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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49757	Christ's power over bodily diseases Preached in several sermons on Mat. 8. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. And published for the instruction especially of the more ignorant people in the great dutie of preparation for sickness and death. By Edward Lawrence, M.A. minister of the gospel at Baschurch in the county of Salop.	Lawrence, Edward, 1623-1695.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1672 (1672)	Wing L653; ESTC R223651	140,079	330

diseased ver 6. Lord my servant lies at home sick of the Palsie grievously tormented Luke saith Cap. 7.2 He was sick ready to die The person thus visited was a servant in Matthew the Centurion is said to call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may be translated my child for the word is ambiguous signifying either a child or a servant but in Luke he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a servant yet it is said a servant who was dear to him and it seems by considering both together that he was a good faithful and obedient servant and therefore as dear to his Master as his child I shall take occasion from hence to call upon servants to do the Will of God in their Relation Servants labour in all faithfulness and diligence to honour your Masters keep up their Authority in your Souls and let your whole carriage savour of a heart that willingly chearfully and humbly yields up it self in obedient subjection thereunto 1 Pet. 2.18 Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear 1 Tim. 6.1 Let servants count their own Masters worthy of all honour 1. Consider the Family where thou livest is Jesus Christs he is the Great Master of every Family and he hath given Authority to the Master of the Family where thou dwellest to be his Vicegerent therein and to bear his Image and Authority and to rule in his stead therefore as thou art a Christian and so to honour Christ by believing in him and by rejoycing in him and by doing his Will so the honour thou owest to Jesus Christ as thou art a servant is to honour and serve and obey thy Master in him The Apostle requires the obedience of servants to their Masters for this very reason Col. 3.23 24. And whatsoever ye do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men For ye serve the Lord Christ Servants believe that you are threshing for Christ and plowing for Christ and spinning for Christ this will make you do your service heartily when you consider that you are therein serving the Lord Christ and this will make you afraid of disobeying and despising your Masters when you consider that you do thereby as much as in you lies depose the Authority of Jesus Christ from ruling and governing in the Family 2. Consider that you do hereby adorn the Gospel of Christ This is the Apostles argument Tit. 2.10 That they may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things What Doctrine this is appears by the following words the Doctrine of the Grace of God which bringeth Salvation Oh how should this prevail with you to consider that when in conscience to God you are faithful diligent quiet and obedient servants you are a precious Ornament to the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Gospel is honoured not only by Ministers when they preach the Gospel and by Martyrs when they die for the Gospel but also by poor servants when they live in their service as those who are ruled by the Gospel therefore believe the Glory of Jesus Christ as it is revealed and appears in the Gospel and then own and honour the Face and Image and Authority of the same Christ as it shines in thy Master whom he hath placed to bear his Authority over thee 3. Consider that faithful servants are exceeding precious to Jesus Christ Thou thinkest it a sad case that thou must spend all thy daies to toil and drudge like a poor servant but consider the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.21 Art thou called being a servant care not for it never let that trouble thee that thou art a servant And the Apostle gives this reason for thy comfort vers 22. For he that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lords free-man When many a gallant Lord and Lady is a servant to sin and a slave to the Devil and stands bound to suffer the wrath of God for ever thou that art but a poor godly servant and art bound to men yet thou art set free from Sin and Satan and Hell and hast a sure right to all the priviledges of Believers though thou art in this mean relation of a servant amongst men yet thou standest in all the glorious relations to Jesus Christ a poor servant and a King and Priest to God a poor servant and a Wife and Brother of Jesus Christ a poor servant and a glorious Heir of the Kingdom of Heaven I tell thee though thou art but a poor servant yet godliness will put such a grace upon thee as to make thee a glory to Christ a crown and joy to thy Minister a delight to Gods people a terrour to the greatest wicked man about thee and a very torment to the Devil of Hell Lastly consider that this is thy particular way wherein thou art called to please and honour God and to work out thy own salvation Psal 37.23 The steps of a good man be he never so poor are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way It was an high and holy saying of one That a poor Milkmaid walking