my Sin III. O Lord be merciful unto me heal my Soul for I have sinned against thee Call to remembrance O Lord thy tender mercy and thy loving kindness which hath been ever of Old O remember not the Sins of my Youth nor the Offences of riper years but according to thy mercy think thou upon me IV. Cast me not away in the time of Age forsake me not now that my strength faileth me Go not far from me O God my God haste thee to help me Thou O God hast taught me from my youth up until now Forsake me not therefore in my old Age when I am Gray-headed V. The days of our Age are Threescore years and ten and though some be so strong that they come to Fourscore which is a mercy wherewith thou hast Crowned me thy unworthy Servant yet is their strength then but Labour and Sorrow so soon passeth it away and we are gone But Lord suffer me not to go hence in thy Displeasure O suffer not my Sun to go down in thy wrath nor my days to be shut up in the darkness of thine Anger VI. But as thou art pleased to bring me to my Grave in a full Age like as a shock of Corn cometh in his Season so let me be gathered at last like Wheat into thy Heavenly Granary And let mine Age be renewed as the Eagles in thy Kingdom of Glory Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be World without end Amen VII Thou in whose hands are the Keys of the Grave and the issues of Life and Death Thou in whose Power alone it is to kill and to make alive and to bring down to the Grave and to raise up again Thou who hadst Compassion upon Peter's Wives Mother by recovering her out of a Fever Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me whole VIII Thou who didst shew thy mercy to those Daughters of Abraham the Woman that for twelve years together was diseased with an Issue of Blood and another who by the space of eighteen years was so bowed together that she could in no wise lift up her self thou didst loose both these and many more from their long infirmities Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me whole IX Thou who didst restore to Life the young Maiden that was dead Lord if thou wilt thou canst restore me to my Health who am an aged Sinner and a sick feeble Creature Thou canst mitigate my Pains and renew my Strength and lengthen my days For thou makest our Beds in our Sickness and art the Lord of Life and Health and Strength even thou art the Almighty God and the Horn of my Salvation O thou ancient of days X. But Lord as for these outward Blessings I wholly submit my self and them unto thy good Pleasure If it be thy Blessed Will to have the days of my Pilgrimage prolonged upon Earth make me to live always to thy Glory and to my own Souls Comfort as thou dost add days to my years so do thou likewise add Repentance to my days XI But if thou thinkest it more expedient for me that I should die than live then welcome my Death and Dissolution without which there is no entring into Life eternal nor hopes of being with Christ Welcome Jesus who by thy Death hast taken away the Sting of Death Welcome that Cup whereof thou my dear Saviour hast drank before me and which even to the very Dregs thou hast drank off for me XII And therefore I will readily take this Cup of Death which thou hast begun unto me and Praise the Name of the Lord. I will Praise thy Name O sweet Saviour who givest me this Cup of Death the Cup of Salvation I will Praise thy Name who hast born all our Sicknesses for us and all our infirmities XIII I will Praise thy Name who art the Physician of Souls and callest all such unto thee as are weary and heavy Laden that thou mayst refresh them Amongst which great number behold me O Lord thy poor and aged thy weak and sick Servant weary in my Bones and laden with my Sins But Lord I come unto thee in obedience to thy Call and of those that come near unto thee thou castest none out Lord I come unto thee for ease and refreshment XIV O my beloved Saviour Jesus in the midst of the weariness of my Body in the midst of the load and burthen of my Sins in the midst of the Sorrows which are in my Heart O let thy Comforts and Consolations refresh my Soul XV. And when the snares of Death compass me round about let not the Pains of Hell take hold upon me But by all the Merits of thy Nativity Death Resurrection and Ascension I beseech thee to seal unto me in thine own precious Blood and by thy most Holy Spirit the full-Pardon of all my Sins and to admit me who am thy own Purchace to a Participation of thy Glory A Prayer for a Happy End in time of Sickness O Most glorious Jesus Lamb of God Fountain of eternal mercy Life of the Soul and Conqueror over Sin and Death I humbly beseech thee of thy Goodness and Compassion to give me Grace so to employ this transitory Life in vertuous and pious Exercises that when the Day of my Death shall come in the midst of all my Pains of Body I may feel the sweet refreshings of thy Holy Spirit Comforting my Soul and relieving all my spiritual necessities II. Lay no more upon me than thou shalt enable me to bear and let thy gentle Correction in this Life prevent the insupportable Stripes in the World to come give me Patience and Humility and the Grace of Repentance and an absolute renouncing of my self and a Resignation to thy Pleasure and Providence with a Power to perform thy Will in all things and then do what thou pleasest to me only in Health or Sickness in Life or Death let me feel thy Comforts refreshing my Soul and let thy Grace pardon all my Sins Amen Meditation XXIII Thanksgiving for Ease in Sickness or Recovery out of it BLessed by thy Name O Lord for blessing the means which are applyed unto me It is thy hand and the help of thy mercy that thou hast relieved me The Waters of affliction had long since drowned me and the Stream of Death had gone over my Soul if the Spirit of the Lord had not moved upon these Waters and led me forth besides the waters of Comfort II. O spread most gracious God according to thy mercy thy hand upon me for a Covering and also enlarge my Heart with Thanksgivings and fill my Mouth with thy Praise Praise the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me Praise his Holy Name who hath saved thy Life from Destruction and Crowned thee with mercy and loving kindness III. Grant Lord that what thou hast sown in Mercy may spring up in Duty Let my Duty and
