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and out of thine abundant Mercy Supply all my Wants and Infirmities, and grant that I may with the Shield of Faith, quench all the fiery Darts of Satan. I am befet with many visible and invifible Enemies, but they that are for me, are more in number than they that are against me. Tis true, I am far from my Native Country, but I am not one jot farther from Heaven, whereof the Earth is the Center. I am at a distance from all my Earthly Friends, but nothing can put me at a distance from thee, O good God, who lovest me with an unchangeable Affection. I am in the Imbraces of my Heavenly Father, and of my God. I have not the Affiftance of a Minifter, to help me in my Grief and Pain, but I know that thou wilt Send to me thine Holy Angels, as once to thy Beloved Son in his bitter Agony. Thefe Angels fhall protect me against all the Power of the Prince of Darkness; Thou wilt adminifter unto me thyself, the Sweet Comforts of thy Salvation; thy Rod and thy Staff will affift me in this Valley and Shadow of Death. O Lord, thou dost Things that are not to be fearched out, and fo many Wonders, that 'tis not poffible to number them, thy Grace is fufficient for me, and thy Power is made manifest in mine Infirmities. Thine Holy Spirit, who is the true Comforter, and the great Power of the Almighty, fhall Refresh me in these my Afflictions, and in all Things shall make me more than a Conqueror. Thou art Stronger than all other Beings, fo that I am perfuaded, nothing can ravish me out of thy Hands. I am certain, that neither Death, nor Life, nor Angels, nor Principalities, nor Powers, nor Things prefent, nor Things to come, nor Heighth, nor Depth, nor any other Creature, can separate me from the Love, that thou hast declared to me in Christ Jesus my Lord; this precious Faith with which thou hast strengthened my Soul, shall vanquish the World, triumph over Hell, and deftroy Death in its own Empire. Amen.

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A Prayer and Meditation upon the Death of a Beloved Perfon.

My God, I acknowledge that there is nothing certain nor unchangeable on Earth, but thy precious and holy Promifes; therefore it becomes us to enjoy the things of the World, as not enjoying them. Thou hast fnatcht out of my Embraces, and pull'd from my Bofom my greatest Darling, and most intimate Friend. Thou haft open'd my Heart, and torn my Bowels, thou hast separated me from myself, so that my Life is but a Burden and Pain to me. I did often look upon this pleafant Object of my Love, as a Gift from above and a mark of thy Favour and Liberality; it was my greatest Foy and my Sweetest Comfort. The day that took it away, overwhelmed me in a Sea of Grief. That which doth most disturb me, is, that I am afraid, that this is a ftroak and an effect of thine Anger and Justice. Lord, my God, Imust needs acknowledge, that I have grievously offended thee, feeing thou doft thus chastise me with fo much Severity, and makeft me to feel fo sharp an Affliction. I am unworthy of all thy Favours, feeing thou dost take from me fuch a precious Jewel which was fhew'd to me as a Lightning. I am afraid to have been wanting in my Duty, and that this Death that kills me, is the effect of my Stupidity and Blindness. Methinks I could have binder'd this doleful Accident; for if I bad behaved my felf otherwife than I have done, my Life and Soul should not be now in its Grave. O God of all Comfort, pardon my exceffive Grief, pacifie my Sighs, stop the current of my Tears, remove all thefe vain Difpleasures that confume me,deliver my Soul from this unmerciful Grief and Torment, thas it fuffers, and from thefe Troubles that are more than human, instead of looking to these inferiour Caufes, and to the Circumstances of the Death of this beloved Perfon: give me Grace to remember, that the least things, as well as the greatest, are govern'd and rul`d by thy Wife Providence, and the Good and the Evil proceed from thy Divine Appointment. Give me Grace to confider, that thou dost hold in

