significations of old age thinking to deceive the world men cosen themselves and by representing themselves youthfull they certainly continue their vanity till Proserpina pull the perruke from their heads We cannot deceive God and nature for a coffin is a coffin though it be covered with a pompous veil and the minutes of our time strike on and are counted by Angels till the period comes which must cause the passing bell to give warning to all the neighbours that thou art dead and they must be so and nothing can excuse or retard this and if our death could be put off a little longer what advantage can it be in thy accounts of nature or felicity They that 3000 years agone dyed unwillingly and stopped death two dayes or staid it a week what is their gain where is that week and poor spirited men use arts of protraction and make their persons pitiable but their condition contemptible beeing like the poor sinners at Noahs flood the waters drove them out of their lower rooms then they crept up to the roof having lasted half a day longer and then they knew not how to get down some crept upon the top branch of a tree and some climbed up to a mountain and staid it may be three dayes longer but all that while they endured a worse torment then death they lived with amazement and were distracted with the ruines of mankinde and the horrour of an universal deluge Remedies against the fear of death by way of consideration 1. God having in this world placed us in a sea and troubled the sea with a continual storm hath appointed the Church for a ship and religion to be the sterne but there is no haven or port but death Death is that harbour whither God hath designed every one that there he may finde rest from the troubles of the world How many of the noblest Romans have taken death for sanctuary and have esteemed it less then shame or a mean dishonour And Caesar was cruel to Domitius Captain of Corfinium when he had taken the town from him that he refused to signe his petition of death Death would have hid his head with honour but that cruel mercy reserved him to the shame of surviving his disgrace The Holy Scripture giving an account of the reasons of the divine providence taking Godly men from this world and shutting them up in a hasty grave sayes that they are taken from the evils to come and concerning our selves it is certain if we had ten years agone taken seizure of our portion of dust death had not taken us from good things but from infinite evils such which the sun hath seldom seen Did not Priamus weep oftner then Troilus and happy had he been if he had died when his sons were living and his kingdom safe and houses full and his citie unburnt It was a long life that made him miserable and an early death onely could have secured his fortune and it hath happened many times that persons of a faâ—r life and a clear reputation of a good fortune and an honourable name have been tempted in their age to folly and vanity have fallen under the disgrace of dotage or into an infortunate marriage or have besottted themselves with drinking or outlived their fortunes or become tedious to their friends or are afflicted with lingring and vexatious diseases or lived to see their excellent parts buried and cannot understand the wise discourses and productions of their younger years In all these cases and infinite more do not all the world say but it had been better this man had died sooner But
image of the disease he made the very picture to sigh and groan It is easie to tell upon the interest of what vertue such counterfeiting is to be reproved But it will be harder to snatch the politicks of the world from following that which they call a canonized and authentick precedentâ— and Davids counterfeiting himself mad before the King of Gath to save his life and liberty wil be sufficient to entice men to serve an end upon the stock charges of so small an irregularity not in the matter of manners but in the rules and decencies of natural or civil deportment I cannot certainly tell what degrees of excuse Davids action might put on This onely besides his present necessity the Laws whose coercitive or directive power David lived under had lesse of severity and more of liberty and towards enemies had so little of restraint and so great a power that what amongst them was a direct sin if used to their brethren the sons of Iacob was lawfull and permitted to be acted against enemies To which also I adde this general caution that the actions of holy persons in Scripture are not alwayes good precedents to us Christians who are to walk by a rule and a greater strictnesse with more simplicity and heartinesse of pursuit And amongst them sanctity and holy living did in very many of its instances increase in new particulars of duty and the prophets reproved many things which the law forbad not and taught many duties which Moses prescribed not and as the time of Christs approach came so the sermons and revelations too were more evangelical and like the patterns which were â—ully to be exhibited by the Son of God Amongst which it is certain that Christian simplicity and godly sincerity is to be accounted * and counterfeiting of sicknesse is a huge enemy to this * it is