shew forth his Praise who hath called us out of Darkness into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2.9.12 V. Next let us consider that since our Life is uncertain as well as short it concerns us immediately to Labour hard in the improvement of this our Span into Eternity to employ our very short and uncertain time in making a seasonable Provision against them both I mean its shortness and its uncertainty VI. For shall we be lavish even of that which is so easily Lost and of which we have so very little and every minute of which little does carry such a weight with it as will be either a kind of Pulley to help to raise us up to Heaven or else a Clogg to pull us down to the lowest Hell of whatsoever we may be wasteful we ought to be Chary of our time which doth incontinently perish and will eternally be reckoned on our Account VII Now the way to provide against the shortness of our Life is so to live as to die to the greatest advantage to be imagin'd so to die as to live for ever What Tobit said to Tobias Tob. 4.21 in respect of wealth Fear not my Son that we are made poor for thou hast much wealth if thou fear God and depart from all sin and do that which is pleasing in his sight He might have said as well in respect of Wisdom and by Consequence as well in respect of long Life For as the Fear of the Lord is solid Wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding Job 28.28 So honourable Age is not that which standeth in the length nor that is measured by number of years but Wisdom is the Gray-hair unto Men and an unspotted Life is old Age Wisd 4.8 9. VIII To be devoted like Anna to the House of God so as to serve him Night and Day with Fasting and Prayer Luke 2.37 and not to Content our selves with that which is meerly lawful or barely enough to serve turn but to study the things that are more excellent to strain hard towards Perfection to forget those things that are behind and to reach forth unto those things that are before pressing on towards the Mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Phil. 3.13 14. IX This is to amplifie our lives and to frustrate the Malice of our Mortality and as the want of Stature many times is supply'd in thickness so this is to live a great deal in the little time of our Duration The Prayer STrengthen us therefore O Lord against the Vanities of the World and raise up our Thoughts to the Contemplation of thy Glory level in us every proud Thought that dares exalt it self against the Power and Purity of thy Law and sanctifie us for thy self and thy Service more that the Practice of a Holy Life may be as it ought our chiefest Employment that so when we depart hence we may be received to thee and being seen no more here we may behold thee in thy Heavenly Kingdom Amen Meditation XXX Motives not to defer our Repentance to a future time TO provide against the uncertainty of our time the way to do that is to distrust the future and to lay hold upon the present so to live every hour as if we were not to live the next Having a short time to live our time to repent cannot be long And not assured of the morrow 't is madness not to repent to day when we see many Persons of the most promising Countenances and the most prosperous Constitutions not only snatched away by an early but sudden Death Why should we not seriously consider that we may be of their number having no Promise to the contrary either within or without us II. What happens to any Man may happen to every Man every Man being surrounded with the same measures of Montality 'T is true indeed that we may live till we are Old but 't is as true that we may die whilst we are Young and therefore the latter Possibility should as well prevail with us for a dispatch of our Repentance as the former too too often prevails upon us for a delay III. Nay if we procrastinate our Repentance in hope of living till we are Old How much rather should we precipitate it for fear of dying whilst we are Young if yet it were possible to precipitate so good and necessary a work as a solid impartial sincere Repentance IV. For as to repent whilst we are Young can never do us the least prejudice so it may probably do us the greatest harm to post it off till we are Old Nay it may cost us the loss of Heaven and a sad Eternity in Hell if we defer our Repentance I do not say till we are Old but if we defer it being Young till one day older than now we are V. And shall we defer it beyond to day because we may do it as well to morrow This is madness unexpressible For as 't is true that we may so 't is as true that we may not Our knowledge of the one is just as little as of the other Or rather our ignorance is just as much and shall we dare to tempt God by presuming upon that which we do not know VI. Are Heaven and Hell such trivial things as to be put to a bare adventure Shall we play for Salvation as 't were by fillipping Cross or Pile implicitly saying within our selves If we live till the morrow we will repent and be saved but if we die before Night we will die in our Sins and be damn'd for ever VII Shall we reason within our selves that though we know our own Death may be as sudden as other Mens yet we will put it to the venture and make no doubt but to fare as well as hitherto we have done What is this but to dally with the Day of Judgment or to bewray our dis-belief that there is any such thing its true we may live until the morrow and so on the morrow we may repent VIII But what is this to the purpose that 't is certain enough we may whilst it is as doubtful whether we shall is it not good to make sure of Happiness by repenting seriously at present rather than let it lye doubtful by not repenting until anon Methinks we should easily be perswaded to espouse that Course which we are throughly convinc'd does tend the most to our advantage IX When the rich Worldling in the Parable Luke 12.22 was speaking Placentia to his Soul Soul take thine ease alledging no other Reason than his having much Goods for many years nothing is fitter to be observ'd than our Saviour's words upon that occasion Stulte thou Fool this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided X. However the Men of this World have quite another measure of Wit and do esteem it the greatest prudence to take their Pleasure whilst they are Young reserving the work of
