that the sick man make an universal confession or a renovation and repetition of all the particular confessions and accusations of his whole life that now at the foot of his account he may represent the summe totall to God and his conscience and make provisions for their remedie and pardon according to his present possibilities 5. Now is the time to make reflex acts of repentance that as by a general repentance we supply the want of the just extension of parts so by this we may supply the proper measures of the intension of degrees In our health we can consider concerning our own acts whether they be real or hypocritical essential or imaginary sincere or upon interest integrall or imperfect commensurate or defective and although it is a good caution of securities after all our care and diligence still to suspect our selves and our own deceptions and for ever to beg of God pardon and acceptance in the union of Christs passion and intercession yet in proper speaking reflex acts of repentance being a suppletory after the imperfection of the direct are then most fit to be used when we cannot proceed in and prosecute the direct actions To repent because we cannot repent and to grieve because we cannot grieve was a device invented to serve the turn of the mother of Peter Gratian but it was used by her and so advised to be in her sicknesse and last actions of repentance for in our perfect health and understanding if we doe not understand our first act we cannot discern our second and if we be not sorry for our sins we cannot be sorry for want of sorrows it is a contradiction to say we can because want of sorrow to which we are obliged is certainly a great sin and if we can grieve for that then also for the rest if not for all then not for this but in the dayes of weaknesse the case is otherwise for then our actions are imperfect our discourse weak our internall actions not discernable our fears great our work to be abbreviated and our defects to be supplied by spirituall arts and therefore it is proper and proportionate to our state and to our necessity to beg of God pardon for the imperfections of our repentance acceptance of our weaker sorrows supplies out of the treasures of grace and mercy and thus repenting of the evil and unhandsome adherencies of our repentance in the whole integrity of the duty it will become a repentance not to be repented of 6. Now is the time beyond which the sick man must at no hand defer to make restitution of all his unjust possessions or other mens rights and satisfactions for all injuries and violencies according to his obligation and possibilities for although many circumstances might impede the acting it in our lives-time and it was permitted to be deferred in many cases because by it justice was not hindred and oftentimes piety and equity were provided for yet because this is the last scene of our life he that does not act it so far as he can or put it into certain conditions and order of effecting can never do it again and therefore then to defer it is to omit it and leaves the repentance defective in an integrall and constituent part 7. Let the sick man be diligent and watchfull that the principle of his repentance be contrition or sorrow for sins commenced upon the love of God For although sorrow for sins upon any motive may lead us to God by many intermediall passages and is the threshold of returning sinners yet it is not good nor effective upon our death-bed because repentance is not then to begin but must then be finished and completed and it is to be a supply and reparation of all the imperfections of that duty and therefore it must by that time be arrived to contrition that is it must have grown from fear to love from the passions of a servant to the affections of a son The reason of which besides the precedent is this because when our repentance is in this state it supposes the man also in a state of grace a well grown Christian for to hate sin out of the love of God is not the felicity of a new convert or an infant grace or if it be that love also is in its infancy but it supposes a good progresse and the man habitually vertuous and tending to perfection and therefore contrition or repentance so qualified is usefull to great degrees of pardon because the man is a gracious person and that vertue is of good degree and consequently fit imployment for him that shall work no more but is to appear before his Judge to receive the hire of his day And if his repentance be contrition even before this state of sicknesse let it be increased by spirituall arts and the proper exercises of charity Means of exciting contrition or repentance of sins proceeding from the love of God TO which purpose the sick man may consider and is to be reminded if he does not that there are in God all the motives and causes of amability in the world that God is so infinitely good that there are some of the greatest and most excellent spirits of heaven whose work and whose felicity and whose perfections and whose nature it is to flame and burn in the brightest and most excellent love * that to love God is the greatest glory of Heaven that in him there are such excellencies that the smallest rayes of them communicated to our weaker understandings are yet sufficient to cause ravishments and transportations and satisfactions and joyes unspeakeable and full of glory * that all the wise Christians of the world know and feel such causes to love God that they all professe