an upbraiding the Divine providence * a jesting with fire * a playing with a thunderbolt * a making the decrees of God to serve the vitious or secular ends of men * it is a tempting of a judgement * a falâ—e accusation of God * a forestalling and antidating his anger * it is a cousening of men by making a God party in the fraud and therefore if the cousenage returns upon the mans own head he enters like a fox into his sicknesse and perceives himself catched in a trap or earthed in the intolerable dangers of the grave 3. Although we must be infinitely careful to prevent it that sin does not thrust us into a sicknesse yet when we are in the house of sorrow we should do well to take Physick against sin and suppose that it is the cause of the evil if not by way of natural causality and proper effect yet by a moral influence and by a just demerit We can easily see when a man hath got a surfet intemperance is as plain as the hand writing upon the wall and easier to be read but covetousness may cause a Feaver as well as drunkennesse and pride can produce a falling sickness as well as long washings and dilutions of the brain and intemperate lust and we finde it recorded in Scripture that the contemptuous and unprepared manner of reception of the Holy Sacraments caused sicknesse and death and Sacriledge and Vow-breach in Ananias and Saphira made them to descend quick into their graves Therefore when sicknesse is upon us let us cast about and if we can let us finde out the cause of Gods displeasure that it being removed we may return into the health and securities of Gods loving kindnesse Thus in the three years famine David enquired of the Lord what was the matter and God answered it is for Saul and his bloody house and then David expiated the guilt and the people were full again of food and blessing and when Israel was smitten by the Amorites Ioshuah cast about and found out the accursed thing and cast it out and the people after that fought prosperously And what God in that case said to Ioshua he will also verifie to us I will not be with you any more unlesse you destroy the accursed thing from among you But in pursuance of this we are to observe that although in case of loud and clamorous sins the discovery is easy and the remedie not diâ—ficult yet because Christianity is a nice thing and religion is as pure as the sun and the soul of man is apt to be troubled from more principles then the inâ—ricate and curiosluy composed bodie in its innumâ—rable parts it will often happen that if we go to enquire into the particular we shall never finde it out and we may suspect drunkennesse when it may be also a morose delectation in unclean thoughts or covetousnesse or oppression or a crafty invasion of my neighbours rights or my want of charity or my judging unjustly in my own cause or my censuring my neighbours or a secret pride or a base hypocrisie or the pursuance of little ends with violence and passion that may have procured the present messenger of death Therefore ask no more after any one but heartily endeavour to reform all sin no more lest a worse thing happen for a single search or accusation may be the designe of an imperfect repentance but no man does heartily return to God but he that decrees against every irregularity and then onely we can be restored to health or life when we have taken away the causes of sicknesse and a cursed death 4. He that means to have his sicknesse turn into safety and life into health and vertue must make religion the imployment of his sicknesse and prayer the imployment of his religion For there are certain compendiums or abbreviatures and shortnings of religion fitted to several states They that first gave up their names to Christ and that turned from Paganism to Christianity had an abbreviature fitted for them they were to renounce their false worshippings and give up their belief and vow their obedience unto Christ and in the very profession of this they were forgiven in Baptism For God hastens to snatch them from the power of the Devil and therefore shortens the passage and secures the estate In the case of poverty God hath reduced this dutie of man to an abbreviature of those few graces which they can exercise such as are patience contentednesse truth and diligence and the rest he accepts in good will and the charities of the soul in prayers and the actions of a cheap religion And to most men charity is also an abbreviature And as the love of God shortens the way to the purchase of all vertues so the expression of this to the poor goes a huge way in the requisites and towards the consummation of an excellent religion and Martyrdom is another abbreviature and so is every act of an excellent and heroical vertue But when we are fallen into the state of sicknesse and that our understanding is weak and troubled our bodies sick and uselesse