Mortification for times of Sickness and old Age when 't will be easie to leave their Pleasures because their Pleasures will leave them yet in the Judgment of God the Son the Word and Wisdom of the Father 'T is the part of a Block-head and a Fool to make Account of more years than he is sure of days or hours XI He is a Sot as well as a Sinner who does adjourn and shift off the Amendment of his Life perhaps till twenty or thirty or forty years after his Death 'T is true indeed that Hezekiah whilst he was yet in the Confines and Skirts of Death had a Lease of Life granted no less than fifteen years long but he deferr'd not his Repentance one day the longer 2 Kings 20.6 XII And shall we adventure to live an hour in an impenitent Estate who have not a Lease of Life promised no not so much as an hour shall we dare enter into our Beds and sleep securely any one Night not thinking how we may awake whether in Heaven or in Hell we know 't is timely Repentance which must secure us of the one and 't is final impenitence which gives us assurance of the other XIII What the Apostle of the Gentiles hath said of wrath may be as usefully spoken of every other provoking Sin Ephes 4.6 Let not the Sun go down upon it Let us not live in any Sin until the Sun is gone down because we are far from being sure we shall live till Sun-rising XIV How many Professors go to sleep when the Sun is gone down and the Curtains of the Night are drawn about them in a State of Drunkenness or Adultery in a State of Avarice or Malice in a State of Sacriledge or Rebellion in a State of Deceitfulness and Hypocrisie without the least Consideration how short a time they have to live and how very much shorter than they imagine XV. Yet unless they believe the y can Dream devoutly and truly repent when they are sleeping they cannot but know they are damn'd for ever if the Day of the Lord shall come upon them as a Thief in the Night and catch them napping in their impieties 1 Thes 5.2.4 2 Pet. 3.10 XVI Consider this all ye that forget God lest he pluck you away and there be none to deliver you Psal 50.22 Consider it all ye that forget your selves that forget how few your days are and how full of Misery Consider your Bodies from whence they came and consider your Souls whither they are going Consider your Life is in your Breath and your Breath is in your Nostrils and that in the management of a moment for the better or for the worse there dependeth either a joyful or a sad Eternity XVII If our time indeed were certain as well as short or rather if we were certain how short it is there might be some Colour or Pretence for the putting off of our Reformation But since we know not at what hour our Lord will come Matth. 24.42 43 44. this should mightily engage us to be hourly standing upon our watch Hab. 2.1 XVIII Next let us consider that if our days which are few are as full of trouble it should serve to make us less fond of Living and less devoted to Self-preservation and less afraid of the Cross of Christ when our Faith shall be called to the severest Tryals XIX O Death saith the Son of Sirach Eccles 41.2 acceptable is thy Sentence to the Needy and to him that is vexed with all things The troubles incident to Life have made the bitter in Soul to long for Death and to rejoyce exceedingly when they have found the Grave Job 3.20 21 22. XX. If the Empress Barbara had been Orthodox in believing Mens Souls to be just as mortal as their Bodies Death at least would be capable of this Applause and Commendation that it puts a Conclusion to all our Troubles XXI If we did not fear him Who can cast both Body and Soul into Hell Matth. 10.27 28. We should not need to fear them Who can destroy the Body only because there is no Inquisition in the Grave Eccles 41.4 There the wicked cease from troubling And there the weary are at rest There the Prisoners lye down with Kings and Councellors of the Earth The Servant there is free from his Master There is sleep and still silence nor can they hear the voice of the Oppressour Job 3.14 17 18 19. The Prayer O Lord God of my Salvation thou hast delivered me from the Captivity and Bondage of Sin and Misery fill my Heart with holy Sorrow and Compunction whenever I trespass against thee and teach me so to deny my self to mortifie my Affections to crucifie my Lusts and all the Temptations of the Flesh that I going on my way Mourning and Weeping despising the Pleasures of this Life may when thy great Harvest shall come and thy Reapers the Angels shall separate the Wheat from the Tares come before thee with Joy and escape everlasting Burnings through the Mercies of Jesus Christ Amen Meditation XXXI The Sick Man's last Will and Testament IN the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost I a poor Sinner of sound and perfect Memory being daily read in the Lecture of Man's Mortality how all Flesh is Grass and the Beauty thereof as the Flower of the Field which this day flourisheth to morrow withereth and that it is every Chriftian's Duty to Prepare himself before Death come lest it find him unprovided at such time as it shall approach II. Moved I say with these Considerations I have here made this my last Will and Testament as followeth First I bequeath my Soul into the hands of my gracious Redeemer by whose most precious Blood I was Ransomed and by whose Merits and Mercies I hope to be Glorified III. And forasmuch as there was no safety out of the Ark nor no Salvation now without the pale of the Church figured by the Ark and that the Tares from the Wheat must be severed And the Sheep and the Goats must not into one Fold be gathered IV. Here in the Presence of God and his Holy Angels for the discharge of my own Conscience and the Satisfaction of others who perchance have in their Opinions been divided doubting much how I in Points of Religion stood affected do I make a free and publick Confession of my Faith Being that Cement by which we are knit unto her and made Members of her V. I believe the Holy Catholick Church to be the Communion of the Faithful whereof I desire to live and die a Member to suffer for which I should account it an Honour holding this ever for a Principle that none can have God for his Father that will not take this Holy Spouse the Church for his Mother VI. There is no Article in the Apostles Creed which I do not believe for Catholick and Orthodoxal with the Exposition thereof and every Clause or Particle thereof in such manner as it hath been universally
received by the Holy Catholick Church and holds in Consent or Harmony with the Holy Scripture the Christians Armour by which and the constant Practice of Piety every faithful Soldier of Christ may be enabled to pull down those strong Holds of his spiritual Enemy and by Possessing his Soul in Patience obtain a glorious Victory VII With all due Reverence I esteem of those two Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper the one to cleanse and purifie us at our entring the other to strengthen and sanctifie us Living and to glorifie our Souls at their departing As with my Heart I believe unto Righteousness so with my Mouth do I confess unto Salvation VIII Neither do I profess my self such a Solifidian asto hold Faith sufficient to Salvation without Works Neither such a Champion for good Works as to hold Works effectual without Faith As Faith is the Root so are Works the Fruit. These are ever to go hand in hand together otherwise that fearful Curse which our blessed Saviour sometimes pronounced upon the barren Fig-tree must be their Censure IX And