is a portion in the inheritance of Jesus of which he now talks no more as a thing at distance but is entring into the possession When the veil is rent and the prison doors are open at the presence of Gods Angel the soul goes forth full of hope sometimes with evidence but alwayes with certainty in the thing and instantly it passes into the throngs of Spirits where Angles meet it singing and the Devils flock with malitious and vile purposes desiring to lead it away with them into their houses of sorrow there they see things which they never saw and hear voices which they never heard There the Devils charge them with many sins And the Angels remember that themselves rejoyced when they were repented of Then the Devils aggravate and describe all the circumstances of the sin and adde calumnies and the Angels bear the soul forward still because their Lord doth answer for them Then the Devils rage and gnash their teeth they see the soul chast and pure and they are ashamed they see it penitent and they despair they perceive that the tongue was restrained and sanctified and then hold their peace Then the soul passes forth and rejoyces passing by the Devils in scorn and triumph being securely carried into the bosome of the Lord where they shall rest till their crowns are finished and their mansions are prepared and then they shall feast and sing rejoyce and worship for ever and ever Fearful and formidable to unholy persons is the first meeting with spirits in their separation But the victory which holy souls receive by the mercies of Jesus Christ and the conduct of Angels is a joy that we must not understand till we feel it and yet such which by an early and a persevering piety we may secure but let us enquire after it no further because it is secret CHAP. III. Of the state of sicknesse and the temptations incident to it with their proper remedies SECT I. Of the state of sicknesse ADams sin brought death into the world and man did die the same day in which he sinned according as God had threatned He did not die as death is taken for a separation of soul and body that is not death properly but the ending of the last act of death just as a man is said to be born when he ceases any longer to be born in his mothers womb But whereas to man was intended a life long and happy without sicknesse sorrow or infelicity and this life should be lived here or in a better place and the passage from one to the other should have been easy safe and pleasant now that man sinned he fell from that state to a contrary If Adam had stood he should not alwayes have lived in this world for this world was not a place capable of giving a dwelling to all those myriads of men and women which should have been born in all the generations of infinite and eternal ages for so it must have been if man had not dyed at all nor yet have removed hence at all Neither is it likely that mans innocence should have lost to him all possibility of going thither where the duration is better measured by a better time subject to fewer changes and which is now the reward of a returning vertue which in all natural senses is lesse then innocence save that it is heightned by Christ to an equality of acceptation with the state of innocence But so it must have been that his innocence should have been punished with an eternal confinement to this state which in all reason is the lesse perfect the state of a traveller not of one possessed of his inheritance It is therefore certain Man should have changed his abode for so did Enoch and so did Elias and so shall all the world that shall be alive at the day of judgement They shall not die but they shall change their place and their abode their duration and their state and all this without death That death therefore which God threatned to Adam and which passed upon his posterity is not the going out of this world but the manner of going If he had staid in innocence he should have gone from hence placidly and fairly without vexatious and afflictive circumstances he should not have dyed by sickness misfortune defect or unwillingnesse but when he fell then he began to die the same day so said God and that must needs be true and therefore it must mean that upon that very day he fell into an evil and dangerous condition a state of change and affliction then death began that is the man began to die by a natural diminution and aptnesse to disease and misery His first state was and should have been so long as it lasted a happy duration His second was a daily and miserable change and this was the dying properly This appears in the great instance of damnation which in the stile of Scripture is called eternal death not because it kills or ends the duration it hath not so much good in it but because it is a perpetual infelicity Change or separation of soul and body is but accidental to death Death may be with or without either but the formality the curse and the sting of death that is misery sorrow fear diminution defect anguish dishonour and whatsoever is miserable and afflictive in nature that is death death is not an action but a whole state and condition and this was first brought in upon us by the offence of one man But this went no further then thus to subject us to temporal infelicity If it had proceeded so as was supposed Man had been much more miserable for man had more then one original sin in this sence and though this death entred first upon us by Adams fault yet it came neerer unto us and increased upon us by the sins of more of our forefathers For Adams sin left us in strength enough to contend with humane calamities for almost a thousand years together But the sins of his children our forefathers took off from us half the strength about the time of the flood and then from 500. to 250. and from thence to 120. and from thence to threescore and ten so halfing it till it is almost come to nothing But by the sins of men in the several generations of the world death that is misery and disease is hastned so upon us that we are of a contemptible age and because we are to die by suffering evils and by the daily lessening of our strength and health this death is so long a doing that it makes so great a part of our short life uselesse and unserviceable that we have not time enough to get the perfection of a single manufacture but ten or twelve generations of the world must go to the making up of one wise man or one excellent Art and in the succession of those ages there happens so many changes and interruptions so many
