by those whofe Understanding and Acts of Reafon are not abated with Fear or Pains: And as the grealeft Part of Death is paffed by the preceding Years of our Life, fo alfo in thofe Tears are the greatest Preparations to it; and he that prepares not for Death before his laft Sickness, is like him that begins to ftudy Philofophy when he is going to difpute publickly in the Faculty. All that a fick and dying Man can do, is but to exercife thofe Virtues which he before acquired, and 10 perfect that Repentance which was begun more early. And of this, (My Lord,) my Book I think, is a good Teftimony; not only because it repre"Sents the Vanity of a late and fick-bed Repentance, but because it contains in it fo many Precepts and Meditations, fo many Propofitions and various Duties, fuch Forms of Exercife, and the Degrees and Difficulties of fo many Graces which are neceffary Preparatives to a holy Death, that the very Learning the Duties requires Study and Skill, Time and Understanding in the Ways of Godlinefs; and it were very vain to Say fo much is neceffary, and not to fuppofe more Time to learn them, more Skill to practise them, more Opportunities to defire them, more Abilities both of Body and Mind, than can be fuppofed in a fick, amazed, timorous and weak Perfon, whofe natural Acts are difabled, whofe Senfes are weak, whofe difcerning Faculties are leffened, whofe Principles are made intricate and entangled, upon whofe Eyes fits à Cloud, and the Heart is broken with Sickness, and the Liver pierced through with Sorrows, and the Strokes of Death. And therefore, (My Lord,) it is intended by the Neceffity of Affairs, that the Precepts of dying well be Part of the Studies of them that live in Health, and the Days of Dif courfe and Understanding, which in this Cafe hath another Degree of Neceffity fuperadded; becaufe in other Notices, an imperfect Study may be fupplied by a frequent Exercife and a renewed Experience; here if we practise inperfectly once, we shall never recover the Error: For we die but once; and therefore it will be neceffary that our A 4 Skill

Skill be more exact, fince it is not to be mended by trial, but the Actions must be for ever left imperfect, unless the Habit be contracted with Study and Contemplation be fore-hand.

And indeed I were vain, if I should intend this Book to be read and studied by dying Perfons: And they were vainer that should need to be inftructed in thofe Graces which they are then to exercife and to finif. For a Sickbed is only a School of fevere Exercife, in which the Spirit of a Man is tried, and his Graces are rehearsed: And the Affiftances which I have in the following Pages given to those Virtues which are proper to the State of Sicknefs, are fuch as fuppofe a Man in the State of Grace; or they confirm a good Man, or they fupport the Weak, or add Degrees, or minifter Comfort, or prevent an Evil, or cure the little Mifchiefs which are incident to tempted Perfons in their Weakness. That is the Sum of the prefent Defign, as it relates to dying Perfons. And therefore I have not inferted any Advices proper to old Age, but fuch as are common to it and the State of Sickness. For I fuppofe very old Age to be a longer Sickness; it is Labour and Sorrow when it goes beyond the common Period of Nature: But if it be on this fide that Period, and be healthful; in the fame Degree it is fo, I reckon it in the Accounts of Life; and therefore it can have no diftinct Confideration. But I do not think it is a Station of Advantage to begin the Change of an evil Life in: It is a middle State between Life and Death-bed: And therefore altho' it hath more of Hopes than this, and less than that ; yet as it partakes of either State, fo it is to be regulated by the Advices of that State, and judged by its Sentences.

Only this: I defire that all old Perfons would fadly confider that their Advantages in that State are very few, but their Inconveniencies are not few; their Bodies are without ftrength, their Prejudices long and mighty, their Vices (if they have lived wicked) are habitual, the Occafions of the Virtues not many, the Poffibilities of fome

"

* Vel quia nil rectum nifi quod placuit fibi ducunt:

vel quia turpe putant parere minori

bus, & quæ Imberbes didicere, senes perdenda fa

teri.

fionibus in fenectute puerafcunt.

Tenellis adhuc infantiæ fuæ perfua

Mamertus.

(in the Matter of which they stand very guilty) are past,
and fhall never return again, (such are Chastity, and mar
ny Parts of Self-denial ;) that they have fome Tempta-
tions proper to their Age, as Peevishness and Pride, Co-
vetoufnefs and Talking, Wilfulness, and Unwillingness to
learn; and they think they
are protected by Age from
learning a new, or repent-
ing the old, and do not
leave, but change their
Vices: And after all this,
either the Day of their Re-
pentance is past, as we fee it true in very many; or it is
expiring and toward the Sun-fet, as it is in all: And
therefore altho' in thefe to recover is very poffible, yet we
may also remember that in the Matter of Virtue and Repen-
tance, Poffibility is a great way off from Performance;
and how few do repent, of whom it is only poffible that
they may? And that many things more are required to re-
duce their Poffibility to act; a great Grace, an affiduous
Miniftry, an effective Calling, mighty Affiftances, excellent
Counsel, great Industry, a watchful Diligence, a well-dif-
pofed Mind, paffionate Defires, deep Apprehenfions of Dan-
ger, quick Perceptions of Duty and Time, and God's good
Bleffing, and effectual Impreffion, and feconding all this,
that to will and to do may by him be wrought to great
Purposes, and with great Speed.

