my sins but thou O Lord besides the dictates of thy heavenly Word and boly Spirit dost now visit me in mercy giving me by this sickness not only warning to consider and time to repent me of all my manifold transgressions but also opportunity to sue to the throne of grace for pardon so as I do not apprehend this visitation as a sign of thy heavy displeasure against me but rather as an assured pledge and token of thy fatherly kindness by this temporal chastisement to draw me to the judging of my self to be humbled for all my offendings to abhor my self in dust and ashes so as not to be condemned with the world for thy holy Word hath taught us That thou scourgest every son that thou receivest and that if I do patiently and believingly endure thy chastising hand thou dost offer thy self as a tender father to relieve me O Lord how full of mercy and compassion is thy nature that hast dealt so graciously with me in affording to me a long time of health and prosperity such as few have received more I do confess O Lord that thou most justly dost afflict my body with sickness for my soul before was sick of long prosperity and even surfeited with health ease peace and plenty and fulness of bread A wretched sinner I have been void of all goodness by nature and full of evil works by custom but seeing thy mercy is above all I beseech thee heavenly father in Jesus Christ for his sake and for his meritorious suffering and according to the multitude of thy mercies cast me not out of thy gracious presence neither reward me after my iniquities As thou art the helper of the helpless and the God of all consolation to such as trust in thee as thou art pleased to lay this sickness upon me so let it work that good effect which thou in thy great mercy dost intend And good Lord send thy holy Spirit into my heart by which this and all other thy dispensations may be sanctified to me that I may use the same as a lesson in thy School whereby to be taught both the greatness of my misery and wants and also the fulness of thy riches and mercy in the Lord Christ to be so humbled at the one as not to despair of the other Grant that I may renounce all confidence in my self and in every other creature or means so as only to put the whole trust of my preservation and salvation in thy boundless mercy And for as much O Lord as thou knowest how weak a vessel I am full of frailty impotence and imperfection and how by nature I am froward and impatient under the least cross and under the lightest affliction Do thou O Lord who art the giver of all good gifts indue me with heavenly grace with holy patience and with godly fortitude so as quietly to resign up my self even body and soul to what thou shalt appoint for me And of thy tender mercy lay no more upon me then thou shalt please to enable me comfortably to bear Strengthen me by thy healy grace that during this sickness and in all other times of affliction I may behave my self in all humility and meekness and faith and quiet repose in the sight and presence of those friends or assistants that shall come or be about me and also that I may both thankfully receive and readily improve all such seasonable counsel and heavenly consolation and holy direction as shall proceed from them And likewise that I may shew such Christianly example of childe-like patience and withal may give forth such godly lessons of heavenly comfort as may be both apparent arguments and sure testimonies of my holy profession and also of use and instruction to them how they are to behave themselves in the day of their visitation I do confess O Lord that in regard of my great provocations I have deserved both sickness and death it self and I do now desire no longer to live then to reform my evil life and in some better measure to set forth thy glory but if thou hast according to thy eternal decree appointed by this sickness to call for me out of this transitory life Lord help me willingly to resign my self into thy hands saying Thy blessed will be done only I do most humbly beseech thee even for Jesus Christ his sake who is the Son of thy love to pardon all my sins and in him to be reconciled to me and so to prepare my poor soul that by a lively faith and unfeigned repentance she may be ready to yield up her self when thou shalt be pleased to call for her O holy Father thou art the hearer of prayers hear thou in heaven these my weak supplications and in this my sickness which is like to increase upon me be pleased to shew thy Almighty power and goodness Teach my heart in holy believing to say Whether I live or whether I die I am Christs and Christ is mine and he shall be advantage to me both here and hereafter and for ever To him with the Father and the holy Ghost be ascribed all honour and glory and power and dominion for ever and ever Amen The Lord will be a refuge Psa 9.9 in time of trouble Hear me O Lord my God Psal 13.3 5. that I sleep not in death for my trust is in thy mercy and my heart is joyful in thy salvation II. Concerning Prayer CHrist and God and all is laid out for the good of the godly they may go to God with holy boldness and tell him wherein they are troubled pained afflicted oppressed If we ask great things from God he is well pleased with it but if we ask riches and honour and worldly preferment these are the low things of the footstool and they are often in mercy denyed let us therefore of God ask peace of conscience pardon of sin let us crave power to overcome our lusts strength to withstand temptations joy in the holy Ghost and grace to glorifie our dear Redeemer both in doing and in suffering God hath most assuredly all good things lying ready by him only he looks that Prayer should fetch them from him Now observe When our great Master Christ would give us a perfect pattern of Prayer both for matter and for manner he there windes up and wraps up all with a conclusion which consists of certain reasons to perswade our heavenly Father to hear our prayers or at least to assure our souls that he doth and that he will hear them and these reasons have a certain influence into all and every one of the petitions Thine is the Kingdom for this reason we do expect that as a good King thou wilt receive us and answer our petitions It is thy concernment as a King to have thine honour advanced for this reason Hallow thine own Name glorifie it in the Church advance thy Will in it sustain us thy Subjects pardon our Offences keep and defend us from
