CAPTIVITY Improved to SPIRITUAL PURPOSES, Or Spiritual Directions, Given to PRISONERS Of all sorts whether Debtors or Malefactors.  
Principally designed for the use of those who are Prisoners in those Prisons which are under the Jurisdiction of the City of London, as Newgate, Ludgate, the Counters, etc.  
Though also appliable to others under the like circumstances else where.  
To which are annexed Directions to those who have their Maintenance and Education at the public charge, as in Christ-Church Hospital, or Cures, as in St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas', or reducement to a more Thrifty course of Life, as in Bridewell, or have been happily restored to their former sense, as in Bethleem, alias Bedlam.  
London, P 〈…〉 d by I. Redmayne. 1675.   

THE PREFACE.  
IT is an Act of Prudence in any man that designs any thing for public View, to consider, First within himself, whether what he is to offer be useful in itself; not better handled by other Authors, who have written upon the same Subject before, and whether what he writes be suitable to the profession and employment of the Author: And if these three circumstances ever concurred in any discourse that hath yet passed the Press, I think, I may safely say, they do in this that I am now to treat upon, for the subject cannot be denied to be very useful, the main end of it being to improve captivity to spiritual purposes, and to teach Prisoners how to behave themselves under those afflictions which are but for a moment; so as to make them instrumental towards the attainment of an eternal weight of glory. They that have the enjoyment of their Liberty, have not so great need of such directions as these men have: Their Liberty which is a great advantage in itself, carries with it also many advantages for their improvement in spiritual things; they have the freedom of access to their spiritual Guides, the choice of learned men, with whom they may if they please discourse in the affairs and concerns of their souls, and which is an advantage beyond all these, the liberty of frequenting, as often as they please the public Congregations, where they have the offices of Religion performed, not only every Christian Sabbath, but in divers places of this City, every day; but such conveniencies as these, are wanting to Prisoners under their consinements, for in many parts of this Nation there are no constant Ministers allotted to those places, and though the care of this City have provided better here, assigning to every Prison under their inspection, a particular Preacher, yet impossible it is, that any one man should divide himself to attend to all the particular exigencies of every Prisoner, and therefore it is very necessary, that such men should be provided with such a Counsellor, whom they may advise with when they please, such printed directions as they may read whensoever they will. Now although this Subject may well be accounted very useful upon the grounds now mentioned, yet I find none that have treated upon the whole matter here offered by me, and few that have insisted upon any part of it, and those few had been fewer, but that lately the necessities of Prisoners were in some measure provided for by the pious pains of one Mr. Flower the Worthy Rector of St. Margaret Lothbury, not long since offered to the Right Honourable the Court of Aldermen, and received by them with a kind approbation; but that discourse consisting either only or chief of Prayers and Ejaculations, may well be thought to have left room for another Writer, who pursueth the same general end, the good of Prisoners, by a different method, the providing for them such directions, as are suitable to guide them in those duties which are proper for their present conditions: And if the doing of this be agreeing to the profession of any man living, it is to mine, who am at this time actually a Preacher, licenced by the Reverend Father in God Lord Bishop of London, and appointed by the Right Honourable the Court of Aldermen, with the encouragement of a considerable Salary to one of those Prisons, for the use of which this discourse is designed; and though I have enlarged my Meditations something further, than my particular charge obligeth me to do, yet I hope, that what is a commendation in ordinary charity, will be accounted no fault in that which is spiritual, that it is communicative: In the pursuing these ends I have chosen a stile suitable to the Subject I am treating on, not set off with Courtly expressions or Acquaint Phrases, but in plain words, suitable to the Truths I am to deliver, and to the poor people I am to instruct: Nor have I only provided for the consolation of those with whom I have to do, as knowing, that men of ill lives, as too many of them are, may many times have more comfort administered to them, than they are fit for, or then is fit for them, but I have sincerely endeavoured to instruct them, not only in more pleasing duties, but in those also that are more severe, and have chosen rather to anger the sore than skin it over; where I have thought corrosives to be more proper for my patients, than applications of a milder nature: This in general may suffice to have been said concerning the general design of this Treatise; my particular method shall be this: First, to discourse concerning the duties of those that art Prisoners for Debt: Secondly, to proceed to those that are Malefactors in a lower rank, whose penalty is, some public disgrace or corporal punishment, or any infliction under that of Death. Thirdly, I shall endeavour to offer something suitable to the condition of those, who are actually under the sentence of Death, and are under the constant expectation of the speedy Execution of it upon themselves. And all which I shall say under these heads, will be very proper to some one or other of those that are under my particular charge and inspection, and as to some of the forementioned particulars, not improper to the conditions of those that are Prisoners in Ludgate, the Fleet, the Counters, or other Prisons: But because divers Hospitals also are under the care of that City which I serve, and by whose allowance my labours are encouraged, I shall subjoin divers things which are useful to them, and give some directions suitable to those that are educated at the public expense, as in the Hospital of Christ-Church, or are healed of their wounds and other infirmities, as in St. Bartholomew's, or are restored to their wits and senses, so far forth, as the use of Physic and humane means will contribute, with the blessing of God upon them, as in Bethleem, commonly called Bedlam, or are reduced from a lose and extravagant, to a more diligent and thrifty life, as in Bridewell. And because what man can say, will be unsuccessful, unless the spirit of God set it home on men's hearts, I shall to every one of those Chapters subjoin such prayers as are proper to the matter discoursed of in them: And, that what I shall say may be the more useful, and the more readily applied to the exigencies of those for whom it is designed; I shall distribute my matter into several Chapters, suitable to those several heads already propounded, that whoever shall think fit to make use of this Book, may easily find what is proper to his particular condition; and, if he so please, let the rest alone; I shall begin with the condition of those, who are Prisoners for Debt.   