us from that but our own uncharitablenesse 7. Be obedient unto thy Physitian in those things that concern him if he be a person fit to minister unto thee God is he onely that needs no help and God hath created the Physitian for thine therefore use him temperately without violent confidences and sweetly without uncivil distrustings or refusing his prescriptions upon humors or impotent fear A man may refuse to have his arme or leg cut off or to suffer the pains of Marius his incision and if he believes that to dye is the lesse evil he may compose himself to it without hazarding his patience or introducing that which he thinks a worse evil but that which in this article is to be reproved and avoided is that some men will choose to die out of fear of death and send for Physitians and do what themselves list and call for counsel and follow none When there is reason they should decline him it is not to be accounted to the stock of a sin but where there is no just cause there is a direct impatience Hither is to be reduced that we be not too confident of the Physitian or drain our hopes of recovery from the â—ountain through so imperfect chanels laying the wells of God dry and digging to our selves broken cisterns Physitians are the Ministers of Gods mercies and providence in the matter of health and ease of restitution or death and when God shall enable their judgements and direct their counsels and prosper their medicines they shall do thee good for which you must give God thanks and to the Physitian the honour of a blessed instrument But this cannot alwayes be done and Lucius Cornelius the Lieutenant in Portugal under Fabius the Consul boasted in the inscription of his monument that he had lived a healthful and vegete age till his last sicknesse but then complained he was forsaken by his Physitian and railed upon Esculapius for not accepting his vow and passionate desire of preserving his life longer and all the effect of that impatience and the folly was that it is recorded to following ages that he died without reason and without religion But it was a sad sight to see the favour of all France confined to a Physitian and a Barber and the King Lewis the XI to be so much their servant that he should acknowledge and own his life from them and all his ease to their gentle dressing of his gout and friendly ministeries for the King thought himself undone and robbed if he should die his portion here was fair and he was loth to exchange his possession for the interest of a bigger hope 8. Treat thy nurses and servants sweetly and as it becomes an obliged and a necessitous person remember that thou art very troublesome to them that they trouble not thee willingly that they strive to do thee ease and benefit that they wish it and sigh and pray for it and are glad if thou likest their attendance that whatsoever is amisse is thy disease and the uneasinesse of thy head or thy side thy distemper or thy disaffections and it will be an unhandsome injustice to be troublesome to them because thou art so to thy self to make them feel a part of thy sorrowes that thou mayest not bear them alone evilly to requite their care by thy too curious and impatient wrangling and fretful spirit That tendernesse is vitious and unnatural that shrikes out under the weight of a gentle cataplasm and he will ill comply with Gods rod that cannot endure his friends greatest kindnesse And he will be very angry if he durst with Gods smiting him that is peevish with his servants that go about to ease him 9. Let not the smart of your sicknesse make you to call violently for death you are not patient unlesse you be content to live God hath wisely ordered that we may be the better reconciled with death because it is the period of many calamities But where ever the General hath placed thee stirre not from thy station until thou beest called off but abide so that death may come to thee by the designe of him who intends it to be thy advantage God hath made sufferance to be thy work and do not impatiently long for evening lest at night thou findest the reward of him that was weary of his work for he that is weary before his time is an unprofitable servant and is either idle or diseased 10 That which remains in the practise of this grace is that the sick man should do acts of patience by way of prayer and ejaculations In which he may serve himself of the following collection SECT II. Acts of patience by way of prayer and ejaculation I Will seek unto God unto God will I commit my cause which doth great things and unsearchable marvellous things without number To set upon high those that be low that those which mourn may be exalted to safety So the poor have hope and iniquity stoppeth her mouth Behold happy is the man whom God correcteth therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty For he maketh sore and bindeth up he woundeth and his hands make whole He shall deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee Thou shalt come to thy grave in a just age like as a shock of corn cometh in his season I remember thee upon my bed and meditate upon thee in the night watches Because thou hast been my help therefore under the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce My soul followeth hard after thee for thy right hand hath upholden me God restoreth my soul he leadeth me in the path of righteousnesse for his names sake Yea though I walk thorough the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me In the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion in the secret of his tabernacle shal he hide me he shal set me up upon a rock The Lord hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary from the heaven did the Lord behold the earth To hear the groaning of his prisoners to loose those that are appointed to death I cryed unto God with my voice even unto God with my voice and he gave ear unto me In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran in the night and ceased not my soul refused to be comforted * I remember God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot speak will the Lord cast me off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his promise clean gone for ever doth his promise fail for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies And I said this my infirmity but I will remember the years of the right
