My times are in thy hand: make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me, for thy mercy's

sake.

When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Psalm xxvii.

Hide not thy face from me; put not thy servant away in thine anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

O how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Psalm xxxi.

Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues [from the calumnies and aggravation of sins by devils].

I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes; nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplication when I cried unto thee.

O love the Lord, all ye his saints; for the Lord preserveth the faithful, and plenteously rewardeth the proud doer.

Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.

The Prayer to be said in the Beginning of a Sickness.

O Almighty God, merciful and gracious, who, in thy justice, didst send sorrow and tears, sickness and death, into the world, as a punishment for man's sins, and hast comprehended all under sin, and this sad covenant of sufferings, not to destroy us, but that thou mightest have mercy upon all, making thy justice to minister to mercy, short af flictions to an eternal weight of glory; as thou hast turned my sins into sickness, so turn my sickness to the advantages of holiness and religion, of mercy and pardon, of faith and hope, of grace and glory. Thou hast now called me to the fellowship of sufferings Lord, by the instrument of religion let my present condition be so sanctified, that my sufferings may be united to the sufferings of my Lord, that so thou mayest pity me and assist me. Relieve my sorrow, and support my spirit: direct my thoughts, and sanctify the accidents of my sickness, and that the punishment of my sin may be the school of virtue in which, since thou hast now entered me, Lord, make me a holy proficient; that I may behave myself as a son under discipline, humbly and obediently, evenly and penitently, that I may come by this means nearer unto thee; that if I shall go forth of this sickness by the gate of life and health, I may return to the world with great strengths of spirit, to run a new race of a stricter holiness and a more severe religion: or if I pass from hence with the outlet of death, I may enter into the bosom of my Lord, and may feel the present joys of a certain hope of that sea of pleasures, in which all thy

ages. Grant this for Jesus Christ's sake, our dearest Lord and Saviour. Amen.

An Act of Resignation to be said by a Sick Person

in all the evil Accidents of his Sickness.

O eternal God, thou hast made me and sustained me; thou hast blessed me in all the days of my life, and hast taken care of me in all variety of accidents; and nothing happens to me in vain, nothing without thy providence; and I know thou smitest thy servants in mercy, and with designs of the greatest pity in the world: Lord, I humbly lie down under thy rod; do with me as thou pleasest; do thou choose for me, not only the whole state and condition of being, but every little and great accident of it. Keep me safe by thy grace, and then use what instrument thou pleasest, of bringing me to thee. Lord, I am not solicitous of the passage, so I may get to thee. Only, O Lord, remember my infirmities, and let thy servant rejoice in thee always, and feel, and confess, and glory in thy goodO be thou as delightful to me in this my medicinal sickness, as ever thou wert in any of the dangers of my prosperity: let me not peevishly refuse thy pardon at the rate of a severe discipline. I am thy servant and thy creature, thy purchased possession, and thy son: I am all thine: and because thou hast mercy in store for all that trust in thee, I cover mine eyes, and in silence wait for the time of my redemption. Amen.

ness.

A Prayer for the Grace of Patience. Most merciful and gracious Father, who, in the redemption of lost mankind by the passion of thy most holy Son, hast established a covenant of sufferings, I bless and magnify thy name, that thou hast adopted me into the inheritance of sons, and hast given me a portion of my elder Brother. Lord, the cross falls heavy and sits uneasy upon my shoulders; my spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak: I humbly beg of thee that I may now rejoice in this thy dispensation and effect of providence. I know and am persuaded, that thou art then as gracious, when thou smitest us for amendment or trial, as when thou relievest our wearied bodies in compliance with our infirmity. I rejoice, O Lord, in thy rare and mysterious mercy, who, by sufferings, hast turned our misery into advantages unspeakable; for so thou makest us like to thy Son, and givest us a gift, that the angels never did receive; for they cannot die in conformity to, and imitation of, their Lord and ours; but blessed be thy name, we can; and, dearest Lord, let it be so. Amen.

II.