now in this day of my Change as in this Confidence I have ever liv'd so my Trust is that in the same I shall dye that in the Resurrection of my Saviour Christ Jesus is my Hope And in his Ascension is my Glory For I believe that my Redeemer liveth and that with these Eyes I shall see him X. And having thus returned a due Account of my belief my next thing is to remember that Message returned by Isaiah the Son of Amos to Hezekiah set thine House in Order for thou shalt die 2 Kings 20.1 for it is a Maxim when the outward part is orderly disposed the inward cannot chuse but be better prepared XI To remove then from me the Cares of this present Life that I may take a more willing adieu of the World before I leave it weaning my desires from it by addressing my self to a better for live he cannot in the Land of the living who prepares not himself for it before his arriving XII And now my Worldly Cares are drawn near unto their Period Seeing then I am sailing towards my Harbour let me strike Anchor that taking the Wings of the Morning I may fly to the Bosome of my dear Redeemer go forth then my Soul what fearest thou Go forth why tremblest thou thou hast had enough of these Worldly Pleasures for what foundst thou there but Anguish turn then thy Face to the Wall and think of the I and of Promise XIII Thou hast now but a little time left thee the remainder whereof is justly exacted by him that made thee Sighs Sobs Prayers and Tears are all the Treasures that are left thee and precious Treasures shall these be to thee if presented by Faith to the Throne of mercy for the Enemy can never prevail where Christian Fear and constant hope possesseth the Soul XIV Let thy desire then be planted where thy Treasure is placed and as one ravished with a spiritual Fervour cry out and spare not with that devour Father St. Hierom Saying Should my Mother tear her Hair rent her Cloaths lay forth those Breasts which nursed me and hang about me should my Father lye in the way to stop me my Wife and Children weep about me I would throw off my Mother neglect my Father contemn the Lamentation of my Wife and Children to meet my Saviour XV. And less than this O my Soul thou canst not do if thou callest to mind what thou leavest to whom thou goest and what thou hast in Exchange for that thou losest For what dost thou leave here but a World of Misery to whom goest thou but to a God of Mercy and what haft thou in Exchange for a vile frail and corruptible Body but immortal Glory Whatsoever thou hadst here was got with Pain kept with Fear and lost with Grief whereas now thou art to possess eternal Riches without Labouring and to enjoy them without fear of losing The Prayer O God my Heart then is ready my Heart is ready too long have I sojourned here and made my self a Stranger to my Heavenly Countrey It is high time for me then to discamp and to leave these Tents of Kedar that I may rest without Labouring rejoyce without sorrowing and live without dying in the Celestial Tabor saying with that Vessel of Election I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ even so Lord Jesus come quickly A Prayer when we hear a Bell ring for a Person at the Point of Death OEternal God I humbly thank thee for speaking in this voice to my Soul and I humbly beseech thee also to accept my Prayers in his behalf by whose occasion this voice this sound is come to me For though he and all of us have highly offended thee yet do thou in mercy receive us and grant that now his Soul being ready to depart from hence to thy Kingdom it may quickly return to a joyful re-union to that Body which it hath left and that we with it may soon enjoy the full Consummation of all in Body and Soul II. I humbly beg at thy hand O merciful God for thy Son Christ Jesus sake That thy Blessed Son may have the Consummation of his Dignity by entring into his last Office the Office of a Judge and may have Society of humane Bodies in Heaven as well as he hath had ever of Souls and that as thou hatest Sin it self thy hate to sin may be exprest in the abolishing of all Instruments of Sin the Allurements of this World and the World it self and all the temporary Revenges of Sin the Stings of Sickness and of Death and all the Castles and Prisons and Monuments of Sin in the Grave III. Let time be swallowed up in Eternity and hope swallowed in Possession and ends swallowed in infiniteness and all Men ordained to Salvation in Body and Soul be one intire and everlasting Sacrifice to thee where thou mayst receive Delight from them and they Glory from thee for evermore Amen Meditation XXXII Of this Life compared with Eternity FOrasmuch as Man who is born of a Woman hath but a short time to live and is full of Trouble so Man as regenerate and born of God hath a long time to live and is full of Bliss A Life so long that it runs parallel with Eternity and therefore without an abuse we cannot use such an Expression as length of time II. It is not a long but an endless Life it is not Time but Eternity which now I speak of Nor is it a wretched Eternity of which a Man may have the Priviledge as he is born of a Woman but an Eternity of Bliss which is competent to him only as born of God III. And of this Bliss there is such a fulness that our Heads are too thick to understand it Or if we were able to understand it yet our Hearts are too narrow to give it Entrance Or if our Hearts could
the Cursings and Howlings of Fiends and Furies shall entertain their melodious Ear deformed and hideous sights shall entertain their Lascivious eye loathsome Stenches their delicious Smell Sulphur and Brimstone their luscious Taste Graspings and Embracings of Snakes their amorous Touch and Anguish and Horror every Sense VI. Where those miserable damned Souls shall be tormented both in their Flesh and Spirit In their Flesh by Fire ever burning and never decaying and in their Spirit by the Worm of Conscience ever gnawing and never dying where there shall be Grief intolerable Fear horrible Filth incomparable Death both of Soul and Body without hope of Pardon or Mercy VII And now to close with the last the loss whereof exceeds our Sufferings in all the rest When we consider our unhappiness not only to get Hell the Lake of Horror and Misery but to lose Heaven the place of endless Joy and Felicity what Heart can ponder on it and not resolve it self into a Sea of Tears in Contemplation of it VIII What can the wretched Soul imagine when she lifteth up the light of her mind and beholds the Glory of those immortal Riches and withal considers how she has lost all for the petty Concerns of this Life O how can she be less than confounded with Anguish and cry out in the affliction of her Spirit when she shall cast her Eyes upon this