such as be helpers The first duty of the sicke man is to send for helpe where two circumstances must be considered who must be sent for and when For the first S. Iames saith Is any sicke among you let him call for the elders of the Church Whereby are meant not onely Apostles and all ministers of the Gospel but others also as I take it which were men ancient for yeares indued with the spirit of vnderstanding and praier and had withall the gift of working miracles and of healing the sicke For in the primitiue Church this gift was for a time so plentifully bestowed on thē that beleued in Christ that souldiers cast out diuels and parents wrought miracles on their childrē Hēce we may learne that howsoeuer it be the dutie of the Ministers of the word principally to visit and comfort the sicke yet is it not their duty alone for it belongs to them also which haue knowledge of Gods word and the gift of prayer Exhort one an other saith the holy Ghost while it is called to day And againe Admonish them that are disordered and comfort those that are weake And indeede in equitie it should be the dutie of euery Christian man to cōfort his brother in sicknesse Here wee must needes take knowledge of the common fault of men and women when they come to visit their neighbours and friends they can not speake a word of instruction and comfort but spend the time either in silence gazing and looking on or in vttering wordes to little or no purpose saying to the sicke partie that they are sorie to see him in that case that they wold haue him to be of good comfort but wherein and by what meanes they cannot tel that they doubt not but that he shall recouer his health and liue with them still be merry as in former time that they will pray for him whereas al their prayers are nothing else but the Apostles Creede or the ten Commandemēts the Lords praier vttered without vnderstanding And this is the common comfort thar sicke men gette at the hands of their neighbours whē they come vnto them and all this comes either because men liue in ignorāce of Gods word or because they falsely thinke that the whole burthen of this dutie lies vpon the shoulders of the minister The second circumstance is when the sicke partie must send for the Elders to instruct him and pray for him And that is in the very first place of al before any other helpe be sought for Where the Diuine endes there the Physitian must begin and it is a very preposterous course that the Diuine should ther begin where the Physitian makes an ende For till help be had for the soule and sinne which is the root of sicknes be cured physicke for the body is nothing Therefore it is a thing much to be disliked that in all places almost the Physitian is first sent for and comes in the beginning of the sicknes and the Minister comes when a man is half dead and is then sent for oftentimes when the sicke partie lies drawing on and gasping for breath as though Ministers of the gospel in these daies were able to worke miracles The second dutie of the sick partie is to confesse his sins as S. Iames saith Confesse your sinnes one to another and pray one for another It will be said that this is to bring in againe Popish shrift Ans. Confession of our sinnes and that vnto men was neuer denied of any the question only is of the manner and order of making confession And for this cause wee must put a great difference betweene popish shrift and the confession of which S. Iames speaketh For he requires onely a confession of that or those sinnes which lie vpon a mans conscience when he is sicke but the popish doctrine requireth a particular enumeration of al mans sins Again S. Iames inioynes confessiō onely as a thing meete conueniēt but the Papists as a thing necessarie to the remission of sins Thirdly S. Iames permits that confession be made to any man by one man to another mutually whereas popish shrift is made onely to the priest The secōd duty then is that the sick party troubled in minde with the memory and consideration of any of his sinnes past or any manner of way tempted by the diuell shall freely of his owne accord open his case to such as are both able willing to help him that he may receiue comfort and die in peace of conscience Thus much of the sick mans duty now follow the duties of helpers The first is to pray ouer him that is in his presence to pray with him and for him and by prayer to present his very person and his whole estate vnto God The Prophet Elizeus the Apostle Paul our Sauiour Christ vsed this manner of praying when they would miraculously restore temporall life and therfore it is very meet that the same should be vsed also of vs that we might the better stirre vp our affection in prayer and our compassion to the sicke when we are about to intreat the Lord for the remission of their sinnes and for the saluation of their soules The second duty of him that comes as an helper is to annoint the sicke party with oyle Now this annointing was an outward ceremony which was vsed with the gift of healing which is now ceased and therefore I omit to speake further of it Thus much of the duty which the sick man owes to God now follow the duties which he is to performe vnto himselfe and they are twofold one concernes his soule the other his bodie The dutie concerning his soule is that he must arme furnish himself against the immoderate feare of present death And the reason hereof is plaine because howsoeuer naturally men feare death through the whole course of their liues more or lesse yet in the time of sicknesse when death approcheth this naturall feare bred in the bone will most of all shew it selfe euen in such sort as it will astonish the senses of the sicke partie and sometime cause desperation Therefore it is necessarie that we shold vse meanes to strengthen our selues against the feare of death The meanes are of two sorts practises and meditations Practises are two especially The first is that the sicke man must not so much regard death it self as the benefits of God which are obtained after death He must not fixe his minde vpon the consideration of the pangs and torments of death but all his thoughts and affections must be set vpon that blessed estate that is enioyed after death He that is to passe ouer some great and deepe riuer must not looke downward to the streame of the water but if he would preuent feare he must set his foote sure cast his eye to the banke on the further side so must he that drawes neere death as it were look ouer the waues of