our actions and condemning the Criminal by being Assessors in Gods Tribunal at least we shall obtain the favour of the Court. As therefore every night we must make our bed the memoriall of our grave so let our Evening thoughts be an image of the day of judgement 5. This advice was so reasonable and proper instrument of vertue that it was taught even to the Scholers of Pythagoras by their Master Let not sleep seiz upon the Regions of your senses before you have three times recalled the conversation and accidents of the day Examine what you have committed against the Divine Law what you have omitted of your duty and in what you have made use of the Divine Grace to the purposes of vertue and religion joyning the Iudge reason to the legislative mind or conscience that God may reigne there as a Law-giver and a Judge Then Christs kingdom is set up in our hearts then we alwayes live in the Eye of our Judge and live by the measures of reason religion and sober counsels The benefits we shall receive by practising this advice in order to a blessed death will also adde to the account of reason and fair inducements The Benefits of this exercise 1. By a daily examination of our actions we shall the easier cure a great sin and prevent its arrival to become habitual For to examine we suppose to be a relative duty and instrumentall to something else We examine our selves that we may finde out our failings and cure them and therefore if we use our remedy when the wound is fresh and bleeding we shall finde the cure more certain and lesse painfull For so a Taper when its crown of flames is newly blown off retains a nature so symbolical to light that it will with greedinesse reenkindle and snatch a ray from the neighbour fire So is the soul of Man when it is newly fallen into sin although God be angry with it and the state of Gods favour and its own graciousnesse is interrupted yet the habit is not naturally changed and still God leaves some roots of vertue standing and the Man is modest or apt to be made ashamed and he is not grown a bold sinner but if he sleeps on it and returns again to the same sin and by degrees growes in love with it and gets the custome and the strangenesse of it is taken away then it is his Master and is sweld into a heap and is abetted by use and corroborated by newly entertained principles and is insinuated into his Nature and hath possessed his affections and tainted the will and the understanding and by this time a man is in the state of a decaying Merchant his accounts are so great and so intricate and so much in arrear that to examine it will be but to represent the particulars of his calamity therefore they think it better to pull the napkin before their eyes then to stare upon the circumstances of their death 2. A daily or frequent examination of the parts of our life will interrupt the proceeding and hinder the journey of little sins into a heap For many dayes do not passe the best persons in which they have not many idle words or vainer thoughts to sully the fair whitenesse of their souls Some indiscreet passions or trifling purposes some impertinent discontents or unhandsome usages of their own persons or their dearest Relatives And though God is not extreme to mark what is done amisse and therefore puts these upon the accounts of his Mercy and the title of the Crosse yet in two cases these little sins combine and cluster and we know that grapes were once in so great a bunch that one cluster was the load of two men that is 1. When either we are in love with small sins or 2. When they proceed from a carelesse and incurious spirit into frequency and continuance For so the smallest atomes that dance in all the little cels of the world are so trifling and immaterial that they cannot trouble an eye nor vex the tenderest part of a wound where a barbed arrow dwelt yet when by their infinite numbers as Melissa and Parmenides affirm they danced first into order then into little bodies at last they made the matter of the world So are the little indiscretions of our life they are alwayes inconsiderable if they be considered and contemptible if they be not despised and God does not regard them if we do We may easily keep them asunder by our daily or nightly thoughts and prayers and severe sentences But even the least sand can check the tumultuous pride and become a limit to the Sea when it is in a heap and in united multitudes but if the wind scatter and divide them the little drops and the vainer froth of the water begins to invade the Strand Our sighes can scatter such little offences but then be sure to breath such accents frequently least they knot and combine and grow big as the shoar and we perish in sand in trifling instances He that despiseth little things shall perish by little and little So said the son of Sirach 3. A frequent examination of our actions will intenerate and soften our consciences so that they shall be impatient of any rudenesse or heavier load And he that is used to shrink when he is pressed with a branch of twining Osier will not willingly stand in the ruines of a house when the beam dashes upon the pavement And provided that our nice and tender spirit be not vexed into scruple nor the scruple turn into unreasonable fears nor the fears into superstition he that by any arts can make his spirit tender and apt for religious impressions hath made the fairest seat for religion and the unaptest and uneasiest entertainment for sin and eternal death in the whole world 4. A frequent examination of the smallest parts of our lives is the best instrument to make our repentance particular and a fit remedy to all the members of the whole body of sin For our examination put off to our death-bed of necessity brings us into this condition that very many thousands of our sins must be or not be at al washed off with a general repentance which the more general and indefinite it is it is ever so much the worse And if he that repents the longest and the oftnest and upon the most instances is still during his whole life but an imperfect penitent and there are very many reserves left to be wiped off by Gods mercies and to be eased by collateral assistances or to be groaned for at the terrible day of judgement it will be but a sad story to consider that the sins of a whole life or of very great portions of it shall be put upon the remedy of one examination and the advices of one discourse and the activities of a decayed body and a weak and an amazed Spirit Let us do the best we can we shall finde that the meer sins of ignorance
pasport in the article of his death and calls thâ—s the ancient and canonicall law of the Church and to minister it onely supposes the man in the communion of the Church not alwayes in the state but ever in the possibilities of sanctification They who in the article and danger of death were admitted to the communion and tied to penance if they recovered which was ever the custome of the ancient Church unlesse in very few cases were but in the threshold of repentance in the commencement and first introductions to a devout life and indeed then it is a fit ministery that it be given in all the periods of time in which the pardon of sins is working since it is the Sacrament of that great mystery the exhibition of that blood which is shed for the remission of sins 9. The Minister of religion ought not to give the Communion to a sick person if he retains the affection to any sin and refuses to disavow it or professe repentance of all sins whatsoever if he be required to do it The reason is because it is a certain death to him and an increase of his misery if he shall so prophane the body and blood of Christ as to take it into so unholy a breast where Sathan reignes and sin is principall and the Spirit is extinguished and Christ loves not to enter because he is not suffered to inhabite But when he professes repentance and does such acts of it as his present condition permits he is to be presumed to intend heartily what he professes solemnly and the Minister is onely the Judge of outward act and by that onely he is to take information concerning the inward But whether he be so or no or if he be whether that be timely and effectuall and sufficient toward the pardon of sins