all evil especially our spiritual enemies for thine is the Power such power as Kings do want but thou art fully able 1. To exalt thine own Name 2. To extend thy Kingdom over all 3. To fit us to do thy Will 4. To minister to our Necessities 5. To pardon our Sins 6. To preserve us from and to deliver us out of all evil and then thine is the Glory the hallowing of thy Name is the chief part of thy glory thy Kingdom is the prime place of thy glory And herein art thou glorified that is when we set forth thy praise when we obey thy will when thou providest for thy people when thou forgivest their sins when thou comfortest them in their calamities So do we trust and hope that thou wilt do all these things for us Take heed for if in our prayers we come to God with a guilty defiled conscience with cold affections with dead spirits not departing from iniquity and without a pure heart This is howling and not praying Prayer by good Christians hath been stiled and esteemed the key of Heaven and the confusion of hell the standard of our spiritual warfare the conservation of our peace the bridle of our impatience the guardian of our temperance the seal of chastity the advocate of offenders the consolation of the afflicted and the Pasport of the dying Thus the just do live and die in prayer A Christian without prayer may be compared to a Bee without a sting which can make neither wax nor honey A true Christian makes prayer not only his lock and key of the day but his bolt at night yea his very meals and recreations for this it was that the primitive Christians were called the crickets of the night because when sleep did fail their hearts were lifted up in constant ejaculatory prayer III. Meditations at first sickning WIth one cross be it of sickness or other affliction God doth usually work two cures 1. By chastisement for sins past 2. By preventing of sins to come so as we may say with the Prophet Before I was afflicted I went astray but now thy grace assisting I will keep thy statutes 2. God sends sickness and other afflictions to seal to us our adoption For every childe whom God loveth he chastiseth and suffereth the wicked still to continue in their sins without correction 3. God sends sickness to wean our hearts from the love of the world and of worldly vanities and to cause us more early to desire and more earnestly to long for Heaven 4. Of all afflictions and crosses sickness may be held to come most immediately from the hand of God and that because of sin 5. By sickness and affliction God doth exercise his children the graces which he bestows upon them he thereby tryeth and refineth our faith to make it to shine more clear he thereby stirreth us up to pray more frequently and more zealously He sees what patience we have learned all this while in his School and so concerning our hope in Christ our love to the glorious Trinity our charity to our Christian brethren and the like 6. Sanctified sickness and affliction is a singular help to further us in our conversion and by unfeigned sorrow and true repentance to drive us home to our heavenly Father in holy believing 7. Sickness and affliction do work in us not only Christianly love and charity but pity and compassion also towards our brethren so as to have a fellow-feeling with them in all their sufferings 8. God doth many times make use of our sickness and other afflictions not only as means and as examples whereby to manifest to others the faith patience and other graces that he hath bestowed upon us but also by the same to strengthen and to encourage others that have not yet received so great a measure of faith and of assurance as we have done 9. By sickness and afflictions God worketh us to a conformity of the image of his Son Jesus Christ who being the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering 10. God sendeth sickness that the godly may thereby be humbled in respect of their own condition and misery and that God may be glorified by a gracious delivering them out of all their troubles when in sincerity they call upon him for his help and succour IV. Directions and Consolations in time of Sickness and Death LEt every Christian upon his sick bed not only with patience look for death but with comfort also and that for these reasons 1. Because the death of every member of Christ as well as of others is foreseen and ordained by the special decree and providence of God 2. Reason is taken from the promise of God Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they shall rest from their labours and their works follow them 3. He that dyeth in Christ his soul and his body are really united to Christ according to the Covenant of grace 4. God hath also promised his gracious special presence to such sick and dying persons as do belong to him so he saith Isa 43.1 Fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name thou art mine when thou passest thorow the waters I will be with thee A little blast of sickness doth oftentimes become mortal and we are many a time carried away in that blast and if we should hold out a while longer we do but daily consume and moulder away with old age till we return to our dust and at last do become but a coffin for the worms Let not a dying man think on the pangs of death which may perhaps be light and short but let him wholly fix his thoughts and the eye of his faith upon that blessed estate of eternal life which Jesus Christ hath purchased for him In the business of sickness and especially of death lay aside all curious speculations of Gods unsearchable counsels all cogitations and considerations of works of traditions of Philosophy yea and of the Law of God too and run strait to the manger embrace the babe Christ in thine arms yea in thy soul behold him as he was born growing up conversant amongst men as teaching dying rising again ascending above the heavens and having power above all things This thought this sight will make thee to shake off all troubles and terrors as the Sun driveth away the clouds We must live in the world as in a strange Country where we are every day taking our farewel being as in sickness alwayes ready to depart and because the instant of our departing is uncertain we should wait for it every hour The wise Christian that hearkneth to the minutes of his breathing can never be surprised when the hour of his last sigh doth strike Our duty in sickness or any other affliction is to inquire and finde out the cause if it be for sin to humble our selves to justifie God to turn to him to submit to his will to seek his