in obedience to God in her calling doth bring more glory to God then heaven and earth There is no duty which thou art bound unto as a man or as a Christian which hinders thee in thy duty to God and man as thou art a servant for Gods commandments do not cross and interrupt one another and we cannot sin against Gods Will whilst we are doing his Will and true Grace will make thee a gracious servant as well as a gracious Christian the same faith and love which causes thee to believe in and to cleave unto Jesus Christ will cause thee to see and to love and to obey his will and authority in thy Master So that when thou art most faithful and diligent and obedient in thy service thou wilt finde most freedom and sweetness in Prayer in Sermons in singing Psalms and in feeding upon the Lords supper The Apostle requires all servants to be filled with this principle in their walking obediently to their Masters Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of inheritance Col. 3.24 teaching all servants to walk in their Callings so as those that know that this is their way to heaven Ah poor servants rejoyce in your work for heaven is your wages and let me tell you that you are never like to see a fairer way to heaven then you have now you are servants you will finde if ever you come to be husbands and wives and parents and rulers of families that it is harder to rule then to obey Now there are amongst many other excuses these three things which servants pretend to excuse their irreverence and disobedience to their Masters which I shall briefly answer and then proceed First the servant will plead that his Master is a poor man if he were as rich and great a man as some other Masters are then I would honour him but he is poor and I am come of as good

friends as he Answ Though thy Master be poor and mean yet he stands in the place and bears the authority of the great and glorious God and if thou seest reason to obey a Master because he is rich and seest no reason in the authority of God upon him and in the command of God upon thee to obey a poor Master it is a sad signe that thou dost honour riches more then God Secondly but my Master is a wicked man and then how can I honour him and obey him Answ Thy Master indeed cannot binde thee to sin against God for it can in no case be a mans duty to hate God and to damn his own soul yet when thou disobeyest his sinful commands let it appear that this is not to cross thy Master but to please God and though he be wicked yet still honour and obey him in the Lord and own the image and authority of Christ upon him which is holy and good Lastly my Master is so friendly that he looks for no such reverence he allows me to be bold and to be fellow-like with him Answ This is thy Masters sin who is bound to keep up that order which God in wisdom hath appointed and he cannot give away the authority of Jesus Christ nor loose thee from thy duty whereby God hath bound thee to honour and reverence and obey him So much for the first Particular viz. the Centurions servant lyes diseased Secondly Here is the care of the good Master over his faithful servant the servant lyes gasping at the door of death and the Master lyes praying for him at the door of mercy ver 5 6. He came beseeching him saying c. Here is an example for all Masters to teach them to be tender and careful of and to use all good means for the healing of their sick servants as the good Centurion doth here whose fatherly care and love towards his dear dying servant appears in four things 1. He keeps him at home 2. He is full of compassion towards him being sensible of his grief therefore saith he he lies grievously tormented his bowels earned towards him and he useth words to move the bowels of Jesus Christ 3. He useth the best means in the world for his cure he seeks help of Jesus Christ and exerciseth all the might of his Soul in praying for and believing a Miracle for the healing of his poor servant You that are Masters learn here your duty consider you have men and women to your servants made after the same Image of God with your selves let not then such a workmanship of God perish by your cruelty covetousness or negligence They are Christian servants Christ paid as dear for servants as for Masters they are all bought with the same price 1 Cor. 7.23 Your poor servants have need of further season for repentance and to work out their salvation therefore let not them by your negligence be hastned into eternity your servants sickness is an affliction from God upon you he lays this burden on your family therefore submit to him and wait upon him in the use of means to remove it and ease not thy self by thy sin to bring a worse burden upon thy conscience Consider further your estate is Gods and you use it for him in a relieving a sick servant and I dare say neither you nor your children shall be the poorer by exercising such charity To conclude consider that of the Apostle Col. 4.1 Masters give unto your servants that which is just and equal knowing that ye also have a Master in Heaven Now this is one thing which by the Law of God and the Law of Humanity and Charity is just and equal that Masters use all good means in their power for the health and ease and life of a sick servant and this you must do as knowing that you have a Master in Heaven to whom all the wrong and injustice and unmercifulness which you shew to your servants will