thou hast broken rejoyce As then thou didst that favour unto the Israelites even then when they were in the desarts to make them to tast of the fruits of the terrestriall Canaan to the end to incourage them to make them to walk on forward with boldnesse towards the Land of Promise So Lord give unto this sick person and unto us that are in the wildernesse of this world an assurance of the forgivenes of our sins in the bloud of thy Welbeloved who was wounded for our trespasses and bruised for our iniquities peace in our consciences a continuall acknowledgment of thy favours a firm reliance on thy love and joy in our soules which are the fruits of the Celestiall Canaan to the end that relishing that sweetnes we may aspire with zeale and courage towards the end of our Spirituall Calling in Iesus Châ—â—st to be filled not with 〈◊〉 and hony but with 〈◊〉 beams of thy glorious 〈◊〉 and with the rivers of thâ— pleasures with thee for evermore For in possessioâ— of thee great God we shall possesse all things and in thee and thorow thee we shal be all radiant with thy glory and shining as the brightnes of the firmament and as the Sun which shineth in his strength And during this small time which remains for us to live in this world give uâ— grace that thorow good works we may make sure 〈◊〉 Vocation and Election to the end that thus doing 〈◊〉 â—ntrance into the eterâ—â—â—â—â—ingdome of our Saviour Iesus Christ may be abâ—ndâ—ntly accommodated unto us bearing evermore in â—â—nd those words of thy Sonne Iesus Christ that he that shall persevere and shall overcome shal be clothed with white garments and I will not blot his name out of the booke of life But I will confesse his name before my Father and before his Angells And to the end we may receive death which is the end of our miseries in good part make us seriously to think on the future resurrection of our bodies for as this day according as thy Prophet Amos teacheth us shal be a day of darknes not of brightnes of heavines not of joy of destruction not of salvation to the wicked so shall it be the acceptable day of the Lord for the good for as thy Son our Saviour teacheth us we ought to lift up our heads and to rejoyce in that day because our redemption is neare In that day shall it be according to thy Prophet Malachie that the register or book of remembrance which is written before thee of them which think of thy Name shal be opened If King Assuerus had in his Palace a Booke of the worthy exploits of his subjects wherein he found written the good deeds of Mardochâ— to recompence it and shalt not thou have O great King by whom the Kings of the earth raigne Thy book of life and retribution wherin are writ the names of thy children whom by a singular prerogative thou hast adopted for such in thy Son Iesus Christ David surely knew this mysterie when as in his sorest afflictions he said unto thee Lord thou tellest my wanderings my tears are in thy bottle are they not in thy Book Now to the end we may bee acceptable to thee whilst we are incompassed with this mortall flesh graunt us the grace to live in this present world soberly justly and religiously expecting that happy day of the last resurrection and appearing of thy deare Son our Saviour Iesus Christ who in the same shall transforme our vile bodies to the end they may be made like to his glorious body according to the effectuall power wherby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Vnto thee O great God thorow thy Son Iesus Christ in the Vnity of the Holy Ghost be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen 2. Another Prayer when the sicke is neare unto death 35. O Lord our good God and Father who out of thy great goodnes daily showrest downe upon us a sea of bounty and blessings and who hast in thy hand rest and labour health and sicknes life and death We poore sinners setling our selves upon the assurance of thy goodnes which is continually ready to relieve those that resort thereunto in the interim of their grievous assaults unto the blessed haven of thy sacred mercy We are bold in the name of this sick person who fighteth against death to lift up our hearts and our eyes towards thee to the end that thy favour and grace may serve unto him for a starre of light and a guide in that voyage which his soule maketh from earth to heaven and from this mortall life unto the immortall to persist firmly in the faith even unto the end without being terrified or shaken by temptation illusion or by any other stratageme of the enemie Thou art O great God the light of all them that hope in thee and who leddest thy people Israel thorow the ghastly wildernes by a pillar of fire in the dark night therfore we beseech thee to enlighten with thine assistance and holy protection this thy childe in the darkesome passage of death And surely Lord experience shewes us that when humane means seeme most to faile us then is it that thou keepest nearest unto thine to