Thou, who art the God of patience and consolation, strengthen me in the inner man, that I may bear the yoke and burden of the Lord without any uneasy and useless murmurs and ineffective unwillingness. Lord, I am unable to stand under the cross, unable of myself: but thou, O holy Jesus, who didst feel the burden of it, who didst sink under it, and wert pleased to admit a man to bear

part of the load, when thou underwentest all for him, be thou pleased to ease this load by fortifying my spirit, that I may be strongest when I am weakest, and may be able to do and suffer every thing thou pleasest, through Christ, who strengthens me. Lord, if thou wilt support me, I will for ever praise thee if thou wilt suffer the load to press me yet more heavily, I will cry unto thee, and complain unto my God; and at last I will lie down and die, and by the mercies and intercession of the holy Jesus, and the conduct of thy blessed Spirit, and the ministry of angels, pass into those mansions, where holy souls rest, and weep no more. Lord, pity me; Lord, sanctify this my sickness; Lord, strengthen me; holy Jesus, save me, and deliver me. Thou knowest how shamefully I have fallen with pleasure: in thy mercy and very pity, let me not fall with pain too. O let me never charge God foolishly, nor offend thee by my impatience and uneasy spirit, nor weaken the hands and hearts of those, that charitably minister to my needs; but let me pass through the valley of tears and the valley of the shadow of death with safety and peace, with a meek spirit and a sense of the Divine mercies; and though thou breakest me in pieces, my hope is thou wilt gather me up in the gatherings of eternity. Grant this, eternal God, gracious Father, for the merits and intercession of our merciful High Priest, who once suffered for me, and for ever intercedes for me, our most gracious and ever-blessed Saviour Jesus.

A Prayer to be said when the Sick Man takes Physic.

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O most blessed and eternal Jesus, thou, who art the great Physician of our souls, and the Sun of righteousness arising with healing in thy wings, to thee is given by thy heavenly Father the government of all the world, and thou disposest every great and little accident to thy Father's honour, and to the good and comfort of them that love and serve thee be pleased to bless the ministry of thy servant in order to my ease and health, direct his judgment, prosper the medicines, and dispose the chances of my sickness fortunately, that I may feel the blessing and loving-kindness of the Lord in the ease of my pain and the restitution of my health: that I, being restored to the society of the living, and to thy solemn assemblies, may praise thee and thy goodness, secretly among the faithful, and in the congregation of thy redeemed ones, here in the outer-courts of the Lord, and hereafter in thy eternal temple for ever and ever. Amen.

SECTION III.

Of the Practice of the Grace of Faith in the Time of Sickness.

Now is the time, in which the faith appears most necessary, and most difficult. It is the foundation

c Non jam validis radicibus hærens, Pondere fixa suo-. d Sanctiusque ac reverentius visum de actis Deorum credere quàm scire.--TACIT.

of a good life, and the foundation of all our hopes: it is that, without which we cannot live well, and without which we cannot die well: it is a grace that then we shall need to support our spirits, to sustain our hopes, to alleviate our sickness, to resist temptation, to prevent despair; upon the belief of the articles of our religion, we can do the works of a holy life; but upon belief of the promises, we can bear our sickness patiently, and die cheerfully. The sick man may practise it in the following instances. 1. Let the sick man be careful, that he do not admit of any doubt concerning that, which he believed and received from a common consent in his best health and days of election and religion. For if the devil can but prevail so far as to unfix and unrivet the resolution and confidence or fulness of assent, it is easy for him so to unwind the spirit, that from why to whether or no, from whether or no to scarcely not, from scarcely not to absolutely not at all, are steps of a descending and falling spirit: and whatsoever a man is made to doubt of by the weakness of his understanding in a sickness, it will be hard to get an instrument strong and subtle enough to reinforce and insure: for when the strengths are gone, by which faith held, and it does not stand firm by the weight of its own bulk and great constitution, nor yet by the cordage of a tenacious root; then it is prepared for a ruin, which it cannot escape in the tempests of a sickness and the assaults of a devil. Discourse and argument, the line of tradition and a never-failing experience, the Spirit of God and the truth of miracles, the word of prophecy and the blood of martyrs, the excellency of the doctrine and the necessity of men, the riches of the promises and the wisdom of the revelations, the reasonableness and sublimity, the concordance and the usefulness, of the articles, and their compliance with all the needs of man, and the government of commonwealths, are like the strings and branches of the roots, by which faith stands firm and unmovable in the spirit and understanding of a man. But in sickness, the understanding is shaken, and the ground is removed in which the root did grapple, and support its trunk; and therefore there is no way now, but that it be left to stand upon the old confidences, and by the firmament of its own weight; it must be left to stand, because it always stood there before and as it stood all its life-time in the ground of understanding, so it must now be supported with will, and a fixed resolution. But disputation tempts it, and shakes it with trying, and overthrows it with shaking. Above all things in the world, let the sick man fear a proposition, which his sickness hath put into him, contrary to the discourses of health and a sober, untroubled reason.

