has no room left for farther comfort or hope. And this obliges him to labour after the utmost exactness, in giving the finishing stroke to the whole work, to the end he may be approved for his fidelity, and may enter into his Master's joy. For this caufe he is to examine himself, how far his conversation has been as becomes the Gofpel of Chrift, and to own and bewail his guilt where it has been otherwife, to be humbled for all his leffer, and even for his involuntary fins, and to fue most earneftly for mercy and pardon through Chrift, and to refolve to do or fuffer any thing, rather than ever willingly to displease him more.

A Prayer for Ability to perfect our Repentance.

I.

LORD God Almighty, who dwelleft in the bigbeft Heavens, and whofe kingdom ruleth over all; I can never fufficiently lament my fins and offences, whereby I bave from time to time provoked thee against mine own foul. Let it not be in vain, that thou haft thus long borne with me and not cut me off, as I bad justly deferved. Grant I may be more fenfible than ever of my own vileness and unworthiness, by reafon of my manifeft iniquities. And vouchsafe me fuch affiftances of thy Holy Spirit, as that I may be enabled to cleanse and purify myself from all pollution; aud fuch fervour and earnestness in my addresses to thee, that I may obtain thy pardon, and whatfoever elfe I feek to thee for. Deal not with me as I have deferved at thy band, but peak peace to my foul, and command deliverance for me. I am thine: O fave me; and do not fo remember my fins, as not to remember alfo, that thy property is always to have mercy, and to forgive. Hear me, O Lord, when I call upon thee: and caft me not away in the time of weakness; forfake me not when my firengib faileth me. It is but a very little time that I can expect to continue in this world; help me to improve it so, as that I may fecure to myself an intereft in the bliss and felicity of that which is to come. Complete my repentance;

in

crease

creafe my graces; fubdue all my lufts and paffions; premote all my good inclinations, and lead me in the way everlasting. Suffer me not, whenever death shall come, to die with any weight of guilt upon my conscience, with an affection to any thing that is evil, or with any fin not repented of. Make me to love thee with all the powers and faculties of my foul, to fear thee above all things, to obey thee dutifully and conftantly, and fo to endeavour by all means poffible, to wipe off the ftain of whatever is difpleafing to thee. My defire is truly to bid defiance to all my fins, and never to look favourably again upon any one of them, to humble myfelf before thee to that degree, that thou mayst look graciously upon me, and be reconciled unto me. Help me, I beseech thee, to fearch out all my tranfgreffions, and fo to judge myself for them, as that I may not be judged and condemned by thee at the last day. Be merciful, O Lord, be merciful to me; forfake me not in my extremity; but watch over me for good. Forgive my fins, beal all my infirmities, receive and strengthen me; bless, refresh, and comfort me; and cause me to rejoice in thee, both now, and at the hour of death, through Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen.

II.

Almighty and everlasting God, vouchsafe, I beseech thee, to direct, fanctify, and govern, both my beart and body in the ways of thy laws, and in the works of thy commandments; that thro' thy most mighty protection, both bere and ever, I may be preferved in body and foul, thro' our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift. Amen.

Theoph. Another duty——

Eufeb. I would not be thought rude, good Theophilus, in interrupting you; and yet I cannot forbear intreating leave, before you proceed to the next duty, to do a piece of juftice to our most excellent Church and Liturgy, in relation to what you have been difcourfing under this laft head.

Theoph. Pray how is that, Eufebius?

Eufeb. I know not how to forbear taking notice, what just reafon you have hereby given, to wonder why any should fo needlefly take exception at the petition in the Litany, wherein we pray for deliverance from fudden death.

Theoph. A very reasonable petition certainly!

Eufeb. No doubt it is. For though a sudden death (d) may well be fuppofed far easier, than that which makes its flow and gradual approaches, and gives warning some time before it actually makes its seizure; and again, though a good man may die very happily, when fnatched away without any notice; yet, where a matter of the highest importance imaginable is depending, a wife man would defire to depart hence with all the advantage he can, and as completely fitted for, and intitled to as large a measure of happiness, as may be. And were I ever fo confident of being tranflated into Heaven, whenfoever I am taken hence, as I hope I fhall be; I could however be very well content to bear fome days of pain and fickness here, if they may but any way contribute, either to the greater certainty of my falvation in the other world, or to my obtaining an ampler share of its felicity.

