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.

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 lovingkindness 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 faith appears most necessary, and most difficult. It is the foundation 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 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 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 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 subtile 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 unmoveable 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 his 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.

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 overforward zeals are so earnest to profess their little and uncertain articles, and glory so to die in a particular and divided communion, that in the profession_of their faith they lose or discompose their charity. Let it be enough that we secure our interest of heaven, though we do not go about to appropriate the mansions to our sect: for every good man hopes to be saved, as he is a Christian, and not as he is a Lutheran, or of another division. However those articles upon which he can build the exercise of any virtue in his sickness, or upon the stock of which he can improve

his present condition, are such as consist in the greatness and goodness, the veracity and mercy of God through Jesus Christ: nothing of which can be concerned, in the fond disputations which faction and interest hath too long maintained in Christendom.

3. Let the sick man's faith especially be active about the promises of grace, and the excellent things of the gospel; those which can comfort his sorrows, 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: such as the intercession and advocation of Christ, remission of sins, 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 issues of repentance; and above all, the article of eternal life; for the hope of which men have counted it gain to lose their estates, and gloried in their sufferings, and rejoiced in their persecutions, and been glad at their disgrace. This is the article that hath made all the martyrs of Christ confident and glorious; and if it does not more than sufficiently strengthen our spirits to the present suffering, it is because we understand it not, but have the appetites of beasts and fools. But if the sick man fixes his thoughts, and lets his habitation to dwell here, he swells his hope, and masters his fears, and eases his sorrows, and overcomes his temptations.

4. Let the sick man endeavour to turn his faith of the articles into the love of them: and that will be an excellent instrument, not only to refresh his sorrows, but to confirm his faith in defiance of all temptations. For a sick man and a disturbed understanding are not competent and fit instruments to judge concerning the reasonableness of a proposition. But therefore let him consider and love it, because it is useful and necessary, profitable and gracious: and when he is once in love with it, and then also renews his love to it; when he feels the need of it, he is an

interested person, and for his own sake 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 easily believe what we love, but very uneasily part with our belief, which we for so great an interest have chosen, and entertained with a great affection.

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5. Let the sick person 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 fast hold upon the conclusion, upon the article itself, and by earnest prayer beg of God to guide him in certainty and safety. For let him consider 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 resurrection, if his creed hath deceived him: therefore all that he is to do is to secure his hold, which he can do no way but by prayer and by his interest. By faith we quench the fiery darts of the devil :" but if our faith be quenched, wherewithal shall we be able to endure the assault? Therefore seize upon the article, and secure the great object and the great instrument, that is, the hopes of pardon and eternal life through Jesus Christ and do this by all means, and by any instrument, artificial or inartificial, by perfect resolution or by discourse; because we understand it or because we love it; because I will and because I ought; because it is safe to do so and because it is not safe to do otherwise; because if I do, I may receive a good, and because if I do not, I am miserable; either for that I shall have a portion of sorrows, or that I can have no portion of good things, without it.