comfort them with thy right hand handling them with thy helpfull hand with gentle and cherishing fomentations and that thou makest them sensible that the point of their extreame need is the opportunitie of thy succours And therefore is it that now the heart of this sicke person sobbeth that his eyes are duskish and heavy his eares deafe his mouth dry and juycelesse and as the outward man falleth in him it would please thee to give him strength in his inward man and to fill his soule with gladnes and joy in that last conflict making him powerfully to relish those celestiall gifts which are laid up for us in heaven by the merits of thy deare Sonne our Saviour who to make us to live againe in heaven after he had by his death reconciled us unto thee ascended into heaven there to prepare a place for us In the interim then of this small time which remaines for this thy child to live in this world give him grace that his spirit may alwayes acknowledge thee that his heart may adore thee whilst he shall breath that he may be assured stedfastly that in the end of his mortall sweat he may find unspeakable happines with his bride-groome Iesus Christ unto whom with thee in the unitie of the Holy Ghost be honour and glorie for ever Amen 3. Another prayer in distres 36. LOrd God and Father of all mercy that sentest from heaven an Angell to comfort thy Son when in the depth of his Passion bearing our sorrowes and loaden with our griefs wounded for our offences and bruised for our iniquities his soule was heavie even unto death We beseech thee from the bottome of our hearts to comfort this thy sick child whom thou hast regenerated and incorporated
Paul saith Rom. 8.14 Courage then Sir say boldly with that holy Apostle in the midst of your combats I am assured that nothing shal be able to separate me from the love of God which he hath shewed me in Iesus Christ our Lord To assure the sicke against the temptations and terrors of conscience FOure things there are indeed which in this spirituall combat may give you terror stagger your faith and trouble the peace of your conscience Namely the sense of your sinnes the apprehension of death the feare of the Devill and the horrour of the judgement of God before whom we are to appeare at our going forth of this life But against the feare of al these things the goodnesse of God in the benefits of Christ and in the testimonies he gives us in his Word furnisheth you with good and sufficient remedies thorowly to assure and establish you in invincible constancie Against the terrors proceeding from the sense of his sinnes FIrst for the regard of your sinnes it is indeed very necessarie to have a thorow sensible apprehension and lively feeling of them to humble you before God But in as much as you protest you have a true and serious repentance of them and do seek and lay hold of by faith the satisfaction and expiation of them in the bloud of Iesus Christ assure your self they can in no sort hinder the effect of your salvation If you be a sinner why Iesus Christ also came into the world to save sinners 1. Tim. 1.15 He is that Lamb of God that takes away the sinnes of the world Iohn 1.29 It is his bloud which cleanseth us from all iniquitie 1 Ioh. 1.7.9 And whosoever shall believe in him shall receive remission of his sins thorow his name Act. 10 43. For this cause is it that there should be preached in his name repentance and remission of sinnes Luke 24 47. Yea he himselfe invites us to himselfe to endow us with the fruition of such a good come unto mee all yee that labour and are heavie laden and I will give you rest Matth. 11.28 Go you then unto him if you feele your selfe overwhelmed with the burthen of your sinnes in assurance to find remedie and rest to your soule And for this selfe same cause performes he yet still dayly the office of an Advocat with the Father for us If we have sinned saith Saint Iohn ch 2. ver 1 2. We have an Advocat with the Father to wit Iesus Christ the righteous who is the propitiation for our sinnes Against the feare of death NOW as touching death why should you feare it seeing your sinnes are not imputed unto you For by sin it is that death entred into the world thus saith Saint Paul Rom. 5.12 and by consequent where there is no sinne there can be no death And indeed as for eternall death which the Scriptures call the second death you have from it a full and a perfect release by the meanes of this faith which God hath given you Verily saith the Son of God Iohn 5.24 I say unto you that hee that heareth my Word and believeth in him that sent me he hath eternall life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death vnto life And as for the death of the body whereunto we remaine still subject it is not unto the faithfull a testimonie of Gods anger upon them as it is ever such unto the reprobate but rather a great and singular favour of his bounty and which bringeth them an infinitenes of excellent