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
and the Strength of Sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. Lord now let thy Servant depart in Peace according to thy word and receive his Soul into thy Fatherly Protection Amen A Prayer for a sick Person when there appear small hopes of Recovery O Father of Mercies and God of all Comfort our only help in time of need we fly unto thee for Succour in behalf of this thy Servant here lying under thy hand in great weakness of Body Look graciously upon him O Lord and the more the outward Man decayeth strengthen him we beseech thee so much the more continually with thy Grace and Holy Spirit in the inner Man II. Give him unfeigned Repentance for all the Errours of his Life past and stedfast Faith in thy Son Jesus that his Sins may be done away by thy mercy and his Pardon sealed in Heaven before he go hence and be no more seen We know O Lord that there is no word impossible with thee and that if thou wilt thou canst even yet raise him up and grant him a longer continuance amongst us III. Yet forasmuch as in all appearance the time of his Dissolution draweth near so fit and prepare him we beseech thee against the hour of Death that after his Departure hence in Peace and in thy Favour his Soul may be received into thine everlasting Kingdom through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ thine only Son our Lord and Saviour Amen A Commendatery Prayer for a sick Person at the Point of Departure O Almighty God with whom do live the Spirits of just Men made perfect after they are delivered from their earthly Prisons we humbly commend the Soul of this thy Servant our dear Brother into thy hands as into the hands of a faithful Creator and most merciful Saviour most humbly beseeching thee that it may be precious in thy sight II. Wash it we pray thee in the Blood of that immaculate Lamb that was slain to take away the Sins of the World that whatsoever Defilements it may have contracted in the midst of this miserable and naughty World through the Lusts of the Flesh or the Wiles of Satan being purged and done away it may be presented pure and without spot before thee III. And teach us who survive in this and other like daily Spactacles of Mortality to see how frail and uncertain our own Condition is and so to number our days that we may seriously apply our Hearts to that Holy and Heavenly Wisdom whilst we live here which may in the end bring us to Life everlasting through the Merits of Jesus Christ thine only Son our Lord and Saviour Amen Meditation XXV Of the uncertainties of our Lives and that we ought always to be prepared for Death HOw many ways are there whereby to frustrate the intents and ends of Nature How many are there buried before their Birth how many Mens Cradles become their Graves how many rising Suns are set almost as soon as they are risen and overtaken in darkness in the very dawning of their days how many are there like good King Josias like righteous Abel and Enoch who are taken away speedily from amongst the wicked as it were in the Zenith or Vertical Point of their Strength and Lustre II. It is in every Man's Power to be Master of our Lives who is but able to despise his own nay 't is in every ones Power who can but wink to turn our Beauty into darkness and in times of Pestilence how many are there can look as dead by an Arrow shot out of the Eye into the Heart For one single way of coming into the World how many are there to go out of it before our time I mean before Nature is wasted within us Many are sent out of the World by the Difficulties and Hardships of coming in III. We are easily cut off by eating and drinking the very Instruments and Means of Life Not to speak of those greater Slaughters which are commonly committed by Sword and Famine which yet must both give place to surfeit Death may possibly fly to us as once to Aeschylus in an Eagles Wing or we may easily swallow Death as Anacreon did in a Grape IV. We may be murder'd like Homer with a fit of Grief or fall like Pindarus by our Repose we may become a Sacrifice as Philemon of old to a little Jest Or else as Sophecles to a witty Sentence We may be eaten up of Worms like mighty Herod or prove a Feast for the Rats like him of Mentz V. A Man may vomit out his Soul as Sulla did in a fit of Rage or else like Coma may force it backwards He may perish by his Strength as did Polydamas and Milo Or he may die like Thalna by the very excess of his Injoyment He may be Provender for his Horses like Diomedes or Provision for his Hounds like Actaeon and Lucian Or else like Tullus Hostillius he may be burnt up quick with a flash of Lightning VI. Or if there were nothing from without which could violently break off our thread of Life and which being a slender thread is very easily cut asunder we have a thousand intestine Enenemies to dispatch us speedily from within there is hardly any thing in the Body but furnisheth matter for a Disease VII There is not an Artery or Vein but is a Room in Natures Work-house wherein our Humours as so many Cyclops's are forging those Instruments of Mortality which every moment of our Lives are able to sweep us into our Graves an ordinary Apoplexie or a little Impostune in the Brain or a sudden Rising of the Lights is enough to make a Man Die in Health and may Lodge him in Heaven or Hell before he hath the Leisure to cry for Mercy The Prayer THou didst make us for thy self O Lord and when we by our Sins and Follies had for ever lost thee thou didst restore us to thy self again that we might not be eternally deprived of thee our only good O fill us with perpetual Meditations of thy Love Let those Joys which are so much above our thoughts be ever in them let our inability to comprehend the Happiness of thy Kingdom heighten the Piety of our Ambition after it more that we may walk in some measure worthy of so Divine a Purchace II. Prepare us with all those Heavenly Graces that may entitle us to it and with all those spiritual Desires that may make us breath and long after it that so our Hearts being there before we our selves may come after and being transported in our Desires may be also in our Persons to everlasting Enjoyments and as our Lives are uncertain in this World grant that we may be ready prepared that Death comes not upon us unawares Amen Meditation XXVI On the Frailties of our Lives OUr Houses of Clay as Eliphaz the Temanite fitly calls them Job 4.19 seem as false