before God is another consideration of which we may conjecture here but we shall know it at doomsday The spirituall man is to do his ministery by the rules of Christ and as the customs of the Church appoint him and after the manner of men the event is in the hands of God and is to be expected not directly and wholly according to his ministery but to the former life or the timely internall repentance and amendment of which I have already given accounts These ministeries are acts of order and great assistances but the sum of affairs does not relie upon them And if any man puts his whole repentance upon this time or all his hopes upon these ministeries he will find them and himself to fail 10. It is the Ministers office to invite sick and dying persons to the Holy Sacrament such whose lives were fair and laudable and yet their sicknesse sad and violent making them list-lesse and of slow desires and flower apprehensions that such persons who are in the state of grace may lose no accidentall advantages of spirituall improvement but may receive into their dying bodies the symboles and great consignations of the resurrection and into their soules the pledges of immortality and may appear before God their Father in the union and with the impresses and likenesse of their elder Brother But if the persons be of ill report and have lived wickedly they are not to be invited because their case is hugely suspicious though they then repent and call for mercy but if they demand it they are not to be denied onely let the Minister in generall represent the evil consequents of an unworthy participation and if the penitent will judge himself unworthy let him stand candidate for pardon at the hands of God and stand or fall by that unerring and mercifull sentence to which his severity of condemning himself before men will make the easier and more hopefull addresse And the strictest among the Christians who denied to reconcile lapsed persons after baptisme yet acknowledged that there were hopes reserved in the court of heaven for them though not here since we who are easily deceived by the pretences of a reall return are tied to dispense Gods graces as he hath given us commission with fear and trembling and without too forward confidences and God hath mercies which we know not of and therefore because we know them not such persons were referred to Gods Tribunal where he would finde them if they were to be had at all 11. When the holy Sacrament is to be administred let the exhortation be made proper to the mystery but fitted to the man that is that it be used for the advantages of faith or love or contrition let all the circumstances and parts of the Divine love be represented all the mysterious advantages of the blessed Sacrament be declared * That it is the bread which came from heaven * That it is the representation of Christs death to all the purposes and capacities of faith * and the real exhibition of Christs body and blood to all the puposes of the Spirit * That it is the earnest of the resurrection * and the seed of a glorious immortality * That as by our cognation to the body of the first Adam we took in death so by our union with the body of the second Adam we shall have the inheritance of life for as by Adam came death so by Christ cometh the resurrection of the dead * That if we being worthy Communicants of these sacred pledges be presented to God with Christ within us our being accepted of God is certain even for the sake of his well beloved that dwells within us * That this is the Sacrament of the body which was broken for our sinnes of that blood which purifies our souls by which we are presented to God pure and holy in the beloved * That now we may ascertain our hopes and make our faith confident for he that hath given us his Son how should not he with him give us all things else Upon these or the like considerations the sick man may be assisted in his addresse and his faith strengthened and his hope confirmed and his charity be enlarged 12. The manner of the sick mans reception of the holy Sacrament hath in it nothing differing from the ordinary solemnities of the Sacrament save onely that abatement is to be made of such accidentall circumstances as by the lawes or customes of the Church healthfull persons are obliged to such as fasting kneeling c. though I remember that it was noted for great devotion in the Legate that died at Trent that he caused himself to be sustained upon his knees when he received the viaticum or the holy Sacrament before his death and it was greater in Hunniades that he caused himself to be carried to the Church that there he might receive his Lord in his Lords house and it was recorded for honour that William the pious Arch-Bishop of Bourges a small time before his last agony sprang out of his bed at the presence of the holy Sacrament and upon
guilt of a new account It is a signe of a reprobate spirit and an habituall prevailing ruling sin which exacts obedience when the judgement looks him in the face At least go to God with the innocence and fair deportment of thy person in the last scene of thy life that when thy soul breaks into the state of separation it may carry the relishes of religion and sobriety to the places of its abode and sentence 7. When these things are taken care for let the sick man so order his affairs that he have but very little conversation with the world but wholly as he can attend to religion and antedate his conversation in heaven alwayes having entercourse with God and still conversing with the Holy Jesus kissing his wounds admiring his goodnesse beging his mercy feeding on him with faith and drinking his blood to which purpose it were very fit if all circumstances be answerable that the narrative of the passion of Christ be read or discoursed to him at length or in brief according to the stile of the four Gospels But in all things let his care and society be as little secular as is possible CHAP. IV. Of the practise of the graces proper to the state of sicknesse which a sick man may practise alone SECT I. Of the practise of Patience NOw we suppose the man entring upon his Scene of sorrows and passive graces It may be he went yesterday to a wedding merry and brisk and there he felt his sentence that he must return home and die For men very commonly enter into the snare singing and consider not whither their fate leads them nor feared that then the Angel was to strike his stroak till his knees kissed the earth and his head trembles with the weight of the rod which God put into the hand of an exterminating Angel But whatsoever the ingresse was when the man feels his blood boil or his bones weary or his flesh diseased with a load of a dispersed and disordered humour or his head to ake or his faculties discomposed then he must consider that all those discourses he hath heard concerning patience and resignation and conformity to Christs sufferings and the melancholy lectures of the Crosse must all of them now be reduced to practise and passe from an ineffective contemplation to such an exercise as will really try whether we were true disciples of the Crosse or onely beleeved the doctrines of religion when we were at ease and that they never passed thorow the ear to the heart and dwelt not in our spirits But every man should consider God does nothing in vain that he would not to no purpose send us Preachers