Directions suitable to those who are Prisoners for Debt; which may be appliable to the condition of such as are Prisoners in Ludgate, the Fleet; or either of the Counters, or Newgate, as it is the County Prison for Debt, etc.  
THere are some who have made great boasts of some excellent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Universal Medicine for all ailings, but those who have better considered things, find that it is more prudent to appropriate a particular Medicine to every particular disease, and withal to have regard to the temper and constitution of the Patient, with other circumstances attending his condition, and as it is in our natural infirmities, so also is it in our spiritual; general applications are seldom of any efficacy against particular sins, but he that would be a successful Physician of souls, aught to divide the word aright, and not only deliver general truths, but take care to bring them home as much as may be to every man's particular case; and this course I shall observe in what I have to offer for the good of Prisoners, where according to my propounded method, I begin with Debtors, and these, according to the causes of their troubles, may be ranked into two sorts: First, Some there are, a more innocent sort of Debtors, who have not drawn their miseries upon themselves, but have fallen into them by the severe providence of God towards them, whether in losses at Sea, or the failing of their Creditors, whose ruin hastens theirs also, or by other methods, better known to Tradesmen, then Divines: Besides these. Secondly, There are another sort, who have fallen into want by luxury or riot, extravagancy or ill Husbandry, and endeavoured to get rid of it by Knavery, and Fraud, and unjust Compositions, rather choosing to tyre their Creditors by delaying arts, and a seeming patience under their confinement then to discharge themselves of their Debts, by more honest and righteous ways; and as the cases of these two are different, so the directions for them must be different likewise: To the former of these my directions, shall be: First to own and acknowledge the Justice of God's providence towards them, although as yet they cannot tell the particular reasons of it: To men under these circumstances Job may be a very suitable pattern, who under greater losses than most men usually suffer, yet patiently said, The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away, Blessed be the name of the Lord, Job 1. 21. and as proper for them may be the example of Eli, who upon the receipt of very unwelcome news, very piously said, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3. 18. and to these they may subjoin a pattern far greater than either of these, that of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who after he had prayed for the removal of that bitter Cup, yet quietly submitted to the pleasure of God in it, with that pious ejaculation, Not my will but thine be done, St. Luk. 22. 42. Too usual it is for men to fret at second causes, and to murmur at those, who are but as instruments in God's hand, but they that seek for the ground of their troubles no higher than this seek too low, for there is a providence above that ordereth all, a wisdom above that directs all, and a hand generally unobserved by most men that guides all things for the good of those who love and fear him; and it is our spiritual prudence to look above these lower causes, and observe that higher; thus did joseph, who gratefully acknowledgeth the providence of God in the severity of his Brethren, and their unkindness towards him, as for you, saith he, you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good, Gen. 50. 20. Thus did David, when Shimei cursed him, Abishai flieth out in revenge against the Instrument, but David discerns the hand of God in it, Let him alone, let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him, 2 Sam. 16. 11. and if Prisoners for debt, design for themselves any Christian advantage by their afflictions, here they ought to begin the course of their spiritual improvements, in discerning the all disposing providence in his just permission and wise ordering of them for the good of those who are exercised thereby.  
Secondly, When Debtors have discerned the hand of God in their afflictions, it is their duty to exercise that patience which becomes Creatures under their corrections from a gracious Creator: It must be confessed, that it is very natural for men the more to repine at their sufferings, by how much they think themselves the less deserving of them: What we deserve, we think we ought quietly to suffer, but it adds to the fretfulness of our Spirits, when we consider, that men less righteous than ourselves, are yet more prosperous than we are; this was that which troubled Jeremiah, more than any of the evils which we underwent, because he saw the Way of the wicked to prosper, and them to be happy who dealt treacherously, Jerem. 12. 1. This much troubled the mind of Habbacack, that God seemed to connive at the wickedness of mankind, and to hold his tongue, when the wicked devoured the man that was more righteous than he, Hab. 1. 13. This troubled Job, who was the scorn of them that were at ease, and David that the wicked prevailed against him: But when good men suffer under the pressures of Imprisonment, or such like afflictions, they may allay the disquietness of their Spirits by such considerations as these.  
First, That that inequality which seems to be in the dispensations of God towards good and bad men, is only confined to this World, but that all things will be set right in the retributions of another: Righteous Lazarus in this life, may be brought to those straits as to want a piece of bread, but little reason hath he upon that account to fret at his own condition, or envy at that of Dives, seeing the time is coming, when he shall be comforted, the other tormented, St. Luk. 16. 25. Judgement indeed doth begin at the house of God, but that Judgement is mixed with mercy, but desperate will the end of those be that obey not the Gospel, 1 St. Pet. 4. 17. All the evil things that good men receive, they receive in this life, and when this life ends, they are at an end of their troubles, and happiness commenceth that shall never end, and all the good things which the wicked men receive, they receive only in this World, and hereafter they shall give a very dreadful account for all those mercies that they have abused here; and therefore very little reason have they that are righteous, to murmur at those afflictions which shall so soon end, or to envy to the wicked those mercies, for which they must give so sad a reckoning.  
Secondly, When good men suffer under that Imprisonment which is the result rather of their misfortune then their 〈◊〉, they have little reason to complain, as if they suffered more than they did deserve, for how innocent soever we may be before men, there is no man but is guilty before God: He that punisheth a man of upright intentions and just purposes, merely because he cannot pay the Debt which he hath contracted, and which he desires, if he could, to satisfy, is cruel and unmerciful, and as he hath shown judgement without mercy, so there is a time coming wherein he shall want the mercy himself, which he denied to others, and as he hath shown no mercy to others, so in his Case also mercy shall rejoice against judgement, St. jam. 2. 13. But whatsoever may be said of the prosecutor, God is not unjust, to punish those that are sinners against him, by the hands of those that are more sinful than themselves, nay very frequent it is, for God to correct the sins of those that belong to him by the hands of those that are more unrighteous than they: Thus the sins of Israel are punished by the Chaldeans, of David by Saul, of joseph by his wicked Brethren; and in these cases, they that afflict shall bear their sin, because they have used severity to those that have not deserved it at their hands, but those that are afflicted have no reason to repine at the Justice of God, as if he were unrighteous, to make use of wicked men as his Rod, and his Scourge, and the Instruments of his displeasure against them for their particular transgressions committed against him.  
Thirdly, Another consideration to allay the impatience of such men's spirits, may be this, that those very miseries which they groan under, are sent by God with designs of love and mercy, the afflictions of their Bodies are sent as Physic to their Souls, and the sufferings of one as improvements of the other: To this import, are those many assertions in Scripture, that all things work together for good to them that love God, Rom. 8. 28. That our light afflictions which are but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 2 Cor. 4. 17. and while our outward man perisheth, our inward man is renewed day by day, ver. 16. of the same Chapter: And therefore it would be spiritual prudence to convert our murmur into spiritual cautions and holy diligence, how we may improve all our sufferings to so great and to so spiritual purposes, which if we should do, we shall have no reason to grieve that we have suffered so much, but much reason to rejoice, that these our sufferings have proved unto us so happy an opportunity of enhancing our Crown of glory.  
Thirdly, A third duty which I shall direct such Prisoners to, is to pray to God for an happy deliverance out of their troubles, but with the reserve of a quiet submission unto his Will, if he shall see the continuance under their afflictions more fit for them: Both parts of this duty are recommended in the example of our Saviour before cited. When he was to die, he prayed for the averting of that bitter Cup, but when he perceived that God had determined otherwise concerning it, he declares his desire, to submit rather to the Will of God than choose his own: Prayer is a proper remedy against all sorts of afflictions: If any man be afflicted, let him pray, James. 5. 13. and as God hath made it our duty to pray, so he hath made it his particular style, that he is a God learning prayer  
And if he be attentive to any prayers more than others, he is so to the prayers of the afflicted: This is more than once asserted in the 102. Psalms, He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer, ver. 17. He hath looked down from the height of his Sanctuary, from Heaven did the Lord behold the Earth, to hear the groan of the Prisoners, to lose those that are appointed to die, ver. 19 20. Our poverty is the time of our destitution from men, and though the rich hath many friends, the poor is forsaken of his Neighbours, but that which discommends us to men, most potently recommends us to God; who, in divers places of Scripture hath made it his most peculiar stile, that he is a Father to the Fatherless, a Husband to the Widow, & adjutor in opportunitatibus, a ready help in time of trouble, and therefore it is not only our duty that we should, but our privilege and advantage that we may cast our care upon him who careth for us, 1 Pet. 5. 7. Among all these duties it is not only allowable but very commendable for those that are Prisoners to endeavour their liberty by all just and prudent methods, such as are, receiving such supplies as they can get from their more wealthy friends, accepting of such contributions as they may have from the charity of merciful and well minded men, the offering of such compositions as the meanness of their circumstances will enable them to make, and such honest methods as these: For our endeavours are very consistent with God's Providence, and our diligence with his blessing, and so far is our dependence upon God from discouraging our industry, that it is rather proper to promote it, for God hears not the prayers of the Lazy, but sends an answer to our Petitions in his blessing upon our Diligence: But above all things we must be careful that our straits prove not our temptations, that our trouble put us not upon any indirect courses to deliver us from it, for he that thus endeavours to draw his foot out of the snare, doth but by fluttering entangle himself the faster, and change not his trouble but his Prosecutour, and as man hath been his adversary hitherto, so makes God to be so for the time to come, and discharges himself from the first rank of men, to whom I designed these directions, and hath placed himself into the second, that of ungodly Debtors.  
And so men may be upon a double account, either First with reference to the beginning of their troubles when they fall into these straits, by their own profuseness, or prodigality, or Luxury, or negligence, or ill husbandry; or secondly with reference to the means that they use to extricate themselves out of their troubles; as fraudulent compositions, or unrighteous arts, or unjust concealment of that estate with which they might pay their Debts, or any other such ungodly Methods as these: The Directions suitable to such as these may be.  
First, That they would not appropriate to themselves any of those promises which the Scripture give towards the support of those that are in an afflicted condition: For it is not afflict on that entitles to the particular Patronage of God, but either the causes o● it when it is for righteousness sake, or ou● Christian deportment under it, but setting aside these two considerations, a man is never a whit the more a Child of God for being chastised, nor does any man entitle himself to those promises that are made to mourners, by having drawn trouble upon himself by his own folly and extravagance, or injustice; or unrighteousness, for there are afflictions that are not chastisements but judgements, not the effects of God's fatherly correction, but of his just indignation. The Midianites were distressed, yet not a jot the more to be accounted God's people for it, Pharaoh severely scourged by God, yet not the more a Saint upon that account. Those Nations that oppressed Israel had their time of being led into Captivity as well as others, and yet no Title to those promises made to Captives. Good men ought to humble themselves under those Fatherly corrections, which the Wisdom of God thinks fit to exercise them with: But evil men should be awakened by those judgements which are sent to them for their obduracy in their sins, and which fall upon them as the results of their sinful follies.  
Secondly, When the Prisoner has discerned his sins in their punishment, in the next place ●●t him endeavour to be troubled for them, ●nd to repent of them; and in his restraint mourn over the miscarriages of his Liberty; and study to redress them: Sadness and pensiveness of spirit is an usual attendant of this condition, and happy is it when carnal grief is improved into spiritual sorrow for sin and transgression. For Godly sorrow worketh repentance not to be repent of, saith the Apostle, 2 Cor. 7. 10. But the sorrow of the world worketh death: For our grief for our losses may stir up the impatience of our spirit against God, and the dispensations of his providence towards us: The desperateness of our circumstances may lessen our hope and faith, and dependence, and Christian reliance upon him, and the reflection upon the rigour, and severity of our Prosecutors and Creditors may possibly Minister to the useless purposes of inward malice and secret revenge, and all this is productive of sin, and sin of guilt, and guilt of death: But when our sorrow is directed against our sin as the source of our trouble all this is prevented, and that grief which in others is the cause of sin and death, is by this means made the happy occasion of repentance and life: For he that looks upon his riot as the original of his poverty, and those troubles which ensue upon it, will in likelihood be for the time to come more in love with temperance: He that accuses his sloth as the ground of his evils, will at present commend in the secret approbation of his own conscience that diligence which God hath made both his interest, and his duty, and hereafter practise it, when God by his enlargement shall give him the happy opportunity to do so: And if the Prisoner discover that the Curse of God hath rotten his estate, and blasted all his unjust designs, denied him those riches, which he sought as the reward of iniquity, and given him that poverty for the punishment of his sin, which he endeavoured to avoid by the pursuit of it, he is in a fair way of returning to his duty, and such a man in all probability will use his Liberty to better purposes when God in his good time shall restore him to it, and commit himself, and his Affairs to God in well doing; following God and his Providence in the ways of justice and paths of righteousness, casting all his care upon God who careth for him, 1 Pet. 5. 7. I know, and have often with sadness of spirit observed that quite contrary is the usual practice of Prisoners: Their own folly hath perverted their way and they fret against God. Their sloth and negligence, their excess and riot have brought them to poverty, and they repine at providence: They have disappointed, deceived and delayed the just expectations of their creditors: and they accuse their rancour and severity, their cruelty and unmercifulness, and lay that blame upon them, which they ought to take upon themselves: These are the usual miscarriages of most Prisoners, and in some others there are greater than these: And that place which should be the School of repentance is made to them the Nursery of sin; they knew what it was to want before they came thither, and there they learn to cheat; they lay under all the temptations to it before, and there they learn all the Arts of it, or perchance they came in Knaves, and go out Theives. Before they knew how to overreach their Neighbours, now learn how to Rob them, be over practised all the unjust arts of the Shop; now learn those of the Highway too, were very bad men when they came to Prison, and grow worse by their converse with men as bad or worse than themselves; were unjust enough in their inclinations before, and among men more skilful in the mysteries of iniquity than themselves learn all the art and cunning of it: But several men have several inclinations, and there are some that grow worse by their Imprisonments, but in other instances of sin, they have time enough, and to spare lying upon their hands, and they spend it in Dicing and Carding, and all sorts of Gaming, have sorrow and sadness lying upon their spirits, and endeavour to drown it by Tippling and Carousing: Are of a malicious temper, and show it in fretting against their Creditors, and praying for their ruin, or perhaps not only of a malicious spirit but profane too, and vent both the one and the other, in vile Oaths and horrid urses, and deep imprecations against their adversaries: And those that they take to be the contrivers or promoters of their misery: And thus affliction, which well improved is the best spiritual Physic in the World, proves often an occasion of the greatest sin, but if we will not be wanting to ourselves, we may soon find that a Prison that deprives us of all other opportunities of thriving, wants not its conveniences, nay happy opportunities too. For the exercise of repentance in the several parts of it, and here as elsewhere may a man religiously and virtuously disposed practice those important duties of contrition for sin, and confession of it, and humiliation for it, and reformation of life, which if he cannot show here constantly in some of those outward actions which are the demonstrations of it to men, and for which he wants the opportunities, in that narrow Scene of action; yet he may always practise it in the inward acts of it, such as Faith, and Patience, dependence upon God, and resignation to his will in the sincere purposes and resolutions of outward, which before God the searcher of hearts are always accepted; and in divers external instances of duty as temperance, and sobriety, and savoury discourse, or devout attendance upon these offices of Religion, which according to the discipline of this well governed City, are performed in the Chapels belonging to those places, with the same constancy as they are in the public congregations; and by men frequently approved for their preaching in more public auditories.  
And none of these circumstances which I now mentioned as being too too often occasion of sin, but may be made use of as aids to repentance: men's afflictions make them repine against God, but they may better teach them, to humble themselves under his mighty hand that he may exalt them in due time; profane men in their troubles fret against God and charge him foolishly, but would it not be more manlike in such cases to pray unto God? And to pour out their souls in supplications to him, who hath delivered others and can deliver them in six troubles and in seven? The cares of the World and the love of riches heretofore choked up the word, that it became unfruitful: But here they have very little of worldly business, and less of riches to disturb them, and where men's affairs are desperate in this world, one would think they should think it not only their duty but their interest, to provide for the next, that they may not be undone both here and hereafter.  
Most wise men are sensible that their time is short when compared with the work that they are to do, and the Eternity that they are to prepare for; that their days are as a shadow, as a vapour, as a flower, that they pass away as a Tale that is told: And it is a saying not more common than true, that time is precious; and if it be so precious, it is more valuable sure than to be thrown away upon Cards, or Dice, or any other idle and foolish diversion that Courts their foolish, and Lazy humour; it is folly in the worldling to prefer his business, before his Religion, before his Devotion, before his Duty, greater sure in the Prisoner to prefer before these most valuable things any idle toy, or silly sport, or impertinent diversion, profane is the Worldling who will not serve his God as long as he hath any thing else to do, more profane is the Prisoner who will not serve God when he hath nothing in the World to do besides; and they cannot find time to pray, when they can find time to curse, and to swear, to game, and to drink, to tell idle stories, and employ themselves in useless recreations: But sin is never without some excuse, and those that cannot be so senseless as to complain that they want time, complain with more show of reason, that they want Oratories to perform their Devotions in: They love the beauties of holiness, they delight to meet God in his Temple, to praise him in the Congregations of his Saints. The house of God is the house of prayer, and in that house they desire to pay their Vows: And it is not more their trouble that they cannot meet their friends in the World, that it is that they cannot go with other good men to join in prayers and praises, and other offices of Religion in his Church and Temple: But it is the glory of this City, that this objection is in great measure taken away, in those Prisons that are under their inspection, the Governors of this City having extended their care both to the Souls and Bodies of their Prisoners: Having made their Chambers so convenient that they are inferior to those of most dwelling houses, in nothing but this that they want the advantages of Liberty, and their Chapels so decent that they come not much behind the Churches of divers Parishes among us.  
But in other places where these Oratories are wanting, it is no excuse for our omission of our devotions, that we want a Church to perform them in: For God hath made nothing to be our duty to do, which his providence hath made impossible to be done: But where we want the usual conveniences of the public, we may by the devout offices of Religion consecrate every place to be a kind of Temple to us.  
No place so noisome but there God is willing to dwell with a pious Soul, no confinement so straight but from thence God can hear our prayers: The stench of a Prison does not fright away his presence, nor stone walls intercept between him and our supplications, St. Paul and Silas sung Psalms in Prison, and St. Peter prayed there: jeremiah sent up his supplication from a Miry Pit, and Daniel from the Lion's Den, David from the Cave, and jonah from the Belly of the Whale. He found a Chapel in the Sea, and a Temple in the midst of his Billows; and as he himself words it, he said from thence he would look towards his holy Temple. In every place men ought to lift up holy hands, in every place men ought to pray, and from every place God can hear and answer their prayers: So that the exercises of repentance, and humiliation, and devotion, and piety, are proper for a Captive condition, and this condition is not wholly destitute of suitable aids and conveniencies for this duty.  
But than thirdly in these places also there are not wanting those that are more unwilling than unable to pay their Debts, who could be as willing to serve God in praises, and devotions, and long prayers too, as the Pharisees were, but would be allowed in the mean time to devour Widows houses, and to make their Heirs rich with what they rob the Fatherless of: They are willing to die in Debt, that their Sons may live in plenty: But though men ought to love their Children, yet sure this is an unnatural love to be willing to be damned for them: To purchase them an Estate at the price of their Souls, and cast away these by fraud and injustice that their offspring may flourish in Pride and Luxury; to burn in Hell, that they may thrive on Earth.  
Unhappy circumstances such men put themselves in, if they repent before they die, they must restore their ill got, or which is much the same, their unjustly detained riches, and then their Children are undone in this world, but if they do not they themselves are undone in another world: The damnation of such is just, but not so sure the striving of their posterity: For the Curse of God is in the house of the wicked, and the Children seldom enjoy long, what their Fathers soon got, by rapine and violence: But howsoever that falls out, the unjust man shall be sure to find God's vengeance following him if not in this, yet assuredly in another world: We must not overreach, nor defraud our Brethren in any matter, for God is the assured avenger of all such: We may deceive men by our concealment of that Estate which ought to be liable to pay our Debts, by conveying to the Son what ought to pay the obligations of the Father, and by many other fraudulent arts, and knavish compositions, but God is not mocked, Conscience will not hereafter be stifled, and though we endeavour to Lull it a sleep now, it will awake hereafter and torment us, and when we have our Liberty the checks of it will be more anxious, than the troubles of Imprisonment; or if it be seared here, it will be uneasy enough hereafter: And the more drowned in security we are here the more affrighting will be our amazement hereafter: If they will not now then they shall howl and weep; their riches shall corrupt, their Garments shall be Moth eaten, their Gold and Silver shall be Cankered; but the rust of them shall be a witness against them, and shall eat their Flesh as it Were fire; by all their fraudulent compositions, and unrighteous conveyances, and unjust detention of what is not their own, they have but heaped up treasure against the last day, but a very sad treasure indeed: They have heaped up treasure against the day of wrath, and the Revelation of the righteous judgement of God.  
And now, it remains that I conclude this Chapter with some office of Devotion, not thereby to exclude the office of the Church which is very suitable not to public only but also private Devotions, but though the general exigencies of Christian votaries are provided for therein, yet it did not become the Fathers of our Church to descend so low as to all minute circumstances of private Christians, and therefore the most obedient sons of the Church have not thought it any wa● inconsistent with their high esteem for the Liturgy to compose new Prayers for some particular occasions, as appears by the Printed labours in this kind, as of divers others, so particularly of the Right Reverend and Learned Bishop Andrews, Bishop Hall, Bishop Taylour, and of the now living, and no less Learned, than conformable the Incomparable Doctor Patrick: From whom I have borrowed this ensuing Prayer, and because I have charity to think that Prisoners may find company in so good an exercise I have here, and in other parts of the Book where I have transcribed such patterns of Devotion from others, changed the Singular into the Plural, which Singular they may replace again, if they please when they pray solitary: or retain the Plural still as Christians do in the Lord's prayer, when they use it in their Closets, and with this Prayer of our Lord I have concluded this, and think proper, to conclude with it our other Devotion.  