themselves ready to die for the love of God * and the Apostles and millions of the Martyrs did die for him * And although it be harder to live in his love then to die for it yet all the good people that ever gave their names to Christ did for his love endure the crucifying their lusts the mortification of their appetites the contradictions and death of their most passionate naturall desires * that Kings and Queens have quitted their Diadems and many married Saints have turned their mutuall vowes into the love of Jesus and married him onely keeping a virgin chastity in a married life that they may more tenderly expresse their love to God * that all the good we have derives from Gods love to us and all the good we can hope for is the effect of his love and can descend onely upon them that love him * that by his love it is that we receive the holy Jesus * and by his love we receive the Holy Spirit * and by his love we feel peace and joy within our spirits * and by his love we receive the mysterious Sacrament * And what can be greater then that from the goodnesse and love of God we receive Jesus Christ and
the holy man must pray and another time he must exhort a third time administer the holy Sacrament and he that ought to watch all the periods and little portions of his life lest he should be suprized and overcome had need be watched when he is sick and assisted and called upon and reminded of the several parts of his duty in every instant of his temptation This article was well provided for among the Easterlings for the Priests in their visitations of a sick person did abide in their attendance and ministery for seven dayes together The want of this makes the visitations fruitlesse and the calling of the Clergy contemptible while it is not suffered to imprint its proper effects upon them that need it in a lasting ministery 3. S. Iames advises that when a man is sick he should send for the elders one sick man for many Presbyters and so did the Eastern Churches they sent for seven and like a college of Physitians they ministred spiritual remedies and sent up prayers like a quire of singing Clerks In cities they might do so while the Christians were few and the Priests many But when they that dwelt in the Pagi or villages ceased to be Pagans and were baptized it grew to be an impossible felicity unlesse in few cases and to some more eminent persons but because they need it most God hath taken care that they may best have it and they that can are not very prudent if they neglect it 4. Whether they be many or few that are sent to the sick person let the Curate of his Parish or his own Confessor be amongst them that is let him not be wholly advised by strangers who know not his particular necessities but he that is the ordinary Judge cannot safely be passed by in his extraordinary necessity which in so great portions depends upon his whole life past and it is a matter of suspicion when we decline his judgement that knowes us best and with whom we formerly did converse either by choice or by law by private election or publike constitution It concerns us then to make severe and profitable judgements and not to conspire against our selves or procure such assistances which may handle us softly or comply with our weaknesses more then relieve our necessities 5. When the Ministers of religion are come first let them do their ordinary offices that is pray for grace to the sick man for patience for resignation for health if it seems good to God in order to his great ends For that is one of the ends of the advice of the Apostle and therefore the minister is to be sent for not while the case is desperate but before the sicknesse is come to its crisis or period Let him discourse concerning the causes of sicknesse and by a general instrument move him to consider concerning his condition Let him call upon him to set his soul in order to trim his lamp to dresse his soul to renew acts of grace by way of prayer to make amends in all the evils he hath done and to supply all the defects of duty as much as his past condition requires and his present can admit 6. According as the condition of the sickness or the weaknesse of the man is observed so the exhortation is to be less and the prayers more because the life of the man was his main preparatory and therefore if his condition be full of pain and infirmity the shortnesse and small number of his own acts is to be supplied by the act of the Ministers and standers by who are in such cases to speak more to God for him then to talk to him For the prayer of the righteous when it is servent hath a promise to prevail much in behalf of the sick person But exhortations must prevail with their own proper weight not by the passion of the Speaker But yet this assistance by way of prayers is not to be done by long offices but by frequent and fervent and holy in which offices if the sick man joyns let them be short and apt to comply with his little strength and great infirmities if they be said in his behalf without his conjunction they that pray may prudently use their own liberty and take no measures but their own devotions and opportunities and the sick mans necessities When he hath made this general addresse and preparatory entrance to the work of many dayes and periods he may descend to particulars by the following instruments and discourses SECT III. Of ministring in the sick mans confession of sins and repentance THe first necessity that is to be served