SECT. III. Of the Practice of the Grace of Faith in the Time of Sickness. OW is the time in which the Faith appears most neceffary and most difficult. It is the foundation of a good life, and the foun dation 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 fhall need to fupport our fpirits, to fuftain our hopes, to alleviate our fickness, to refift temptations, 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 fickness patiently, and die cheerfully. The fick man may practise it in the following inftances. 1. Let the fick 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 fo far as to unfix and unrivet the refolution and confidence or fulness of affent, it is eafy 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 abfolutely not at all, are steps of a defcending and falling spirit: and whatsoever à man is made to doubt of by the weakness of his understanding in a fickness, it will be hard to get an instrument strong or fubtle enough to reinforce and enfure: For when the strengths are gone by which Faith held, and it man, * does not stand firm by its own bulk and great conftitution, nor yet by the cordage of a tenacious root; then it is prepared for a ruin, which it cannot escape in the tempefts of a fickness and the assaults of a Devil. Difcourfe 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 neceffity of men, *the riches of the Promises, and * the wisdom of the Revelations, the reasonableness and * fublimity, * the concordance and the usefulness of the Articles, and their compliance with all the needs of * and the government of Commonwealths, are like the ftrings and branches of the roots by which Faith stands firm and unmoveable in the spirit and understanding of a man. But in Sickness the understanding is fhaken, 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 ftand upon radicibus hærens, Pondere the old confidences, and by the firmament of its own weight: it must be left to stand because it always ftood there before and as it stood all his life-time in the ground of understanding, so it must now be supported with will, and a fixed refolution. But difputation tempts it, and Sanctiúfque ac reverenshakes it with trying, and over- tius vifum de actis Deothrows it with shaking. Above all things in the world, let the fick man fear a propofition which his fickness hath put into him contrary to the discourses of health and a fober untroubled reafon. Non jam validis fixa fuo- rum credere quàm fcire. Tacit. Tert. de præfcript. perfectionem; Cordis fig naculum, et noftræ militiæ facramentum. Amb. lib. 3. de Veland. Virgin. Aug. ferm. 115. Non per difficiles nos Deus ad beatam vitam quæftiones vocat. In abfoluto nobis et facili eft æternitas; Jefum fufcita tum à mortuis per Deum credere, et ipfum effe Dominum confiteri. S. Hilar. lib. 10. de Trinit. Hæc eft fides Catholica, de Symbolo fuo dixit Athanafius, vel quicun que author eft Athanaf de fide Nicena. 'H yàp iv airñ napà räv πατέρων κατὰ τὰς θείας γραápung bσti wpis avaτpowùv μè φὰς ὁμολογηθεῖσα πίστις αὐτ 2. Let the fick man mingle the recital of his Creed together with his Devotions, and in that let him account his Faith; not in Curiofity and Factions, in the confeffions of parties and interefts: for fome over-forward zeals are so earnest to profess their little and uncertain articles, and glory fo to die in a particular and divided communion, that in the profeffion of their Faith they lofe or discompose their Charity. Let it be enough that we fecure our interest of Heaven, though we do not go about to appropriate the manfions to our Sect: for every good man hopes to be faved as he is a Christian, and not as he is a Lutheran, or of another divifion. However those articles upon which he can build the exercise of any virtue in his fickness, or upon the stock of which he can improve his prefent condition, are fuch as confift in the greatness and goodness, the veracity and mercy of God through Ep. ad Epict. Jefus Chrift: nothing of which can be concerned in the fond difputations which faction and interest hath too long maintained in Christendom. πάσης ἀσεβείας, σύστασιν δὲ τῆς εὐσεβείας ἐν Χριστῷ. 3. Let the fick man's Faith efpecially be active about the promises of Grace, and the excellent things of the Gofpel; thofe which can comfort his forrows, and enable his Patience; those upon the hopes of which he did the duties of his life, and for which he is not unwilling to die: fuch as the Interceffion and Advocation of Chrift, Remiffion of fins, the Resurrection, the mysterious arts and mercies of man's Redemption, Christ's triumph over death and all the powers of hell, the Covenant of grace, or the blessed iffues of Repentance, and above all, the article of Eternal life, upon the strength of which eleven thousand Virgins went cheerfully together to their martyrdom, and twenty thousand Christians were burned by Diocletian on a Christmas-day, and whole armies of Afian Chriftians offered themselves to the Tribunals of Arius Antonius, and whole Colleges of fevere persons were instituted, who lived upon Religion, whose dinner was the Eucharift, whofe fupper was praise, and their nights were watches, and their days were labour; for the hope of which then men counted it gain to lose their estates, and gloried in their sufferings, and rejoiced in their perfecutions, and were glad at their disgraces. This is the article that hath made all the Martyrs of Chrift confident and glorious; and if it does not more than fufficiently ftrengthen our spirits to the present fuffering, it is because they understand it not, but have the appetites of beafts and fools. But if the fick man fixes his thoughts, and fets his habitation to dwell here, he fwells his hope, and mafters his fears, and eases his forrows, and overcomes his temptations. 4. Let the fick man endeavour to turn his Faith of the Articles into the Love of them: and that will be an excellent inftrument, not only to refresh his for rows, but to confirm his Faith in defiance of all temptations. For a fick man and a disturbed understanding are not competent and fit inftruments to judge concerning the reasonableness of a Propofition. But therefore let him confider and love it, because it is useful and neceffary, profitable and gracious: and when he is once in love with it, and then alfo renews his love to it, when he feels the need of it, he is an interested person, and for his own fake will never let it go, and pass into the shadows of doubting, or the utter darkness of infidelity. An Act of Love will make him have a mind to it; and we eafily believe what we love, but very uneafily part with our belief which we for so great an interest have chosen, and entertained with a great affection. 5. Let the fick perfon be infinitely careful that his Faith be not tempted by any man, or any thing; and when it is in any degree weakened, let him lay faft hold upon the conclufion, upon the Article itself and by earnest prayer beg of God to guide him in certainty and safety. For let him confider that the article is better than all its contrary or contradictory, and he is concerned that it be true, and concerned also that he do believe it but he can receive no good at all if Christ did not die, if there be no Refurrection, if this Creed hath deceived him: therefore all that he is to do is to fecure his hold, which he can do no way but by prayer and by his intereft. And by this argument or inftrument it was that Socrates refreshed the evil of his condition when he was to drink his Aconite. If the Soul be immortal, and per In Phædon. petual rewards be laid up for wise 'fouls, then I lofe nothing by my death: but if there |