and give us rules and furnish us with discourse and lend us books and provide Sermons and make examples and promise his Spirit and describe the blessednesse of holy sufferings and prepare us with daily alarums if he did not really purpose to order our affairs so that we should need all this and use it all there were no such thing as the grace of patience if we were not to feel a sicknesse or enter into a state of sufferings whether when we are entred we are to practise by the following rules The practise and acts of patience by way of rule 1. At the first addresse and presence of sicknesse stand still and arrest thy spirit that it may without amazement or affright consider that this was that thou lookedst for and were alwayes certain should happen and that now thou art to enter into the actions of a new religion the agony of a strange constitution but at no hand suffer thy spirits to be dispersed with fear or wildnesse of thought but stay their loosenesse and dispersion by a serious consideration of the present and future imployment For so doth the Lybian Lion spying the fierce huntsman first beats himself with the stroaks of his tail and curles up his spirits making them strong with union and recollection till being strook with a Mauritanian spear he rushes forth into his defence and noblest contention and either scapes into the secrets of his own dwelling or else dies the bravest of the forrest Every man when shot with an arrow from Gods quiver must then draw in all the auxiliaries of reason and know that then is the time to try his strength and to reduce the words of his religion into action and consider that if he behaves himself weakly and timerously he suffers never the lesse of sicknesse but if he turns to health he carries along with him the mark of a coward and a fool and if he descends into his grave he enters into the state of the faithlesse and unbeleevers Let him set his heart firm upon this resolution I must bear it inevitably and I will by Gods grace do it nobly 2. Bear in thy sicknesse all along the same thoughts propositions and discourses concerning thy person thy life and death thy soul and religion which thou hadst in the best dayes of thy health and when thou didst discourse wisely concerning things spirituall For it is to be supposed and if it be not yet done let this rule remind thee of it and direct thee that thou hast cast about in thy health and considered concerning thy change and the evil day that thou must be sick and die that you must need a comforter and that it was certain thou shouldst fall into a state in which all the cords of thy anchor should be stretched and the very rock and foundation of faith should be attempted and whatsoever fancies may disturb you or whatever weaknesses may invade you yet consider when you were better able to judge and governe the accidents of your life you concluded it necessary to trust in God and possesse your souls with patience Think of things as they think that stand by you and as you did when you stood by others that it is a blessed thing to be patient that a quietnesse of spirit hath a certain reward that still there is infinite truth and reality in the promises of the Gospel that still thou art in the care of God in the condition of a son and working out thy salvation with labour and pain with fear and trembling that now the Sun is under a cloud but it still sends forth the same influence and be sure to make no new principles upon the stock of a quick and an impatient sense or too busie an apprehension keep your old principles and upon their stock discourse and practise on towards your conclusion 3. Resolve to bear your sicknesse like a child that is without considering the evils and the pains the sorrows and the danger but go straight forward and let thy thoughts cast about for nothing but how to make advantages of it by the instrument of religion He that from a high tower looks down upon the precipice and measures the space through which he must descend and considers what a huge fall he shall have shall feel more by the
They that deny to worship God with lowly reverence of their bodies according as the Church expresses her reverence to God externally 4. They that invent or practise superstitious worshippings invented by man against Gods word or without reason or besides the publike customes or formes of worshipping either foolishly or ridiculously without the purpose of order decency proportion to a wise or a religious end in prosecution of some vertue or duty III. Comm. Thou shalt not take Gods Name in vain The duties of this Comm. are 1. To honour and revere the most holy Name of God 2. To invocate his Name directly or by consequence in all solemn and permitted adjurations or publike oaths 3. To use all things and persons upon whom his Name is called or any wayes imprinted with a regardfull and separate manner of usage different from common and far from contempt and scorn 4. To swear in truth and judgement They sin against this Commandment 1. Who swear vainly and customarily without just cause without competent authority 2. They that blasphem or curse God 3. They that speak of God without grave cause or solemn occasion 4. They that forswear themselves that is they that do not perform their vows to God or that swear or call God to witnesse to a lie 5. They that swear rashly or maliciously to commit a sin or an act of revenge 6. They that swear by any creature falsely or any way but as it relates to God and consequently invokes his testimony 7. All curious inquiries into the secrets and intruders into the mysteries and hidden things of God 8. They that curse God or curse a creature by God 9. They that prophane Churches holy Utensils holy persons holy customes holy Sacraments 10 They that provoke others to swear voluntarily and by designe or incuriously or negligently when they might avoid it 11 They that swear to things uncertain and unknown IV. Comm. Remember that thou keep holy the S. day The duties of this Comm. are 1. To set apart some portions of our time for the immediate offices of religion and glorification of God 2. This to be done according as God or his holy Church hath appointed 3. One day in seven is to be set apart 4. The Christian day is to be subrogated into the place of the Jewes day the resurrection of Christ and redemption of man was a greater blessing then then to create him 5. God on that day to be worshipped and acknowledged as our Creator and as our Saviour 6. The day to be spent in holy offices in hearing Divine service publike prayers frequenting the Congregations hearing the word of God read or expounded reading good books meditations alms reconciling enmities remission of burdens and of offences of debts and of work friendly offices neighbourhood and provoking one another to good-works and to this end all servile works must be omitted excepting necessary and charitable offices to men or beasts to our selves or others They sin against this Comm. 1. That do or compell or intice others to do servile works without the cases of necessity or charity to be estimated according to common and prudent accounts 2. They that refuse or neglect to come to the publike assemblies of the Church to hear and assist at the divine offices intirely 3. They that spend the day in idlenesse forbidden or vain recreations or the actions of sin and folly 4. They that