A Prayer to be used by Prisoners for Debt, transcribed out of Dr. Patrick 's Devout Christian.  
O GOD, who art present to us in in all places, and hast regard to the sighs and groans of the miserable, who humbly implore thy pity and compassion towards them: Vouchsafe to look graciously upon us thy afflicted Servants in this place, which is most desolate, and comfortless, unless the light of thy countenance shine upon us: We confess that we have too much abused the Liberty which we formerly enjoyed, and not so carefully as we ought, improved those happy opportunities which were put into our hands: Many ways we are sensible, we have offended thy Divine Majesty, for which we are hearty sorry and acknowledge ourselves infinitely indebted to thy goodness, that we are not plunged into the depth of misery, to bewail our sins in the bottomless pit. We thank thee O Lord, with all our Souls, that we are not shut up into the place of utter darkness, and that we have any hopes to obtain the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, in whose name we beseech thee to pardon us and to sanctify the straits wherein we lie, to the freeing of our Souls from the bond of all iniquity, and the restoring of us to the glorious Liberty of thy children: Help us seriously to follow the direction of thy providence in this restraint, and now that we are so much alone by ourselves, to descend into our own hearts, to search and try our ways, and unfeignedly to turn to thee our God: Enlarge our spirits more than ever, now that our bodies are confined, in fervent prayer for thy divine grace, and in cheerful thanks givings for the innumerable benefits that we have received from thy divine bounty, and in tender pity and commiseration of the sad condition of all distressed people, and be pleased to touch the hearts of our Creditors also with a sense of our miseries; incline them to accept of what we are able to pay, and make us willing to satisfy them to the utmost of our power. In the mean time bestow us on the blessing of a contented spirit; help us patiently to endure the inconveniences of this place, and preserve us from the danger of those temptations which we meet with in it, especially from seeking a remedy of our sorrows in the pleasures and intemperance of evil company, or any profane mirth whatsoever. Be thou our comfort O God, and our exceeding joy and the full satisfaction of our Souls in all conditions, and when thou art pleased to deliver us from this place, and restore us again to our desired freedom, O Lord make us ever mindful of the Vows wherein we are now forward to bind ourselves: dispose our hearts to be sensibly affected with those mercies which we have formerly little regarded, that we may never forget to praise thee even for the benefit of a sweeter air than now we enjoy, & to acknowledge thee in the night season upon our beds, and to thank thee for the coursest food, and especially that we may rejoice to go again into the great congregation to praise thee with the most ardent love for all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus: Preserve in us also a grateful remembrance of the kindness of our friends and neighbours, especially of those persons to whom we stand particularly indebted, when by their charity we shall be released, and whatever loss they sustain by our poverty, good Lord make it up abundantly to them and theirs out of thy rich grace and mercy, requite their love with plenty and prosperity in this world, and give them the reward of eternal life & glory in the world to come, through Christ Jesus our Lord, in whose name and words we further pray.  
Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever,  
Amen.    

CHAP. II.  
Instructions for such Malefactors, as have committed such crimes, the punishment whereof is some public shame or corporal infliction, or any other punishment below that of death, appliable in great measure to the condition of those that are in Bridewell.  
FRom Debtors I proceed in the next place, according to my promised method to Malefactors, and as soon as ever I set Pen to Paper upon this Subject, I find within myself a reluctancy of Spirit to proceed any farther, as considering within myself the small probability I have of success, from any thing that I shall write here, upon minds so hardened against all good Counsel, but though men will be unmindful of their duty, the Ministers of God ought not to be unmindful of theirs, but according to the charge given to Ezekiel when he was to Preach to that Rebellious House, they ought to speak the words of God unto them whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, ch. 2. v. 7. and it becomes them to remember that they are spiritual Watchmen, whose duty it is, to warn the wicked to turn from their way, which if they forbear to do, the blood of the wicked shall be required at the hand of the Prophet, but if they do as they ought, endeavour to turn the wicked from their way, and they turn not, they shall die in their wickedness, but the watchman hath delivered his own Soul. ch. 33. v. 6, 8, 9 The Grace of God is always sufficient, and sometimes effectual to the recalling of Publicans and sinners: as St. Matthew and others, Whores and Harlots, as Magdalen, Idolaters, as Manaseh, Persecutors, and Blasphemers, as St. Paul, and Thiefs and Robbers, as Onesimus, and the Thief upon the Tree; And it is possible with him, to whom nothing is impossible, to bless what I shall write to the Conversion of the most obdurate sinners, and peradventure he may give them repentance, which if he should of his infinite grace, and goodness do, I shall rejoice that I have been a poor instrument in his hand towards the turning of a sinner from the Error of his way, and saving his soul alive. But if, which I fear, my poor labours in this kind should want the desired success, I shall content myself with the satisfaction of my conscience in having endeavoured to stop the mouths of wickedness, and in having rendered them inexcusable: Which I purpose to do in this ensuing discourse. But because all sinners are not of the same side, nor have arrived at the same degrees of wickedness, I shall begin with the lower sorts of Malefactors, and before I proceed to those who have either deserved by Law the Sentence of Death, or are under it, shall say something to those who have committed lesser crimes, whose punishment is some shame or disgrace, or Corporal infliction, whether of whipping, or working in the House of Correction, or the Like.  
And my first exhortation to these shall be, to take notice of these lesser punishments, and those sins which are the causes of them, and to endeavour hearty to repent of them before they come to that height of wickedness which greater Malefactors have arrived to; For that direction is a very prudent one, not only in the diseases of the Body, but of the Soul too.  
Principiis obsta sero Medicina paratur,  
Cum mala per longas invaluere moras.  
A Green wound is soon cured with any common Plaster, and with ordinary care: but when by neglect it grows into a Gangreen, no cure for the member so affected, and scarce for the Body, but by cutting off a part so corrupted, for fear of diffusing its venom into the whole. Young novice sinners are often reclaimed without much difficulty; In them natural conscience is quickly awakened, the sense of shame easily revived, and the fear of Hell easily impressed upon their minds, but when men have broke through all these, hardened their hearts, stifled their consciences, strengthened their foreheads against all shame, and their Souls against all fears of damnation, it is scarcely possible to reclaim them, and as hardly possible to secure the public, from the mischiefs they may receive from their poisonous example, but by cutting them off by the hand of Justice, as corrupt members use to be from the rest of the Body, for fear of spreading their infection into it. And therefore before men are arrived at this dreadful height of wickedness, it will be their wisdom to watch against those beginnings of wickedness which have already brought them to shame and disgrace, and the House of Correction, will probably bring them to the Gallows here, and unless the grace of God reclaim them, to Hell and damnation hereafter: To these if to any that exhortation is proper. Exhort one another daily, while it is called to day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, Heb. 3. 1. It is possible those that are concerned in this exhortation, may find the work hard when they first set upon it, their long contracted Habits of sin are hard to be removed, the thoughts of God are uneasy to their minds, it is difficult for them to return from a lose to an Industrious course, from a riotous to a sober way of life, from the folly of the wicked, to the wisdom of the just; But the difficulty of the work, ought not to be a Plea for our deferring of it, but an Argument rather for setting about it, without delay; for what is hard at present, will be harder hereafter, when our sinful inclinations by continuance have grown stronger, our conscience more seared, the Spirit of God by constant resistance less operative in us, and the Grace of God weakened and abated by contrary Habits of sin; and therefore if we ever desire to repent before we die, (as the most obdurate sinners will pretend they do,) the wisest way is, to set about the work betimes, before a further continuance in a wicked course of life, make our reformation more difficult to us then at present it is. There is no man that is well in his wits, and considers what he does, that would be willing to fill up the measure of his sin, to outsin the day of Grace, wholly to tyre out the long suffering and forbearance of God, or to arrive at such a degree of wickedness, from whence there is no hope of reclaim by the usual methods of God's Grace and mercy; And if men are afraid of arriving at such a desperate estate, the best Counsel that I can give them for the avoiding of it, is this; That they would seriously take notice of those early discoveries of God's indignation, and displeasure against them: the footsteps of which they may in some measure see in their present punishments of shame, and disgrace, and confinement, and drudgery; and may more clearly discern in the checks, and reproofs of their own consciences, unless they have hardened them against all such apprehensions by a constant custom of sinning, and this is the first advice that I think proper to give to this sort of Malefactors, that they would now endeavour to break off their sins by a timely repentance, before they arrive at those degrees of wickedness whose punishment is that of death by the Laws of man, and a far worse punishment, from the wrath of God revealed against them in the Scriptures.  
My second direction shall be that in order to this their reclaim, they would take occasion from that degree of Punishment which at present they endure to reflect seriously upon those several evils, and inconveniencies which by the just Judgement of God attend upon sin even in this life. And for this meditation they may find abundance of matter supplied by observing the circumstances of their present condition; They are in restraint and other men enjoy their liberty, and so might they have done too, if they had used their liberty more soberly, they are exposed to scorn and contempt, disgrace and obloquy, while other men live in Credit and repute among their neighbours; and thus they might have lived too, if they had sought the praise of God and man by a Faithful continuance in well doing. They are employed at hard drudgery and severe Labour, under their fierce, and Egyptian Taskmasters, while others follow their callings with mirth and cheerfulness, maintain their Families by a prudent, and moderate industry, take pains in an honest way, but are forced to take no more than the conveniency of their concerns engages them to: and what is the condition of other men might have been theirs if they had so pleased themselves; but because they refused an honest labour, they are brought now to this forced, and constrained drudgery: Surely no way is so foolish as the path of iniquity: and no Fool so unwise as the sinner is. He loses his ends by those very methods whereby he pursues them, and runs upon mischief by those very ways by which he seeks to avoid it; the pride of his heart made him ungovernable, and in Bridewell he finds a severe check for his pride. He hated labour, and there he finds a drudgery more toilsome than any of those labours that industrious men are usually engaged in; he was of a gadding, and a vagrant humour, but there he hath a close restraint; he loved sloth and pleasure, but there he wants both, and instead of them, meets with the Lash, and the working-house to correct the riot, and laziness of his former conversation: It is possible that sinners when they are under the smart, may murmur at God, and his providence towards them in all this, but if they will but seriously consider the tendency of things, they will have reason to acknowledge that what they call severity, is the greatest mercy imaginable; for it is much for our interest, that sin should be made uneasy to us, that the Paths of it should be hedged with Thorns, and that sinners should meet with rubs and blocks in their way, for fear the pleasure of sin should prove a bate to them, to tempt them to swallow the hook more glibly, and the more uninterruptedly to pursue those ways the end of which will be destruction, and perdition at that dreadful day of judgement, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels: In flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. 2 Thes. 1. 9 And this brings me to another direction suitable to the condition of those that are concerned in the Meditations of this Chapter, and that is.  
Thirdly, When these offenders have in their most retired thoughts considered the several inconveniencies which attend sin, and sinners in this life, it would be a very useful instance of spiritual wisdom in them to carry their thoughts further to those punishments which are due to it in the world to come: Suitable in this case is the counsel of our Saviour to the impotent man whom he found, and healed at the Pool of Bethesdah, sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee: S. John 5. 14. For although heavy are those afflictions which they are under already, more heavy are those which they may still expect (unless the grace of God and a timely repentance prevent) both in this world and in the next, grievous it is for men to consider that they are slighted by their friends, that their kindred and acquaintance forsake them, that they are accounted, (and that justly) the fi●th and offscouring of the world, but more grievous is it for them to think that they are rejected of God, accounted by him as reprobate Silver, Vessels in which there is no pleasure, Vessels of dishonour here, hereafter likely to be Vessels of wrath and indignation: Now at present accursed children, without Christ, aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the Covenants of promise, Without hope, without God in the world, hereafter like to be, of the number of those Goats which shall be cast to Christ's left hand, those tares whose end shall be to be burned, those unprofitable Servants whose lot it shall be to be cast into utter darkness, and whose dreadful sentence that shall be, which our Saviour mentions, St. Mat. 25. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devils and his Angels. Shame is burdensome to an ingenious spirit, and God hath planted a keen, and quick sense of it in our natures for this very purpose that it may be a check to sin, and a present punishment to those that do things deserving shame; and however mildly men, or women may be used when they come to Bridewell, yet a punishment it is, barely to be sent thither, in that it brings a blot to their Name, and a stain to their reputation, and will be a note of infamy upon them even after they are delivered from that place: Now if shame be grievous, (as indeed it is,) there is another shame, and a more lasting one attends the wicked after they are delivered from this: For as the righteous shall go into everlasting glory, so also the wicked shall go into a place of shame and everlasting contempt, Dan. 12. 2. Here only our grosser actions and such are scandalous are exposed; there our very secret thoughts; Here the greater miscarriages of our lives, there the naughtiness of our hearts; Here men only, and usually but few are spectators of our infamy and disgrace, but there we shall be made in a worse sense, then that in which the Apostle spoke it, Aspectacle to the world, and to Angels, and men. Even God himself, the God of mercy and all consolations shall laugh then at their destructions: The Good Angels, who rejoice in Heaven at the Conversion of one sinner that repenteth, shall shout at the ruin of those transgressors against their own souls, and the Devils who were their tempters to sin here, shall be their tormentors for it there, and all mankind shall behold their shame, and none shall endeavour to cover it, none shall pity it. But if the sense of shame be but a weak argument to those that have cast off all shame, let them consider that that is a place of pain too: If fire be tormenting, there they shall converse with everlasting burn, if the gnawing of a Viper in our bowels may be thought to be grievous, there their worm shall never die, if the smart of the whip be tormenting, there it is said that the wicked shall be delivered up to the tormentors, and their torment shall never end. I know there are dispersed up and down in the Gospel many more sweet and ravishing motives to repentance then these are; The Love of Christ ought to constrain us, the Grace of the Gospel ought to invite us, the promises of it are with enough to encourage us to obedience, and men of ingenuous spirits, men who will act like men, will be drawn by these cords of Love, by these cords of a man, as the Prophet calls them, and they will follow God. But the same Gospel hath more rough Arguments than these, for men of more rough tempers, and where we meet with obdurate sinners, as knowing the terrors of the Lord, We ought to persuade them, We ought to tell them; That vengeance is his, and he will repay it; That tribulation, and anguish, indignation and wrath shall be the Portion of every soul of man that worketh evil of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile. That God will consume the wicked from the very beginning of revenges, that his wrath will begin to burn against them here, and will reach against them everlastingly hereafter: If the Present sufferings of offenders raise up in them such thoughts as these are, they have then a very useful effect upon them: The very end of Punishment is, that the wicked may see and hear, and feel, and be sensible of that hand of God that is stretched out against them, and do no more wickedly. And if this be the effect of such punishments, as in this Chapter have been described, they have reason to rejoice, That these chastisements which are not for the present Joyous, but grievous, have begun to bring forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness, that these corrections which are in the Flesh have any way contributed to the saving of the Spirit in the day of the Lord Jesus, and that these afflictions which are but for a moment have begun to work in them that fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom, that Godly sorrow which is naturally productive of that repentance which is never to be repent of, and that reformation of life, which if persevered in to the end, will entitle them to a far more exceeding weight of Glory. And when these motions begin to work in them, it is their duty, and it is their interest to pray to God for that Spirit that may further convince them, of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement, and our Heavenly Father hath promised that he will not deny his Spirit to them that ask it, and if they lack Wisdom to direct them in that way, with which as yet they are very much unacquainted, Let them ask of God who giveth to all men Liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given them. And because that of themselves as of themselves they are, they are not sufficient to think any thing that is good, much less to do it, and much less still to preserve in doing: Let them implore the Grace of God, which is ready at hand to all those, that by Faith and Prayer, and sincere endeavours seek after it: Let them ask and it shall be given, Let them seek and they shall find, Let them knock and God will open to them. Let them draw nigh to God in sincere purposes of repentance, and he will draw nigh to them in his grace and mercy, and will enable them to cleanse their hands though they have been sinners, and to purify their hearts though they have been double minded, and to assist them in such supplications as these I have here subjoined this ensuing Prayer.  

