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cause sent forth by God on men, but with ordinary some good and salutary design; therefore it should be the part of all suitably to demean themselves under the evils laid upon them. I would, therefore, that you should ponder in your mind for what cause this sickness is inflicted, and that you should resolve so to establish your ways as to accord with the divine intention; and that you may be able and desire so to resolve, I would have you understand that God sends sicknesses upon us, sometimes that He may make trial of our patience; when this is the case, it becomes us to endure them with resignation: sometimes He sends them that He may banish from our minds a too great attachment to the things of this world; and therefore it is our duty to learn from sicknesses when they come upon us, that earthly things are unworthy our affections, and that we ought, with all our strength, to seek those things which are above: sometimes, also, (if not always) He sends them that He may lead us to repentance; so that it is our part, at what time soever we

are troubled with sickness, to be truly penitent on account of the wickedness which we have committed, to detest our former sins, and also for the future to apply our hearts to better determinations." Afterward it should be the employment of the Curate to exhort the sick man, using arguments drawn from Scripture, to patience, a contempt for the world, and repentance.

2nd Form. If the person to be visited be of ill report, and unwilling to acknowledge his misdeeds, the Curate may address him after this manner:

A form

suited to one

"I have come to thee, my Brother, not only of ill-report. that I might join you in supplications to God for the health of your body, but also that I might, by exhortation and by stirring you up to unfeigned repentance, forward your eternal interests; and I trust it will not be contrary to your inclinations, if, in furtherance of this end, I now relate what I have in times past learned respecting you. I do not, indeed, readily give credit to common reports affecting

character, because I know that they are for the most part spread with ill intent; nevertheless I will not conceal from you those things which are commonly spoken concerning your moral character, lest they may have more truth in them than I could wish. Should they be without foundation, (as I hope you may be able to convince me they are,) I will for the future do all in my power to remove such false accusations, and shall be able (which I most exceedingly desire) to maintain and clear your innocence whenever hereafter I shall be made acquainted with the detractions of the ill-disposed: but if the reports I am about to relate have any truth in them, I will show you how it will turn to your profit to betake yourself without delay to unfeigned repentance." Then may the Curate relate (having first caused all present, save the sick person, to go out) what reports he has heard; and according as the reply of the sick shall furnish him with subject-matter, let him proceed in his discourse.

3rd Form. If the person to be visited be of good report, the Curate, at his first visit, may address him after this manner :—

A form

suited to one of good report.

"I trust, my Brother, that the things I have heard of thee be true, namely, that hitherto you have lived piously, soberly, and unblameably; for then will you be able to look back without heaviness of heart, and to contemplate the future with satisfaction; you will be able to bear the fatherly chastisement which is now upon you with a tranquil mind, and death, if it be near at hand, as the termination of evil, and, through the might of Jesus Christ, to pass without dismay through that gate which leads to endless happiness; you will be able calmly to submit to the divine will, and with the blessed apostle confidently to expect through our Saviour's merits the reward of continuance in well-doing. But if you shall be conscious of misdeeds which are concealed from the world, know, that it will be of very little avail to you what others shall think and say to your

commendation; for when God shall judge the world, He will not pronounce sentence upon you according to the unstable opinions of men, but according to His own accurate knowledge, by which He most certainly and unerringly knows all things which have been, and are, and are to be; and according to the testimony of every man's conscience, which as it is now, so will it be then, without any exception, a surer witness than the world: on this account therefore it becomes you carefully to endeavour by a sincere and timely repentance to render God propitious, and to appease the smitings of your conscience; if your penitence be real and perfected in time, He will, through the merits of our Saviour, most certainly blot out your former transgressions, restore you to peace of mind, and give you sure confidence in the acquitting testimony of your conscience." The Curate may then, from the replies of the sick person, most easily seize the advantage of further discourse.

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