not, then I lose nothing by my opinion; for it supports my spirit in my passage, and the evil of being deceived cannot overtake me when I have no being." So it is with all that are tempted in their faith. If those articles be not true, then the men are nothing; if they be true, then they are happy: and if the articles fail, there can be no punishment for believing: but if they be true, my not believing destroys all my portion in them, and possibility to receive the excellent things which they contain. 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 argument or by stratagem, by perfect resolution or by discourse, by the hand and ears of premises or the foot of the conclusion, by right or by wrong, because we understand it, or because we love it, super totam materiam; 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.

SECTION IV.

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

LORD, whither shall I go? thou hast the words of eternal life. John vi. 68.

I believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, &c.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, &c.

Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. Mark 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.

If God be for us, who can be against us? Rom. viii. 31-34.

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him give us all things?

Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect! It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God; who also maketh intercession for us.

If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins. 1 John ii. 1, 2.

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 establish 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 the 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 breast-plate 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 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 destroy. ed from among the people. Acts iii. 23.

God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ. Gal. vi. 14. I desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 Cor. ii. 2. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Phil. i. 21.

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 live. John xi. 25. 40. Jesus said unto her, Said I not to thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst 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 victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, make me steadfast and unmoveable, 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 for 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. O 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 the man of the blessings which may be conse. quent to sickness, and to the passive graces and holy con tentions of a Christian, while he descends to his grave with. out an adversary or a trial; 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 in 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 recompense for the evils of the overhasty accident. For certainly, it is 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, so 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 fre

quent 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 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 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 life 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 lifetime, 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 en