A PRAYER.  
O LORD, our God we beseech thee look down upon us poor and miserable sinners, who now groan under the weight of our sins, and the punishment of them: We desire to submit to thy providence in all things, and to ackowledg that thou art just and righteous in those evils which thou sendest upon us, and thou hast but recompensed upon us the fruits of our do, we have misused our liberty, & thou hast punished us with thraldom: We have sinned in pride and the haughtiness of our hearts, and thou hast brought us to shame and disgrace: We have sinned by riot and excess, by sloth and wantonness, and thou hast exercised us with slavery and drudgery, and hast made us to serve under Egyptian Taskmasters. We beseech thee, O Lord, of thy mercy to teach us how to discern our sin in our punishment, to learn repentance and obedience by the things that we suffer, and to humble 〈…〉 selves under thy mighty hand, that thou mayest deliver us in thy due time. However thou dealest with us now, cast us not from thy presence hereafter, howsoever thou exercises us with shame at present make us not then in our perdition to be a spectacle to the World, and to Angels and to Men: But let the sense of thy wrath at present instruct us in thy fear, and withdraw us from the error of our ways, that our Soul may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus. Give us thy spirit O God, further to convince us of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement, and to guide our feet into the way everlasting; Give us thy wisdom to direct our steps, and to lead us into those paths which as yet we are very much acquainted with; Grant us thy grace to enable us to do those things which thou requirest of us. As thou hast given us a heart to will what is good, so of thy good pleasure give us strength to do and to persevere in well doing: And, whensoever of thy goodness it shall please to deliver us from this miserable condition wherein we are, grant that we may return from the folly of the wicked to the wisdom of the just. Let the time passed of our Lives suffice us to have fulfilled the lusts of the flesh, and for the time to come teach us to live more soberly, and righteously, and godly than hitherto we have done, that we may adorn the Gospel as much by our repentance, as we have dishonoured it by our looseness, that we may break off our sins by repentance, that we may work with our hands the thing that is good, that we may commit ourselves to thee well-doing, that we may provide for the things that are honest in the sight of God and men; that we may serve thee in this world, and be happy in another, and all this we beg of thee, and what else thou shall see needful for us in the name and mediation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: In whose name and words we further pray.  
Our Father, etc.    

CHAP. III.  
Directions for those that are tried and cast for their lives, but have them spared, by the mercy of the King or the Bench.  
FRom these that in Law are counted lesser Malefactors, I proceed in the next place to those that are greater, and have incurred the danger of death, and these are to be considered under two several, though near in time, yet in nature very different circumstances before their Trial and after it; Before their Trials we find them full of fears, and sollicitudes, and careful thoughts: What the witnesses will depose against them, what plea they themselves may make against their depositions, what verdict the Jury is likely to bring, and what sentence the Judge may pronounce upon them.  
Now natural it is for men that are in trouble, to be affected with such fears and sollicitudes as these, and as it is natural, so if these cares rise not to too inordinate a degree, it is allowable too in the permissions of religion; Jacob was afraid of his brother Esau, and his fears made him seek to appease him by a present, David was afraid of his Persecutor King Saul, and his fears made him seek so many Subterfuges, our Saviour himself had some natural reluctancy against that bitter Cup, and he prayed very earnestly that it might pass from him, and when St. Paul was accused by Tertullus and others he made very curious, and artificial defences for his life: And so may Prisoners too when they are Indicted very allowably make all just defences that their case will admit, all such Pleas for themselves as their cause will bear, and all prudent arts, that their wit, not aided by lies and falsifications can direct them to: But while Prisoners are mindful of all those methods of defence, which self preservation will put them upon as men, they should not be neglectful of those religious considerations which become them as Christians: They should with the same solicitude prepare for that great account at the last day, as they do for that at the Old Bailie, they should remember that he that is to judge them hereafter is God, and not man; that there will be no need of witnesses to depose against them, their own consciences, which they sti●e now, will impartially testify against them then, and supply the place both of witness and Jury too, by bringing in a righteous verdict against them, and making them as condemned of God, so also self-condemned, in the secret convictions of their then awakened spirit. For the raising of such thoughts as these are within their souls, let the Prisoners frequently consider and meditate upon every word in that suitable Text of Scripture: 2 Cor. 5. 10. We must all appear before the judgement Seat of God, that every one may receive the things done in his body, whether they be good o● bad, Some young sinners by the reason of the tenderness of their age are below the cognizance of such Courts as these, and there are years, at which sentence of death cannot be passed against an offender, but all must appear before that judgement Seat, both young and old. Some sinners are so great as to awe Justice, and when a Tyrant holds the Sceptre, and establishes iniquity by a Law, no Court is so high as to take cognizance of him, and to call him to account but none is great enough to deliver himself from the hand of God, for hi● justice is armed with an infinite power, whereby to execute the awards of his wrath upon the most obdurate sinners: Some sins are so secret that the eye of man which sees not the heart, can not discover them, and therefore the justice of man cannot punish them, but God searcheth the hearts, and tries the reins, and he will judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. Men can only kill the body, but he can cast Body and Soul into Hell-fire, they can inflict only temporal death, God eternal and everlasting. Fire here may burn the body for a while, which punishment is sometimes inflicted upon women for petty treason, but as that fire burns the body, so it consumes it, and the fierceness of the flame, and the pains of the offender have both a speedy conclusion, but that fire burns for ever, and the sinner hath an everlasting duration to endure those flames in.  
This judgement and the consequences of it they should often meditate upon; and no time more proper than this, wherein they are to pass to that temporal judgement which bears some faint resemblance with the Eternal.  
Now it is a proper time for them to set their souls in order before God, to endeavour to make their peace with him, by earnest prayer to seek his pardon and forgiveness, and whether they live or die, they will find the spiritual benefit of such thoughts as these are, if the latter be their dreadful Lot, they have by this means begun their preparation for death; but if through the mercy of God, the former be their more pleasing portion, they may assure themselves, that such men as are prepared to die, are by that means much more fit to live.  
And now that I have brought the Prisoners to the Old Bailie, it will not be long before they know their several Dooms. Some have the Sentence of Death pronounced upon them, Some are cast for their Lives, but by the mercy of the Bench, are set aside for Transportation, or for Clergy, or are left to the mercy of the King: For the first of these the ensuing Chapter is designed, to the others I now Address myself, and first to those who are for Transportation who are usually the most in Number,  
And here a very slender observation may soon suggest to us, that the condition of convicts after their Transportation beyond these as differs little from that of those that are in Bridewell, unless in the duration of their evils. For when they are set down upon the place of their Banishment, they are delivered to a sevenyears bondage, engaged in hard labours, exposed to great drudgeries, and treated with very much scorn, and contempt, and insolence; and usually the reason why this mercy is showed to them for the sparing of their lives, is because they are reputed to be but young Malefactors, having never before been legally convicted of such crimes, as are punishable by death, and therefore before they proceed to the remainder of this Chapter, I desire them to read what they find in the former Chapter concerning the breaking off their sins, by repentance, and improving their present afflictions of shame, and slavery to spiritual purposes: And to these directions I shall add these that follow.  
First, That they would be persuaded to observe the mixture of Judgement and mercy which is very apparent in their present condition, mercy in that their lives are spared, and Judgement in that they are to spend the remainder of their lives in so much hardship and misery, and then to turn the expostulation of the Apostle, Rom. 2. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 into an exhortation to themselves, and that they would not despise the riches of God's goodness, and forbearance, and long suffering, which ought to lead them to repentance, neither treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and the Revelation of the righteous Judgement of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patiented continuance in well doing, seek for Glory and Honour and immortality eternal life, but to them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, tribulation, and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile. Those that are thus Transported, they have Captivity for their punishment, and in that Captivity, they may discern something of the severity of God towards them, but not greater severity than God hath heretofore showed towards sinners, and in the same kind of punishment too, that of slavery. Manasseh sinned against God, and his punishment was, he was taken Captive by the Captains of the Kings of Assyria, and as such bound in Chains, and carried to Babylon. Zedekiah sinned against God, and for his sin, he was exposed, first to the scorn of Nabuchadnezzar in his bondage, and then in his cruelty, in the loss of his eyes, and what was dearer to him then his eyes his Children: And it is no more than what was threatened by Moses, to rebellious Israel, Deut. 28. 68 Ye shall be sold to your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you, that is, when they should commit iniquity with greediness, their sins would make them so vile in the eyes of God, that he would sell them into the hands of their enemies, for Slaves and Drudges, and their enemies should count them so vile too, that they could not think them worth the buying: So that that bondage which God inflicted sometimes upon Kings and Princes, nay frequently upon his own People too, when they sinned against him, and departed from him by their transgressions, ought not to be repined against by Malefactors, as it were too severe a punishment upon them by the hand of God, for their transgression, but contrari wise they ought to be thankful to the mercy of God, that he hath spared their Lives, and thereby given a space for repentance, which if they consider it aright, is a mercy of very great value, and of so great value, that their gratitude for life, aught to overbalance those murmur, which they usually entertain upon account of the sufferings of it; of this opinion was Jeremiah, when he and his Nation were under the like circumstances, in Captivity in a strange Country, Wherefore, says he, should a living man complain, a man for the Punishment of his sin? Lament. 3. 39 in which sentence there are almost as many Arguments as words, and every one of those Arguments suitable to the Subject now in hand, God is the Creator of all things, man his Creature, why therefore should man complain when he is afflicted? The clay against the Potter, the workmanship against the maker, man that is but dust and ashes, against God the Lord of all; his Sovereignty will bear him out, if he disposes of his Creatures, as he in his wisdom thinks most fit, therefore they ought not to complain, especially when they consider, that they are sinful men, and that their afflictions are but the punishment of their sins. No great wonder if upright Job complain that he is afflicted more than the scorners, Jeremiah, than those that deal treacherously, holy Daniel and righteous Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego, than their accusers, and tormentors, but unjust it is that sinners complain, under their just and deserved punishment, when they reap but the very fruit of their do; More it would become them to acknowledge that God is just and righteous in all that he does, and in all the corrections which he does inflict, and that he has punished them less than their iniquties deserve, and then in ●ustice he might have done, if he had been extreme to mark what is done amiss, and therefore that they ought to be humbled, and accept of the Punishment of their iniquities, and bear the indignation of the Lord because they have sinned against him. Especially considering that he hath given them a Portion among those that are living, God had not been unrighteous, if he had taken away the sinner in the midst of his sins, and then as the Tree fell, so it wouldly, as death left them, so Judgement would find them, and as they died in the Commission of sin, so they would rise hereafter to the inflictions of wrath, but God hath been merciful in that, he hath given them a life, though a life very full of misery to repent in, a space, though that space surrounded with many afflictions to make their peace with God. This Goodness of God ought to lead them to repentance, in order to which end let them.  
Secondly, Live under a constant sense of God's omnipresence, and that wheresoever they go, and into whatsoever parts of the World they are sent by Banishment God's eye follows them. He fills the Heaven and the earth, and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him, his greatness is unsearchable, so that there is no flying from his presence, nor can any man hid himself in secret places that God should not see him. They may fly their Country, but they cannot fly from the presence of God, if in a strange Land they retain the sins of England, thither the Vengeance of God can follow them, there the Justice of God can find them out, prove their Plague and their scourge there as well as here, but if in a foreign Country, they repent of their sins committed here, God's Grace is as near to them there as here, his mercy is over all his works, and his goodness reaches to the utmost corners of the earth. And though their Fathers see them not, and their Friends know not their condition, yet God is as present to them there as here, and is ready to receive the Prayer of the Captive, the petition of the stranger, the supplication of the Banished, and to grant his pardon to the poorest, most afflicted Penitents.  
At the Sessions some are found not guilty by their Jury, or obtain the benefit of their Clergy, or the gracious pardon of the King: which if they consider it aright, is a mercy very highly valuable, and as it is the happiness of these men that they have their Lives and Liberties, so it is their disadvantage, that their Liberty is attended with the disgrace of having once held up their hand, and how to improve this dishonour to spiritual advantage, they have been taught in the forecited Chapter, and together with those directions let them take these directions that follow.  
First, Now that they are free from the Tribunal of man that they would endeavour to set all accounts right between them and God: For very possible it may be that an offender may be either free, or guilty to a lesser degree in these counts below, but perfectly guilty in that court above: Here some things are accounted felonies, some petty larcenies, some deserve only by the law a brand in the hand, some the lash and public whip, but those are violations of the Eighth Commandment, and both of them place men in the Number of those Thiefs of whom St. Paul hath said expressly, that they shall not enter into the Kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 6. 10. He that shall kill a man in his heat and passion, is counted here not guilty of Murder but Manflaughter, but both these are violations of the sixth Commandment, and both make us liable to the judgement to come: Nay more, that very passion which we make the alleviation of our crimes here is counted Murder in the the sight of God. For so our Saviour expressly asserts, Math. 5. 21. 22. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time; Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement; and whosoever shall say unto his Brother, Racha, shall be in danger of the Council, but whosoever shall say thou fool, shall be in danger of Hell-fire: Where we see different degrees of causeless anger, have different degrees of punishment, but all of them are violations of that Commandment, Thou shalt do no murder, and all punishable more or less in the judgement to come. And as for those that are acquitted here, let them examine whether they are clear before God, and if of that crime, whether of others, as great perchance, and as crying, in the account of God: And to them, who escape with life and liberty, as well as to others, is appliable that of our Saviour, unless ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.  
My second exhortation to such is that for the time to come they would endeavour to live without offence in the sight of God and man: New mercies require new acknowledgements, and we have no way of showing our gratitude to God but by doing things that are pleasing in his sight: God hath granted them life; let them improve it to his honour, they have had the pardon of the King, let them seek forgiveness of God also, they have dishonoured themselves and their profession, let them endeavour to adorn the Gospel for the time to come, by a more spotless conversation; Let them hearty repent of all their public and private crimes against God and against men, that when they come to die, they may be fit to die, than they were when they were Tried for their Lives, and for this among other things, let them pray in this or such like address to God.  