commodities First of all it delivereth and setteth us free from all manner of evils and dangers putting an end unto such a number of miseries vexations and griefs which exercise and disquiet us uncessantly both in our bodies and in our mindes during the course of this miserable life or rather of this continuall death wherein we languish here below and by drawing us out of this corrupt world imbrued in malignitie with the corruption wherof we cannot chuse but be infected as with a contagious ayre to see our selves brought to this unhappy necessity of offending daily the goodnesse of our heavenly Father so many wayes as we do Secondly corporall death is an entrance to us into a true life by the benefit of Iesus Christ who hath himselfe passed thorow this death to make the passage happy and dangerlesse unto us it is a safe bridge unto us to passe us and convay us out of the world unto God from earth to heaven and out of the calamities of this transitorie life unto the incomprehensible blessednesse of life eternall unto that fulnesse of joyes which is as David saith Psal 16.11 in beholding the face of the Lord. This is the happinesse which your soule shall injoy even from your very instant departure out of this body And as for your body which shal be put into the earth this shall not be for it there to perish for ever but rather there to rest only for a time in expectation of a blessed resurrection For this cause is it that the death of the faithfull is called a sleepe in the Scriptures and they are called they that are asleepe in regard of their bodies which at the last day shal be awakened and raised up out of the dust to possesse together with their soules glorious immortality being made conformable unto the glorious body of our Lord Iesus Christ Philip. 3.21 He is the head and they are the members And therefore it must needs be that the members be made like and conformable to their head What do you then find now in death which should astonish or affright you seeing it will deliver and set you free from all evill and will mount you up to the highest pitch of all happinesse But rather you shall find in it nothing which makes not fâ—â— your comfort and to settle and warrant you and which for that cause ought not to make you wait for it with resolution and repose of spirit yea to breath and long after it with all your heart when the houre therof shall come And to say with Saint Paul My desire tendeth and endeavoureth to go hence to be with Christ Against the feare of the Devill AS for the feare you may have of the Devill you see now how you have no great subject to fearâ—â—im seeing that death cannot hurt you but by that death whereof he hath the empire and power thereof Now the Apostle witnesseth that Iesus Christ hath not onely by death destroyed death but also him that had the power of death to wit the Devill Heb. 2.14 Our Lord saith himself that the Prince of this world hath nothing in him Nor then hath he ought in those that â—ire his members of the number of whom by the grace of God you are one Besides for us and for our profit it was that the Son of God fought with and hath vanquished and overcome him upon the Crosse upon the which he hath as Saint Paul speaketh
you ask it fervently with a true and lively faith in the name of his welbeloved Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord doubt not but that according to his promises he heares you yea from this very time forward he is neare unto you and fils your soule with holy consolations strengthening you with patience and even solacing you as much as he shall know it to bee necessary for you and by that meanes by so much the more will he oblige you to rejoyce and solace your selfe in his goodnes and to glorifie his holy Name by thanksgiving And this is it which he saith himself unto you and unto whomsoever is afflicted as you are call upon me when thou shalt be oppressed and then will I helpe thee and thou shalt honour me for the same Would you not then have us now addresse our prayers altogether joyntly with you that it would please him to assist you with his grace Yes A Prayer for the sicke in whom there shal be no appearance or signe of death LORD our good God and mercifull Father we prostrate our selves in all humilitie at the feet of thy Divine Majestie to acknowledg that which is but too true that we are utterly unworthy of any grace or mercy from thee and are worthy of the lower-most hell if thou shouldst deale with us in the rigour of thy justice by reason of the numberlesse number of our sinnes and offences wherewith we feele and confesse our selves tainted and guilty before thee But we beseech thee that having regard to thy great and infinite goodnes thou wilt be mercifull unto us poore sinners and be mercifull unto us for thy deare Sonne Christ Iesus sake our Lord looking upon us not in our selves but rather in the person of that Sonne of thy love as members of his body reconciled