hand of the most High No temptation hath taken me but such as is common to man but God is faithful who will not suffer me to be tempted above what I am able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that I may be able to bear it Whatsoever things were written afore time were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Now the God of peace and consolation grant me to be so minded It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his eyes Surely the word that the Lord hath spoken is very good But thy servant is weak O remember mine infirmities and lift thy servant up that leaneth upon thy right hand There is given unto me a thorn in the flesh to buffet me For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me and he said unto me My grace is sufficient for thee For my strength is made perfect in weaknesse Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me For when I am weak then am I strong O Lord thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul thou hast redeemed my life And I said My strength and my hope is in the Lord remembring my affliction and my misery the wormwood and the gall My soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled within me This I recall to my minde therefore I have hope It is the Lords mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not They are new every morning great is thy faithfulnesse The Lord is my portion said my soul therefore will I hope in him The Lord is good unto them that wait for him to the soul that seeketh him It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. For the Lord will not cast off for ever But though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave of Jesus that thou wouldest keep me secret until thy wrath be past that thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil The sick man may recite or hear recited the following Psalms in the intervals of his agony I. O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure Have mercy upon me O Lord for I am weak O Lord heal me for my bones are vexed My soul is also sore vexed but thou O Lord how long Return O Lord deliver my soul O save me for thy mercies sake For in death no man remembreth thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks I am weary with my groaning all the night make I my bed to swim I water my couch with my tears Mine eye is consumed because of grief it waxeth old because of all my sorrowes Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping The Lord hath heard my supplication the Lord will receive my prayer Blessed be the Lord who hath heard my prayer and hath not turned his mercy from me II. IN the Lord put I my trust how say ye to my soul flee as a bird to your mountain The Lord is in his holy temple the Lords throne is in heaven his eyes behold his eye-lids try the children of men Preserve me O God for in thee do I put my trust O my soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord my goodnesse extendeth not to thee The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup thou maintainest my lot I will blesse the Lord who hath given me counsel my reins also instruct me in the night seasons I have set the Lord alwayes before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is the fulnesse of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore As for me I will behold thy face in righteousnesse I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse III. HAve mercy upon me O Lord for I am in trouble mine eye is consumed with grief yea my soul and my belly For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing my strength faileth because of mine iniquity and my bones are consumed * I am like a broken vessel But I trusted in thee O Lord I said thou art my God My times are in thy hand make thy face to shine upon thy servant save me for thy mercies sake When thou saidst seek ye my face my heart said unto thee thy face Lord will I seek Hide not thy face from me put not thy servant away in thy anger thou hadst been my help leave me not neither forsake me O God of my salvation I had fainted unlesse I had beleeved the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living O how great is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues from the calumnies and aggravation of sins by Devils I said in my haste I am cut off from before thine eyes neverthelesse thou heardest the voice of my supplication when I cried unto thee O