worthless Earth and take a full Prospect of this uneasie World and perceive how her sight was intercepted by a foggy Mist Then presently looking up admiring the Beauty of that eternal Light she instantly concludes that it was nothing else but Night and Darkness she here embraced IX O how then she faints falters and fruitlesly desires that she might have some small Remnant of time allotted her what a sharp Remedy what a severe manner of Conversation would she enter upon What great Promises would she endeavour to perform and with what strict Bonds of Devotion would she seemingly bind her self but then all will be in vain for the Decree is gone forth and as she had her full swing of Pleasures here so she must have her just measure of Torments hereafter The Prayer MOst Gracious and dear Lord out of thy boundless Compassion look upon my grievous Affliction Keep not silence at my Tears for I am a Stranger with thee and a Sojourner as all my Fathers were I have none to fly unto but thee and so highly have I provoked thee that unless thou takest Pity and receivest me for his Blood which was shed for me I am lost eternally II. O thou good Shepherd call me thy lost sheep home for I am lost unless thou callest me Lost for ever unless thou savest me Meditation XVII With Comfort Faith applys her self to the sick Man's Conscience WOunds cannot be cured before they be opened Neither do we doubt but by ministring some fitting Prescriptions our endeavours will bring forth such good Effect as you shall find great ease in your Afflictions You tell me how the remembrance of your End is very terrible to you not so much in regard of your fear of Death as of that dreadful Day of Judgment which attends it II. For you find in your self such an infinite and unsupportable weight of sins pressing down your Soul even to the Gates of Hell as less than grieve you cannot else were you insensible of the loss of a Soul Trust me Sinner so far am I from condoling with you as I rejoyce in your sorrowing for this Sense of your Sins leads you to a Remedy which had you not been afflicted and brought even to the brink of the Pit you had still lived in supine Carelessness III. Now may you say with the Royal Psalmist It is good for me that I have been afflicted Else you might have gloried in your Sins and have perished for ever Be then of good Comfort and suffer not Cain's desperate Conclusion to take possession of your Spirits for I must tell you He sinned more in saying Greater is my Sin than can be pardoned than in murdering his Brother for as in the one he laid violent hands on the image of God so in the other he detracted from the highest and dearest Prerogative belonging to him IV. For there is no Attribute wherewith he is more delighted than to be styled a God of Mercy We may safely then conclude that Despair is of a more high and hainous Nature than any sin For tell me has not God himself with his own Mouth promised and is he not able and willing to perform what he hath promised That at what time soever a Sinner doth repent him of his Sin from the bottom of his Heart He will put away all his wickedness out of his remembrance Ezek. 18. though late Repentance then be seldom true yet true Repentance never comes too late V. The good Thief on the Cross had no sooner repented him of his Sin and Confessed Christ but he was even at the last hour received to Mercy which Example as it admits no Liberty to encourage any to presume so it is a Fortification to others against Despair VI. Indeed there is nothing that endangers Man's Salvation more than by giving way to delay yet when the sorrowful Soul heartily repents him of what is past and with a constant Religious resolve intends to redeem the time to come his pious Tears devout Prayers Holy Resolves will find ready Admittance to the Throne of Grace For as his Mercy is above all his Works so will he extend it in a large manner on that Work which stands in most need of his Mercy VII This your long Experience has observed and plenteously tasted else have your Sojourning years been ill bestowed that he is Gracious Merciful and of Long-suffering and it has been evermore the Property of this good and careful Shepherd to call home those that were wandring and to embrace those that were returning It has been ever the Condition of this valiant Joshua to exhort you to fight and then to assist you in the Conquest VIII Come then tell me are you weary and so heavy laden that you must faint by the way if you be not refreshed Go to him that has invited you and you will receive Comfort be not then wavering in your Faith but take fast hold of his Promises who will not fail you and rely on his Mercies who in your greatest straits will deliver you The Prayer BLessed Jesu how justly mightest thou have reproved me with O thou of little Faith O it is but a little one the least Seed in the Garden but O Lord I beseech thee increase it and pray unto thy Father that my Faith fail not So shall my Heart be purified I become justified and have access to thee by Faith and hereafter live with thee and thy faithful ones in the inheritance of the Just Meditation XVIII Hopes Address to the Sick Penitent A Froward Patient requires a rough hand and a resolute Heart I am not
that he lives at rest in his Possessions and become his great Cross that he hath Prosperity in all things Not only the Sting and the Stroak but the very remembrance of Death will be bitter to him So saith Jesus the Son of Sirach Wisd 4.1 Verse 1. The Prayer ANd yet how hardly can we endure even the smallest trouble for thy sake O Lord So insensible are we of thy Goodness so forgetful of thy Power that we do not only in our wants condemn and accuse thy Providence but are ready even to turn Infidels in our misfortunes II. Make us therefore O Lord to see the Vanity both of the World and our own Hearts the Pleasures of it may neither drown nor the Crosses of it deject our Hope or discourage our obedience Let that Glory which thou hast promised to those that conquer the World for thy sake be ever in our Eye that so in what Condition soever we are in we may still be found Crown'd and Triumphing in Faith above all the Troubles and Vexations of this World Meditation XXVIII That many have desired Death rather than Life MAn that is born of a Woman is so full of trouble to the Brim that many times it overflows him On one side or other we all are troubled but some are troubled on every side 2 Cor. 4.8 insomuch that they themselves are the greatest trouble unto themselves and 't is a kind of Death to them they cannot die II. We find King David so Sick of Life as to fall into a wishing for the Wings of a Dove that so his Soul might fly away from the great impediments of his Body