A PRAYER.  
O LORD our God we acknowledge before thee our manifold transgressions, the sins of our hearts, the sins of our Lips, the sins of our Lives, our unclean thoughts, our filthy discourses, all our unrighteous actions, we are here Prisoners in one place, but very different is the Lot, which thy Providence hath assigned to us, such of us, O Lord whose days thou hast measured out to the oppressor, give us grace to repent of those sins, which have caused this punishment, and the less mercy we find with men, the more let us find with God: As many of us as have found thy mercy in our Lives and Liberties give us grace, to be sensible of thy mercies, and to live closer with our God, who hath delivered our feet from falling, and our soul from the snare, and our life from the Grave. Let the shame we endure make us truly sensible of those sins that have caused it, and however we have had disgrace here, let us not be confounded when we stand in judgement: make us mindful of thy eternal judgement, and prepare us for it, that when we come to die we may be fit to die, and fit to give an account to God, Led us O Lord by thy council, guide us by thy grace, give repentance, and pardon here, and bring us to thy glory hereafter, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In whose, etc.    

CHAP. IU.  
Considerations suited to the condition of Malefactors as are actually under the sentence of condemnation for death.  
WHat hath been already written in this discourse is designed, to prevent, if possible, men's wretched arrival at the height of wickedness, and by such considerations, as the nature of the subject would suggest, to stop their carrier in wickedness, before they proceed from lesser crimes to those that are Capital: But there always was and always will be a generation ●f men that are reprobates to every good work, that have their consciences seared with a hot Iron, that turn a deaf ear against all good Counsel, and harden their hearts against all good advice, and as for these seeing milder Methods will do no good upon them, necessity enforces to practise those that are more severe. God says, nay which is more, swears that he does not delight in the death of a sinner, but that he should turn from his wicked way and live, but yet it is consistent both with his Justice and mercy, to make death the Portion of such as by their wickedness pursue it, and to make Perdition the inheritance of those that by the obstinacy, and perverseness of their way unavoidably run upon it; And the same method is very consistent with the rules of Justice, and mercy among men; Nay very often it is, that severity upon offenders is mercy to the innocent, and compassion to the wicked, is cruelty to the just, for the slackening of Justice, increases the number of Malefactors, and if severe laws were not made, and executed against Malefactors honest men would not be safe, but the Nation would be soon overrun with Robbers and Murderers, and all sorts of evil doers, for as Solomon observed long ago. Because Sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily; therefore it is that the heart of the Sons of men is thoroughly set in them to do evil, Eccl. 8. 11. Righteous therefore and just it is, that the wages of sin should be death, death eternal by the Law of God, and death temporal by the Laws of God and man, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord: But to what acts of Faith and repentance to direct the Malefactor, that he may lay hold of that eternal life, will require much Spiritual skill, and prudence. The Right Reverend Bishop Taylour, and the Learned Doctor Hammond, and some others have written divers things very accurately towards the Lessening of that esteem which some men have of the efficacy of a deathbed repentance: If I should here lay down their opinions in express terms, as they have delivered them, in all probability I should drive those whom I now write to, into utter despair, but if I should endeavour to assert and maintain the contrary, those surriving Malefactors, into whose hands this Book shall come, would in all likelihood make use of it, as a further encouragement to delay their repentance to the hour of death: Seeing therefore it is hard to Minister to the comfort of some, without giving occasion to the Presumption of others, I think it not safe to handle that point in a Treatise, which will be read both by the condemned and reprieved; But judge it more prudent to leave the Conduct of the souls of dying men in that particular, to those Ministers that shall visit them near the approaches of their death: For the supply of which in such cases I suppose there is some provision made in all places of this Nation, but in this City very plentifully: They have a particular Minister allotted to them, whose duty it is wholly to attend this affair, to his assistance there are allotted by the order of the Honourable the Court of Aldermen, and upon the motion of the Right Worshipful the present Sheriffs, the Ministers of Ludgate, and both the Counters, and Divers other Ministers of this City out of their Pious compassion towards them, very frequently contribute their spiritual aids, who may privately Minister to them such comfort as their condition is capable of without danger of occasioning presumption and spiritual security to other Malefactors, who at such times are not within hearing: But such other considerations as I may safely let down without this danger, I shall here insert.  
First, The condemned Malefactor ought humbly to confess his sins, and this when accompanied with other requisites of repentance has a promise of pardon.  
So we have it expressed by the beloved Disciple, St. John. 1. 9 If we confess our sins, he is Faithful, and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So in Hosea 14. 2. Take to you words, that is of confession, and supplication, and turn to the Lord your God, say unto him, take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously, so will we render the Calves of our lips: For this pardon upon a true and sincere confession, Solomon depends by Faith in his Prayer at the Dedication of the Temple, 2 Chronicles 6. 36, 37, 39 If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not) and thou be angry with them, and they turn and pray unto thee, and say we have sinned, we have done amiss, we have dealt wickedly, then hear thou from the Heavens even from thy dwelling place, their Prayer, and their supplication, and forgive thy People which have sinned against thee: and that Faith that Solomon had in this Prayer of his, was founded upon that promise which we find in Leu. 26. 40. 42. If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their Fathers, with the trespass that they have trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me: Then will I remember my Covenant. That is, his Covenant of mercy and forgiveness. And suitably to the Faith of Soloman, and the promise of God David found it, Psalm 32. 5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee. says he there, and my iniquity have I not hid, I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. And where the sin against God is complicated with injustice towards men, (as in condemned Malefactors it always is,) there it is requisite that the sinner confess to men, and show his Zeal against unrighteousness by discovering the combinations of wickedness that he hath been acquainted with; for it is hardly conceivable, that they thoroughly repent of their unrighteousness, who at their death desire it should go unobserved, and unreformed and unpunished in others.  
Secondly, These confessions where they are accepted with God are always accompanied with a deep sorrow, and contrition of Spirit for those sins that we acknowledge: otherwise they are Hypocritical, but together with this they are often a sacrifice acceptable to God: Psal. 51. 16, 17. For thou desirest not Sacrifice, else would I give it thee: thou delightest not in  offerings, the Sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite Spirit, a broken and a contrite Heart, o God thou wilt not despise: And so to the same effect we find it in the Prophet Isaiah, ch. 57 v. 15. For thus saith the high and the Holy one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a pure and contrite Spirit, to revive the Spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite ones.  
Thirdly, To that repentance that will find pardon, there ought to be joined a forsaking of sin: and we are to explain the place before cited, 1 St. John 1. 9 by that other place from whence it seems to be taken. Prov. 28. 13. He that covereth his sins, shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. And by this the Scripture every where describes saving repentance, calling it a turning from our evil ways, returning from the folly of the wicked to the wisdom of the righteous, cleansing our hands, and purifying our hands with many other expressions importing a thorough reformation of the whole man in life, and heart and lip; many parts of which because they are always wanting in the late conversion of old Transgressors, the above mentioned Divines have very much doubted of the efficacy of such a deathbed repentance to the great intents of mercy and pardon; and if it be said sincere intentions are often accepted by God, instead of performances, it is possible it may be as difficult to distinguish between the integrity & Hypocrisy of men's purposes, as between the truth and falseness of their conversion, and therefore it is more prudent to leave the decision of such questions to the Oral solution of such Divines as shall either out of Duty, or Christian Charity visit them then to deliver it in Printed rules, where it may be read by those who have more need to be pressed to a speedy Conversion, then be persuaded of the efficacy of a late repentance.  
Fourthly, After such acts of confession, and contrition, and repentance, as the condition of the Malefactors is capable of, let them cast themselves upon God, by a holy Faith and reliance, mixed with fear and trembling, both these conjoined are and neither of these single is suitable to the condition of these condemned sinners. They ought to have a Faith in the mercy of God, as sufficient to pardon the greatest sinners that return, according to the terms of the Gospel, for else it were in vain to pray to God if we thought him wholly inexorable: but this Faith of theirs aught to be joined with a holy trembling, for fear, lest their repentance should not be such as God will accept, and lest their preparations should not be according to the Preparation of the Sanctuary, or else their Faith may soon degenerate into presumption. Where the first is wanting, men run into despair: This seems to be the sin of Cain, who said, (as it is in the marginal interpretation of our Bibles, and suitable enough to the signification of the Hebrew verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used) My iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven. This seems to be the sin of Judas, he knew he had sinned, and he repent of it in some degree, and as an instance of it made restitution of the price of blood, but had not recourse by faith and Gospel repentance to that blood of atonement, and therefore died as a sad instance, and dreadful example of horrid despair, and indeed no sin, (except that one unpardonable one against the Holy Ghost,) is exempted from forgiveness upon a true repentance: And to take away doubt in this the Scripture hath particularly mentioned the greatest sorts as actually forgiven to sincere Penitents. As particularly, The Blasphemies of Saul, the Fornications of Magdalen, the extortions of Zaccheus, the Murder and uncleanness of David, the drunkenness and incest of Noah, and the Robberies of the Thief upon the Cross. But as there may be an error on this hand, so there may be, and possibly is more frequently on the other hand toc: in relying too confidently upon the pardoning mercy of God in Christ, without those Gospel preparations of heart which will sit us to receive it. And this seems to be the sin of those very confident, but very much mistaken fiduciaries, mentioned and reproved by our Saviour. Mat. 7. 21, 22, 23. Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven, Many will say unto me, in that day Lord have we not Prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out Devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity. And if they would guide themselves between presumption and despair, it will behave them to take the Advice of St. Peter, to Simon Magus, so Acts 8. 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee. He saith not, and so certainly it shall be, this possibly might be too confident a presumption to depend upon: but if perhaps, that an humble hope may be allowed to seek after. The carriage of Benhahad to King Ahab may well become them, The Kings of Israel are merciful Kings, says he, and so they The God of Israel is a merciful God, this they may with fullness of Faith believe, and peradventure he will save us, this they may with an humble hope desire; And to accommodate a little to this purpose that expression of Queen Esther, They may go into the presence of God, by humble supplication and prayer, and say, if we perish, we will perish praying unto God, we will perish imploring his Grace, we will Perish rolling ourselves upon his mercy in Christ Jesus, and it is possible God may be more merciful to us, than we are apt to think he will, when we reflect upon the great defect of our death bed repentance; The rest I shall refer to the Conduct of their spiritual guides, of which number I am bound in duty to be one, and shall request them often to read these seven Psalms, 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143. Paraphrased into Prayers by Bishop Taylour which I have provided for them at my own charge, A small Treatise called, The Penitent sinner, provided for them by the care of the Court of Aldermen, and these two Prayers, the one taken out of Doctor Patrick's Devout Christian, the other from Bishop Taylour, and with a small alteration accommodated to their condition.  

A Prayer for condemned Malefactors written by Dr. Patrick in his Devout Christian.  
O MOST holy and righteous judge of the whole world, give us sinful and miserable wretches, leave to prostrate ourselves before the throne of thy Grace, and to implore that mercy which we have formerly despised or abused. We are not worthy we confess to lift up our eyes towards heaven; and it becomes us in the greatest dejection of spirit to sigh and groan under the Load of our sins: which have been so great and many, so bold, so presumptuous and shameless, that when with an awakened mind we reflect upon them; we are ready to sink into Hell, and utterly despair of any mercy. O God how have we hated instruction, and our heart despised reproof? And have not obeyed the voice of our teachers, nor inclined our ear to them that admonished us: How swift have our feet been to run into evil! and how backward and averse have we been to any thing that is good! O the injuries that we have done our neighbours; the abuse of ourselves and thy good creatures! the profane contempt or neglect of thee and the duties of thy worship and service. 
* Here let them reckon up the blasphemies, debaucheries and violences that they have been guilty of.  The remembrance of all this is dreadful, the burden is intolerable.  
How shall we appear before thee at whose rebuke the mountains quake, since we cannot think of our appearance before an earthly judge without shame and affrightment of spirit? O Lord work in us a greater dread of thee with a greater shame and confusion of face, now that we are in thy presence: For which end represent unto us essectually the wickedness, the baseness and vileness of our evil do; as well as the guilt and just desert of thee? O that we could hate and abhor them more than death, which we expect shortly to suffer for them: Bestow on us that ingenuous and godly sorrow which worketh repentance, and unfeigned purposes of amendment of life: If thou through thy great mercy and unexpected providence shouldest grant enlargement of it. These purposes come too late indeed, we may justly think to find acceptance with thee; and therefore, not without great fear and trembling, and a great sense of our undeserving, we look up unto thee, acknowledging thy infinite goodness, if thou wilt vouchsafe but the smallest hope of mercy.  
Mercy, mercy, Good Lord cast us not quite out of thy sight, for Jesus sake who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity. It is the beginning of some mercy, and an earnest, we hope of more that thou hast made us sensible of our offences: Help us to manifest our sincerity by making free and open confession of our crimes, and taking the shame of them before others, and by acknowledgement that we are unworthy to live, and by earnest admonishments to all to be warned by our example, and to cease betimes, to do evil and learn to do well. O that we could glorify thee O God, a little in our latter end after this manner: And till we come to receive our deserved punishment, help us to spend our time in bewailing our sins, in humbling ourselves before thee for them, in setting our hearts against them in studying and admiring with the greatest affection the holy life of our Lord Jesus; in calling other offenders to repentance, and exhorting them thereby to give thee glory. Deny us not we beseech thee the grace thus to employ ourselves; that we may have some taste of thy mercy; and the fear of death may be abated by some hope that when our soul shall be parted from the body, it may be received into everlasting mansions, through Jesus Christ our Lord: In whose name and words, etc.   