love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserveth the faithfull and plenteously rewardeth the proud doer Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart all ye that hope in the Lord. The Prayer to be said in the beginning of a sicknesse O Almighty God mercifull and gracious who in thy justice didst send sorrow and tears sicknesse and death into the world as a punishment for mans sins and hast comprehended all under sin and this sad covenant of sufferings not to destroy us but that thou mightest have mercy upon all making thy justice to minister to mercy short afflictions to an eternall weight of glory as thou hast turned my sins into sicknesse so turn my sicknesse to the advantages of holinesse and religion of mercy and pardon of faith and hope of grace and glory thou hast now called me to the fellowship of sufferings Lord by the instrument of religion let my present condition be so sanctified that my sufferings may be united to the sufferings of my Lord that so thou mayest pity me and assist me relieve my sorrow and support my spirit direct my
They that deny to worship God with lowly reverence of their bodies according as the Church expresses her reverence to God externally 4. They that invent or practise superstitious worshippings invented by man against Gods word or without reason or besides the publike customes or formes of worshipping either foolishly or ridiculously without the purpose of order decency proportion to a wise or a religious end in prosecution of some vertue or duty III. Comm. Thou shalt not take Gods Name in vain The duties of this Comm. are 1. To honour and revere the most holy Name of God 2. To invocate his Name directly or by consequence in all solemn and permitted adjurations or publike oaths 3. To use all things and persons upon whom his Name is called or any wayes imprinted with a regardfull and separate manner of usage different from common and far from contempt and scorn 4. To swear in truth and judgement They sin against this Commandment 1. Who swear vainly and customarily without just cause without competent authority 2. They that blasphem or curse God 3. They that speak of God without grave cause or solemn occasion 4. They that forswear themselves that is they that do not perform their vows to God or that swear or call God to witnesse to a lie 5. They that swear rashly or maliciously to commit a sin or an act of revenge 6. They that swear by any creature falsely or any way but as it relates to God and consequently invokes his testimony 7. All curious inquiries into the secrets and intruders into the mysteries and hidden things of God 8. They that curse God or curse a creature by God 9. They that prophane Churches holy Utensils holy persons holy customes holy Sacraments 10 They that provoke others to swear voluntarily and by designe or incuriously or negligently when they might avoid it 11 They that swear to things uncertain and unknown IV. Comm. Remember that thou keep holy the S. day The duties of this Comm. are 1. To set apart some portions of our time for the immediate offices of religion and glorification of God 2. This to be done according as God or his holy Church hath appointed 3. One day in seven is to be set apart 4. The Christian day is to be subrogated into the place of the Jewes day the resurrection of Christ and redemption of man was a greater blessing then then to create him 5. God on that day to be worshipped and acknowledged as our Creator and as our Saviour 6. The day to be spent in holy offices in hearing Divine service publike prayers frequenting the Congregations hearing the word of God read or expounded reading good books meditations alms reconciling enmities remission of burdens and of offences of debts and of work friendly offices neighbourhood and provoking one another to good-works and to this end all servile works must be omitted excepting necessary and charitable offices to men or beasts to our selves or others They sin against this Comm. 1. That do or compell or intice others to do servile works without the cases of necessity or charity to be estimated according to common and prudent accounts 2. They that refuse or neglect to come to the publike assemblies of the Church to hear and assist at the divine offices intirely 3. They that spend the day in idlenesse forbidden or vain recreations or the actions of sin and folly 4. They that buy and sell without the cases of permission 5. They that travell unnecessary journeys 6 They that act or assist in contenâ—ions or law-suites markets fairs c. 7. They that on that day omit their private devotion unlesse the whole day be spent in publike 8. They that by any crosse or contradictory actions against the customes of the Church do purposely desecrate or unhallow and make the day common as they that in despite and contempt fast upon the Lords day lest they may celebrate the festivall after the manner of the Christians V. Com. Honour thy father and thy mother The duties are 1. To do honour and reverence and to love our natural parents 2. To obey all their domestic commands for in them the scene of their authority lies 3. To give them maintenance and support in their needs 4. To obey Kings and all that are in authority 