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2. Let the sick man mingle the recital of his creed together with his devotions, and in that let him account his faith; not in curiosity and factions, in the confessions of parties and interests: for some over-forward zeals are so earnest to profess their little and uncertain articles, and glory so to die in a

e Fides tua te salvum faciet: non exercitatio Scripturarum. Fides in regulâ posita est; (scil. in symbolo quod jam recitaverat) habet legem, et salutem de observatione legis: exerci

SECTION IV.

Acts of Faith, by way of Prayer and Ejaculation, to be said by Sick Men, in the Days of their Temptation.

we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another. 1 Thess. v. 8-10, 12.

There is no name under heaven, whereby we can be saved, but only the name of the Lord Jesus. Acts iv. 12. And every soul which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the

God forbid that I should glory save in the cross

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, &c. Lord, I believe help thou mine unbelief. ix. 24.

I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that 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. xiv. 14, 7, 8.

Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of? Isa. ii. 22. But the just shall live by faith. Hab. ii. 4. Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, John xi. 27. the Saviour of the world, John iv. 42. the resurrection and the life; and he that believeth in thee, though he were dead, yet shall he

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This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. 1 Tim. i. 15.

O grant that I may obtain mercy, that in me Jesus Christ may show forth all long-suffering, that I may believe in him to life everlasting.

I am bound to give thanks unto God alway, because God hath from the beginning chosen me to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, whereunto he called me by the gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thess. ii. 13, 14, 16, 17.

Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace, comfort my heart, and stablish me in every good word and work.

The Lord direct my heart into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ. 2 Thess. iii. 5.

O that our God would count me worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power; that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in me, and I in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thess. i. 11, 12. Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether

Jesus said unto her, Said I not to thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, make me stedfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; for I know that my labour is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Cor. xv. 55—58.

The Prayer for the Grace and Strengths of Faith.

O holy and eternal Jesus, who didst die for me and all mankind, abolishing our sin, reconciling us to God, adopting us into the portion of thine heritage, and establishing with us a covenant of faith and obedience, making our souls to rely upon spiritual strengths, by the supports of a holy belief, and the expectation of rare promises, and the infallible truths of God; O let me for ever dwell upon the rock, leaning upon thy arm, believing thy word, trusting in thy promises, waiting for thy mercies, and doing thy commandments; that the devil may not prevail upon me, and my own weaknesses may not abuse or unsettle my persuasions, nor my sins discompose my just confidence in thee and thy eternal mercies. Let me always be thy servant and thy disciple, and die in the communion of thy church, of all faithful people. Lord, I renounce whatsoever is against thy truth; and if secretly I have, or do believe, any false proposition, I do it in the simplicity of my heart and great weakness; and if I could discover it, would dash it in pieces by a solemn disclaiming it; for thou art the way, the truth, and the life. And I know, that whatsoever thou hast declared, that is the truth of God; and I do firmly adhere to the religion thou hast taught, and glory in nothing so much as that I am a christian, that thy name is called upon me. my God, though I die, yet will I put my trust in thee. In thee, O Lord, have I trusted; let me never be confounded. Amen.

SECTION V.

Of the Practice of the Grace of Repentance in the Time of Sickness.