unto thy Majestie thorow the benefit of his death And as thou art the Father of Mercy and God of all consolation rich in compassion and free grace towards all them that call upon thee and put their trust in thee We beseech thee be graciously pleased to shew unto us thy plenteous mercy both towards us and generally upon us all that now call upon thee for thy grace and particularly towards the person of this thy child and servant lying on this his bed of infirmity Give him to acknowledge in the first place that he is not strucke by any other hand but by thine that he may learne to submit himselfe unto and under the same in all humility and obedience And to this end let him remember that it is a fatherly and a sweet hand which strikes not to destroy but rather to save and who after he hath wounded healeth and quickeneth by the same wounds which he hath made Make him to seele that he is a poore and miserable sinner not onely to be issued forth of that masse of corruption out of which we are all sprung in Adam but also and chiefly because that after it pleased thee to give him the grace to know thee the only true God and him whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ in whom abideth eternall life manifesting unto him by that meanes thy free adoption in thy welbeloved reconciling him to thy self and so having done him the honor to hold the rank and place to be one of the number of thy children and servants in the midst of thy Church he hath not duly acknowledged these abundant riches of thy mercy to love and serve thee with his whole heart as he ought to have done in renouncing the world and in denying himself even as our ingratitudes are infinite by which we fight ordinarily against thy bountifulnes and grace O God and Father touch him then in his heart with a lively sense of all his infirmities and offences that without any way flattering of himself he may escape and be freed from condemnation before thy sacred Majestie may acknowledge that unto thee belongeth justice and to himselfe confusion of face may be altogether displeased at and wholly deny himselfe and may confesse that justly and by good right thou dost lay upon him thy chastisements and that if thou shouldst deale with him according to his deserts thou shouldest utterly overwhelme him under the unsupportable waight of thy justice and shouldst cast him into the bottomlesse depth of eternall death But withall make Lord this acknowledgment to serve onely to humble him and not to precipitate him into the gulfe of despaire and that he being on the one side beaten downe and dejected to the earth by thy mighty hand not so much by the sense of this sicknes as in the sense and feeling of his sins he may on the other side by the same hand of thine be succoured relieved and raised up againe in firm hope thorow the consideration of this thy incomprehensible mercy out of which thou hast given us so precious so rich a pledge as thy deare Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord whom thou hast not spared but rather hast given him up unto death yea unto the ignominious and accursed death of the crosse to redeeme us from the ignominy and curse of sin Graunt Lord that this thy poore servant may have his whole refuge there excite and strengthen his faith by the which he may seek and find in that death and entire obedience of thy Sonne the expiation of all his sinnes and disobediences and may firmely imbrace and lay hold on his perfect righteousnes with the which being prepared and cloathed he may find peace with thee and boast himselfe in and of the hope of thy glory even in the very midst of his troubles And that thus the sorrowes of the curse wherewith thou visitest him in his body may be sweetened thorow the rest and contentment of his soule that if it be thy good pleasure to raise him up againe from this sicknes and to prolong his dayes as thou doest not thereof as yet bereave him of good hope give him grace to use them aright to thy glory and that perpetually nourishing the memory of this gracious favour received from thee it may serve to consecrate the remainder of his life to serve and honour thee with so much the greater affection and zeale And to this end give him to receive this sicknes as a fatherly chastisement comming from thy hand to awaken and to withdraw him from his sinnes and to make him take up an holy resolution by thy grace all the dayes of his life thorowly to make a deep impression in his memory of his duty and of that obedience whereunto hereby he stands obliged unto thee to walk in thy feare more purely and more affectionately for the time to come then he hitherto hath done Blesse unto him the remedies which thou permittest him to use whereby to receive ease in his disease moderate the sharpnes of his griefs and shorten the course of them if thou knowest it to be expedient for him that thereby he may have a subject of glorifying thee and of rendring