5. To pay tribute and honours custome and reverence 6. To do reverence to the aged and all our betters 7. To obey our Masters spiritual governours and Guides in those things which concern their several respective interest and authority They sin against this commandment 1. That despise their parents age or infirmity 2. That are ashamed of their poverty and extraction 3. That publish their vices errours and infirmities to shame them 4. That refuse and reject all or any of their lawful commands 5. Children that marry without or against their consent when it may be reasonably obtained 6. That curse them from whom they receive so many blessings 7 That grieve the souls of their parents by not complying in their desires and observing their circumstances 8. That hate their persons that mock them or use uncomely jestings 9. That discover their nakednesse voluntarily 10. That murmure against their injunctions and obey them involuntarily 11. All Rebels against their Kings or the supream power in which it is legally and justly invested 12. That refuse to pay tributes and impositions imposed legally 13. They that disobey their Masters murmure or repine against their commands abuse or deride their persons talk rudely c. 14. They that curse the king in their heart or speak evil of the ruler of their people 15. All that are uncivil and rude towards aged persons mockers and scorners of them VI. Com. Thou shalt do no murder The duties are 1. To preserve our own lives the lives of our relatives and all with whom we converse or who can need us and we assist by prudent reasonable and wary defences advocations discoveries of snares c. 2. To preserve our health and the integrity of our bodies and mindes and of others 3. To preserve and follow peace with all men They sin against this Commandment 1. That destroy the life of a man or woman himself or any other 2. That do violence or dismember or hurt any part of the body with evil intent 3. That fight duels or commence unjust wars 4. They that willingly hasten their own or others death 5. That by oppression or violence imbitter the spirits of any so as to make their life sad and their death hasty 6. They that conceal the dangers of their neighbor which they can safely discover 7. They that sow strife and contention among neighbours 8. They that refuse to rescue or preserve those whom they can and are obliged to preserve 9. They that procure abortion 10 They that threaten or keep men in fears or hate them VII Com. Thou shalt not commit adultery The duties are 1. To preserve our bodies in the chastity of a single life or
but gave command that his body should be interred not laid in a coffin of gold or silver but just into the earth from whence all living creatures receive birâ—h and nourishment and whether they must return Among Christians the honour which is valued in the behalf of the dead is that they be buried in holy ground that is in appointed coemitaries in places of religion there where the field of God is sowen with the seeds of the resurrection that their bodies also may be among the Christians with whom their hope and their portion is and shall be for ever Quicquid feceris omnia haec eodem ventura sunt That we are sure of our bodies shall all be restored to our souls hereafter and in the intervall they shall all be turned into dust by what way soever you or your chance shall dresse them Licinus the freed man slept in a Marble Tombe but Cato in a little one Pompey in none and yet they had the best fate among the Romans and a memory of the biggest honour And it may happen that to want a Monument may best preserve their memories while the succeeding ages shall by their instances remember the changes of the world and the dishonours of death and the equality of the dead and Iames the fourth K of the Scotâ— obtained an Epitaph for wanting of a Tombe and K. Stephen is remembred with a sad story because 400. years after his death his bones were thrown into a river that evil men might sell the leaden coffin It is all one in the finall event of things Ninus the Assyrian had a Monument erected whose height was nine furlongs and the bredth ten saith Diodorus but Iohn the Baptist had more honor when he was humbly laid in the earth between the bodies of Abdias and Elizeus And S. Ignatius who was buried in the bodies of Lions and S. Polycarpe who was burned to ashes shall have their bones and their flesh again with greater comfort then those violent persons who slept amongst kings having usurped their throns when they were alive and their sepulchres when they were dead Concerning doing honor to the dead the consideration is not long Anciently the friends of the dead used to make their funeral Orations and what they spake of greater commendation was pardoned upon the accounts of friendship but when Christianity seized upon the possession of the world this charge was devolved upon Priests and Bishops and they first kept the customs of the world and adorned it with the piety of truth and of religion but they also so ordered it that it should not be cheap for they made funerall Sermons onely at the death of Princes or of such holy persons who shall judge the Angels the custome descended and in the channels