cry for vengeance against you therefore think with thy self as Job did in the like case Chap. 31.14 What then shall I do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him Here is one thing more for all servants to learn that is to chuse to live in families where God is worshipt What a mercy was it to this sick servant that he had a Master that prayed for him Certainly it would much promote Family-worship if servants would not chuse to live in a prayer-less family I know it 's a dishonour to God a reproach to Religion and a wrong to servants that in many families there is used such unseasonable times for family-worship I do therefore seriously advise all Masters of Families into whose hands this shall come to order your business so as to make that your ordinary set time to worship God when you are like to be in the best frame and I am perswaded you will finde when once you have wisely set your season for morning and evening worship and diligently observed it that in a short time your business will ordinarily fall so as at those times to leave room for those duties however chuse your own time for family-worship and not your servants time rather when your servants should work then when they should sleep and let all servants make it their choice to dwell in such families where they are most like to be helped forward in their way to heaven Observ 3. Christs answer to the Centurions prayer for his sick servant ver 7. And Jesus said I will come and heal him He offers his presence to come and his power and mercy to heal him he grants more then the Centurion begs Observe God often gives more but never less then believers sincerely ask Eph. 3.20 He is able and willing to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think for the power and goodness of God is infinitely above the highest Faith of the greatest Believer we can pray but like men but he gives like an Infinite God Now Christ offers to come to his house as it appears to set awork the Centurions faith for this passage I will come gives occasion for the following words wherein he pleads two things against Christs coming to his house 1. His own unworthiness ver 8. I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof Wherein we may see the gracious modesty of this great Believer when he hath the highest thoughts of God he hath the lowest thoughts of himself this is Fidei ingenium as one calls it the ingenious property of Faith by it when a Believer doth most exalt God he doth most abase himself 2. He pleads that it was unnecessary for Christ to trouble himself to come to his house for he could heal him by speaking a word Speak the word only and my servant shall be healed Herein he acknowledgeth the Godhead of Jesus Christ whose peculiar Prerogative it is to speak creating words Psal 33.9 He spake and it was done

Hence we finde that the godly in Scripture were full of the thoughts of death in the time of their sickness David prays on his sick bed that his visitation may be sanctified to this purpose Psal 39.4 Lord make me to know my end and this improvement made Heman of his sickness when the wounds of his soul caused wastings and diseases in his body Psal 88.3 4 5. For my soul is full of troubles and my life draws nigh unto the grave and this was good Hezekiah his frame in his sickness Isa 38.10 11 12. I said in the cutting off my days I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the earth Mine age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherds tent I have cut off like a weaver my life He will cut me off with pining sickness from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me So when Job was almost throtled with a disease for saith he Job 30.8 It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat He makes this gracious use of his Visitation vers 23. I know that thou wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living So that by all we see that sickness is a special means to fill our hearts with the thoughts of death End 4. To fill the heart with the knowledge and sense of God Beloved our hearts are apt to be senseless of God as he appears in the ordinary course of his Providence and mercy therefore God often manifests himself in the crosses and changes of our life which makes us more apt to inquire into the cause of such alterations as when corn grows in its ordinary course first the blade then the ear then the full corn in the ear few observe the good Providence of God herein but when God by frost hail or blasting destroys the fruits of the field so that it neither yeilds bread to the eater nor seed to the sower hereby his hand is more remarkably seen and observed so whilst God continues men in health and ease and strength few are sensible of his goodness herein but when he fills their bodies with aches pains and diseases then his power and providence is more observed in such visitations Hence saith Job cap. 10.17 Thou renewest thy witnesses against me as Gods mercies are called his witnesses his doing good and giving rain and fruitful seasons Act. 14.17 so sicknesses and other judgements are fitly called Gods witnesses the use of which is to declare and testifie of God to us Oh saith the Pestilence He is a terrible God that sent me and saith the Fever He is a mighty God that sent me and saith the Consumption He is a just God that sent me If you will not receive the testimony of Gods Ministers and