thy mercy for his sins and true righteousnes in the obedience of the same thy deare Son Iesus Christ our Lord who was delivered up unto death for our sinnes and rose againe for our justification Yea ascended into heaven to take possession thereof in our name and by that meanes give us accesse and entrance thither whence sinne had banished us Imprint in his heart by the Power of thy holy Spirit a full certainty of all these thy graces that thereby he may be enabled to repose himself peaceably in thy mercy and to overcome happily all temptations and crosses which Satan and his owne flesh would lay before him to trouble the serenitie and cleerenesse of his faith and the tranquillitie of his conscience Let not his sinnes then plunge him into despaire seeing they have been so fully payed and satisfied unto thy justice not by gold or silver but by the precious bloud of thy Christ as by that Lamb without spot and blemish Let not death affright him seeing that sinne being destroyed and abolisht in him which is the sting of death it may remaine unto him disarmed and without power to hurt him Yea that his soule being separated from his body by corporall death it shal be to go unto thee victorious and freed from the captivity of sin therby to tast thorow the fruition of it that blessed life which he hath not tasted of in this world but by hope leaving indeed his body in the earth but not for ever but rather to be refined transformed and made in due time conformable to the glorious body of his head by the benefit of his resurrection Let not Satan daunt him any more seeing he cannot hurt him but by sinne and death the dominion whereof he hath lost in his behalfe Assure him in the end that in vain that accuser shall lay ought to his charge at the throne of thy justice seeing that he being already absolved and justified by thy grace there is no Iudge that can condemn him Let it be thy good pleasure also O good God to shew thy fatherly mercy unto all other sicke persons comfort and strengthen them according as thou knowest they have need thereof And above all graunt them the grace to embrace evermore with a true and a lively faith thy mercie in Iesus Christ that therein they may find all matter of comfort Graunt also unto us all that grace Lord that by this example we may profit and learne to renounce the world and our selves to imploy those few dayes we have here below to live to meditate on thy wisdome to walk carefully in thy feare to weane our hearts from the vanities of this life to raise them up to the meditation and expectation of the celestiall life And to this end to be alwayes prepared and in a readinesse to appeare before thee in assurance to be entertained and received in thy great mercie even for thy deare Son Iesus Christ our Lord his sake In whose Name we beseech thee O Father of mercie to heare us and in all other which thou knowest better then we our selves to be necessarie for us and this for thy poore servant as we pray unto thee in that forme of prayer which he himselfe hath commanded us to offer up unto thee Our Father which art in heaven c. Lord increase that faith which thou hast planted in the heart of this thy servant and child defend him with it as with a strong shield wherewith he may be inabled to quench all the fierie darts of the evill one And graunt that persevering constantly in the same unto the last gaspe of his life he may evermore at the least in heart make thereof unto thee a pure and Christian confession as we will presently do both with heart and mouth I believe in God the Father Almighty c. Such is his Faith Lord as also ours give the grace to live and die in the same thorough Iesus Christ thy Sonne our Lord who in the unitie of the Holy Ghost liveth and raigneth with thee God eternally Amen If the sicke person continue long time and yet alwayes with appearance of danger of death it shal be good to repeate unto the sicke now and then some of the aforesaid consolations but especially those which serve to assure him and to strengthen him against the temptations and combats of conscience And if happily the sicke person bee troubled with raving and fond imaginations or otherwise be not of perfect memorie and good understanding to heare any long discourse in a continued speech there shal not be used unto him other then short sentences such short questions as these here following also such as these or others the like And but talking to him by respits and some pauses interposed SIr you must take a good heart It is the fatherly hand of God which visits you for your good and welfare For unto them that love God all things do work together for their good Lift up your heart unto God to confesse unto him your sinnes and offences and to imbrace by faith his mercy in Iesus Christ which he hath promised unto all those that repent and believe in him Have you not alwayes a good assurance in the mercie of God and a stedfast faith in Iesus Christ your Saviour