is that of repentance in which the Ministers can in no way serve him but by first exhorting him to confession of his sins and declaration of the state of his soul. For unlesse they know the manner of his life and the degrees of his restitution either they can do nothing at all or nothing of advantage and certainty His discourses like Ionathans arrows may shoot short or shoot over but not wound where they should nor open those humours that need a lancet or a cautery To this purpose the sick man may be reminded Arguments and exhortations to move the sick man to confession of sins 1. That God hath made a special promise to confession of sins He that confesseth his sins and forsaketh them shall have mercy and if we confesse our sins God is righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse That confession of sins is a proper act and introduction to repentance * That when the Jews being warned by the sermons of the Baptist repented of their sins they confessed their sins to Iohn in the susception of Baptism * That the converts in the dayes of the Apostles returning to Christianity instantly declared their faith and their repentance by confession and declaration of their deeds which they then renounced abjured and confessed to the Apostles * That confession is an act of many vertues together * It is the gate of repentance * an instrument of shame and condemnation of our sins * a glorification of God so called by Ioshuah particularly in the case of Achan * an acknowledgement that God is just in punishing for by confessing of our sins we also confesse his justice and are assessors with God in this condemnation of our selves * That by such an act of judging our selves we escape the more angry judgement of God S. Paul expresly exhorting us to it upon that very inducement * That confession of sins is so necessary a duty that in all Scriptures it is the immediate preface to pardon and the certain consequent of godly sorrow and an integral or constituent part of that grace which together with faith mâ—kes up the whole duty of the Gospel * That in all ages of the Gospel it hath been taught and practised respectively that all the penitent made confessions proportionable to their repentance that is
much holinesse mortified sin with so great a labour purchased vertue at such a rate and so rare an industry It must needs be that such a man must dye when he ought to die and be like ripe and pleasant fruit falling from a fair tree and gathered into baskeâ—s for the planters use He that hath done â—ll his businesse and is begotten to a glorious hope by the seed of an immortal Spirit can never die too soon nor live too long Xerxes wept sadly when he saw his army of 2300000 men because he considered that within a hundred years all the youth of that army should be dust and ashes and yet as Seneca well observes of him he was the man that should bring them to their graves and he consumed all that army in two years for whom he feared and wept the death after an hundred Just so we do all We complain that within thirty or fourty years a little more or a great deal lesse we shall descend again into the bowels of our Mother and that our life is too short for any great imployment and yet we throw away five and â—hirty yeers of our fourty and the remaining five we divide between art and nature civility and customs necessity and convenience prudent counsels and religion but the portion of the last is little and contemptible and yet that little is all that we can prudently account of our lives We bring that fate and that death neer us of whose approach we are so sadly apprehensive 4. In taking the accounts of your life do not reckon by great distances and by the periods of pleasure or the satisfaction of your hopes or the stating your desires but let every intermedial day and hour passe with observation He that reckons he hath lived but so many harvests thinks they come not often enough and that they go away too soon Some lose the day with longing for the night and the night in waiting for the day Hope and phantastic expectations spend much of our lives and while with passion we look for a coronation or the death of an enemy or a day of joy passing from fancy to possession without any intermedial notices we throw away a precious year and use it but as the burden of our time fit to be pared off and thrown away that we may come at those little pleasures which first steal our hearts and then steal our life 5. A strict course of piety is the way to prolong our lives in the natural sense and to adde good portions to the number of our years and sin is sometimes by natural causality very often by the anger of God and the Divine judgement a cause of sudden and untimely death Concerning which I shall adde nothing to what I have some where else said of this article but onely the observation of Epiphanius that for 3332 years even to the twentieth age there was not one example of a son that died before his Father but the course of Nature was kept that he who was first born in the descending line did first die I speak of natural death and therefore Abel cannot be opposed to this observation till that Terah the Father of Abraham taught the people a new religion to make images of clay and worship them and concerning him it was first remarked that Haran died before his Father Terah in the land of his Nativity God by an unheard of judgement and a rare accident punishing his newly invented crime by the untimely