of his Mercies will you receive the testimony of your afflictions certainly every sickness if the conscience be awakened will testifie the same things of God and Christ which Ministers preach to you Consider further I pray you that there is a more special aptness in diseases to convince the heart of man then in divers other things which yet will leave us inexcusable as it is the use of outward mercies to commend the power and wisdom and care and goodness of God to ours heart and a man may improve every mercy so as out of it to fill his heart with God but there are snares and temptations in these to steal the heart from God and therefore men are apt to lose God and to forget him when they are most full of these mercies So in injuries form men we should see the hand of God From men which are thy hand O Lord saith David Psal 17.14 but we are usually so fill'd with anger and revenge towards men that we forget the hand of God But now in a sickness the name of God and the hand of God is more clearly known and seen so that there is no such provision for lust in a sickness as in the mercies here is no profit nor credit nor pleasure for lust to feed upon and here is no instrument to quarrel with will a man be angry with a Fever or be revenged on a Consumption No we must own the Power and Will of God who is the cause of the visitation End 5. Christ sends diseases to turn men from sin and the world unto himself Hence God complains of the want of this as a great disappointment Amos 4.10 I have sent among you the Pestilence to cause you turn to me yet have ye not returned unto to me saith the Lord and therefore it 's observable that in a sickness God doth blast that which makes the snare to hold our hearts from God as we know much of the life and strength of pride and covetousness and other lusts is in the profits and pleasures and preferments of the world now what are all these to a sick man his sickness doth as it were block up all provision from the flesh and now he may see that none but God and Jesus Christ can answer the necessity of his soul and therefore let me ask you What is the best thing which you would propound to a friend on a sick bed who is just upon his flight into eternity will you provide him a sumptuous feast or a rich suit of cloaths or offer him some place of preferment No no shew him a God and Christ to save his poor soul shew him a happiness which will make him blessed when he is turned out of all which sickness and death can take from him Moreover it appears that sickness is appointed by God as a means for our conversion because this and every affliction calls us to do that which the word calls us unto Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy law This makes a man a blessed man when in his chastenings he is full of the teaching of the Law Hence we are commanded to hear the rod and who hath appointed it Micah 6.9 Beloved the rod speaks as well as strikes and we should hear the rod as well as feel the rod now what doth the rod speak I answer The rod speaks the minde and will of God who smites with it the rod and the word speak the same language therefore we should see our sickness full of Scripture Oh saith the Dropsie Turn to the God that sent me and saith the Ague Make your peace with God that sent me And this is the voice of every disease which comes upon us And therefore consider that God doth often so bless and sanctifie a sickness to us that it is a means to turn the heart to God and causeth us to bring forth the fruit of many other dispensations as for example God sends to allure us by his mercies Hos

is alter ego another self but we must obediently give up our friends to the will of God I shall tell you what this is thus quietly to resign our friends to God It is that whereby we solemnly worship God acknowledging and praising his Name and subjecting our hearts to his will as he is a God of this dispensation As for example God smites a Husband with a disease now saith God by this Providence to the Wife What if I make thee a Widdow and thy Children Fatherless Why Lord saith the Wife thou art herein a wise holy and good God and I will still own and trust and love and rejoyce in thee Thus the heart must worship and praise God as he appears in this sad Providence and so the heart agrees with the Will of God as it is signified by this dispensation Now if there appear any rising of discontent we must quiet all such tumults with the Will of God as Eli did 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his sight We have an excellent pattern of this in Job Cap. 1.20 21. when amongst other sad Providences he heard of the sudden death of his sons he fell down and worshipt God whom he saw in the Providence saying The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away blessed be the Name of the Lord. Thus he worshippeth and praiseth God as it appeared in taking away his Children And thus when any friends are diseased labour to get thy heart into this frame this will make the mercy more sweet if they live and the affliction less bitter if they die I know your thoughts will now be full of the goodness of your friends Oh such a wise faithful loving Husband such a careful meek loving Wife c. Well look upon them at the very best and as such offer them up to God offer to God the best of thy flock the best of thy friends the better they are the better is thy patience and obedience in