Returns to thee be so great as my necessities of thy Mercies are O Let thy Grace so strengthen my purposes of amendment that I may sin no more lest thy threatning return upon me in Anger and thy sore Displeasure break me in pieces IV. What am I O Lord what is the Life and what are the Capacities of thy Servant that thou shouldst do thus unto me Praised be the Lord daily even the Lord that helpeth us and poureth his Benefits upon us He is our God even the God from whom cometh Salvation God is the Lord by whom we escape Death V. In the midst of the Sorrows which were in my Heart thy Comforts O Lord have refreshed my Soul It is thou O Lord who hast made my Flesh and my Bones to rejoyce Behold happy is the Man whom God Correcteth therefore despise not the chastising of the Almighty VI. For he maketh sore and bindeth up he woundeth and his hands make whole In the midst of Judgment he remembreth Mercy Lord thou hast lifted up the light of thy Countenance upon me Yea Lord thou hast put gladness into my Heart O be thou pleased graciously to add Thankfulness to it VII I will lay me down in Peace and take my Rest for it is thou Lord only which makest me dwell in safety O Lord I give thee humble and hearty thanks for thy great and almost miraculous bringing me back from the bottom of my Grave what thou hast further for me to do or suffer thou alone knowest VIII Lord give me Patience and Courage and all Christian resolution to do thee Service replenish me evermore with thy Grace to submit to thy Holy Will and let me not live longer than to Honour thee through Jesus Christ Lord I have been sick and feeble and thou hast recovered my strength I am very aged and greatly stricken in years yet thou art still pleased to add unto my days sanctifie therefore good Lord the remainder of my Life and sweeten unto me the approaches of my Death A Prayer of Thanksgiving MOst Gracious God whose mercy is as high as the Heavens and whose truth reaches unto the Clouds thy Mercies are as great and many as the moments of Eternity thou hast opened wide thy hand of Providence to fill me with Blessings and the sweet Effects of thy loving kindness fill my Soul with great apprehensions and impresses of thy unspeakable Mercies that my Thankfulness may be as great as my necessity of Mercies are II. O Lord thou hast heard my Prayers and hast broken in sunder the Bonds of Sickness and hast delivered my Soul from trouble and heaviness thou hast snatched me from the snares of Death and saved me from the Pains of Hell O let my Soul rest in thee and be satisfied in the Pleasures of thy mercy that when thou shalt call all the whole Universe to judgment from the rising of the Sun to the going down thereof I may in thy Heavenly Kingdom sing Praises to thee for evermore Amen Meditation XXIV Comfortable refreshments at the hour of Death to be used by those who are present GOd so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life John 3.16 If any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the Propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but for the Sins of the whole World 1 John 2.1 2. II. Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my Word and believeth in him that sent me hath everlasting Life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from Death unto Life John 5.24 All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out John 6.37 III. Why art thou so full of heaviness O my Soul and why art thou so disquieted within me put thy trust in God for I will yet give him thanks for the help of his Countenance Psal 42.6 In my Fathers House are many Mansions John 14.2 What things were Gain to me those I counted loss for Christ Phil. 3.7 IV. For our Conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Who shall Change our vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself Phil. 3.20 21. I press towards the Mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Phil. 3.14 V. Set your Affections on things above not on things of the Earth For ye are dead and your Life is hid with Christ When Christ who is our Life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in Glory Colos 3.2.3 In whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of our Sins Col. 1.14 VI. If in this Life only we have hope in Christ we are of all Men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 For we know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.1 2. For our light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of Glory The things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal 1 Cor. 4.17 18. VII I am in a great Strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better For to me to live is Christ and to die is Gain Phil. 1.21 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus Phil. 2.5 None of us liveth to himself and no Man dieth to himself For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord Whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord's Rom. 14.7 8. VIII I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me write from henceforth Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their Labours Rev. 14.13 I am the Resurrection and the Life saith the Lord He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die John 11. I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth And though after my Skin worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and my Eyes shall behold and not another Job 19.25 26 27. IX We brought nothing into this World and it is certain we can carry nothing out The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Blessed be the Name of the Lord 1 Tim. 6.7 Job 1.21 O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin
hold it yet our Tongues are too stammering to express and utter it Or if we were able to do that yet our Lives are too short to Communicate and reveal it to other Creatures In a word it is such as not only Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard but it never hath entred into the Heart of Man to conceive Incomprehensible as it is 't is such as God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 IV. If we compare this Life with that of Job's which is full of Trouble it will several ways be useful to us for it will moderate our Joys whilst we possess our dear Friends and it will mitigate our Sorrows when we have lost them for it will mind us that they are freed from a Life of Misery and that they are happily translated to one of Bliss Nay if we are true Lovers indeed and look not only at our own Interest but at the Interest of the parties to whom we vow affection we even lose them to our advantage because to theirs V. Lastly it sweetens the solemn Farewel which our immortal Souls must take of our mortal Bodies we shall desire to be dissolved when we can groundedly hope we shall be with Christ we shall groan and groan earnestly to be uncloathed of our Bodies with which we are burden'd if we live by this Faith that we shall shortly be cloath'd upon with our House from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.7 23 24. We shall cheerfully lay down our Bodies in the Dust when 't is to rest in Peace who will certainly raise us by his Power that we may rest and Reign with him in Glory Amen The Prayer HOw hardly can we be perswaded O Lord to forsake the vanishing Pleasures of this Life for thy Glory and our own Happiness How unwillingly should we lay down our Lives for thy sake or the Gospels that can so hardly part with one Sin in obedience to thy Law II. Thy Yoke is easie and thy Service a perfect Freedom and yet we count thy Sanctuary a Prison thy Law a trouble and can scarce Sacrifice so much time to our Devotions as to pay unto thee the Honour due unto thy Name III. Pardon and Pity this Corruption of our Frames and teach us whether we live or die to delight in that for which thou madest us even to glorifie thee That so whensoever this earthly Tabernacle shall be dissolved we may receive our Change with Joy and be carried by Angels to an everlasting Inheritance there to remain to all Eternity Amen Meditation XXXIII COMFORTS against the Fears of DEATH and Consolations against immoderate Grief for the loss of Friends IF it be a Blessing of the vertuous to Mourn the reward which attends it is to be Comforted and he that pronounc'd the one promis'd the other I doubt not but that Spirit whose Nature is Love and whose Name Comforter as he knows the occasion of our Grief so hath he salved and season'd it with supplies of Grace pouring into our Wounds no less Oyl of mercy than wine of Justice II. Yet since affection oweth Compassion as a Duty to the afflicted and Nature hath ingrafted a desire to find it that which dieth to our Love is always alive to our Sorrow and we might have been kind to a less loving Friend but finding in him so many worths to be loved our Love wrought more earnestly upon so sweet a Subject which now being deprived of our Grief to our Love is not inferiour the one being ever the Balance of the other III. The Scripture moveth us to shed Tears for the dead a thing not offending Grace and a right to reason For to be without remorse at the Death of Friends is neither incident nor convenient to the Nature of Man having too much Affinity to a savage Temper and overthrowing the ground of all Piety which is mutual Sympathy in each others Miseries But as not to feel Sorrow in sorrowful Chances is to want Sense so not to bear it with Moderation is to want understanding The one brutish the other effeminate and he hath cast his Account best that hath brought his Sum to a proper Medium IV. It is no less Criminal to exceed in Sorrow than to pass the limits of Competent Mirth for excess in either is a disorder in Passion though that sorrow of Friendship be less blamed of Men because if it be a Crime it is also a Punishment at once causing and creating Torments It is no good Sign in the Sick to be Senseless in his Pains and as bad it is to be unusually sensitive being both either Harbingers or Attendants of Death V. Let our condoling since it is due to the Dead testifie a feelingof Pity not any pang of Passion and bewray rather a tender than a dejected mind Mourn so as your Friends may find you a living Example all Men a discreet Mourner making Sorrow a Signal not a Superior to Reason VI. Some are so obstinate in their own Will that even time the natural Remedy of the most violent Agonies cannot by any delays asswage their Grief they entertain their Sorrow with solitary Muses and feed their Sighs and Tears with doleful Accents they Pine their Bodies and draw all pensive Consideration to their minds nursing their Heaviness with a Melancholy humour as though they had dedicated themselves to sadness unwilling it should end till it had ended them wherein their Folly sometimes findeth a ready effect that being true which Solomon observed that as a Moth the Garment and a Worm the Wood so doth sadness perswade the Heart VII But this impotent softness fitteth not sober minds we must not make a Lives profession of a seven Nights Duty nor under Colour of kindness to others be unnatural to our selves if some in their Passions drive their Thoughts into such Labyrinths that neither Wit knoweth nor Will careth how long or how far they wander in them it discovereth their weakness but deserveth our Meditation VIII The Scripture warneth us not to give our Hearts up to heaviness yea rather to reject it as a thing not beneficial to the Dead but prejudicial to our selves Eccles 38. alloweth but seven days of Mourning judging Moderation in Grief to be a sufficient Testimony in Good-will and a necessary rule of Wisdom IX Much lamenting for the Dead is either the Child of Self-love or of rash Judgment if we should shed our Tears for the Death of others as a Mediocrity to our Contentment we expose but our own Wound even perfect Lovers of our selves If we lament their decease as their hard Determination we Tax them of ill deserving with too peremptory a Censure as though their Life had been an arise and their Death a leap into final Perdition for otherwise a good departure craveth small condoling being but a Harbour from Storms an entrance unto Felicity X. Our Life is a due Debt to a more certain Owner than our selves and therefore so long as we have it we receive a