death of his son 6. But if I shall describe a living man a man that hath that life that distinguishes him from a fool or a bird that which gives him a capacity next to Angels we shall finde that even a good man lives not long because it is long before he is born to this life and longer yet before he hath a mans growth He that can look upon death and see its face with the same countenance with which he hears its story that can endure all the labours of his life with his soul supporting his body that can equally despise riches when he hath them and when he hath them not that is not sadder if they lye in his Neighbours trunks nor more brag if they shine round about his own walls he that is neither moved with good fortune coming to him nor going from him that can look upon another mans lands evenly and pleasedly as if they were his own and yet look upon his own and use them too just as if they were another mans that neither spends his goods prodigally and like a fool nor yet keeps them avaritiously and like a wretch that weighs not benefits by weight and number but by the mind circumstances of him that gives them that never thinks his charity expensive if a worthy person be the receiver he that does nothing for opinion sake but every thing for conscience being as curious of his thoughts as of his actings in markets and Theaters and is as much in awe of himself as of a whole assembly he that knowes God looks on and contrives his secret affairs as in the presence of God and his holy Angels that eats and drinks because he needs it not that he may serve a lust or load his belly he that is bountifull and cheerfull to his friends and charitable and apt to forgive his enemies that loves his countrey and obeyes his Prince and desires and endeavours nothing more then that he may do honour to God this person may reckon his life to be the life of a man and compute his moneths not by the course of the sun but the Zodiac and circle of his vertues because these are such things which fools and children and birds and beasts cannot have These are therefore the actions of life because they are the feeds of immortality That day in which we have done some excellent thing we may as truly reckon to be added to our life as were the fifteen years to the dayes of Hezekiah SECT IV. Consideration of the miseries of Mans life AS our life is very short so it is very miserable and therefore it is well it is short God in pity to mankinde lest his burden should be insupportable and his nature an intolerable load hath reduced our state of misery to an abbreviature and the greateâ— our misery is the lesse while it is like to last the sorrows of a mans spirit being like ponderous weights which by the greatnesse of their burden make a swifter motion and descend into the grave to rest and ease our wearied limbs for then onely we shall sleep quietly when those fetters are knocked off which not onely bound our souls in prison but also eat the flesh till the very bones open'd the secret garments of their cartilages discovering their nakednesse and sorrow 1. Here is no place to sit down in but you must rise as soon as you are set for we have gnats in our chambers and worms in
so and that is that God doth minister proper aids and supports to every of his servants whom he visits with his rod. He knows our needs he pities our sorrows he relieves our miseries he supports our weaknesse he bids us ask for help and he promises to give us all that and he usually gives us more and indeed it is observable that no story tells of any godly man who living in the fear of God fell into a violent and unpardoned impatience in his naturall sicknesse if he used those means which God and his holy Church have appointed We see almost all men bear their last sicknesse with sorrowes indeed but without violent passions and unlesse they fear death violently they suffer the sicknesse with some indifferency and it is a rare thing to see a man who enjoyes his reason in his sicknesse to expresse the proper signes of a direct and solemne impatience For when God layes a sicknesse upon us he seizes commonly on a mans spirits which are the instruments of action and businesse and when they are secured from being tumultuous the sufferance is much the easier and therefore sicknesse secures all that which can do the man mischief It makes him tame and passive apt for suffering and confines him to an unactive condition To which if we adde that God then commonly produces fear and all those passions which naturally tend to humility and poverty of spirit we shall soon perceive by what instruments God verifies his promise to us which is the great security for our patience and the easinesse of our condition that God will lay no more upon us then he will make us able to â—ear but together with the affliction he will finde a way to escape Nay if any thing can be more then this we have two or three promises in which we may safely lodge our selves and roul from off our thorns and finde ease and rest God hath promised to be with us in our trouble and to be with us in our prayers and to be with us in our hope and conâ—idence 2. Prevent the violence and trouble of thy spirit by an act of thanksgiving for which in the worst of sicknesses thou canst not want cause especially if thou remembrest that this pain is not an eternall pain Blesse God for that But take heed also lest you so order your affairs that you passe from hence to an eternall soâ—râ—w If that be hard