parting with them and withall all remember that if God will have thy friends to Eternity there is no ransome to be taken for them but they must be gone Thou mayst cry after them as Elisha did by Elijah 2 Kings 2.12 My Father my Father but Elijah never stops to answer him So thou mayst cry My Husband my Husband my Wife my Wife my Childe my Childe but to Eternity they will go and never stay to answer thee for God taketh away and who can hinder him or who can say unto him What dost thou We cannot hinder him and we must not question him but resigne all to him End 12. Christ visits his people with sickness to fill their hearts with prayer Solomon tells us Prov. 15.8 The prayer of the upright is his delight For a Believer being in Christ and found in his Righteousness at the Throne of Grace there ariseth such a sweet smell and savour to God which makes the Believer and his prayers pleasant and delightful to him and therefore God often sends sickness to stir up a spirit of prayer in the hearts of his people Hence we read of that sick man Job 33.26 He shall pray unto God and he will be favourable unto him and he shall see his face with joy So when Hezekiah was sick he turned his face to the wall as he lay in bed and wept and prayed unto the Lord Isa 38.2 14. So David as appears by Psal 30 and 38 and 39. when his body was full of sickness his heart was full of prayer See further Psal 107.17 18 19. That was a savoury speech of a Reverend Divine in his sickness to his friends Sinite me Psittaci instar cum Domino meo balbutire Suffer me to stammer like a Parret with my Lord by prayer The hearts of Gods people are called as Mr. Brightman observes on Rev. 5.8 Vials full of Od●urs that is hearts full of sweet and savoury prayers Oh when the bodies of the godly are as a sink full of filthy humors their hearts are as Vials full of the precious odours of prayer This is the blessed priviledge of a Believer that in the most sad and deplorate condition in the world he hath always access with boldness into the presence of God Ephes 2.18 Through Christ we have access by one Spirit unto the Father Hebr. 10.19 Having boldness to enter into the Holiest viz. into heaven by the Blood of Christ Thou mayst by faith and prayer step out of thy sick bed into heaven Job saith in his affliction Chap. 31.37 As a Prince would I go near unto him Sirs the Spirit of Prayer is a Royal Spirit whereby a Believer goes with a Princely boldness and confidence unto God Now indeed sickness is a most special season for prayer because of our present need of those things which we are bound to pray for not only in regard of our need of ease and health and life though the want of these is a reason of prayer Isa 38.14 I am oppressed with pain and trouble undertake for me Hence David prays Psalm 39.13 O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be seen no more But now our present need of soul-saving mercies should set awork our hearts in prayer now a man is perhaps just in his fall into Eternity and is like to finde within a few hours whether Heaven or Hell be his portion This man hath need to pray earnestly for sound repentance and saving faith and pardon of sin and everlasting salvation End 13. To fill the hearts of the godly with sympathy to one another as a distemper in a toe or finger afflicts all the rest of the members so when one member of Christ is visited all the members about him are called to sympathize and condole with him 1 Cor. 12.26 If one member suffer all the members suffer with it Hence we finde that when a Christian is diseased there is a spirit of prayer poured out in his behalf from all the Christians about him When Melancthon was sick it 's reported that Lutheri Crucigeri precibus non tam convaluit quàm revixit By the prayers of Luther and Cruciger he was not only restored from sickness to health but as it were from death to life Melch. Adam in vita Melancth So when Myconius was sick Luther affectionately prays Peto ut loco tuo me faciat Dominus aegrotum I pray that the Lord would make me sick in thy stead Melch. Adam in vita Mycon David had this charity for his enemies in their sickness Psal 35.13 But as for me when they were sick my clothing was sackcloth I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into my own bosom I behaved my self as though he had been my friend or brother I bowed down heavily as one that mourned for his Mother Shall David thus fast and pray for his sick enemies and shall not we for our sick friends Job professeth what his carriage should have been

steps through faith and patience and you shall with them inherit the promises Heb. 10.36 Ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise So much for the Motives Now that you may practice this Duty observe these f●ve following Directions 1. Labour by patience to 〈…〉 under the Rule and 〈…〉 graces Luk. 2● ● 9 〈…〉 ye your ●orts 〈…〉 ●●e sweet posses●ion and 〈…〉 by this gra●● 〈…〉 ●is spirit Prov. 15.32 Beloved when the body is troubled it 's an hard thing to rule the soul to keep the affections passions thoughts words looks actions in their place much covetousness pride unbelief anger and discontent are apt to work and disturb and displace the soul at such a time Now a patient man bears off his troubles by the strength of his graces and the strength of all graces work in patience he believes patiently hopes patiently and lyes patiently under the will