buy and sell without the cases of permission 5. They that travell unnecessary journeys 6 They that act or assist in contenâ—ions or law-suites markets fairs c. 7. They that on that day omit their private devotion unlesse the whole day be spent in publike 8. They that by any crosse or contradictory actions against the customes of the Church do purposely desecrate or unhallow and make the day common as they that in despite and contempt fast upon the Lords day lest they may celebrate the festivall after the manner of the Christians V. Com. Honour thy father and thy mother The duties are 1. To do honour and reverence and to love our natural parents 2. To obey all their domestic commands for in them the scene of their authority lies 3. To give them maintenance and support in their needs 4. To obey Kings and all that are in authority 5. To pay tribute and honours custome and reverence 6. To do reverence to the aged and all our betters 7. To obey our Masters spiritual governours and Guides in those things which concern their several respective interest and authority They sin against this commandment 1. That despise their parents age or infirmity 2. That are ashamed of their poverty and extraction 3. That publish their vices errours and infirmities to shame them 4. That refuse and reject all or any of their lawful commands 5. Children that marry without or against their consent when it may be reasonably obtained 6. That curse them from whom they receive so many blessings 7 That grieve the souls of their parents by not complying in their desires and observing their circumstances 8. That hate their persons that mock them or use uncomely jestings 9. That discover their nakednesse voluntarily 10. That murmure against their injunctions and obey them involuntarily 11. All Rebels against their Kings or the supream power in which it is legally and justly invested 12. That refuse to pay tributes and impositions imposed legally 13. They that disobey their Masters murmure or repine against their commands abuse or deride their persons talk rudely c. 14. They that curse the king in their heart or speak evil of the ruler of their people 15. All that are uncivil and rude towards aged persons mockers and scorners of them VI. Com. Thou shalt do no murder The duties are 1. To preserve our own lives the lives of our relatives and all with whom we converse or who can need us and we assist by prudent reasonable and wary defences advocations discoveries of snares c. 2. To preserve our health and the integrity of our bodies and mindes and of others 3. To preserve and follow peace with all men They sin against this Commandment 1. That destroy the life of a man or woman himself or any other 2. That do violence or dismember or hurt any part of the body with evil intent 3. That fight duels or commence unjust wars 4. They that willingly hasten their own or others death 5. That by oppression or violence imbitter the spirits of any so as to make their life sad and their death hasty 6. They that conceal the dangers of their neighbor which they can safely discover 7. They that sow strife and contention among neighbours 8. They that refuse to rescue or preserve those whom they can and are obliged to preserve 9. They that procure abortion 10 They that threaten or keep men in fears or hate them VII Com. Thou shalt not commit adultery The duties are 1. To preserve our bodies in the chastity of a single life or
of marriage 2. To keep all the parts of our bodies in the care and severities of chastity so that we be restrained in our eyes as well as in our feet They sin against this Commandment 1. Who are adulterous incestuous Sodomitical or commit fornication 2. They that commit folly alone dishonouring their own bodies with softnesse and wantonnesse 3. They that immoderately let loose the reins of their bolder appetite though within the protection of marriage 4 They that by wanton gestures wandring eyes lascivious dressings discovery of the nakednesse of themselves or others filthy discourse high diet amorous songs balls and revellings tempt and betray themselves or others to folly 5. They that marry a woman divorced for adultery 6. They that divorce their wives except for adultery and marry another VIII Com. Thou shalt not steal The duties are 1. To give every man his due 2. To permit every man to enjoy his own goods and estate quietly They sin against this Commandment 1. That injure any mans estate by open violence or by secret robbery by stealth or cousenage by arts of bargaining or vexatious law-suits 2. That refuse or neglect to pay their debts when they are able 3 That are forward to run into debt knowingly beyond their power without hopes or purposes of repaiment 4. Oppressors of the poor 5. That exact usury of necessitous persons or of any beyond the permissions of equity as determined by the laws 6. All sacrilegious persons people that rob God of his dues or of his possessions 7. All that game viz. at Cards and Dice c. to the prejudice and detriment of other mens estates 8. They that imbase coyn and mettals and obtrude them for perfect and natural 9. That break their promises to the detriment of a third person 10 They that refuse to stand to their bargains 11. They that by negligence imbecil other mens estates spoiling or letting any thing perish which is intrusted to them 12. That refuse to restore the pledge IX Com. Thou shalt not bear false witnesse The duties are 1. To give testimony to truth when we are called to it by competent authority 2. To preserve the good name of our neighbours 3. To speak well of them that deserve it They sin against this commandment 1. That speak false things in judgement accusing their neighbors unjustly or denying his crime publickly when we are asked and can be commanded lawfully to tell it 2. Flatterers and 3. slanderers 4. backbiters 5. and detracters 6. They that secretly raise jealousies and suspition of their neighbours causelesly X. Thou shalt not covet The duties are 1. To be content with the portion God hath given us 2. Not to be covetous of other mens goods They sin against this commandment 1. That envy the prosperities of other men 2. They that desire passionately to be possessed of what is their neighbours 3. They that with greedinesse pursue riches honours pleasures and curiosities 4. They that are too careful troubled distracted or amazed affrighted and afflicted with being sollicitous in the conduct of temporal blessings These are the general lines of duty by which we may discover our failings and be humbled and confesse accordingly onely the penitent person is to remember that although these are the kindes of sins described after the sense of the Jewish Church which consisted principally in the external action or the deed done and had no restraints upon the thoughts of men save onely in the tenth commandment which was mixt and did relate as much to action as to thought as appears in the instances yet upon us Christians there are many circumstances and degrees of obligation which endear our duty with greater severity and observation and the penitent is to account of himself and enumerate his sins not onely by external actions or the deed done but by words by thoughts and so to reckon if he have done it directly or indirectly if he have caused others to do it by tempting or incouraging by assisting or counselling by not disswading