this will be intolerable But as for the present evil a few dayes will end it 3. Remember that thou art a man and a Christian as the Covenant of nature hath made it necessary so the covenant of grace hath made it to be chosen by thee to be a suffering person either you must renounce your religion or submit to the impositions of God and thy portion of sufferings So that here we see our advantages and let us use them accordingly The barbarous and warlike nations of old could fight well and willingly but could not bear sicknesse manfully The Greeks were cowardly in their fights as most wise men are but because they were learned and well taught they bore their sicknesse with patience and severity The Cimbrians and Celtiberians rejoyce in battail like Gyants but in their diseases they weep like Women These according to their institution and designes had unequal courages and accidental fortitude but since our Religion hath made a covenant of sufferings and the great businesse of our lives is sufferings and most of the vertues of a Christian are passive graces and all the promises of the Gospel are passed upon us through Christs crosse we have a necessity upon us to have an equal courage in all the variety of our sufferings for without an universal fortitude we can do nothing of our dutie 4. Resolve to do as much as you can for certain it is we can suffer very much if we list and many men have afflicted themselves unreasonably by not being skilful to consider how much their strength and state could permit and our flesh is nice and imperious crafty to perswade reason that she hath more necessities thâ—n indeed belong to her and that she demands nothing superfluous suffer as much in obedience to God as you can suffer for necessity or passion fear or desire And if you can for one thing you can for another and there is nothing wanting but the minde Never say I can do no more I cannot endure this For God would not have sent it if he had not known thee strong enough to abide it onely he that knows thee well already would also take this occasion to make thee know thy self But it will be fit that you pray to God to give you a discerning spirit that you may rightly distinguish just necessity from the flattery and fondnesses of flesh and blood 5. Propound to your eyes and heart the example of the holy Jesus upon the crosse he endured more for thee then thou canst either for thy self or him and remember that if we be put to suffer and do suffer in a good cause or in a good manner so that in any sense your sufferings be conformable to his sufferings or can be capable of being united to his we shall reign together with him The high way of the Crosse which the King of sufferings hath troden before us is the way to ease to a kingdom and to felicity 6. The very suffering is a title to an excellent inheritance for God chastens every son whom he receives and if we be not chastised we are bastards and not sons and be confident that although God often sends pardon without correction yet he never sends correction without pardon unless it be thy fault and therefore take every or any affliction as an earnest peny of thy pardon and upon condition there may be peace with God let any thing be welcome that he can send as its instrument or condition Suffer therefore God to choose his own circumstances of adopting thee and be content to be under discipline when the reward of that is to become the son of God and by such inflictions he hewes and breaks thy body first dressing it to funeral and then preparing it for immortality and if this be the effect or the designe of Gods love to thee let it be occasion of thy love to him and remember that the truth of love is hardly known but by somewhat that puts us to pain 7. Use this as a punishment for thy sins and so God intends it most commonly that is certain if therefore thou submittest to it thou approvest of the divine judgement and no man can have cause to complain of any thing but of himself if either he believes God to be just or himself to be a sinner if he either thinks he hath deserved Hell or that this little may be a means to prevent the greater and bring him to Heaven 8. It may be that this may be the last instance and the last opportunity that ever
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
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
learning in publike charge and by all others in their proportions 10. The ministers of religion must take care that the sick mans confession be as minute and particular as it can and that as few sins as may be be entrusted to the generall prayer of pardon for all sins for by being particular and enumerative of the variety of evils which have disordered his life his repentance is disposed to be more pungent and afflictive and therefore more salutary and medicinall it hath in it more sincerity and makes a better judgement of the finall condition of the man and from thence it is certain the hopes of the sick man can be more confident and reasonable 11. The spirituall man that assists at the repentance of the sick must not be inquisitive into all the circumstances of the particular sins but be content with those that are direct parts of the crime and aggravation of the sorrow Such as frequency long abode and earnest choice in acting them violent desires great expense scandall of others dishonour to the religion dayes of devotion and religious solemnities holy places and the degrees of boldnesse and