a merciful high-Priest in things pertaining to God to work reconciliation for the sins of the people for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted Seeing that we have a great high Priest Jesus the Son of God who is passed into the Heavens let us hold fast our profession for we have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are sin only excepted let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and finde grace in time of need Seeing we are taught by faith That whatsoever we have need of and is wanting in us the same is laid up with God for us in Christ it remaineth then that we do seek it of him and be it in sickness or in health by daily prayer beg it of him V. Reading of Scripture or part of Chapters PSalms 62 77 96. Isa 55. 1 Cor. 15. from v. 1. to v. 29. 2 Cor. 5. Rev. 1 5. and the last or part of them VI. A Prayer where friends are to joyn O Most gracious most glorious Lord God we thy poor unworthy servants are here prostrate before thy heavenly Majesty begging pardon at thy compassionate hands for all the evils that we stand guilty of Oh look upon us not as we are miserable sinners but as we are by the precious blood of thy dear Son reconciled unto thee for his sake we beseech thee to hear us and to accept of our prayers not only for our selves but on the behalf of this thy distressed servant our Christian brother whom thou hast here brought low upon the bed of sickness we are taught O Lord that sickness is brought upon the world for sin and that it is inflicted upon thine own people for a tryal and for a blessing that being by thee so fatherly chastised they may return unto thee like obedient children by unfeigned repentance holy believing and humble supplication and not as with the wicked for hardning of their hearts O Lord we beseech thee in the Name of the Lord Jesus give to this thy sick servant grace and spiritual strength to search into his own heart so as to finde out to bewail and to detest all his former sinful actions freely to forgive every injury done unto him duly to make restitution wheresoever there is cause so as to be in charity with all men and to have a clear conscience void of all offence Give him of thy grace O Lord that he may not take this sickness or any other thy visitation either insensibly or impatiently let him be truly humbled under thy mighty hand and yet confidently trust and constantly depend upon thy rich mercy in Christ Jesus so that nothing may be able to separate him from thee who art his only stay and portion yea the only comfort of his precious soul And then good Lord send thy holy Spirit into his heart to support and sanctifie him against all his natural weaknesses passions and infirmities let thy Almighty power and goodness preserve him against all outward cares and troubles let thy heavenly Grace O most blessed Saviour by thy all-sufficient merits purchase for him his needful pardon and let thy most precious blood be to him a happy Medicine to all his maladies and a soveraign help against all his spiritual enemies O grant unto him this blessing that he may quietly repose himself at this time under the shadow of thy wings void of all fear and free from all spiritual darkness dangers and despair Lord give him a watchful heart willingly disposed and thorowly enabled to abandon all transitory things here below and to depart hence with joy and in the peace of a good conscience Good Lord teach him enable him upon this his sick bed openly earnestly faithfully unfeignedly and incessantly to be confessing his sins and craving pardon of all his iniquities O be graciously pleased to keep under Satan that he may have no power to draw him from submitting to thy divine will and pleasure restore in him the image of thy dear Son Jesus Christ that so long as thou shalt afford him any breath he may live in thy fear trust in thy mercy rely on thy promises believe in thy Word die in thy favour rest in thy peace rise in thy power and remain in thy glory These blessings and what other mercies this thy sick creature or we thy poor servants do stand in need of we do humbly and faithfully implore at thy gracious hands and in the Name and for the sake of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and do conclude all our petitions as he hath taught us to whom with thee and the holy Spirit be all glory power and dominion world without end Amen VII Meditations on the dayes of Death and of Doom DEath was to us by reason of sin a dungeon for reserving the guilty body against the day of Judgement but now by and through the merits of Christ our blessed Saviour death is become as it were a persumed bed for the Elect against the day of the Resurrection Then O my Lord and Saviour why should it molest or trouble me at all to tread in thy steps towards glory The worst piece of the horror of death is the grave that part which is corrupted feels it not the other which is free from corruption feels an abundant recompence foresees a joyful reparation The day of Death and the day of Doom are the two Pole-Stars in which we that are Pilgrims and strangers on earth must at all times be fixing of our eyes Joseph of Arimathea did make his sepulchre in his garden Egyptians had the picture of death alwayes in their Banquetting-houses even so should we in the midst of our worldly pleasures be continually preparing our selves and casting up our accounts and daily numbring our dayes Death to the righteous is ever welcome and for the day of Doom the very name of it to the godly is as honey the mentioning of it is as the sweetest melody and the thoughts of it to every good Christian is as a year of Jubile Be pleased then Oh heavenly Father to lift up my head and my heart in that great and glorious day Lord turn from me those judgements that attend the wicked and crown me with those myriades of blessings which do alwayes accompany thine Elect and so in mercy come Lord Jesus come quickly In that great day we shall see and meet the ancient Patriarks Moses and Aaron Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the old Prophets Elias Jeremiah Daniel Hosea we shall also behold the four and twenty Elders the holy Apostles Matthew Mark James and John and all the holy Martyrs John the Baptist Stephen c. likewise all those harmless Infants that were slain by Herod who with their Olive-branches in their hands do continually sing Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and