of God loving and rejoycing in him so that patience keeps the soul from sinking and it keeps corruption from rising and keeps all graces working so that the heart is full of duty when it is full of patience and hereby the heart is established and setled in a holy even cheerful and obedient frame under the will of God 2. Be patient in obedience to the will of God for it cannot be true patience except thou bear thy affliction patiently for this reason because it comes from the will of God I know a sickness is not a thing it self which a natural will should chuse but when God signifies that it 's his will that thou shouldst be visited then here comes in the work of patience to deny thy own will whereby thou wast willing to have ease and health and life and to say I am willing to go into a sick-bed or death-bed to fulfil the Will of God We have our Saviours example for this he was innocently willing to avoid the sufferings by his created Humane Will but looking upon them as coming from the Will of his Father he submits his will to his Fathers saying Mat. 26.39 Not as I will but as thou wilt So a childe of God may say I am willing to have my health and life to live in the world with my Friends and Relations and to be a blessing to the Church of God but if it be Gods Will that I shall be sick and dead let me die to fulfil the Will of God rather then live to fulfil my own will 3. Humble and abase your selves under the Hand of God in your Visitation 1 Pet. 5.6 Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God See what a mighty Hand of God is upon thee and humble thy self under it the humblest Christians are always the patientest Christians It 's observeable that the reason of Jobs impatience was his too high thoughts of himself and his too low thoughts of God and therefore observe how God pleads with him Job 38.2 3. Who is this that darkens counsel by ●ords without knowledge What prating ●ellow is this that by his ignorant talk ●●rkens my Wisdom and Justice and Pro●●dence Because thou didst challenge me 〈◊〉 dispute with thee and didst promise to ●nswer me Job 13.22 Gird up now thy ●●yns like a man for I will demand of thee ●nd answer thou me Now when God had 〈◊〉 the following words demonstrated his ●●finite power and wisdom in the works ●f Creation and Providence Job is there●pon so deeply convinced of the Majesty ●f God and of the vanity of himself that ●e resolves for ever after to be humble pa●ient and silent Job 40.4 5. Behold I am ●ile what shall I answer thee I will lay ●y hand upon my mouth Once have I spoken like a fool as I was but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further 4. Consider the desert of thy sins it will make thee bear patiently what thou sufferest to consider what thou deservest It was a savoury saying of a good man being then tortured with the pain of sickness Oh saith he this is not Hell He that believes what Hell is and knows that he deserves to be there will see great reason to lye patiently under the greatest pains of the most tormenting sickness and to resolve with the Prophet Micah 7.9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Lastly Wait by patience for a comfortable issue out of thy sickness James 1.4 Let patience have her perfect work Some are patient a while and after fly into passion and discontent but as long as there is any work for patience let her have her perfect work James 5.7 Be patient brethren unto the coming of the Lord. Sirs the Lord is coming and he will put an end to sickness and death when he comes Consider what the Lord will do to thy body and soul at his coming and be patient till his coming for when thou meetest him thou wilt see he did not stay too long It 's observeable that God and his people have both the same end Thy great end is the glory of God and the salvation of thy self and of all Gods Church and this now is Gods end But God hath set thee thy way to this end and he hath set and appointed to himself his own way Now Gods way is not as thy way Thou thinkest such and such a way were best to make God glorious and his Church happy but God he hath a way above ●nd contrary to thy way and so as to this ●ase thou mayst think it is the best way for Gods glory and for thy family and for ●hy self for thee to enjoy thy health and ●ife c. but Gods way is to bring thee ●o sickness and death Well what must be done in this case Answ Still keep thy heart fixt upon thy glorious end and do thou follow thy way of duty and patiently wait upon and submit unto God in his way of providence and thou shalt finde that at the last Gods working in his way of providence and thy keeping to thy way of duty will meet in the same end viz. Gods glory and thy everlasting salvation Duty 8. In sickness give good counsel to thy Friends about thee See how Moses stands over Eternity and preacheth to the Israelites Deut. 32. See also the language of a dying King to his Successor 1 Chron. 28.9 Thou Solomon my son know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind See again the solemn charge of the dying Apostle to Timothy 2 Tim. 4.1 2. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and th● dead at his appearing and his Kingdom Preach the word be instant in season out o● season reprove rebuke exhort with all patience and long suffering And you know the farewel-Sermon of our dying Lord Joh. 14.15 16. It was a sweet and savoury saying of Hyperius to