themselues reckon a fewe yeares and daies that are able by arte to measure the globe of the earth and the spheres of heauen the quantities of the starres with their longitudes latitudes altitudes motions distances from the earth No verily For howesoeuer by a generall speculation we thinke something of our ends yet vnlesse the spirit of God be our schoole-master to teach vs our dutie wee shall neuer bee able soundly to resolue our selues of the presence and speedinesse of death And therfore let vs pray with Dauid and Moses that God would inlighten our minds with knowledge and fil our hearts with his grace that we might rightly consider of death and esteeme of euery day an houre as it were the day and houre of death The second dutie in this generall preparation is that euery man must daily indeauour to take away from his owne death the power and strength thereof And I pray you marke this point The Philistims sawe by experience that Sampson was of great strength therfore they vsed meanes to knowe in what part of his bodie it lay when they found it to be in the haire of his head they ceased not vntil it was cut off In like manner the time wil come whē we must encoūter hand to hand with tyranous and cruel death the best therefore is before-hand now while wee haue time to search where the strēgth of death lies which beeing once knowne we must with speed cut off his Sāpsons lockes and bereaue him of his power disarme him make him altogether vnable to preuaile against vs. Now to find out this matter we neede not to vse the councel of any Dalilah for wee haue the word of God which teacheth vs plaīly where the strength of death consists namly in our sins as Paul saith The sting of death is sinne Well then we knowing certenly that the power and force of euery mans partirular death lies in his owne sinnes must spend our time and studie in vsing good meanes that our sinnes may be remooued and pardoned And therefore we must daily inure our selues in the practise of two duties One is to humble our selues for al our sins past partly cōfessing thē against our selues partly in praier crying to heauē for the pardon of them The other is for time to come to turn vnto God and to carrie a purpose resolution indeauour in all things to reforme both hart life according to gods word These are the very principall proper duties wherby the power of death is much rebated he is made of a mighty bloody enemie so far forth friendly and tractable that we may with comfort incounter with him preuaile too Therefore I commend these duties to your christian considerations carefull practise desiring that ye would spend your daies euer hereafter in doing of them If a man were to deale with a mighty dragon or serpent hand to hand in such wise as he must either kill or be killed the best thing were to bereaue him of his sting or of that part of the body where his poison lies now death it selfe is a serpent dragon or scorpion sinne is the sting and poison whereby he wounds kils vs. Wherefore without any more delay see that ye pull out his sting the practise of the foresaid duties is as it were a fit worthy instrument to do the deed Hast thou beene a person ignorant of Gods will a contemner of his word and worship a blasphemer of his name a breaker of his Sabbaths disobedient to parents and magistrates a murderer a fornicatour a rayler a slanderer a couetous persō c. reforme these thy sinnes and all other like to them pull thē out by the rootes from thy heart cast them off So many sinnes as be in thee so many stings of death be also in thee to wound thy soule to eternal death therfore let no one sin remaine for which thou hast not humbled thy selfe and repented seriously When death hurts any man it takes the weapons whereby he is hurt from his owne hand It cannot do vs the least hurt but by the force of our owne sins Wherefore I say againe and againe lay this point to your hearts spend your strength life and health that ye may before ye die abolish the strength of death A man may put a serpent in his bosome when the sting is out we may let death creepe into our bosomes and gripe vs with his legs and stab vs at the heart so long as he brings not his venime and poison with him And because the former duties are so necessary as none can be more I wil vse some reasons yet furder to inforce thē Whatsoeuer a man would doe when he is dying the same he ought to doe euery day while he is liuing now the most notorious and wicked person that euer was when he is dying will pray and desire others to pray for him promise amendment of life protesting that if he might liue he would become a practitioner in all the good duties of faith repentance reformation of life Oh therfore be careful to do this euery day Again the saying is true he that would liue when he is dead must die while he is aliue namely to his sins Wouldest thou then liue eternally sue to heauen for thy pardon and see that now in thy life-time thou die to thine own sinnes Lastly wicked Balaam would faine die the death of the righteous but alas it was to small purpose for he would by no means liue the life of the righteous For his cōtinual purpose and meaning was to follow his olde waies in sorceries couetousnesse Now the life of a righteous man standes in the humbling of himself for his sinnes past and in a carefull reformatiō of life to come Wouldest thou then die the death of the righteous then looke vnto it that thy life be the life of the righteous if ye will needes liue the life of the vnrighteous yee must looke to die the death of the vnrighteous Remēber this and content not your selues to heare the word but be doers of it for ye learn no more indeed what measure of knowledge soeuer ye haue then ye practice The third dutie in our generall preparation is in this life to enter into the first degree of life eternal For as I haue said there be three degrees of life euerlasting and the first of them is in this present life for hee that would liue in eternall happines for euer must beginne in this world to rise out of the graue of his owne sinnes in which by nature he lies buried and liue in newnesse of life as it is said in the Reuelation He that will escape the second death must be made partaker of the first resurrection And Paul saith to the Colossians that they were in this life deliuered from the power of darkenesse and translated into the kingdom of Christ. And Christ saith to the