He Confessed that his days were at the longest but a Span Psal 39.5 and yet complained they were no shorter III. It seems that Span was as the Span of a withered hand which the farther he stretched out the more it grieved him He was weary of his groaning Psal 6.6 his Soul did pant after Heaven Psal 42.1 and even thirsted after God Verse 2. and he might once more have cryed tho' in another Sense Wo is me that I am constrain'd to dwell with Mesech and to have my Habitation among the Tents of Kedar IV. I Remember that Charedemus compar'd Man's Life to a Feast or Banquet And I the rather took notice of it because the Prophet Elijah did seem in some Sense to have made it good Who after a first or second Course as I may say of living as if he had surfeited of Life Cryed out in haste it is enough and with the very same breath desired God to take away for so saith the Scripture 1 King 19.14 V. He went into the Wilderness a solitary place and there he sate under a Juniper Tree in a Melancholly posture and requested of God that he might die in a very disconsolate and doleful manner even pouring forth his Soul in these melting Accents It is enough now O Lord take away my Life for I am no better than my Fathers VI. And if Elijah's days were full of Trouble how were Job's overwhelm'd and running over with his Calamities when the Terrours of God did set themselves in array against him Job 6.4 how did he long for Destruction Verse 8 9. O saith he that I might have my request that God would grant me the thing that I long for Even that it would please him to destroy me that he would let loose his hand and cut me off VII How did he Curse the day the day of his Birth and the Night wherein he was Conceiv'd Job 3.1 3 4 5. c. Let that Day be darkness let the shadow of Death stain it let a Cloud dwell upon it let Blackness terrifie it And for the Night let it not be joyned to the days of the year Let the Stars of the Twilight thereof be darkned neither let it see the dawning of the Day VIII And what was his reason for this unkindness to that particular Day and Night save that they brought upon him the Trouble of being a Man born of a Woman For we find him complaining a little after Why died I not from the Womb why did I not give up the Ghost when I came out of the Belly Job 3.11 12. IX And then for the Life of our Blessed Saviour who is called by way of Eminence the Son of Man and as his Life was short so it was full of Trouble He was called vir Dolorum a Man of Sorrows and was acquainted with grief Isa 53.3 for the whole Tenour of his Life was a Continuation of his Calamities The Prayer O Lord though perhaps I am not so bad as some yet I am so bad in my self that the Leper in the Gospel is a Beauty to my Soul Lazarus's Corps a Comeliness to my Sores yet were I more impotent than the Cripple of Bethesda more Leprous than the nine whose Ingratitude was more loathsome than their Disease were those Legions ejected by thy word received in me were I as bad as Satan could wish to make me yet I know thy Goodness and I do not doubt thy Power but thou canst cleanse me and ease me of all my Troubles Vexations and Infirmities and bring me at last to thy Heavenly Kingdom Amen Meditation XXIX Of improving our Time IF Man's time be but short it concerns us to take up the Prayer of David Psal 39.4 that God would Teach us to know our End and the number of our days that we like Hezekiah 2 Kings 20.6 may be fully certified how short our time is It concerns us to take up the Resolution of Job 14.2 all the days of our appointed time incessantly to wait till our Change cometh II. It concerns us not to say with the rich Man in the Parable Luke 12.18 We will pull down our Barns and build greater and there we will bestow all our Fruits and our Goods Much less may we say with that other Worlding Verse 19. Souls take your ease eat drink and be merry for ye have much Goods laid up for many years For alas how can we know silly Creatures as we are but that this very Night yea this very minute either they may be taken from us or we from them there is such a Fadingness on their Parts and such a Fickleness on ours III. But rather it concerns us to say with Job Chap. 1.21 Naked came we into the World and naked shall we go out of it Or rather yet it concerns us to say with David Psal 39.12 That we are Strangers upon Earth and but so many Sojourners as all our Fathers were for whilst we consider we are but Strangers we shall as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.12 Heb. 11.13 IV. And so long as we remember we are but Sojourners upon Earth we shall pass the time of our Sojourning here in fear And behaving our selves among the Gentiles as a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an Holy Nation a peculiar People we shall
benefit when we are deprived of it we have no wrong We are Tenants at Will of this Clay-farm not for term of years when we are warned out we must be ready to remove having no other Title but the owners Pleasure it is but an Inn not an Home we came to bait not to dwell and the Condition of our entrance was in short to depart If this Departure be grievous it is also common this to day to me to morrow to thee and the Case equally afflicting all leaves none any cause to complain of injurious usage XI Natures Debt is sooner exacted of some than of others yet there is no fault in the Creditor who exacteth but his own but in the Greediness of our eager hopes either repining that their Wishes fail or willingly forgetting their Mortality whom they are unwilling by experience to see Mortal yet the general Tide wafteth all Passengers to the same Shore some sooner some later but all at the last and we must fix our minds upon our time when it is come never fearing a thing so necessary yet ever expecting a thing so uncertain XII God hath conceal'd from us the time of our Death leaving us resolv'd between fear and hope of longer continuance He cuts off unripe Cares lest with the notice and Pensiveness of our Divorce from the World we should lose the Comforts of necessary Contentments and before our dying day languish away with expectation of Death XIII Some are taken in their first step into this Life receiving at once their Welcome and Farewel as though they had been born only to be buried and to take their Pasport in this hourly middle of their Course the good to prevent Change the bad to shorten their impiety XIV Who is there that hath any Vertue eternized or deserts commended to Posterity that hath not mourned in Life and been bewailed after Death no assurance of joy being sealed without some Tears Even the Blessed Virgin the Mother of God was thrown down as deep in temporal Miseries as she was advanc'd high in spiritual