when he could and ought by fortifying their hands or hearts or not weakning their evil purposes if he have designed or contrived its action desired it or loved it delighted in the thought remembred the past sin with pleasure or without sorrow these are the by-wayes of sins and the crooked lanes in which a man may wander and be lost as certainly as in the broad high wayes of iniquity But besides this our blessed Lord and his Apostles have added divers other precepts some of which have been with some violence reduc'd to the Decalogue and others have not bin noted at all in the catalogues of confession I shall therefore describe them entirely that the sick man discover his failings that by the mercies of God in Jesus Christ and by the instrument of repentance he may be presented pure and spotlesse before the throne of God The special precepts of the Gospel 1. PRayer frequent servent holy and persevering 2. Faith 3. Repentance 4. Poverty of spirit as opposed to ambition high designes 5. and in it is humility or sitting down in the lowest place and in giving honour to go before another 6. meeknesse as it is opposed to waywardnesse fretfulnesse immoderate grieving disdain and scorn 7. contempt of the world 8. prudence or the advantagious conduct of religion 9. simplicity or sincerity in words and actions pretences and substances 10. hope 11. hearing the word 12. Reading 13. Assembling together 14. obeying them that have the rule over us in spiritual affairs 15. Refusing to communicate with persons excommunicate whither also may be reduced To reject Hereticks 16 Charity viz. love to God above all things brotherly kindnesse or profitable love to our neighbours as our selves to be expressed in almes forgivenesse and to dye for our brethren 17 To pluck out the right eye or violently to rescind all occasions of sin though dear to us as an eye 18 To reprove our erring brother 19 To be patient in afflictions and longanimity is referred hither or long sufferance which is the perfection and perseverance of patience and is opposed to hastinesse and wearinesse of spirit 20 To be thankful to our benefactors but above all in all things to give thanks to God 21. To rejoyce in the Lord alwayes 22. Not to quench not to grieve not to resist the Spirit 23 To love our wives as Christ loved his Church and to reverence our husbands 24. To provide for our families 25 Not to be bitter to our children 26. To bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord 27. Not to despise prophesying 28. To be gentle and easie to be intreated 29. To give no scandal or offence 30. To follow after peace with all men and to make peace 31. Not to go to law before the
his servants to minister to the necessities and eternally to blesse and prudently to guide and wisely to judge concerning souls and the Holy Ghost that anointing from above descends upon us in severall effluxes but ever by the ministeries of the Church Our heads are anointed with that sacred unction Baptisme not in ceremony but in reall and proper effect our foreheads in confirmation our hands in ordinations all our senses in the visitation of the sick and all by the ministery of especially deputed and instructed persons and we who all our life time derive blessings from the fountains of grace by the channels of Ecclesiastical ministeries must do it then especially when our needs are most pungent and actuall 1. We cannot give up our names to Christ but the Holy man that ministers in religion must enroll them and present the persons and consigne the grace when we beg for Gods Spirit the Minister can best present our prayers and by his advocation hallow our private desires and turn them into publike and potent offices 2. If we desire to be established and confirmed in the grace and religion of our Baptisme the Holy man whose hands were anointed by a speciall ordination to that and its symbolical purposes layes his hands upon the Catechumen and the anointing from above descends by that ministery 3. If we would eat the body and drink the blood of our Lord we must addresse our selves to the Lords Table and he that stands there to blesse and to minister can reach it forth and feed thy soul and without his ministery thou canst not be nourished with that heavenly feast nor thy body consigned to immortality nor thy soul refreshed with the Sacramentall bread from heaven except by spirituall suppletories in cases of necessity and an impossible communion 4. If we have committed sins the spirituall man is appointed to restore us and to pray for us and to receive our confessions and to enquire into our wounds and to infuse oil and remedy and to pronounce pardon 5. If we be cut off from the communion of the faithfull by our own demerits their holy hands must reconcile us and give us peace they are our appointed comforters our instructers our ordinary Judges and in the whole what the children of Israel beg'd of Moses that God would no more speak to them alone but by his servant Moses lest they should be consumed God in compliance with our infirmities hath of his own goodnesse established as a perpetuall law in all ages of Christianity that God will speak to us by his Ministers and our solemn prayers shall be made to him by their advocation and his blessings descend from heaven by their hands and our offices return thither by their presidencies and our repentance shall be managed by them and our pardon in many degrees ministred by them God comforts us by their Sermons and reproves us by their Discipline and cuts off some by their severity and reconciles others by their gentlenesse and relieves us by their prayers and instructs us by their discourses and heals our sicknesses by their intercession presented to God and united to Christs advocation and in all this they are no causes but servants of the will of God instruments of the Divine Grace and order stewards and dispensers of the mysteries and appointed to our souls to serve and lead and to help in all accidents dangers and necessities And they who received us in our baptisme are also to cary us to our grave and to take care that our end be as our life was or should have been and therefore it is established as an Apostolical rule Is any man sick among you let him send for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him c. The sum of the duties and offices respectively implied in these words is in the following rules SECT II. Rules for the manner of visitations of sick persons 1. LEt the Minister of religion be sent to not onely against the agony of death but be advised with in the whole conduct of the sicknesse for in sicknesse indefinitely and therefore in every sicknesse and therefore in such which are not mortall which end in health which have no agony or finall temptations S. Iames gives the advise and the sick man being bound to require them is also tied to do it when he can know them and his own necessity It is a very great evil both in the matter of prudence and piety that they fear the Priest as they fear the Embalmer or the Sextons spade and love not to converse with him unlesse he can converse with no man else and think his office so much to relate to the other world that he is not to be treated with while we hope to live in this and indeed that our religion be taken care of onely when we die and the event is this of which I have seen some sad experience that the