A Prayer for Penitents by Bishop Taylour.  
SON of David, Blessed Redeemer, Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. O Jesus, be a Jesus unto us, thou that sparedst thy servant Peter, that denied thee thrice, thou that didst cast seven Devils out of Mary Magdalene, and forgavest the woman taken in adultery, and didst bear the convert Thief from the Cross, to the joys of Paradise, have mercy upon us also; for although we have amassed together more sins, than all these in conjunction, yet not their sins nor ours, nor the sins of all the world can equal thy glorious mercy, which is as infinite, and eternal as thyself. We acknowledge, O Lord, that we are vile, but yet redeemed with thy precious blood; we are blind, but thou art the light of the world; we are weak, but thou art our strong Rock; we have been dead in trespasses and sins, but thou art our resurrection and our life. Thou, O Lord, lovest to show mercy, and the expressions of thy mercy, the nearer they come to infinite, the more proportionable they are to thy essence, and like thyself. Behold then, O Lord, fit objects for thy pity: Our sins are so great and many, that to forgive us, will be an act of glorious mercy, and all the praises which did accrue to thy name, by the forgiveness of David, and Manasses, and St. Paul, and the adulteress, and the Thief, and the Publican, will be multiplied to thy honour, in the forgiveness of us so vile, so unworthy wretches, that we have nothing to say for ourselves, but that the greatness of our miseries are fit objects for thy miraculous and infinite mercy. Despise us not, O Lord, for we are thy creatures, despise us not for thou didst die for us, cast us not away in thine anger, for thou camest to seek us, and to save us. Prepare us for death, and take away the bitterness of it, Pardon our sins, and purge us from them, first of thy Grace make us fit for the inheritance of the Saints in Light, and then bring us to it for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In whose name, etc.    

CHAP. V.  
Instructions suited to the Condition of those who have their Education in the Hospital of Christ Church.  
HItherto I have discoursed such things as I thought proper for the Instruction of Prisoners, and among those the worst of them Malefactors, and if I had consulted the order of Dignity, I should have placed these last, but I purposed in this discourse to pursue the rules, not of honour, but of Christian Charity, and therefore have allotted the greatest share of my directions to those that most need it, the greatest offenders, herein following the example of my Saviour, who bestowed a great part of his time and pains upon Publicans, and sinners, and came with a design, not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. I proceed now to such as may be supposed to be of a more teachable temper, more succeptive of instruction, and have more opportunities for it, as living under a strict Discipline, and under the happy opportunities of a very advantageous education in the Hospital, and School of Christ Church. And here before I proceed any farther, it will not be improper thankfully to take notice of the goodness of God towards this City, in that he hath from time to time raised up so many generous Spirits among us, and inclined them to such noble instances of Christian Charity: For there is scarce any necessity that humane nature is liable to; but here Provision is made for the relief of it; If men be infirm in their senses, and disturbed in their brains, there is provision for them in the Hospital of Bethlehem; If weak and infirm in their Limbs, or wounded, in St. bartholomew's; and if Children be Fatherless, or (which is the next degree of misery to it) descended of such Parents as have not where withal to bring them up, they are clothed and fed, and Educated in Christ-Church, an Hospital erected by King Edward the sixth, a Protestant Prince to the confutation of that Vulgar calumny then, and still common among the Papists, that men of our Religion have renounced not only the merit, but also the practice of good works: and as this Hospital is of Royal extraction, so is it of Honourable Government. The Governors of it, being always some of the most Eminent Senators and Commonours of London, and in the House they have all things necessary for the feeding, and clothing, and lodging, and instructing of those Children, Male, or Female, that are under their care, and therefore to those that are here Educated.  
My first Direction shall be to be thankful to God, who hath so plentifully provided for them: There is a gracious promise in the Psalmist, When my Father and Mother forsake me, the Lord taketh me up; Psal. 27. 10, and again to the same import. Psalm 146. 9 the Lord careth for the strangers, he helpeth the Fatherless. And again Psal. 147. He feedeth the young Ravens when they call upon him, the observation is common (out of Plin. 10. 12. and Aristo. Hist. Animal. 6. 6.) that of all other Birds, the Ravens are observed soon to forsake their young ones, and therefore by an argument à majori ad minus. If God so sufficiently provide for the young Ravens when the dams forsake them, much more will he provide for us, who stamped with his Image, are much more valuable than many Ravens, when our Parents either through want cannot, or through unnaturalness will not maintain us. Of this providence of God towards such helpless Children, there are divers instances in profane stories, that famous one of Cyrus' exposed by his own relations, and by a wonderful providence nourished by strangers. Of Romulus and Remus deserted by their Parents, and nursed by a Wolf, and harboured by a Shepherd; Or if the credit of these relations be as suspected, as the Faithfulness of their first reports. There are instances in sacred writ, to prove his Faithfulness to the abovementioned promise, and that when Parents have forsaken Children, he hath taken them up. When Ishmaels' Mother despairing of his life, had forsaken him, and laid him gasping, (his last for aught she knew, or could do to help it,) in the Wilderness; the Lord took him up: He opened a new Spring of Water, and opened her eyes to see it, and so the Child was preserved, Gen. 21. 19 When Moses his Parents also had forsaken him, (for they durst not stand by him any longer) and laid him down among the rushy flags, the Lord took him up: He provided him of a Saviour the Kings own Daughter, and of a Nurse the Childs own Mother, and so he was preserved too? But to the Children here maintained, I need not multiply instances of this nature, they themselves are standing monuments of the goodness of God in that kind. They are Lodged in those Chambers, that their Parents never hired, clothed with those Garments, they never provided, fed with that meat they never paid for, and supplied with all things necessary by the care of those good Patrons which the Providence of God hath raised up for them. And now that God hath so largely blessed them. Let me teach them the duty of gratitude to him out of the Book of Psalms, which they so often sing at their meals, and so often read by the injunction of their instructors. They may every one of them say with David. Psalm 16. 5, 6. The Lord is the Portion of my Inheritage, and of my Cup, he maintains my Lot, the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly Heritage. And therefore let them say with David also, v. 7. I will bless the Lord who hath given me Counsel, by the instruction of my teachers, and maintenance by the bounty of my patrons. My reins also shall instruct me in the night season. They may again say, all in general, and each in particular, in the words of the same King David. Psalm 116. 5, 6, 8. Gracious is the Lord and righteous, yea our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple, I was brought low, through the poverty of my Parents, and he helped me. Return to thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt plentifully with thee. For the Lord hath delivered my soul from death, and from want, which is almost as bitter as death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from fall. And as their mercies are proportionable to his, so let their thankfulness be proportionable to his also, which they may appositely express in his words, v 12, 13, 14. What shall I render unto the Lord, for all his benefits towards me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord, now in the presence of all his people: Even those vows which I made in my low condition, when my friends were forced to forsake me for want, and no eye pitied my poor condition. And as these great mercies ought to teach them thankfulness, for all the lovingkindness of God towards them hitherto, so  
Secondly, Let the same mercies teach them to place their faith, and hope, and confidence in God for the time to come: They have already found to their great comfort that God is a Father to the fatherless, a protector of the destitute, and a ready help to them in the needful time of trouble; and now of all men in the world they will be the most inexcusable, if in their age they forget the God of their Childhood, and of their youth, or ever neglect to depend upon him, who hath already been so good, and so gracious to them. The experience of the continued goodness of God should increase their reliance in him, and make them say in a pious expectation of his gracious providence towards them for the time to come: In the words of Job which we find Chap. 5. v. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27. God hath delivered us in six troubles, yea in seven no evil hath touched us in famine, he hath redeemed us from death, and in need from the hand of poverty, and now we will confidently rely upon his faithfulness, and without wavering depend upon his providence, for surely he that hath so soon prevented us with his loving kindness will be our God all the residue of our lives, We shall be hid from the scourge of the tongue, neither shall we be afraid of destruction when it cometh. At destruction and famine we shall laugh, neither shall we be afraid of the beasts of the earth, For we shall be at league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with us: We know that our Tabernacle shall be at peace, we shall visit our habitation and not sin: We know our seed shall be prosperous, and our offspring as the Grass of the earth: We shall come to our grave in a full age like as a stock of Corn cometh in his season: Lo this we have searched! so it is: After this manner we have found it hitherto, and so we trust in the lovingkindness of our God we shall find it for the time to come.  
But because those to whom in this Chapter, I am to direct my exhortation, are very much practised in the singing and reading the Psalms of David, I shall from them further instruct them in this useful and comfortable duty of increasing their reliance, and dependence upon God from their experience that they have of his gracious protection and watchful providence over them hitherto: This Lesson the Psalmist teaches them in Psalm 23. 4, 5. Thou art with me, O Lord, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a Table before me, thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. These words are very appliable to those that have their education in Christchurch, the rod of God corrected them heretofore in the poverty and destitution of their parents, his staff supports them now in their present maintenance; they have a Table prepared for them, and that plentifully, their cup runneth over; this is their present privilege as exactly described in the expressions of this Psalm, as if it were on purpose penned for them, and their duty is in the ensuing words, they ought confidently to expect that God will still preserve and bless them in well doing, ver. 6. Surely goodness and mercy shall preserve me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. The like expressions we have concerning his early hope in God, and God's early provision for him in his Childhood, Psal. 22. 9, 10. But thou art he that took me out of the womb, thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb, thou art my God from my mother's belly. And therefore he prayers with full assurance to be heard in the expressions that follow: v. 11. Be not from me, for trouble is near; and there is none to help me, excepting God only who hath been my helper from my very birth, and in whom I trust that he will be so still: And if at this second teaching the Scholars will not learn this Lesson we have it inculcated a third time, Psalm 71. 5, 6. For thou art my hope, O Lord, thou art my trust from my youth: By thee have I been holden up from the womb; thou art be that took me out of my mother's bowels, and from these premises, within few Verses follows that prayer. v. 8, 9 Let my mouth be filled with thy praise, and with thy honour all the day. Cast me not away in my old age, forsake me not when my strength faileth: And both these immediately succeed each other, v. 17, 18. O God thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now also when I am old and gray-headed forsake me not, until I have showed thy strength unto this generation; and thy power unto every one that is to come. And thus from those Psalms which the children of this house have made familiar to themselves by their frequent singing and reading; I have endeavoured to inculcate that useful duty of depending upon that God in their riper years, who hath been in so many gracious instances the God of their Childhood, and of their Youth. But because the opportunities afforded to those of this house, are not only those of Lodging and Clothing and Diet, but of religious education also: The next duty that I shall recommend to them, shall be.  
Thirdly, That they would be thankful unto God for those means of grace that he hath afforded them, and endeavour to be fruitful under them: It is the great disadvantage of poor men's children, (and such only are entertained here) that they want things necessary as for life, so also for Godliness: The means of their parents are so short they can scarce provide their Children bread, much less able are they to be at the charges of Education; by which they might learn to read, and understand the word of God, which is the food of the Soul, the sincere milk whereby they should grow, the bread of life. But it is the honour of this society, and the glory of the City, which hath made provision for that pious discipline that is in it: That children are here trained up in their tender years in the religious exercises of Prayer, and singing of Psalms, and reading the Scripture, and besides these in Grammar, and History, and Rhetoric, and Poetry, and Writing, and Accounts, and Navigation, and such institutions of Learning, as may fit them for the University, or the Shop, or the Sea, all which they may imbibe together with many happy opportunities of improving in virtue and grace: And here while Children they are trained up in that way, that they should go, and from which they ought not to departed when they are old, Prov. 22. 6. And now under the enjoyment of all these advantages they ought to be thankful, to that God who hath given them these opportunities to know God, and to be acquainted with his will, and to understand the great things of their salvation, and the greater ought their thankfulness to be; because the advantage of all this is not confined in the narrow compass of this life, but extends also to that which is eternal: For as our Saviour hath told us, John 17. 3. This is life eternal to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom God hath sent. Together with their thankfulness for this mercy, they ought to join their devout prayers to God, that to these means of grace he would graciously be pleased to add his heavenly blessings, and the powerful influences, and assistances of his holy and sanctifying spirit, For Paul may plant, and Apollo may water; the Masters may instruct the young men, and the Mistresses, the Maidens, and both may endeavour to instill Religion into the hearts and heads of the Children, but it is God only that can give the increase, it is he only that can give the hearing ear, and the seeing eye, and the understanding, and pondering heart. And as God only can, so he will give these things to those that pray for them: for he hath promised that he will give his Spirit to those that ask it, wisdom to those that seek it of him, and his Grace to those that are willing to lay hold of it, but then to these Prayers for wisdom, it is the duty of the Scholars of this House, and all other Students to join their own endeavours: for in the appointment of God, our Prayers, and our industry ought to go together neither of these single but both jointly have the promise of his Heavenly Blessing: as is most admirably described by the wisest of Kings. Prov. 2. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 8, 9 My Son if thou wilt receive my words, and hid my Commandments with thee: So that, thou incline thine ear unto Wisdom, and apply thy heart unto understanding: if thou seekest her as Silver, and searchest for her as hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find thee knowledge of God: For the Lord giveth Wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge, and understanding: He layeth up sound wisdom for the Righteous, he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly: He keepeth the path of Judgement, and preserveth the way of his Saints, then shalt thou understand righteousness, and Judgement, and Equity, yea every good work. Many here are the advantages of early Piety, and therefore they should consider the many obligations by which they are engaged to it, they have the express command of God for it, Eccles. 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, the days wherein thou shalt say I have no pleasure: Where early piety hath been found, it hath been recorded in Scripture with a particular note of commendation, as particularly it is said of Samuel, that he served God from his Childhood, of Josiah that in the Eighth year of his reign, while he was yet ●rung he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem, from the high places and the Groves, and the carved Images, and the molten Images, and to the Praise of Timothy it is said, that from a Child he had known the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make him wise unto Salvation, and certainly his great improvement which he afterwards made in wisdom, were in some measure owing to that good foundation which was laid in his Childhood: seeing he is put into remembrance to stir up the gift of God that was in him; and to be constant in that Faith which dwelled first in his Grandmother Lois; and his Mother Eunice, and through their Pious Instructions in him also. 1 Tim. 1. 5, 6. And he may be an excellent pattern to the Scholars of this House, both for his early and continued Piety, For here they have those seeds of knowledge, and virtue, and Religion, which if not choked may produce a happy Harvest hereafter, here they have those instructions when Children which may make them the more useful to their Generations when men; At School they learn those useful parts of Christian knowledge, which may make them the better Divines, and the better Trades men, and the better Citizens, when God in his good providence shall call them forth, to any of these useful, and commendable vocations, and therefore it is their duty, and their Interest, to build upon so good a Foundation, the superstructure of a Virtuous, and Industrious, and Religious life, and not to relapse into vice, after so many opportunities for the confirming them in Religion and Virtue, For it had been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness, nor to have imbided the Principles of Religion at School, then after they have known tt, to turn from the holy Commandment delivered to them. 2 Pet. 2. 21. But because God hath so far blessed this Worshipful Foundation, as to raise from thence many eminent Divines to the Service of his Church, many Worthy Patriots to the City, and many Learned Sergeants and Counsellors to the Bar.  
My last request, and exhortation to such shall be, that in their prosperity they would remember the afflictions of Joseph, that in their advancement they would be mindful of their beginning: and bless with their bounty those places, where they had the rise, and Foundation of all their after greatness: To God they cannot make any retributions, but in the tributes of Praise and thankfulness, and they cannot demonstrate their thankfulness to God better, then by bestowing not only charity, but which is an expression something larger, bounty, and liberality, upon that Hospital, where they themselves had by his good Providence, so large a maintenance, and so advantageous Education: And now having given these plain, but honest directions, I shall conclude this Chapter as I have done the rest, with a Prayer.  