Yes Do you not believe that Iesus Christ died for your sinnes and rose againe for your justification Rom. 4.25 Yes Believe you not that he hath been made unto you by the Father wisdome righteousnes sanctification and redemption 1. Cor. 1.30 I do Do you not believe that you are freely justified by the grace of God thorow the redemption which is in Iesus Christ Yes According to your faith doubt not but God will free you and securely protect you from perdition and give you everlasting life For God gave his Sonne that whosoever shall believe in him shall not perish but rather have everlasting life Iohn 16. Feare not death seeing by faith you imbrace Iesus Christ who is your life I am saith he the resurrection and the life He that believeth in me although he were dead he shall live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me he shall never die Iohn 11.25.26 If your sinnes trouble and disquiet you have recourse ever by faith unto Iesus Christ and you shall find rest for your soule Come unto me saith he Matth. 11.28 you that labour and are heavie laden and I will ease you Feare not the rigour of Gods justice For there is no condemnation to them that are in Iesus Christ So saith the Apostle S. Paul Rom. 8.1 And who is he saith he Rom. 8.32.33 who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifies who is he that shall condemne It is Christ which died or rather which is more which is risen againe who also is at the right hand of God and who maketh intercession for us Be not loath to leave this miserable life which as S. Iames saith chap. 4.14
are the enemies of our soules But following the Apostles counsel to obtaine the victorie in this Spirituall battell we must resist constantly by faith For the victorie which overcommeth the world it is our faith which is a certaine and assured knowledge of the love of God towards us according as by his Gospell he declareth himselfe to be our Father and Saviour by the meanes of Iesus Christ Having then such a firm faith for your principall foundation know ye and confesse unfainedly before the Majestie of God that you are a poore and a miserable sinner conceived and borne iniâ—niquitie corruption prone unto the doing of evill unprofitable unto every good thing and that by your sinnes you have transgressed without end and uncessantly the holy commandements of God In the committing whereof you have purchased and brought by his just judgement ruine and destruction upon your selfe Notwithstanding you are sorry and grieved in your selves for having offended him and do condemne your selves and your sinnes with true repentance desiring that Gods grace may help and relieve your calamitie Pray then in this firm faith if you cannot with mouth speak it in your heart that God our most gracious and most mercifull Father enter not into judgment nor into an account with you but would be pleased to have pitie on you in the name of his Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord and that he would blot out your sinnes and blemishes by the merit of the death and passion of the same Iesus Christ in whose Name offer up unto him his holy Prayer which he hath taught us saying from your heart Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdome come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as wee forgive them that trespasse against us and leade us not into temptation but deliver us from evill For thine is the kingdome the power and the glory for ever ever AmeÌ„ F. S. N. Acknowledge from the bottome of your heart your unrighteousnes be sorry for your sinnes repent uncessantly and the kingdome of God will draw neare unto you Acknowledge there is no righteousnesse no innocencie nor any good works of yours nor in you But rather as the children of wrath conceived and born in the sinne of old Adam you deserve death and eternall damnation Notwithstanding let not this nor all the sinnes of the world when you should have committed them affright you For Iesus Christ the true Sonne of the eternall God is made true man conceived by the Holy Ghost borne of the holy Virgin to sanctifie and cleanse you He suffered under Pontius Pilate many afflictions injuries and outrages making himselfe a servant and captive to set you in full libertie Iesus Christ was crucified as accursed upon the tree of the Crosse to deliver you from the eternall curse Iesus Christ died shedding forth his bloud his precious bloud to wash you to redeem you to deliver and wholly set you free from the death of hell and from the power of Satan Iesus Christ was buried in the grave to burie all your sins which he tooke away and blotted out Iesus Christ descended into hell insuffering extreame sorrowes to free you from all the paines and sorrowes of death Iesus Christ rose againe from the dead to cause you to rise againe in your owne body and unto glorious immortalitie Iesus Christ ascended into heaven to make you to ascend up thither after him Iesus