promise because for the most part the persons thus annointed die afterward without recouerie wheras those which were annointed in the primitiue Church alwaies recouered Thirdly the ancient annointing serued onely for the procuring of health but this tēds further to the procuring of remission of sins and strength in tēptation Thus hauing seene the doctrine of the Papists I come now to speake of the true and right manner of making particular preparation before death which containes three sorts of duties one concerning god the other cōcerning a mās own selfe the third concerning our neighbour The first cōcerning God is to seeke to be recōciled vnto him in Christ though we haue bin long assured of his fauour All other duties must come after in the second place they are of no effect without this Now this recōciliatiō must be sought for is obtained by a renuing of our former faith repentance and they must be renued on this māner So soone as a man shal feele any maner of sicknes to seaze vpon his bodie he must consider with himselfe whēnce it ariseth after serious consideration he shall finde that it comes not by chance or fortune but by the prouidence of God This done he must go yet furder cōsider for what cause the Lord should afflict his body with any sicknes or disease And he shal find by gods word that sicknes comes ordinarily and vsually of sinne Wherefore is the liuing man sorrowfull man suffereth for his sinne It is true indeed ther be other causes of the wāts of the body of sicknes beside sinne and though they be not known to vs yet they ar known to the Lord. Hereupon Christ when he saw a certaine blinde man and was demaunded what was the cause of the blindnesse answered neither hath this man sinned nor his parents but that the workes of God should be shewed on him Yet we for our parts who are to goe not by the secret but by the reuealed will of God must make this vse of our sicknes that it is sent vnto vs for our sinnes When Christ healed the man sicke of the palsy he saith Be of good comfort thy sinnes are forgiuen thee and when he had healed the man by the poole of Bethesda that had bin sicke 38. yers he bids him sin no more least a worse thing happen vnto him giuing them both to vnderstand that their sicknes came by reasō of their sinnes And thus should euery sick man resolue himself Now when we haue proceeded thus farre haue as it were laid our finger vpon the right and proper cause of our sicknesse three things cōcerning our sins must bee performed of vs in sicknes First we must make a new examination of our hearts and liues say as the Israelites said in affliction Let vs search try our waies and turne againe to the Lord. Secondly we must make a new confession to God of our new particular sinnes as God sends new corrections and chastisment When Dauid had the hād of God very heauy vpon him for his sins so as his very bones moisture consumed within him he made confession of them vnto God and therupon obtained his pardon was healed The third thing is to make new praier more earnest then euer before with sighes grones of the spirit that for pardon of the same sins for reconciliation with God in christ In the exercise of these 3. duties standes the renouation of our faith repentance wherby they are increased quickned reuiued And the more sicknes preuailes and takes place in the bodie the more should wee be careful to put thē in vre that spirituall life might increase as temporal life is decaied When king Ezechias lay sicke as he thought vpon his death-bedde he wept as for some other causes so also for his sinnes and withal he praied God to cast them behind his back Dauid made certain Psalmes when he was sick or at the least vpon the occasiō of his sicknes as namely the 6. the 32. the 38. the 39. c. and they are al psalmes of repētāce in which we may see how in distresse of the body and mind he renewed his faith repentāce heartily bewailing his sinnes intreating the Lord for the pardon of them Manasses one that fell from God and gaue himselfe to many horrible sins when he was taken captiue and imprisoned in Babylon Hee prayed to the Lord his God and humbled himselfe greatly before the God of his fathers and prayed vnto him and God was intreated of him and heard his prayer and brought him againe to Ierusalem into his kingdome and then Manasses knew that the Lord was God Now looke what Manasses did in this tribulatiō the same thing must we doe in the time of our bodily sicknesse Here I haue occasion to mention a notorious fault that is very common in this age euen amōg such as haue long liued in the bosome of the Church and that is this Men now adaies are so far from renuing their faith and repentance that when they lie sick and are drawing toward death they must bee catechised in the doctrine of faith and repentance as if they had beene but of late receiued into the Church Whosoeuer wil but as occasion is offered visit the sick shall finde this to be true which I say What a shame is this that whē a man hath spent his life daies in the church for the space of 20. or 30. or 40. yeares hee should at the very ende of all not before begin to enquire what faith what repentance is and how his soule might bee saued This one sin argues the great securitie of this age the great contempt of God and his word Wel let al men hereafter in time to come bee warned to take heede of this exceeding negligence in matters of saluation and to vse all good means before-hand that they may be able in sicknesse and in the time of death to put in practise the spirituall exercises of inuocation and repentance Now if so be it fall out that the sicke partie cannot of himselfe renue his owne faith and repentance he must seeke the help of others When the man that was sicke of the dead palsie could not go to Christ himself he got others to bear him in his bedde when they could not come neere for the multitude they vncouered the roofe of the house and let the bed down before Christ euen so when sicke men cannot alone by thēselues doe the good duties to which they are bound they must borrow helpe from their fellowe members who are partly by their counsell to put to their helping hand partly by their prayers to present them vnto God and to bring them into the presence of Christ. And touching helpe in this case sundry duties are to be performed Saint Iames sets downe foure two whereof concerne the sicke patient and other two