I have put my self into thy hands, and thou haft promised to take care of me. And therefore I ought to rest affured, that all is certainly for my Good, and is most wifely and kindly order'd, whatever fhall befal

me.

Why then am T difquieted with fear of Evil, fince none can happen to me without thy leave?

ap

Why am I frighted at the proach of my Pains, which are fent by Thee?

For thou haft promised, O my God, not to lay more upon me, than thou wilt enable me to bear.

And thou, O Holy Jefus, art touched with the fenfe of our Infirmities.

Thou haft born them in thy Self, and wilt tenderly confider them in thy Members.

And

And therefore when my Pains or Distresses are hardest upon me, let me not think, or fay, that I cannot endure them. For thou, Lord, knowest better what I can endure, than I do my felf.

I firmly believe, that thou mercifully confiderest what I can bear: And wilt fhew thy ftrength in my weakness. And wilt not fail to fupport me at present; and in thy due time, which is always best, wilt give me Eafe and Deliverance. Through the Merits of my dearest Lord and Saviour, Jefus Chrift. Amen..

4.

1

Of the Sick Man's Faith and Truft in God, with Refpect to his Family; his Relations, and Dependants.

HE Sick Man, who hatlı

Ttruly Repented of his

Sins; and hath a lively Senfe and Apprehenfion of the Merits of his Bleffed Saviour, he may Die in a full Trust in God's Mercy, and a quiet Conscience.

The Sick Man may likewife have a gentle and eafy Death. He may Die, as we fay, like a Lamb, by a gradual and leisurely Diffolution. He may neither be rack'd to Death, by the intolerable Pains of the Gout or Stone; nor hurried out of the World in the fiery Chariot of a violent Fever, nor stabbed by an Apoplexy; but may mildly and gently be fummoned by a lin

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gring

gring Sickness; fo that infenfibly he feels himself Dying. And yet, tho' thus ealy in Himfelf, the Sick Man may I great Trouble and Concern for Others.

have

He may have Wife and Children very flenderly provided for: And it grieves him to leave them Poor and Indigent.

Now to deal faithfully with the Sick Man, and not to flatter him into a falfe and deceitful Comfort; let him examine, the Occafion of his Poverty.

In plain Terms. Was it God's Poverty, or his Own ? More Particularly.

Was it

brought upon him by the Providence of God, or his own Imprudence?

Was it the effect of his Luxury, or his Sloth, (for the Drun kard and the Glutton fhall come to Poverty and Drowsiness hall cloathe

cloathe a man with Rags. Prov. 23. 21.) Or, was it his ill Management, in any inftance, by Living beyond or above his Eftate?

If his Poverty was thus brought upon him, by his own fault; let him firft humbly fubmit to it, as the just Punishment of his Sin; and then let him Repent of thofe Sins which were the Caufes of his Poverty: But "let him not be too much De'jected as to his Relatives, his Wife and Children, but leave them to God, to Provide for them as he thinks fit.

But if his Poverty was the Effect of God's Providence, and was brought upon him by Fire, Robbery, or fome unexpected Accident, which he could not foresee or prevent: If, I fay, his Poverty was thus his Calamity but not his Crime; he may then Comfortably refign his Relations into

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the