Christ sitteth at the right hand of God his Father Almighty being your Advocate and Intercessor towards him and the attonement of all your sinnes We look for his comming to judge the quick and the dead to render unto every one according to his works But unto his faithfull ones that believe in him he will not impute their sinnes but having entirely justified them by his grace will make them raigne with him in his heavenly throne for ever F. S. N. Such is the great mysterie of our redemption which by the working of the grace of the Holy Ghost you mâ—sâ— firmly believe was wroughâ— for your salvation And doubt not but that by the merit of Iesus Christ the head of his Church you are a member incorporated into the same returning him thanks in great humilitie that he hath been so gracious unto you to have graunted you the happines to have lived in the communion and company of his faithfull ones for having fed you with his Word with his Body and Bloud acknowledging as being fully assured the great mercy of God in the remission of all your sinnes which is made over unto you in Iesus Christ who will raise you up againe at the last day to make you raigne with him in life everlasting which he hath promised unto all those which believe in him being baptised into his name Now F. S. N. seeing you have this faith doubt you not to receive the promise of Faith for God is true he cannot lie as man Sooner shall heaven and earth perish But the Word of God shall abide for ever God is your Father and Creator you are his creature and the worke of his hands He hath not made you to destroy you for he is the Saviour of all men and will not the death of a sinner but rather that he be converted and live Wherefore I declare unto you in the Name of God that out of his great goodnesse and mercy he gives you full pardon and forgivenesse of all your sins thorow the sole merit of his Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord in the shedding of his precious bloud for he is the propitiation not only for all your sins but for all the sins of the world F. S. N. Iesus Christ saith with his own mouth that all things are possible unto him that believeth Believe then without doubting at all that Iesus Christ putting on our flesh was made true man wherin he died for you having taken upon him all your sinnes in his body to abolish and blot them out Set before and present unto God the precious death of his Sonne Iesus Christ and for the merit of the same death and Passion ask his mercy in saying from the bottome of your heart in great humilitie and repentance O Lord God Almighty be mercifull unto me a poore and miserable sinner for thy deare Sonne my Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ his sake and by the merit of his Death and Passion be graciously pleased to receive my soule which I commend into thy hands F. S. N. Put your whole assured trust and confidence in God For seeing he is for you none shal be against you for Iesus Christ who is the Lamb without spot or blemish hath overcome all for you He offered up himselfe once for you and by the same sole oblation hath wholly abolished all your sinnes He hath abrogated made void and forcelesse your follie unrighteousnesse abomination and obligation With this good Lord Iesus Christ God the
then this which is eternall Wherfore I pray you in the Name of God that you disquiet not your selfe for any affection you may have to this world For here we are all but strangers as our fathers when as then the Lord God shall have ordained and decreed that you must dislodge flit and go before us will not you conform your self unto his holy will and ordinance As on the other side if he see it expedient for your salvation to prolong unto you your life as he did to that good King Ezekias would you not content your selfe with whatsoever it shall please him to do with you Yes assuredly for he is Lord and Master you are but his servant He is your Creator you are his Creature and the work of his hands For this cause then will he dispose of you according to his will Vnto the which alone you ought to conforme and humble your selfe saying from your heart LOrd God thou knowest my necessitie if it shal be thy good pleasure to prolong and lengthen my life thy will be done if it be thy good pleasure also to call me hence unto thee even thy will be likewise done For thy creature Lord hath no other will but thine Now brother comfort your selfe with God who if he hath ordained to call you your Calling shall be happy For you must believe and hope in firme faith that he will make you rise againe in your owne body unto glorious immortalitie to make you raigne with him in life eternall which is purchase and given you by the vertue of the precious Bloud of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ In whose name the Lord God blesse and protect you and make his face to shine upon you and be mercifull unto you The Lord turn his face towards you and