MEN generally do very much dread sudden death, and pray against it passionately; and certainly it hath in it great inconveniences accidentally to men's estates, to the settlement of families, to the culture and trimming of souls, and it robs a man of the blessings which may be consequent to sickness, and to the passive graces and holy contentions of a christian, while he descends to his grave without an adversary or a trial:s and a good man may be taken at such a disadvantage, that a sudden death would be a great evil, even to the most excellent person, if it strikes him in an unlucky circumstance. But these considerations are not the only ingredients into those men's discourse, who pray violently against sudden deaths; for possibly, if this were all, there may be in the condition of sudden death something to make recompence for the evils of the over-hasty accident. For certainly, it is a less temporal evil to fall by the rudeness of a sword than the violences of a fever, and the axe is much a less affliction than a strangury; and though a sickness tries our virtues, yet a sudden death is free from temptation; a sickness may be more glorious, and a sudden death more safe. The deadest deaths are best, the shortest and least premeditate,h sq Cæsar said; and Pliny called a short death the greatest fortune of a man's life. For even good men have been forced to an indecency of deportment by the violences of pain: and Cicero observes concerning Hercules, that he was broken in pieces with pain even then, when he sought for immortality by his death, being tortured with a plague, knit up in the lappet of his shirt. And therefore as a sudden death certainly loses the rewards of a holy sickness, so it makes, that a man shall not so much hazard and lose the rewards of a holy life.

But the secret of this affair is a worse matter: men live at that rate, either of an habitual wickedness, or else a frequent repetition of single acts of killing and deadly sins, that a sudden death is the ruin of all their hopes, and a perfect consignation to an eternal sorrow. But in this case, also, so is a lingering sickness for our sickness may change us from life to health, from health to strength, from strength to the firmness and confirmation of habitual graces; but it cannot change a man from death to life, and begin and finish that process, which sits not down but in the bosom of blessedness. He that

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washes in the morning, when his bath is seasonable and healthful, is not only made clean, but sprightly, and the blood is brisk and coloured like the first springing of the morning; but they that wash their dead, cleanse the skin, and leave paleness upon the cheek, and stiffness in all the joints. A repentance upon our death-bed is like washing the corpse : it is cleanly and civil; but makes no change deeper than the skin. But God knows, it is a custom so to wash them that are going to dwell with dust, and to be buried in the lap of their kindred earth," but all their lives-time wallow in pollutions without any washing at all; or if they do, it is like that of the Dardani," who washed but thrice all their life-time, when they are born, and when they marry, and when they die; when they are baptized, or against a solemnity, or for the day of their funeral: but these are but ceremonious washings, and never purify the soul, if it be stained, and hath sullied the whiteness of its baptismal robes.

God intended we should live a holy life: he contracted with us in Jesus Christ for a holy life: he made no abatements of the strictest sense of it, but such as did necessarily comply with human infirmities or possibilities; that is, he understood it in the sense of repentance, which still is so to renew our duty, that it may be a holy life in the second sense; that is, some great portion of our life to be spent in living as christians should. A resolving to repent upon our death-bed, is the greatest mockery of God in the world, and the most perfect contradictory to all his excellent designs of mercy and holiness: for therefore he threatened us with hell if we did not, and he promised heaven if we did, live a holy life; and a late repentance promises heaven to us upon other conditions, even when we have lived wickedly. It renders a man useless and intolerable to the world; taking off the great curb of religion, of fear and hope, and permitting all impiety with the greatest impunity and encouragement in the world. By this means we see so many waidas Toλνxpoviove, as Philo calls them, or, as the prophets, pueros centum annorum, children of almost a hundred years old, upon whose grave we may write the inscription which was upon the tomb of Similis in Xiphilin : " "Here he lies, who was so many years, but lived but seven." And the course of nature runs counter to the perfect designs of piety: and God, who gave us a life to live to him, is only served at our death, when we die to all the world; and we undervalue the great promises made by the holy Jesus, for which the piety, the strictest unerring piety, of ten thousand ages is not a proportionable exchange: yet we think it a hard bargain to get

r

Vide Aug. lib. 5. Hom. iv. et Serm. 57. de Tempore. Faustum ad Paulinum, Ep. 1. in Biblioth. tom. 5. vet. edit. Concil. Arelat. i. c. 3. Carthag. 4. cap. 7, 8. P -Quis luce supremâ

Dimisisse meas serò non ingemit horas ?-SIL. Ital. 1 15. q Sic contra rerum naturæ munera nota, Corvus maturis frugibus ova refert.

• In Adrian. Σίμιλις μὲν ἐν ταῦθα κεῖται, βιοῦς κατὰ ἔτη τόσα, ζήσας δὲ ἔτη ἑπτά,

s Vide the Life of Christ, Disc. of Repentance; Rule of Holy Living, chap. iv. Sect. of Repentance; and Sermons, Serm. v. vi.