Honours none amongst all mortal Creatures finding in Life more Proof than she of her Mortality XV. For having the noblest Son that ever Woman was Mother of not only above the Condition of Men but above the Glory of Angels being her Son only without temporal Father and thereby the Love of both Parents doubled in her Breast being her only Son without other issue and so her Love of all Children expired in him as he was God and she the nearest Creature to God's perfections yet no Prerogative exempted her from Mourning or him from dying and though they surmounted the highest Angels in all other Preheminences yet were they equal with the meanest Men in the Sentence of Death XVI And however the Blessed Virgin being the Pattern of Christian Mourners so tempered her anguish that there was neither any thing undone that might be exacted of a Mother nor any thing done that might be mis-liked in so perfect a Matron yet by this we may guess with what kindnesses Death is like to befriend us that durst cause so Bloody Funerals in so Heavenly a Progeny not exempting him from the Laws of dying that was the Author of Life and soon after to honour his Triumphs with a glorious Resurrection XVII Seeing therefore that Death spareth none let us spare our Tears for better uses being but an Idol-Sacrifice to this deaf and implacable Executioner And for this not long to be continued where they can never profit Nature did promise us a weeping Life exacting Tears for Custom at our first entrance and to furnish our whole Course in this doleful beginning therefore they must be used with Discretion that must be used so often and where so many Debts lie yet unpaid which must be satisfied by Tears of Repentance XVIII Since we cannot put a Period to our Tears let us at least reserve them If Sorrow cannot be shun'd let it be taken in time of need since otherwise being both troublesome and fruitless it is a double Misery or an open Folly We moisten not the ground with precious Waters they were distill'd to nobler ends either by their Vertues to delight our Senses or by their Operations to preserve our Healths XIX Our Tears are water of too high a Price to be prodigally poured in the Dust of any Graves If they be Tears of Love they perfume our Prayers making them Odour of sweetness fit to be offered on the Altar of the Throne of God if Tears of Contrition they are water of Life to the dying Souls they may purchase Favour and repeal the Sentence till it be executed as the Example of Ezechias doth testifie but when the Punishment is past and Verdict perform'd in effect their pleading is in vain as David taught us when his Child was dead 2 Kings 11. saying that he was likelier to go to it than it by his weeping to return to him XX. Learn therefore to give Sorrow no long Dominion over you wherefore the Wise should rather mark than expect an end meet it not when it cometh do not invite it when 't is absent When you feel it do not force it for the brute Creatures have but a short though vehement Sense of their Losses You should bury the sharpness of your Grief in the Grave and rest contented with a kind yet mild Compassion neither less decent for you nor more than agreeable to your Nature and Judgment XXI Your much Heaviness would renew a multitude of Griefs and your Eyes would be Springs to many Streams adding to the Memory of the dead a new occasion of Complaint to your own discomfort the Motion of your Heart measureth the beating of many Pulses which in any Distemper of your quiet with the like stroke will soon bewray themselves sick of your Disease XXII The terms of our Life are like the Seasons of the year some for Sowing some for Growing some for Reaping in this only different that as the Heavens keep their prescribed Periods so the Succession of time have their appointed Changes But in the Seasons of our Life which are not the Law of necessary Causes some are reaped in the Seed some in the Blade some in the unripe Ears all in the end this Harvest depending upon the Reapers Will. XXIII Death is too ordinary a thing to seem any Novelty being a familiar Guest in every House and since his coming is expected and his Errand known neither his Presence should be feared nor his Effects lamented what wonder is it to see fuel burned Spice bruised or Snow melted and as little fearful it is to see those dead that were born upon Condition once to die XXIV Night and Sleep are perpetual Mirrours figuring in their darkness silence shutting up of Senses the final end of our mortal Bodies and for this some have entitled Sleep the eldest Brother of Death but with no less Convenience it might be called one of Death's Tenants near unto him in Affinity
of Condition yet far inferiour in right being but Tenant for a time of that Death which is the Inheritance for by Vertue of the Conveyance made to him in Paradise that Dust we were and to Dust we must return he hath hitherto shewed his Seigniority over all exacting of us not only the yearly but hourly Revenue of time which ever by minutes we defray unto him XXV So that our very Life is not only a Memory but a part of our Death and the longer we have lived the less time we have to come what is the daily lessening of our Life but a continual dying and therefore none is more grieved with the running out of the last Sand in an Hour-Glass than with all the rest so should not the end of the last hour trouble us any more than of so many that went before since that did but finish the Course that all the rest were still ending not the quantity but the quality commendeth our Life the ordinary Gain of long Livers being only a great burthen of Sin XXVI Let your mind therefore Consent to that which your Tongue daily craveth that God's will may be done as well here upon Earth as it is done in Heaven since his Will is the best measure of all Events there is in this World continual enterchange of pleasing and greeting Accidents still keeping their Succession of times and overtaking each other in their several Courses XXVII No Picture can be all drawn of the brightest Colours nor an Harmony consorted only of Trebles shadows are useful in expressing of Proportions and the base is a principal part in perfect Musick the Condition of our Exile here alloweth no unmingled Joy our whole Life is temperate between sweet and sowre and we must all look for a mixture of both XXVIII The Wise so wish Better that they still think of worse accepting the one if it come with liking and bearing the other without impatience being so much Masters of each others Fortunes that neither shall work them to excess the Dwarf groweth not up to the highest Hill nor the Tallest loseth not his height in the lowest Valley and as a base sordid mind though most