impudence perfect resolution and the habit If the sick person be reminded or inquired into concerning these it may prove a good instrument to increase his contrition and perfect his penitentiall sorrows and facilitate his ablution and the means of his amendment But the other circumstances as of the relative person in the participation of the crime the measures or circumstances of the impure action the name of the injured man or woman the quality or accidentall condition these and all the like are but questions springing from curiosity and producing scruple and apt to turn into many inconveniencies 11. The Minister in this duty of repentance must be diligent to observe concerning the person that repents that he be not imposed upon by some one excellent thing that was remarkable in the sick mans former life For there are some people of one good thing Some are charitable to the poor out of kind-heartednesse and the same good-nature makes them easie and compliant with drinking persons and they die with drink but cannot live with charity and their alms it may be shall deck their monument or give them the reward of loving persons and the poor mans thanks for alms and procure many temporall blessings but it is very sad that the reward should be all spent in this world some are rarely just persons and punctuall observers of their word with men but break their promises with God and make no scruple of that In these and all the like cases the spirituall man must be carefull to remark that good proceeds from an intire and integrall cause and evil from every part That one sicknesse can make a man die but he cannot live and be called a sound man without an intire health and therefore if any confidence arises upon that stock so as that it hinder the strictness of the repentance it must be allayed with the representment of this sad truth That he who reserves one evil in his choice hath chosen an evil portion and colliquintida and death is in the pot and he that worships the God of Israel with a frequent sacrifice and yet upon the anniversary will bow in the house of Venus and loves to see the follies and the nakednesse of Rimmon may eat part of the flesh of the sacrifice and fill his belly but shall not be refreshed by the holy cloud arising from the altar or the dew of heaven descending upon the mysteries 12. And yet the Minister is to estimate that one or more good things is to be an ingredient into his judgement concerning the state of his soul and the capacities of his restitution and admission to the peace of the Church and according as the excellency and usefulnesse of the grace hath been and according to the degrees and the reasons of its prosecution so abatements are to be made in the injunctions and impositions upon the penitent For every vertue is one degree of approach to God and though in respect of the acceptation it is equally none at all that is it is as certain a death if a man dies with one mortall wound as if he had twenty yet in such persons who have some one or more excellencies though not an intire piety there is naturally a neerer approach to the estate of grace then in persons who have done evils and are eminent for nothing that is good But in making judgement of such persons it is to be inquired into and noted accordingly why the sick person was so eminent in that one good thing whether by choice and apprehension of his duty or whether it was a vertue from which his state of life ministred nothing to dehort or discourage him or whether it was onely a consequent of his naturall temper and constitution If the first then it supposes him in the neighbourhood of the state of grace and that in other things he was strongly tempted The second is a felicity of his education and an effect of providence The third is a felicity of his nature and a gift of God in order to spirituall purposes But yet of every one of these advantage is to be made If he conscience of his duty was the principle then he is ready formed to entertain all other graces upon the same reason and his repentance must be made more sharp and penall because he is convinced to have done against his conscience in all the other parts of his life but the judgement concerning his finall state ought to be more gentle because it was a huge temptation that hindred the man and abused his infirmity but if either his calling or his nature were the parents of the grace he is in the state of a morall man in the just and proper meaning of the word and to be handled accordingly that vertue disposed him rarely well to many other good things but was no part of the grace of sanctification and therefore the mans repentance is to begin anew for all that and is to be finished in the returns of health if God grants it but if he denies it it is much very much the worse for all that sweet natur'd vertue 13. When the confession is made the spirituall man is to execute the office of a Restorer and a Iudge in the following particulars and manner SECT IIII. Of the ministring to the restitution and pardon or reconciliation of the sick person by administring the Holy Sacrament IF any man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meeknesse That 's the Commission and Let the Elders of the Church pray over the sick man and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him that 's the effect of his power and his ministery But concerning this some few things are to be considered 1. It is the office of the Presbyters and Ministers