preserve you in all happines Amen THis done if it appeare he growes worse and worse and draweth on towards death and tending to his appointed end forthwith in his deadly agonie we must not faile to repeate with a lowde voice before him the Christian Consolation which is heere below promised This doing GOD graunt him grace well and and faithfully to die in him Amen HEB. XIII Remember them that are afflicted as being your selves of the body of the Church and subject to undergoe the like afflictions A PRAYER AGAINST the Apprehensions of Death PSAL. XVIII IIII The sorrowes of death compassed mee round about and the flouds of the ungodly men made me afraid O Lord my gracious Saviour when sorrowes presse us and death threatens us we looke up unto thee that art our life Death thought to have daunted thee in the garden of Geth-semane in such sort that thou knowest well what the distresses are which it brings unto men But as thou haâ—t vanquisht and overcome it graunt me also the grace to vanquish overcome it to beare patiently affliction to submit my selfe to the will of my heavenly Father Thou hast seene how the wicked did compasse thee about as the flouds of waters But now thou art in the happy haven of thy celestiall glory But being there on high despise not â—or sleight nor thy Church which is as yet in the midst of the waves and stormes of the world Gather us also unto that happy life draw us unto that wished port still the furie of the winds which trouble the earth for Lord thou art our Lord we are thy people A Continued Sequell OR An Vnintermitted Course of Comforts MOunsieur d' Ambesaignes a Domestique Gentleman of the late Mounsieur the Marquesse of Moussay being sicke in the Castle of Plouer in Bretagne Madame the Marquesse of Moussay sent to fetch Mounsieur Pallory of Richelieu Pastor and Author of this Booke to be comforted by him and as they expected from houre to houre his death for hee was in an agony from Munday evening the ninth of March 1626. Vntill the morning of Thursday the tenth in that sort that hee was required after diverse consolations to redouble during the space of that night prayers hourely and oftener for him And because there are but two prayers in this preceding Booke to be said when the Sicke is in anguish the first whereof is in the leafe 231. The other in the leafe 344. To satisfie the devotion of certaine good men the Authour hath caused to bee added these prayers following which he then said unto this second Edition to serve hereafter unto the comforters who shall assist the Sicke COMFORTS for the Sicke 1. A Prayer to be said when the sicke is in perplexitie 34. O Lord our good God and gracious Father the onely comfort of our soules the gladnes of our hearts our sole solace and refuge yea our singular sweetnesse amidst the sharpest bitternesses and anguishes which oppresse us we beseech thee to cast thy sweet and mercifull eyes upon this sicke person which hath received this honour together with us by thy speciall favour to bee delivered from the power of darknesse and to be transported unto the Kingdome of the Sonne of thy love having opened his heart as ours to receive the Word of life which alone can save our soules And as thou hast given him the wil to do wel grant unto him and unto us also this happines to give him to perfect the same according to thy good pleasure and to finish his course in thy feare that persevering in the confession of thy holy Name thy light and thy truth may lead him and bring him into the mountaine of thy holinesse O Heavenly Shepheard that hast sent thy deare Sonne to seeke the lost sheep and who repellest not the languishing soule that casts it selfe into thy bosome accomplish in such sort thy strength in the weaknesse of this sicknes that he may say with his whole heart the Lord is my portion and my succour therefore will I hope in him unto the end And seeing thou hast engraven and imprinted the seale of thine election upon the soule of this sick person Yea sith thou hast sealed him with the seale of thy Spirit for the Day of redemption purchased unto the glory of thy Name And seeing thy comforts are welcom to good soules give unto this sicke person amidst the anguishes he suffers in his body a vigorous and a constant soule sweetly bedewd from the springs of sweet comforts in the midst of the hot fits of his disease and the which may make to flie up and to sparkle forth the flames of a sacred desire even unto the Sanctuarie of thy Holines there to behold with the eyes of his mind the ineffable love thou bearest to thine Elect and the glory inestimable which thou keepest in heaven for thy children And to this end give him a gracious refreshing repaire his enfeebled forces wasted and spent by the violence of his disease quicken his heart by the sweetnes of thy grace kindle afresh his zeale inflame his prayers animate his sighes restore unto him the joy of his salvation and let the bones which