mingled with the veins of earth thorow which is passed and now adayes men that die are commended at a price and the measure of their Legacy is the degree of their vertue but these things ought not so to be The reward of the greatest vertue ought not to be prostitute to the doles of common persons but preserved like Laurell and Coronets to remark and encourage the noblest things Persons of an ordinary life should neither be praised publikely nor reproached in private for it is an office and charge of humanity to speak no evil of the dead which I suppose is meant concerning things not publike and evident but then neither should our charity to them teach us to tell a lie or to make a great flame from a heap of rushes and mushrooms and make Orations crammed with the narrative of little observances and acts of civil and necessary and externall religion But that which is most considerable is that we should do something for the dead something that is reall and of proper advantage That we performe their will the lawes oblige us and will see to it but that we do all those parts of personall duty which our dead left unperformed and to which the lawes do not oblige us is an act of great charity and perfect kindnesse and it may redound to the advantage of our friends also that their debts be payed even beyond the Inventary of their moveables Besides this let us right their causes and assert their honour When Marcus Regulus had injured the memory of Herennius Senecio Metius Carus asked him What he had to do with his dead and became his advocate after death of whose cause he was Patron when he was alive And David added this also that he did kindnesse to Mephibosheth for Ionathans sake and Solomon pleaded his Fathers cause by the sword against Ioab and Shimei And certainly it is the noblest thing in the world to do an act of kindnesse to him whom we shall never see but yet hath deserved it of us and to whom we would do it if he were present and unlesse we do so our charity is mercenary and our friendships are direct merchandize and our gifts are brokage but what we do to the dead or to the living for their sakes is gratitude and vertue for vertues sake and the noblest portion of humanitie And yet I remember that the most excellent Prince Cyrus in his last exhortation to his sons upon his death bed charms them into peace and union of hearts and designes by telling them that his soul would be still alive and therefore fit to be revered and accounted as awful and venerable as when he was alive and what we do to our dead friends is not done to persons undiscerning as a fallen tree but to such who better attend to their relatives and to greater purposes though in other manner then they did here below And therefore those wise persons who in their funeral orations made their doubt with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If the dead have any perception of what is done below which are the words of Isocrates in the funeral encomium of Evagoras did it upon the uncertain opinion of the souls immortality but made no question if they were living they did also understand what could concern them The same words Nazianzen uses at the exequies of his sister Gorgonia and in the former invective against Iulian but this was upon another reason even because it was uncertain what the state of separation was and whether our dead perceive any thing of us till we shall meet in the day of judgement If it was uncertain then it is certain since that time we have had no new revelation concerning it but it is ten to one but when we dye we shall find the state of affairs wholly differing from all our opinions here and that no man of sect hath guessed any thing at all of it as it is Here I intend not to dispute but to perswade and therefore in the general if it be probable that they know or feel the benefits done to them though but by a reflex revelation from God or some under
communication from an Angel or the sâ—ock of acquired notices here below it may the rather endear us to our charities or duties to them respectively since our vertues use not to live upon abstractions and Metaphysical perfections or inducements but then thrive when they have materiall arguments such which are not too far from sense However it be it is certain they are not dead and though we no more see the souls of our dead friends then we did when they were alive yet we have reason to beleeve them to know more things and better And if our sleep be an image of death we may also observe concerning it that it is a state of life so separate from communications with the body that it is one of the wayes of Oracle and prophecy by which the soul best declares her immortality and the noblenesse of her actions and powers if she could get free from the body as in the state of separation or a clear dominion over it as in the resurrection To which also this consideration may be added that men long time lived the life of sence before they use their reason and till they have sumished their head with experiments and notices of many things they cannot at all discourse of any thing but when they come to use their reason all their knowledge is nothing but remembrance and we know by proportions