at ease will be dejected so a resolute Vertue in the deepest distress is most impregnable XXIX They evermore most perfectly enjoy their Comforts that least fear their afflictions for a desire to enjoy carrieth with it a fear to lose and both Desire and Fear are Enemies to quiet Possession making Men rather Owners of God's Benefits than Tenants at his Will The cause of our Troubles are that our misfortunes happen either to unwitting or unwilling minds foresight preventeth the one necessity the other and he taketh away the smart of present Evils that attendeth their coming and is not frighted at any Cross but is armed against all XXX Where necessity worketh without our Consent the Effects should never greatly afflict us Grief being insignificant where it cannot help needless where there was no fault committed if Men should lay all their Evils together to be afterwards by equal Portions divided among them most Men would rather take that they brought than stand to the Division XXXI Yet such is the partial Judgment of Self-love that every Man judgeth his own Misery too great fearing if he can find some Circumstances to increase it and making it tolerable by thought to induce it when Moses threw his Rod from him it became a Serpent ready to sting him and affrighted him insomuch as it made him fly but being quietly taken up it was a Rod again serviceable for his use and no way hurtful XXXII The Cross of Christ and Rod of every Tribulation seeming to threaten Stinging and Terrour to those that shun it but they that mildly take it up and embrace it with Patience may say with David thy Rod and thy Staff have been my Comfort Affliction much resembleth the Crocodile fly it pursueth and frighteth followed it flyeth and feareth a shame to the Constant and a Tyrant to the Timorous XXXIII Soft minds that think only upon Delights admit no other Consideration but in flattering Objects become so effeminate as that they are apt to bleed with every sharp impression but he that useth his Thoughts with Expectation of Troubles making their Travel through all hazards and opposing his Resolution against the sharpest Encounters findeth in the Product facility of Patience and easeth the Load of most heavy Troubles XXXIV We must have temporal things in use but eternal in Wish that in the one neither Delight exceed in that we have no Desire in that we want and in the other our most delight is here in desire and our whole Desire is hereafter to enjoy they straiten too much their Joys that draw them into the reach and compass of their Senses as if it were no Facility where no Sense is Witness whereas if we exclude our passed and future Contentments Pleasures have so fickle an assurance that either as forestalled before their Arrival or interrupted before their end or ended before they are well begun XXXV The Repetition of former Comforts and the Expectation of after Hopes is ever a relief unto a vertuous mind whereas others not suffering their Lives to continue in the Conveniences of that which was and shall be divided this day from yesterday and to morrow and by forgetting all and forecasting nothing abridge their whole Life into the moment of present Eternity XXXVI How ought we then to submit our selves to God's Will let him strip you to the Skin nay to the Soul so he stay with you himself let his Reproach be your Honour his Poverty your Riches and he in lieu of all other Friends think him enough for this World that must be all your Possession for a whole Eternity and in all your Crosses and Afflictions in this Life humbly say with Holy Job The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away blessed be the Name of the Lord. Te Deum Laudamus FINIS THE CONTENTS Meditation I. UPon remembring our Creatour in the days of our Youth Pag. 1 The Prayer p. 4. Meditation II. The remembrance of Death a powerful Remedy against Sin p. 6. Prayers against sudden Death p. 9. Meditation III. What Life is p. 11. The Prayer p. 13. Meditation IV. That we ought continually to watch and pray p. 14. The Prayer p. 17. Meditation V. Death often to be thought of p. 18. The Prayer p. 21. Meditation VI. Of the shortness of humane Life p. 22. The Prayer p. 24. Meditation VII That we ought early to seek after God p. 26. The Prayer p. 28. Meditation VIII That Affliction is necessary to all Persons p. 29. The Prayer p. 31. Meditation IX That Affliction is a Mark of God's Favour p. 33. The Prayer p. 34. Meditation X. Of Man's Original being born to die p. 35. The Prayer p. 39. Meditation XI Memorials hourly necessary upon the four last things Death Judgment Hell and Heaven p. 40. The Prayer p. 42. Meditation XII On Death p. 43. The Prayer p. 47. Meditation XIII Upon Judgment p. 47. The Prayer p. 51. Meditation XIV Upon Hell p. 52. The Prayer p. 56. Meditation XV. Upon Heaven p. 57. The Prayer p. 60. Meditation XVI The remembrance of the four last things reduced to Practice p. 61. The Prayer p. 65. Meditation XVII With Comfort Faith applies her self to the sick Man's Conscience p. 66. The Prayer p. 70. Meditation XVIII Hopes Address to the sick Penitent Ibid. The Prayer p. 73. Meditation XIX The Exercise of Charity p. 75. The Prayer p. 79. Meditation XX. The Souls flight to Heaven p. 80. The Prayer p. 83. Meditation XXI Upon the Misery of humane Life and the Blessedness of eternal Life p. 84. The Prayer p. 90. Meditation XXII In time of Sickness p. 91. A Prayer for a happy end in time of Sickness p. 97. Meditation XXIII Of Thanksgiving for Ease in Sickness or Recovery out of it p. 98. A Prayer of Thanksgiving p. 102. Meditation XXIV Comfortable Refreshments at the hour of Death to be used by those who are present p. 103. A Prayer for a sick Person when there appear small hopes of Recovery p. 107. A Commendatory Prayer for a sick Person at the Point of Departure p. 108. Meditation XXV Of the uncertainty of our Lives p. 110. The Prayer p. 113. Meditation XXVI On the Frailty of our Lives p. 114. The Prayer p. 118. Meditation XXVII That Death frees us from the Vexations Troubles and Cares of this mortal Life p. 119. The Prayer p. 121. Meditation XXVIII That many have desired Death rather than Life p. 122. The Prayer p. 125. Meditation XXIX Of improving our time p. 126. The Prayer p. 130. Meditation XXX Motives not to defer our Repentance to a future Time p. 131. The Prayer p. 139. Meditation XXXI The sick Man's last Will and Testament 139. The Prayer p. 145. A Prayer when we hear a Bell ring for a Person at the Point of Death p. 146. Meditation XXXII Of this Life compar'd with Eternity p. 147. The Prayer p. 150. Meditation XXXIII Comforts against the Fears of Death and Consolations against immoderate Grief for the Loss of Friends p. 151. The End of the Contents