A PRAYER.  
O LORD we do acknowledge to the praise of thy goodness and bounty towards us, that thou hast been a father to the fatherless, a comfort to the comfortless, and a ready help in the needful time of trouble, thou hast been our God from our mother's belly, and thine eye hath watched over us for good; from our birth to this very hour. We beseech thee, O God, give us thankful hearts, for all thy benefits bestowed upon us, confirm in us always an unfeigned faith, and firm reliance upon that providence which hath preserved us, and maintained us hitherto, and constant resolutions to serve our God with all faithfulness and sincerity, who hath been so good, and so gracious to us; and because from thee cometh every good and perfect gift. Assist and bless us in our prosecutions, of all true and beneficial learning: enlighten our understanding O Father of lights: Bestow upon us a discerning spirit, and a sound judgement, and an honest and good heart, sincerely disposed to employ all the Talents which thou shall entrust us withal, to thy Honour and Glory, and to the good of those among whom we converse: For which end we beseech thee to excite our thirst after useful, rather than much knowledge, and especially enrich us with the treasures of that inspired wisdom contained in thy holy Scriptures; which are able to make us wise unto salvation, that growing in understanding and goodness as we grow in years; we may answer the intentions of our pious founders, and prove useful instruments of thy glory, and the good of mankind when thou shalt call us forth to be serviceable in our generations: Give us grace that we may not forsake when we are in the way that we are trained up in, now we are children, but proceeding from grace to grace here, we may hereafter come to thy glory, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In whose name and words, etc.    

CHAP. VI  
Instructions proper for such, for whose care Provision is made in the Hospital of St. Bartholomew near Smithfield, and St. Thomas the Apostle, in Southwark.  
WHile we are here in this Imperfect state of flesh and blood, the operations of the Soul are very much impeded by the infirmities of the body; Hereafter indeed when this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruptible, shall put on incorruption, there will be an exact accord, and harmony between these two, for that which is natural, shall be turned into that which is spiritual, and we that are dull, and unactive now, shall be like the Angels, not only in Holiness, but in the purity of our natures also, ready and active to the most spiritual Offices, that God in his wisdom shall think fit to employ us in; But this happy estate we enjoy not at present, but hope for, groaning within ourselves, and with holy expectation waiting for, not only the Salvation of our Souls, but also for the redemption of our bodies, from those infirmities wherewith now they are encompassed, and both the former, and the latter of these shall be accomplished in the highest sense that those words are capable of bearing, in that great day when all the righteous shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the Glorious liberty of the Children of God, Rom. 8. 21. 23. At that glorious time we shall have no infirmities to molest us, no pains to disturb us, no sickness to discompose us, but now we labour under all these, our bodies are Subject to many weaknesses, and our Souls which are so strictly united to them, sympathise with them; and for the relief of those that labour under these ailings, and have not where withal to provide for their cure. The two Hospitals of St. bartholomew's, and St. Thomas were founded Authority: Both by the of King Edward the sixth our English Josiah, and both subjected to the Government of the Major, Communality, and Citizens of London, as in the style of their Incorporation doth appear. What uses these two houses were put to, before the times of King Henry the Eighth (by whom they were suppressed among other religious houses) it will not be needful here to inquire, but the designs they are at present employed about are free enough from superstition, for in them is endeavoured to be done by natural means what our Saviour often effected by miracle, the weak have their strength received, the sick their health, the Paralytic their former soundness of constitution, and the Lame are taught to walk: And the Cure of their bodies is not attended with expense to their purse, but Apothecaries and Attendants are provided for them by the public charity of this noble foundation; and if I were worthy to instruct men of such prudence, and gravity, and integrity, as reside here, there is nothing that they could be directed to, but is done already by the worshipful Governors of this house, and therefore what exhortation I have to give, shall be to the Patients of this place, and that in the plainest way that possible may be; because, as by the orders of this house they are of the poorest, so by consequence, they are of the most illiterate sort of people.  
First, Therefore the most proper direction to them may to be patience under those afflictions with which they are exercised, and the infirmities that they are under: None of these pains with which they are now exercised, come by chance but by the determinate counsel of God, who is of greater Love than to delight in their afflictions, and of greater wisdom then to send them, unless he knew they had a natural tendency to their good; And indeed they have, if improved after a right manner, and in such a way as good men have improved them heretofore. David said it was ●ood for him that he was afflicted, St. Paul said that while his outward perished, his inward man was renewed day by day, and it is universally asserted that no affliction is at present joyous but grievous, howbeit afterward it bringeth forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby, Heb. 12 11. and that the Light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory, 2 Cor. 4. 17. It is a severe affliction to contend with weakness, and infirmity of body, but it is possible that God, who kows us better than we know ourselves, sees that we would employ our strength in outrageous sins, which require vigour and activity to the performance of them, we want health, but God sees we would waste it in excess, and riot, we groan perchance under smart, under pain, but it is probable God finds that we want such a Monitour to put us in mind, that we are but men, and if this be his gracious design in sending these corrections we ought not to repine at his severity, but to be thankful for his goodness who hath made the sickness of our body contribute to the health of our Soul, and ●he weakness of one to the strength of the other. Besides this consideration, these afflicted Lazars may also take notice that in these their sufferings, there is no temptation hath happened to them, but what is common to men, and very often to good men, as well as others: Honest Mephibosheth is attended all his days with an incurable Lameness, while his crafty Servant Zibah is brisk, and active, and by it gets an unhappy advantage against his Master: Hezekiah is exercised for some time, with a sore Plague, whereas Ahaz for any thing that appears to the contrary, passed all his days in health and strength; and we read of a man that was born blind, not for his own sin, nor the sin of his Parent, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him, John 9 3. and therefore those that are under cure here, have no reason to complain against God, as if he had given them hard measure: when he lays diseases and infirmities upon them, seeing he only gives them those chastisements which he hath often made to be the portion of the most innocent, and best of men: But very often it is that we may read the causes of our infirmities in our sins that have been the occasions of them, and then we need not run to the Sovereignty of God, to check our murmur, but reflect upon our guilt, and that ought to teach us to be patiented under these sufferings which we have justly deserved: Some complain of the ragings of the Gout, but their Luxury and case hath fed it, of redness in their eyes, and shaking in their hands, and Dropsies in their whole body, but their Drunkenness hath brought these Diseases upon them; of broken Limbs, but occasioned by some rash squabble, and of wounds but received perchance in some Duel, or unlawful combat: And if this be the case, the Patient hath reason to be thankful to God, that he hath discovered his sin in his chastisement, and by a temporal punishment here given him early warning by a speedy repentance; to prevent that everlasting punishment which shall be hereafter: The Tortures of the Gout are grievous, but not comparable to those torments that are in Hell! The gashes, and flashings of a wound are grievous, but not comparable to those ictus, & Lanialus, secret scourges of conscience which a sinner under conviction finds here, and shall find in a more insupportable manner, under actual reprobation hereafter, hard it is to endure those favours and burn, which the keenness of their pains often put the poor Patients into, but more hard to dwell with everlasting burn: Hard to cut off a hand, or a Leg, or any other Limb, but harder having all members perfect, and entire, to enter into those flames which are never quenched: And if our sins have brought these our ayling upon us, God hath whipped us with rods, when he might with Scorpions, punished us with pains which are but momentary, when he might with torment that is everlasting: But this is not the case of those that are received into ●hat charitable Foundation: where few are taken in, that have fed their Diseases by expensive sins, for the poor only are admitted. Few that have drawn their ailings upon themselves, b● rash, and unadvised engagements; for they generally make their address to the Governors, by Petition, showing in what way of industry they have lived heretofore, by what ill accident their infirmities were occasioned, and how unable they are to provide for their own cure: And besides these, such also are admitted who have suffered the loss, or disability of any Limb or part of their Body, in the Service of their King and Country, and to such as these the very reflection upon the innocence of their Lives, or the serviceableness of them, may much contribute to their cheerful, and comfortable bearing of God's chastisements; Their inward peace may help to abate their outward grief, and the tranquillity of their Soul some way allay the pains of their Body. The Spirit of a man, will sustain his infirmity, said the wise man, Prov. 18. 14. and daily observation may inform us, that men of stout hearts, and strong constitutions, and brisk Spirits, can bear their infirmities with less trouble than other men, but a wounded Spirit who can bear, and when inward guilt, and outward pain both concur such anguish is insupportable. But the Patients of these Houses I charitably hope have seldom these two meet together upon them: and therefore they may the more boldly cast themselves upon God, to be their comfort in all their troubles, to make their bed in all their sickness, and account their wounds which they have received for their King and Country, not more the defacement of their bodies, than they are the Glory and ornament or their names and reputations. And because here they are under the means of cure, therefore  
Secondly, Let them thankfully acknowledge the mercy of God in those Provisions which they enjoy for that purpose: God hath graciously been pleased in all the parts of his creation, and providence plentifully to provide not only for the life, but health and cure of mankind: The Land yields not only Herbs necessary for food, but also Physic, the bowels of the earth, as they yield Gold and Silver for the conveniency of Traffic, so they also afford many minerals, improveable to the uses of Physic and Chirurgery; and as God hath every where mixed the Sea and Rivers with the dry Land, to supply drink for the use of man, and Beast, so also he hath commanded in divers places to break forth many medicinal Springs for their health and cure, as the Bath for infirm People, and elsewhere Turnbridge, and Epsam, and Barnet, and others very proper for preventing divers Diseases, and the removal of them when upon us. Of old he gave a miraculous Virtue to the Pool of Belhesdah for the healing of all that were halt or withered, or troubled with any other infirmity, and in these two Societies, he hath by his good providence raised up those charitable Samaritans, who have made St. bartholomew's, and St. Thomas' a couple of English Bethesdahs', where that is done by the blessing of God upon humane means, which there was done by the miraculous moving of the waters by an Angel sent from Heaven. In all these cures men are the Instruments in the hand of God, God the chief and Principal Physician, and therefore as they ought to be thankful to men, as employed by God for their good, so ought they to give the chiefest praise to God, the giver of all health and cure. And as it is their duty to be thankful to God for his good providence towards them: in that he hath put them under not only the possibility, but also probability of cure, so ought they to depend upon him for the success, and that brings me to the next duty, which I think proper to recommend to the Patients of these Houses, and that is▪  
Thirdly, That they would cast themselves upon God by the Prayer of Faith, and hope for his blessing upon the means used for their recovery: For the endeavours of men though never so regular, and Lawful, are not successful, unless the blessing of God go along with them. Except the Lord build the House, they labour in vain that buil it, except the Lord kept the City, the Watchman waketh but in vain, Psalm 127. 1. and unless the Lord promote the cure, in vain doth the Nurse cherish the Patient, or the Chirurgeon apply his Plasters, or the Physician prescribe Medicines, for the success of all this proceeds from God, in whose hand are the issues of life, and death, of health, and sickness. Our Saviour when he was here on earth, put Diseases to flight by the command of his mouth, and gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, Legs to the lame, strength to the weak, and health to those that are diseased, and all this at the bare expense of a word, attended with that power which was never wanting to the execution of his holy will and pleasure: And now that he is in Heaven, his hand is not shortened, that he cannot save; his power is not less, that he cannot heal, his compassions are not less propense, that he should not pity, but he is as ready now, as he was then, to hear the Prayer of the weak and infirm, and to send them health, if not in the very same way, to as good purposes, if not by a visible miracle, yet by his effectual, and efficacious blessing upon natural means And therefore the Scripture directs Patients to both sorts of cure, the spiritual, as well as the humane, and more ordinary, in a place so apposite to the condition of the Patients of these Hospitals, as if it were penned on purpose for them: St. James 5. 14, 15. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the Elders of the Church: and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the Prayer of Faith shall save the sick: and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. It was a fault in Asa, (though in the main a very good Prince,) that in his disease he sought not to the Lord; but to the Physicians, and the same fault is too common among Christians, but would any walk according to the right Gospel Method in these cases? Let them make use of humane means, because God hath no where promised to heal us by miracle, and in the use of the means, send up an eye of Faith to God, because without his blessing, the means will prove ineffectual.  
Fourthly, When the poor Patients are cured of their infirmities, let them obey that exhortation which our Saviour gave heretofore to the Cripple, and the Worshipful Governors of St. bartholomew's have inserted into their Orders, Pag. 24. Let them sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto them. For better is it to be a sickly Saint, than a stout sinner, an afflicted Christian, than a healthy reprobate, better to be weak in body, then weak in grace, more eligible far to be strengthened in the inner man with the aids of God's Spirit, then to be strong to commit wickedness. Our days here are few and evil, Our bodies brittle and frail, subject to many Diseases, liable to many frailties, but after this life, there is a happy state will take place, where the righteous will be blessed with endless rest, not disturbed by any pains, a perpetual health not interrupted by any sickness, and perfect strength, not abated by any weakness, this bliss let them seek in welldoing, and for their blessed arrival at such a condition. Let them not be wanting in their constant supplication to God the only giver of temporal and eternal life, of health here, and of everlasting Salvation hereafter: And I have endeavoured to assist their Devotions by two Prayers, the one to be used by them, during the time that they are actually under their infirmities, the other after that they are cured of them: and the latter of these is transcribed word for word out of the Orders and Ordinances of the Worshipful Hospital of St. bartholomew's.  