man is deadly sick and his reason is uselesse and he is laid to sleep and his life is in the confines of the grave so that he can do nothing towards the trimming of his lamp and the Curate shall say a few prayers by him and talk to a dead man and the man is not in a condition to be helped but in a condition to need it hugely He cannot be called upon to confesse his sins and he is not able to remember them and he cannot understand an advice nor hear a free discourse nor be altered from a passion nor cured of his fear nor comforted upon any grounds of reason or religion and no man can tell what is likely to be his fate or if he does he cannot prophecie good things concerning him but evil Let the spiritual man come when the sick man can be conversed withall and instructed when he can take medicine and amend when he understands or can be taught to understand the case of his soul and the rules of his conscience and then his advice may turn into advantage It cannot otherwise be useful 2. The entercourses of the Minister with the sick man have so much variety in them that they are not to be transacted at once and therefore they do not well that send once to see the good man with sorrow and hear him pray and thank him and dismisse him civilly and desire to see his face no more To dresse a soul for funeral is not a work to be dispatched at one meeting At once he needs a comfort and anon something to make him willing to die and by and by he is tempted to impatience and that needs a special cure and it is a great work to make his confessions well and with advantages and it may be the man is carelesse and indifferent and then he needs to understand the evil of his sin and the danger of his person and his cases of conscience may be so many and so intricate that he is not quickly to be reduced to peace and one time
his brother nor give to God a ransome for him for the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth for ever that he should still live for ever and not see corruption But wise men die likewise the fool and the brutish person perish and leave their wealth to others but God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave for he shall receive me As for me I will behold thy face in righteousnesse I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likenesse Thou shalt shew me the path of life in thy presence is the fulnesse of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. Let us Pray ALmighty God Father of mercies the God of peace and comfort of rest and pardon we thy servants though unworthy to pray to thee yet in duty to thee and charity to our brother humbly beg mercy of thee for him to descend upon his body and his soul One sinner O Lord for another the miserable for the afflicted the poor for him that is in need but thou givest thy graces and thy favours by the measures of thy own mercies and in proportion to our necessities we humbly come to thee in the Name of Jesus for the merit of our Saviour and the mercies of our God praying thee to pardon the sins of this thy servant and to put them all upon the accounts of the Crosse and to bury them in the grave of Jesus that they may never rise up in judgement against thy servant nor bring him to shame and confusion of face in the day of finall inquiry and sentence Amen II. GIve thy servant patience in his sorrows comfort in this his sicknesse and restore him to health if it seem good to thee in order to thy great ends and his greatest interest And however thou shalt determine concerning him in this affair yet make his repentance perfect and his passage and his faith strong and his hope modest and confident that when thou shalt call his soul from the prison of the body it may enter into the securities and rest of the sons of God in the bosome of blessednesse and the custodies of Jesus Amen III. THou O Lord knowest all the necessities and all the infirmities of thy servant fortifie his spirit with spirituall joyes and perfect resignation and take from him all degrees of inordinate or insecure affections to this world and enlarge his heart with desires of being with thee and of freedome from sins and fruition of God IV. LOrd let not any pain or passion discompose the order and decencie of his thoughts and duty and lay no more upon thy servant then thou wilt make him able to bear and together with the temptation do thou provide a way to escape even by the mercies of a longer and a more holy life or by the mercies of a blessed death even as it pleaseth thee O Lord so let it be V. LEt the tendernesse of his conscience and the Spirit of God call to mind his sins that they may be confessed and repented of because thou hast promised that if we confesse our sins we shall have mercy Let thy mighty grace draw out from his soul every root of bitternesse lest the remains of the old man be accursed with the reserves of thy wrath but in the union of the Holy Jesus and in the charities of God and of the world and the communion of all the saints let this soul be presented to thee blamelesse and intirely pardoned and thorowly washed through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here also may be inserted the prayers set down after the Holy Communion is administred The Prayer of S. Eustratius the Martyr to be used by the sick or dying man or by the Priests or assistants in his behalf which he said when he was going to martyrdom I Will praise thee O Lord that thou hast considered my low estate and hast not shut me up in the hands of my enemies nor made my foes to rejoyce over me and now let thy right hand protect me and let thy mercy come upon me for my soul is in trouble and anguish because of its departure from the body O let not the assemblies of its wicked and cruell enemies meet it in the passing forth nor hinder me by reason of the sins of my passed life O Lord be favourable unto me that my so I may not behold the hellish countenance of the spirits of darknesse but let thy bright and joyfull Angels entertain it Give glory to thy Holy Name and to thy Majesty place me by thy mercifull arm before thy seat of Judgement and let not the hand of the prince of this world snatch me from thy presence or bear me into hell Mercy sweet Jesu Amen A Prayer taken out of the Euchologion of the Greek Church to be said by or in behalf of people in their danger or neer their death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I. BEmired with sins and naked of good deeds I that am the meat of worms cry vehemently in spirit Cast not me wretch away from thy face place me not on the left hand who with thy hands didst fashion me but give rest unto my soul for thy great mercy sake O Lord. II. SUpplicate with tears unto Christ who is to judge my poor soul that he would deliver me from the fire that is unquenchable I pray you all my friends and acquaintance make mention of me in your prayers that in the day of Judgement I may find mercy at that dreadfull Tribunall III. Then may the by-standers pray WHen in unspeakable glory thou dost come dreadfully to judge the whole world vouchsafe O gracious Redeemer that this thy faithfull servant may in the clouds meet thee cheerfully They who have been dead from the beginning with terrible and fearfull trembling stand at thy Tribunall waiting thy just O Blessed Saviour Jesus None shall there avoid thy formidable and most righteous judgement All Kings and Princes with servants stand together and hear the dreadfull voyce of the Judge condemning the people which have sinned into hell from which sad sentence O Christ deliver thy servant Amen Then let the sick man be called upon to rehearse the Articles of his Faith or if he be so weak he cannot let him if he have not before done it be called to say Amen when they are recited or to give some testimony of his faith and confident assent to them After which it is proper if the person be in capacity that the Minister examine him and invite him to confession and all the parts of repentance according to the foregoing rules after which he may pray this prayer of absolution OUr Lord Jesus Christ who hath given Commission to his Church in his Name to pronounce pardon to all that are truly penitent he of his mercy pardon and forgive thee all thy sins deliver thee from all evils past present and future