Theoph. This exception to the Litany is highly unreasonable and ill grounded, a fudden death being oftentimes very unhappy. It is unhappy as to this world; occafioning divers fad inconveniencies to families, by preventing those fettlements of eftates, which might have made a peaceable and fuitable provifion for the several members of them: and it is far more unhappy, in relation to another life, by preventing either in whole, or in part, that preparation that might otherwise have been made for it. It may poffibly seize a good man in fuch difadvantageous circumstances, as to become of very ill confequence to him; and

(4) Mitius ille perit, fubitâ qui mergitur undâ, Quàm fua qui liquidis brachia laffat aquis. Ovid. de Ponto, 1. iii. eleg. 7. may

may fnatch away the finner, and fend him forth with to Hell, without any fort of warning. It prevents likewise the exercise, and fo deprives of the reward, of that patience, and fubmiffion to the Divine Will, which are the proper employments of a time of sicknefs; and that forrow for fin, and thofe purposes of amendment, which are the most genuine fruits of a lingering death. And can any reasonable man think, the avoiding a few days fmart will countervail these and all the other mischiefs that may arise from it ?

Eufeb. I fee not how he can: which was the foundation of my obfervation, and fuch as I perfuade myfelf will hold good against all that prejudice, or fear, or felf-love, may urge to the contrary.

Anchith. I readily agree with you both in this; and am at this time fo far from repining, or being any way diffatisfied, at what it has pleased God to lay upon me, that on the other hand, I now efteem it a particular bleffing, that he has allowed me this time of fickness, wherein both to fet my house in order, and more especially to trim my lamp, and finish my accounts, and commend my fpirit into bis bands with that faith, and humility, and contrition, which becomes one in my circumftances. I am now upon the conclufion of my warfare; and can you fufpect I would behave myself fo unworthily, as to complain I am required to continue the fight a few days longer? So far from this, that I fhall never efteem my fickness too long, if it prove a means, at laft, of any way increafing my reward in the other state. All my concern is, left through careleffhefs, and negligence, and a love of the world, or the wiles and ftratagems of the devil, I should be with-held from making that improvement of it, which may be justly expected from me.

Theoph. Such ought to be the care of all good men; and the more of it, fo much the better. Wherefore I humbly befeech Almighty God to increase it in you, and all in your condition. But now to proceed:

IV. A farther duty, incumbent upon the fick man, is, to arm himself against the fear of death. What the confequents of death are, has been already obferved, to put us all upon a diligent preparation for it; but not to intimidate and difcompofe any with the dread of it. For to the good man it is no fuch enemy, as that he fhall need to be difmayed at it. It is to him no other than a deliverance out of this vale of tears, this region of forrows and complaints, into those more delightful manfions, where will be nothing but joy, and pleasure, and honour, and glory, and majefty, and the moft fublime, moft rapturous, and most lafting blifs, felicity, and happiness, to reign with the bleffed angels, the holy prophets, the glorious apostles and evangelifts, the triumphant faints and martyrs, for ever and ever: fo that all the harm of death, to fuch, proceeds not from itself, but purely from their own mifapprehenfion of it, and from their not having yet attained to a right notion of the effect it is like to have upon them. For let a man be once well secured of an intereft in God's mercy, and our bleffed Saviour's mediation, and he will fee nothing in death that would tempt him to flee from it; and, if he does not earnestly long for it, he will however receive it with an evennefs of mind, and a chearful refignation of himself to the Divine disposal, because he knows this is the only way he has, to be inftated in eternal happiness.

Eufeb. It is no wonder, that (e) Epicurus cried out of death as Φρικωδέςατον τῶν κακῶν, the dreadfuleft of all evils: as Ariftotle alio profeffed it to be (f) the mast terrible of all terribles. Yet were there fuch amongst the heathens, as would have taught them to have another notion of it. For not only Plato speaks of it as (g) full of hope; and Antisthenes declared (b) the greatest happiness that could befal a man, to be a happy

(e) Diog. Laërt. 1. 1o. in vit. Epicuri. (f) Erafm. de præpar. ad Mortem. (g) In Phæd. (b) Apud Diog. Laërt.

death;