thine Almighty Hand the Keys of Life and Death, and that Thou alone canft cast us into the Grave, and lift us up from thence again. Thou, O Sovereign Monarch of the Univerfal World, who dost not only let Death loose, but also appointest all the Circumstances! make me truly fubmiffive unto thy Sacred Pleafure, and to put the Finger upon my Lips, because it is thy doing. If I open them, let it be to adore thy Justice, and fing forth thy Praifes. The Perfon for whom I lament fo much, was nearly related to me, like another Myfelf, and was alfo Thy Creature, Thy Child, and a Member of our Saviour's Mystical Body We for our parts believe to have the Right of difpofing of our Workmanship, and of that which we have bought with our Money: And haft not Thou, O GOD, the Liberty to difpofe of that which thou haft created after thy Likeneß? Bought, not with corruptible things, as with Gold and Silver, but with the precious Blood of the Lamb, without Spot or Blemish. Thou hast a Son, who is the Brightnefs of thy Glory, and the Exprefs Image of thy Perfon, whom thou haft not fpared for me; and fhall I, Lord, refufe thee my Heart and my Bowels? Thy only Begotten Son came down upon Earth to fuffer the most cruel and ignominious Death of the Cross, but thou hast taken up into Heaven the Perfon whom my Soul loved, to crown him with a glorious and ever happy Immortality. Shall his or her Felicity be the Caufe of my Affliction? And shall his or her Reft caufe my Difpleasure? 'Tis the Property of true Love to prefer the Happiness of the beloved Perfon to our Satisfaction: Therefore our Saviour told his Apostles, If you did love me, you would rejoyce, because I go to my Father, for my Father is greater than I. Between thee, O Great and Living God, and us miferable Worms of the Earth, there is as vaft a difference, as there is between the innocent and harmless Delights of this World, and the unSpeakable Pleasures of thy Prefence. For thefe are but as Drops of Water, that are dry'd up with the leaft Wind, whereas the Satisfactions of Heaven are like a bottomless Sea of Delights, in which we fhall Swim for ever. therefore Weep for him or for her, whofe Tears thou hast

Do I

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wip'd away? Do I wear a mourning Apparel, and black Scarf, for him who is now cover'd with a glorious Attire of Joy and Gladness, and is adorn'd with an Habit as white as Snow? Do I delight myself in Darkness, and doth be Solace himself at the Fountain of Light and Glory? Do 1 Seek a folitary and mournful Retreat, and doth he rejoyce amongst the thousands of Angels, and the glorious Company of Immortal Spirits? I figh and groan, and be fings a new Song, the Song of the Blessed, which is always in his Mouth. All my Complaints and Groanings cannot bring him back upon Earth; but if that were poffible, 'tis not just to attempt it, my Kindness would be cruel, and my Love would be inbuman. How could I refolve to make him leave the Haven of Eternal Felicity, to expofe him again to the furious Waves and Storms of this troublesome Sea of the World? to ingage him in fresh Incounters, to cloath him with Rags of Mortality, to take him out of Rivers of Pleasures, and bring him back again into a Sea of Gall and Bitterness, and feed him with the Bread of Affliction. Can I be So Cruel as to wish him out of thy Imbraces, and the ravishing Injoyment of thy Favour, and Eternal Life, to deliver him again into the Torments of Mortality. The fhortness of bis Life minds me of my departure after him, to the Light of the Living, where we may again enjoy one another. O Lord, truly wonderful, and various in all thy Dispensations! 'Tis not only for the Advantage of this happy Creature, and thy Glory, that thou haft taken him into thy Reft; but for my good, and the Inftruction of his furviving Friends; to put my Obedience and Faith to a Trial, as thou didst the Father of the Faithful, whofe Trial was far greater than mine. For thou commandedft him to Sacrifice his Son with his own Hands; but thou requireft from me no other Sacrifice but my Submiffion to thy Holy Will. I will therefore fpeak in Eli's Language, 'Tis the Lord, let him do as femeeth him good: Or, as Job, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, bleffed be the Name of the Lord. Thou hast taken from me what I highly valu'd upon Earth, that I might look up to Heaven whither he's departed before me. Grant me therefore Grace to put an end to all these Sighs, Groans, and

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Tears,

Tears, and fpend no longer my Time and Breath lamenting the lofs of my beloved Object; but that I may employ my Self to prepare for my Removal out of this Earthly Tabernacle. Grant that I may imitate the Piety, Zeal, Faith, and Conftancy, and all other Virtues of fuch as thou hast admitted into thine Eternal Reft, and crowned with everlasting Joy and Happiness. Let me die the Death of the Righteous, and let my last End be like his. Amen.

CHAP. X.

The Fourth Remedy against the Fears of Death, is to difengage our Hearts from the World.

THE

HE Children of Ifrael decamp'd from the Wildernefs with a ready mind, and went joyfully over the River Jordan, when GOD commanded them fo to do. The caufe of this their readiness was, an earneft longing for the Land of Canaan, and their unfettled Condition in the Wilderness, having nothing but Tents to live in. Death is to us the fame in regard of our Heavenly Paradife, as the River Jordan was to the Children of Ifrael in refpect of the Promis'd Land. Therefore from hence it appears, that the ftrongest Motives to oblige us to a Refolution of entring into this Paffage willingly, is to free our felves from all things which might incumber, ftop, or tye us to the World, and to keep our felves always in a readiness to depart.

For that purpofe, 'tis not neceffary that We should go out of the World, but that the World fhould be banifhed and driven out of Us; and that we should renounce all Vanities and unruly Affections, fo that we might be able to fpeak with the Apoftle, The World is crucified to Me, and I am crucified to the World: For there be many who depart out of the World, but leave their Hearts and moft tender Affections behind; as

Lot's