by similitudes and dissimilitudes by relations and oppositions by causes and effects by comparing things with things all which are nothing but operations of understanding upon the stock of former notices of something we knew before nothing but remembrances all the heads of Topicks which are the stock of all arguments and sciences in the world are a certain demonstration of this And he is the wisest man that remembers most and joyns those remembrances together to the best purposes of discourse From whence it may not be improbably gathered that in the state of separation if there be any act of understanding that is if the understanding be alive it must be relative to the notices it had in this world and therefore the acts of it must he discourses upon all the parts and persons of their conversation and relation excepting onely such new revelations which may be communicated to it concerning which we know nothing But if by seeing Sacrates I think upon Plato and by seeing a picture I remember a Man and by beholding two friends I remember my own and my friends need and he is wisest that drawes most lines from the same Centre and most discourses from the same Notices it cannot but be very probable to beleeve since the separate souls understand better if they understand at all that from the Notices they carried from hence and what they find there equall or unequall to those Notices they can better discover the things of their friends then we can here by our conjectures and craftiest imaginations and yet many men here can guesse shrewdly at the thoughts and designes of such men with whom they discourse or of whom they have heard or whose characters they prudently have perceived I have no other end in this discourse but that we may be ingaged to do our duty to our Dead lest peradventure they should perceive our neglect and be witnesses of our transient affections and forgetfulnesse Dead persons have religion passed upon them and a solemn reverence and if we think a Ghost beholds us it may be we may have upon us the impressions likely to be made by love and fear and religion However we are sure that God sees us and the world sees us and if it be matter of duty towards our Dead God will exact it if it be matter of kindnesse the world will and as Religion is the band of that so fame and reputation is the endearment of this It remains that we who are alive should so live and by the actions of Religion attend the coming of the day of the Lord that we neither be surprized nor leave our duties imperfect nor our sins uncanceld nor our persons unreconciled nor God unappeased but that when we descend to our graves we may rest in the bosome of the Lord till the mansions be prepared where we shall sing and feast eternally Amen Te Deum laudamus THE END BEsides this Rule of Holy Dying the Author hath in Print 1. The Rule of Holy Living 2. The Liberty of Prophesying 3. Episcopacie asserted 4 o 4. The History of the Life and Death of the ever blessed Iesus Christ. 4 o 5. An Apologie for Authorized and â—et forms of Lyturgie 4 o 6. A Sermon Preached at Oxon. on the Anniversary of the fifth of November 4 o 7. Together with 28. Sermons Preached at Golden grove fol. Lately published viz. SErmon 1.2 Of the Spirit of Grace Rom. 8. ver 9.10 Sermon 3.4 The descending and entailed curse cut off Exodus 20. part of the 5. verse Sermon 5.6 The invalidity of a late or death-bed repentance Ier. 13.6 Sermon 7.8 The deceitfulnesse of the heart Ierem. 17.9 Sermon 9.10.11 The faith and patience of the Saints Or the righteous cause oppressed 1 Pet. 4.17 Sermon 12.13 The mercy of the Divine judgements or Gods method in curing sinners Rom. 2.4 Sermon 14.15 Of groweth in grace with its proper instruments and signes 2 Pet. 3.18 Sermon 16.17 Of groweth in sin or the severall states and degrees of sinners with the manner how they are to be treated Iude Epist. ver 22 23. Sermon 18.19 The foolish exchange Matth. 16. ver 26. Sermon 20.21.22 The Serpent and the Dove or a Discourse of Christian Prudence Matth. 10. latter part of ver 16. Sermon 23.24 Of Christian simplicitie Matt. 10. latter part of ver 16. Sermon 25.26.27 The Miracles of the Divine Mercy Psal. 86.5 A Funerall Sermon Preached at the Obsequies of the right Honourable the Countesse of Carbery 2 Sam. 14.14 A Discourse of the Divine Institution necessity sacrednesse and separation of the Office Ministeriall Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-Lane * Vel quia nil rectum nisi quod placuit â—ibi ducunt Vel quia turpe putant parere minoâ—ibus quae Imberbes didicere senes perdenda fateri * Tenellis adhuc infantiae suae persuasionibus in senectute puerascunt Mamertus Concil Trid. hist lib 4. * Tertul de Monog S. Cyprian l. 1. ep 9 Sa. Athan q. 33. S. Cyril myst cat 5. Epiphan Haeres 75. Aug. de haeres c. 33. Concil Carth. 3. c. 29 * Dii majorum umbris tenuem sine pondere terram Spirantesque crocos in urna perpetuum yer Pers. Sat. 7. Otia das nobis sed qualia forat ulioâ— Meccenas Placco Virgilio que m◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4 James 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nihil sibi quisquam de futuro debet promittere Id quoque quod teâ—etur per 〈◊〉 anus exit