preserve thee in the faith and fear of his holy Name to thy lives end and bring thee to his everlasting Kingdom to live with him for ever and ever Amen Then let the sick man renounce all heresies and whatsoever is against the truth of God or the peace of the Church and pray for pardon for all his ignorances and errors known and unknown After which let him if all other circumstances be fitted be disposed to receive the Blessed Sacrament in which the Curate is to minister according to the form prescribed by the Church When the rites are finished let the sick man in the dayes of his sicknesse be imployed with the former offices and exercises before described and when the time drawes neer of his dissolution the Minister may assist by the following order of recommendation of the soul. I. O Holy and most Gracious Saviour Jesus we humbly recommend the soul of thy servant into thy hands thy most mercifull hands let thy Blessed Angels stand in ministery about thy servant and defend him from the violence and malice of all his ghosâ—ly enemies and drive far from hence all the spirits of darknesse Amen II. LOrd receive the soul of this thy servant Enter not into judgement with thy servaant spare him whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood deliver him from all evil and mischief from the crafts and assaults of the Devil from the fear of death and from everlasting death Good Lord deliver him Amen III. IMpute not unto him the follies of his youth nor any of the errors and miscarriages of his life but strengthen him in his agony let not his faith waver nor his hope fail nor his charity be disordered Let none of his enemies imprint upon him any afflictive or evil phantasme let him die in peace and rest in hope and rise in glory Amen IIII. LOrd we know and beleeve assuredly that whatsoever is under thy custody cannot be taken out of thy hands nor by all the violences of hell robbed of thy protection preserve the work of thy hands rescue him from all evil for whose sake thou didst suffer all evil Take into the participation of thy glories him to whom thou hast given the seal of Adoption the earnest of the inheritance of the Saints Amen V. LEt his portion be with Abraham Isaac and Iacob with Iob and David with the Prophets and Apostles with Martyrs and all thy holy Saints in the arms of Christ in the bosome of felicity in the Kingdom of God to eternall ages Amen These following prayers are fit also to be added to the foregoing offices in case there be no communion or entercourse but prayer Let us Pray O Almighty and eternall God there is no number of thy dayes or of thy mercies thou hast sent us into this world to serve thee and to live according to thy lawes but we by our sins have provoked thee to wrath and we have planted thorns and sorrows round about our dwellings and our life is but a span long and yet very tedious because of the calamities that inclose us in on every side the dayes of our pilgrimage are few and evil we have frail and sickly bodies violent and distempered passions long designes and but a short stay weak understandings and strong enemies abused fancies perverse wils O Dear God look upon us in mercy and pity let not our weaknesses make us to sin against thee nor our fear cause us to betray our duty nor our former follies provoke thy eternall anger nor the calamities of this world vex us into tediousnesse of spirit and impatience but let thy Holy Spirit lead us thorow this vally of misery with safety and peace with holiness and religion with spirituall comforts and joy in the Holy Ghost that when we have served thee in our generations we may be gathered unto our Fathers having the testimony of a holy conscience in the communion of the Catholike Church in the confidence of a certain faith and the comforts of a reasonable religious and holy hope and perfect charity with thee our God and all the world that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature may be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen II. O Holy and most gracious Saviour Jesus in whose hands the souls of all faithfull people are laid up till the day of recompence have mercy upon the body and soul of this thy servant and upon all thy elect people who love the Lord Jesus and long for his coming Lord refresh the imperfection of their condition with the aids of the Spirit of grace and comfort and with the visitation and guard of Angels and supply to them all their necessities known onely unto thee let them dwell in peace and feel thy mercies pitying their infirmities and the follies of their flesh and speedily satisfying the desires of their spirits and when thou shalt bring us all forth in the day of Judgement O then shew thy self to be our Saviour Jesus our Advocate and our Judge Lord then remember that thou hast for so many ages prayed for the pardon of those sins which thou art then to sentence Let not the accusations of our consciences nor the calumnies and aggravation of Devils nor the effects of thy wrath presse those souls whâ—ch thou lovest which thou didst redeem which thou doest pray for but enable us all by the supporting hand of thy mercy to stand upright in judgement O Lord have mercy upon us have mercy upon us O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us as our trust is in thee O Lord in thee have we trusted let us never be confounded Let us meet with joy and for ever dwell with thee feeling thy pardon supported with thy graciousnesse absolved by thy sentence saved by thy mercy that we may sing to the glory of thy Name eternall Allelujahs Amen Amen Amen Then may be added in the behalf of all that are present these ejaculations O spare us a little that we may recover our strength before we go hence and be no more seen Amen Cast us not away in the time of age O forsake us not when strength faileth Amen Grant that we may never sleep in sin or death eternall but that we may have our part of the first resurrection and that the second death may not prevail over us Amen Grant that our souls may be bound up in the bundle of life and in the day when thou bindest up thy Jewels remember thy servants for good and not for evil that our souls may be numbred amongst the righteous Amen Grant unto all sick and dying Christians mercy and aids from heaven and receive the souls returning unto thee whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood Amen Grant unto thy servants to have faith in the Lord Jesus a daily meditation of death a contempt of