And therefore it will not be amifs, but it is hugely neceffary that thefe Perfons who have loft their Time and their blessed Opportunities fhould have the Diligence of Youth, and the Zeal of new Converts, and take Account of every Hour that is left them, and pray perpetually, and be advised prudently, and ftudy the Intereft of their Souls carefully with Diligence and with Fear; and their old Age, which in effect is nothing but a continual Death-bed dreffed with fome more Order and Advantages, may be a State of Hope, and Labour, and Acceptance, through the infinite Mercies of God in Jefus Chrift.

But

But concerning Sinners really under the Arreft of Death God hath made no Death-bed Covenant, the Scripture hath recorded no Promises, given no Inftructions, and therefore I had none to give, but only the fame which are to be given to all Men that are alive, because they are fo, and because it is uncertain when they shall be otherwife. But then this Advice I alfo am to infert, That they are the fmalleft Number of Chriftian Men, who can be divided by the Characters of a certain Holiness, or an open Villany: And between thefe there are many Degrees of Latitude, and most are of a middle fort, concerning which we are tied to make the Judgments of Charity, and poffibly God may do fo too. But however, all they are fuch to whom the Rules of holy Dying are useful and applicable, and therefore no Separation is to be made in this World. But where the Cafe is not evident, Men are to be permitted to the unerring Judgment of God; where, it is evident, we can rejoice or mourn for them that die.

In the Church of Rome they reckon otherwife concerning fick and dying Chriftians than I have done. For they make Profeffion, that from Death to Life, from Sin to Grace, a Man may very certainly be changed, though the Operation begin not before his laft Hour: And half this they do upon his Death-bed, and the other half when he is in his Grave: And they take away the eternal Punishment in an Inftant, by a School-diftinction, or the Hand of the Prieft; and the temporal Punishment fhall Stick longer, even then when the Man is no more measured with Time, having nothing to do with any thing of or under the Sun: But that they pretend to take away too, when the Man is dead; and God knows, the poor Man, for all this, pays them both in Hell. The Diftinction of Temporal and Eternal is a juft Meafure of Pain, when it refers to this Life and another: But to dream of a Punishment temporal when all his time is done, and to think of Repentance when the Time of Grace is paft, are great Errors, the one in Philofophy, and both in Divinity,

and

and are a huge Folly in their Pretence and infinite Danger if they are believed; being a certain Deftruction of the Neceffity of holy Living when Men dare truft them, and live at the rate of fuch Doctrines. The Secret of thefe is foon difcover'd; for by fuch means, though a holy Life be not neceffary, yet a Prieft is; as if God did not appoint the Prieft to minifter to holy Living, but to excuse it; fo making the holy Calling not only to live upon the Sins of the People, but upon their Ruin, and the Advantages of their Function to Spring from their eternal Dangers. It is an evil Craft to ferve a temporal End upon the Death of Souls 3 that is an Intereft not to be handled but with Nobleness and Ingenuity, Fear and Caution, Diligence and Prudence, with great Skill and great Honefty, with Reverence, and Trembling, and Severity: A Soul is worth all that, and the Need we have requires all that: And therefore thofe DoEtrines that go lefs than all this are not friendly, because they are not fafe.

I know no other difference in the Vifitation and Treating of fick Perfons, than what depends upon the Article of late Repentance: For all Churches agree in the fame effential Propofitions, and affift the Sick by the fame internal Minifteries. As for external, I mean Union, ufed in the Church of Rome, fince it is ufed when the Man is above half dead, when he can exercife no Act of Understanding, it must needs be nothing; for no rational Man can think that any Ceremony can make a Spiritual Change, without a fpiritual Act of him that is to be changed; nor work by way of Nature, or by Charm, but morally, and after the manner of reasonable Creatures: And therefore I do not think that Miniftery at all fit to be reckon'd among the Advantages of fick Perfons. The Fathers of the Council of Trent firft difputed, and after this manner at last agreed, that extreme Unction was instituted by Chrift: But afterwards, being admonished by one of their Theologues, that the Apostles miniftered Unction to infirm People before they were Priests, (the Priestly