A Prayer.  
O Holy Father, we desire in all humility, to acknowledge the Justice of thy correcting hand upon us, in those pains and infirmities which we endure, we are not worthy of life, much less of health, and strength, and therefore teach us to submit to thy corrections, with all Christian patience and resignation: Let the weakness of our bodies, prove the health of our Souls, and while our outward man perisheth, Let our inward man be renewed day by day: and grant we beseech thee, that these light afflictions which are but for a moment, may work for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory. Have mercy upon us thou Son of David, and as here on earth thou didst give eyes to the blind, and ears to the deaf, and Legs to the lame, strength to the weak, and health to the sick, so now that thou art in Heaven, let us find thy power great, to heal our Diseases, and to relieve our infirmities, and give thy blessing to the means used for our recovery. However we beseech thee, o Gracious God, prepare us for thyself by all thy mercies, and by all our afflictions, and at last bring us to that happy state where there is health, and no sickness, rest, and no pain, everlasting life, with no death to follow it, let this be our blessed Lot, and let this be our happy Portion in eternal enjoyment of God, and in our everlasting Communion with the Father, and with the Spirit, and with the Son, who when he was on earth taught us to Pray, saying. Our Father, etc.   

A Thanksgiving unto Almighty God, to be said by the poor that are cured in the Hospital of St. bartholomew's, at the time of their delivery from thence, upon their knees in the Hall before the Hospitaler, and two Masters of the House at the least.  
WE magnify and praise thee O Lord, that so mercifully and favourably hast looked upon us miserable and wretched sinners, which so highly have offended thy Divine Majesty, that we are not worthy to be numbered among thy elect and chosen People: our sins being great and grievous, are daily before our eyes, we lament and be sorry for them, and with sorrowful heart, and lamentable tears, we call and cry unto thee for mercy. Have mercy upon us O Lord, have mercy upon us 〈…〉 d according to thy great mercy, 〈…〉 way the multitude of our sins, and grant us now O Lord, thy most holy and working Spirit, that setting aside all vice and idleness, we may in thy fear walk, and go forward in all virtue and godliness. And for that thou hast moved O Lord, the hearts of Godly men, and the Governors of this House, to show their exceeding charity towards us, in curing of our maladies and diseases, we yield most humble and hearty thanks to thy Majesty, and shall incessantly laud and praise thy most holy and glorious name: Beseeching thee, most gracious and merciful Lord, according to thy holy word and promise, so to bless this thine own dwelling House, and the Faithful Ministers thereof, that there be here found no lack, but that their riches and substance may increase, that thy holy name may thereby be the more praised and glorified, to whom be all laud, honour, and glory, world without end.  
Amen.    

CHAP. VII.  
Instructions for those that have been restored to their senses, in the Hospital of Bethleem.  
IT hath been already observed in this small Treatise, to the great Glory of this City, that there is scarce any infirmity to which humane nature is liable, but some Provision hath been made against it, by the generous charity of the Honourable, and Worshipful Patriots thereof: and as in other Hospitals this hath been manifested, so also it is very demonstrable from the worthy intents of this charitable foundation; where very ample provision is made for Physic, and Lodging, and attendance, and all other things requisite for the cure, and welfare of those miserable people, that are crazed in their brains. To the Governors of this place there is no need to address any advice; Their worthy performances supply abundant matter for praise, and leave no room for further directions to do any thing more than they do already. The Poor people under cure are not capable of it, for it would be a piece of madness to direct advice to such as are under actual frenzy, and so are not capable of it. The only men therefore to whom applications of this nature must be made, must be such as have received cure in this House, and by that means have been restored to the enjoyment of heir senses and use of their reason: To these.  
My first direction shall be, that they would endeavour to be thankful to God for so great a mercy: We usually value mercies by the want of them, as those that have been sick, know how to put an estimate upon health, those that have been confined upon Liberty, and those that have been exercised with any other affliction, know how to prise those enjoyments, which others have, and undervalue for the commonness of them: and therefore if any know how to put a due esteem upon this great mercy, the undisturbed use of their sense and reason, these men do: Those that are under the care, and Provision of other Hospitals, are not half so miserable as they lately were. Christ-Church is a receptacle of poor men's Children, but poverty though a great misery, is not wholly without relief, and remedy, if men have the use of their sense and reason, whereby to learn and practise honest, and ingenuous arts for their relief, and maintenance. In St. bartholomew's, and St. Thomas' there are lame, and decrepit, and infirm People exercised with divers pains, but seeing their distemper doth not touch their brain: they can enjoy the sweet and delightful converse of Friends, and acquaintance, and communicate pleasant and useful discourse with them: and both the former, and the latter of these have opportunities for the working out their Salvation with fear and trembling: But the Patients of Bethleem want all this, if they be poor, they want the use of reason to attend upon a beneficial calling, and if surrounded with a multitude of Friends, they are not bettered by their converse, as not understanding what they say, or what they do: but if they have been addicted to any course of mortal sin, they are as it were locked up under a state of impenitence, having not sense to apprehend the error of their former ways, nor reason to direct them how to return to the wisdom of the just: But by being restored to their senses, they are restored to all these advantages. They are better enabled to maintain their charge, better enabled to enjoy their Friends, better enabled to serve their God: And as it is a complicated mercy, so it deserves a complicated thankfulness. And they that are restored to their senses, aught to return a several acknowledgement to the Divine goodness, as for the fundamental mercy itself, so for all those that are contained in it, Men are Instruments in the hand of God, and as such there is due to them a gratitude proportionable to their care over them: but God is the principal agent, and therefore he may claim their highest praise and adoration.  
Secondly, My second exhortation to those that have a happy cure in this Hospital, is to take care of those sinful passions that heretofore have either caused, or hastened their former distraction upon them: For seldom it is that a man of a sedate temper, or a quiet mind, or of moderate propensions, or that hath bounded his desires within the limits of reason, and Religion, that arrives at these frenzies which have their cure in this House. But usually some inordinate passion transports us first beyond our duty, and then beyond our wits. Some are vain glorious, and because they meet with scorn, where they looked for respect, it is a disturbance first to their thoughts, then to the very constitution of their brain, and then perverts their senses; some guide their Love more by fancy then by reason: not regarding the consent of Parents, nor approbation of Friends, nor any of those circumstances which a wise man ought to consider, and that passion which was but the issue of an unreasonable lust, concludes at last in a more unreasonable frenzy: And some disturb their minds with unreasonable scruples, and Religion, which hath a natural tendency to compose men's Spirits, disturbs theirs: My advice to all such is, that when they are restored to their senses, they would correct their passions by reason and Religion, and they will find the benefit of it in the sedateness of their Spirits, and in the peace of their consciences, and in their mastery over those inordinacies of Soul, which often transport men into frenzy: Love nothing passionately but God, and those Divine beauties, though they may transport, will never distract the Soul: Submit to the dis●●●s●tions of God, concerning you, and think that condition best which his providence hath allotted you: and you need never fear that discontent will crack your brain. Keep a conscience clear in all things, for nothing is so distracting as guilt, nothing more sedate then uprightness and integrity. In Religion, study not the things that are mysterious, but the things that are necessary: Deep inquiries have often distracted the acutest brains, but plain truths never discomposed the most illiterate understanding. Believe the Trinity to be a mystery incomprehensible, and let it continue so: Acknowledge the decrees of God to be unsearchable, and pry not into them too curiously: Resign yourself to the guidance of the Spirit, and be content to be ignorant of the manner of its operations, and if this you do, you will be as wise as God requires you should be; more Religious than some men that count themselves more wise than you, and more composed in your Spirit, than those that distract themselves with mysterious inquiries; And this is my second direction to this sort of People, to avoid violent passions, and nice speculations.  
Thirdly, My third direction shall be, that when men have recovered the use of their reason, they would employ the exercise of it about the best things, the service of God, the good of mankind, and the discreet guidance of their own lives and conversations: And surely God in his providence will preserve that reason sound, and entire that is employed to so Divine purposes. In these generous employments there are many things ennobling to our reason, nothing disturbing or distracting. To serve God, and submit our will to his, to hope in his goodness, and depend upon his mercy, are things easy to be understood, and require not an acute brain to perform them. But the disputes about God, and Religion, lead men into endless mazes, and Meanders. To do as we would be done by requires no great skill and cunning, but the methods of Craft and deceit, may soon puzzle the shrewdest understanding: for the paths of righteousness are plain and easy, but the contrivances of the wicked, are many of them very distracting: And then for those duties which concern the Regulation of our affections, there are none of them have any tendency in them to disturb our Spirits, but all proper to compose them: Anger, and impatience enrage the heart, but meekness will compose, and settle it. Thirst of revenge boils up the blood to unnatural heats: but Christian forgiveness makes us at peace within ourselves, and with others. Anxious care, and desponding thoughts, are very often productive of Frenzy, but nothing so proper to quiet, and allay all the fluctuations of our minds, as Faith and Hope, and those other graces that are nearly allied to these. If God of his mercy restore our reason, in gratitude we are bound to employ it in his service: and this is also the best course to preserve the soundness and integrity of it; for God will bless that reason that is employed in the exercises of Religion, and the duties of Religion naturally tend to the improving and preserving of it.  
The last duty that I shall recommend to them, is to pity them that are in the like condition to that wherein they heretofore were, to aid them at present with the assistance of their prayers, and hereafter their Hospital with the bounty of their purse, if God shall enable them to do so. To do good and to communicate, forget not, saith the Apostle; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased, but our charity is most suitable when it is extended to those who are under those miseries which heretofore were ours: Israel must not grieve the stranger, because they were strangers in Egypt. The believing Hebrews to whom the Apostle writes, must remember those that are in bonds, as being bound with them, and them that suffer adversity, as being themselves also in the body. And those that have wanted their senses should remember those that want them still; remember them always in their prayers, and when they shall be able in the largeness of their bounty too. I add not further to this Chapter, but only the usual conclusion of the rest, a Prayer.  

A PRAYER.  
O LORD we desire to return unto thee all possible praise, and thanks for all thy mercies bestowed upon us, more particularly for that great mercy of restoring us to our former senses: We beseech thee teach us to employ our reason in the service of God, and the duties of religion; to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, and to study the things of our peace: Subdue in us all disturbing passions, and inordinate affections, which are contrary to our peace, and contrary to thy Gospel: Root out of our souls sensual love, and restless ambition, and all pride, and haughtiness of spirit; and teach us to regulate our desires according to the rules of reason and religion: Preserve our reason which thou hast restored, and restore it to those that want it: pity their dark and disconsolate condition, alloy their fears, answer their doubts, and subdue their distempers, and speak peace and health to them, and make us truly thankful to God, who hath made it to be better with us than it is with them: And as thou hast relieved our bodily distempers, so heal all our spiritual diseases. Make us every day more and more to be religious towards our God, just and charitable towards our Neighbours, and sober, and temperate in our chaste and Christian usage of our own bodies. Fill us with the fruits of the spirit, goodness, and meekness, and faith, and hope, and patience, and long-suffering, and all other Graces here, and the fullness of thy glory hereafter, through Jesus Christ our Lord. In whose name, etc.    

The Close.  
HItherto from the beginning to the ending of this Treatise, I have walked in a path untrodden by others before me: But all along have sincerely aimed at the spiritual good of those that have come under the directions of my Pen. It is very meet that in this, as in all other actions, the main end that I propound to myself should be the hohour of God, and the good of Souls; but r●●●er that I have also designed to testify my duty and respects to the Court of Aldermen, whose Stipendiary I am, and to the Worshipful Governors of the several places mentioned in this discourse; and if they will permit these books to be distributed among the people under their charge, I shall pray for a blessing from God, upon what I have writ and the● shall read, and direct them to pray for their Governors, and Patrons, and Benefactors in the short form following.  

A PRAYER.  
O LORD, the giver of every good and perfect gift, we return unto thee the tribute of praise and thanksgiving, for all the privileges and advantages reached out to us by the hands of our Patrons, and Benefactors: We beseech thee, give us Grace to walk worthy of all these thy mercies, and their favours, and restore unto them into their bosoms a hundred fold for all their Christian charity and bounty; Granting them in this life all the blessings of thy Grace, and favour; and in the world to come, life and immortality, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who hath taught us to pray, saying,  
Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy Will be done in Earth, as it is in Heaven; Give us this day our daily Bread, and forgive us our Trespasses, as we forgive them that Trespass against us, and lead us not into Temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power and the Glory, for ever and ever.  
Amen.    

THE CONTENTS.  
Of the several Chapters of this Treatise.  
Chap. 1. Directions suitable to those who are Prisoners for Debt; which may be appliable to the condition of such as are Prisoners in Ludgate, the Fleet, or either of the Counters, or Newgate as it is the County Prison for Debt. Pag. 1. Ch. 2. Instructions for such Malefactors as have committed such crimes, the punishment whereof is some public shame, or corporal infliction; or any other punishment below that of death: appliable in great measure to the condition of those that are in Bridewell. p. 28. Ch. 3. Directions for those that are Tried and Cast for their Lives, but have them spared by the mercy of the King or the Bench. p. 45. Ch. 4. Considerations suited to the condition of such Malefactors as are actually under the sentence of condemnation for death. p. 60. Ch. 5. Instructions suited to the condition of those who have their Education in the Hospital of Christ-Church. p. 77. Ch. 6. Instructions proper for such, for whose care Provision is made in the Hospital of S. Bartholomew near Smithfield, and S. Thomas the Apostle in Southwark. p. 94. Ch. 7. Instructions for those that have been restored to their senses in the Hospital of Bethleem. p. 110.  
FINIS.   

The Reader is desired before he proceed to peruse this Book, to mend with his Pen these following mistakes, which are not wholly chargeable upon the Printer, but in part upon the Copy, which was in some places interlined, and in others not very fairly writ: mispointings and smaller Erratas I have not here noted, but such as pervert the sense, of which the first is the Grossest, and in that as well as the rest, the Reader hath the very Pages, and Lines noted.  
Pag. 2. l. 9 for Creditors read Chapmen, p. 4. l. 26. for we r. be, p. 8. l. 27. for Learning r. hearing, p. 15. l. 25. after world, insert then, p. 29. l. last, for side, r. size, p. 31. l. 28. for Heb. 3. 1. r. Heb. 3. 13. p. 37. l. 16. for Devils, r. Devil, p. 39 l. 9 after are, blot out with, l. 26. for reach, r. reek, p. 41. l. 3. after themselves, blot out they are, p. 49. l. 16. after these, blot out as, p. 55. l. 19 for Counts, r. Courts, p. 80. l. 2. for reports, r. reporters, p. 93. l. 20. blot out in, and insert old, p. 95. l. 16. for Authority both by, r. both by the Authority.