INSTRUCTIONS AND DEVOTIONS FOR THE SICK.

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"1. If you are attacked by any considerable illness, let your first care be to send for your spiritual physician, and settle the state of your soul. This is much better done in the beginning of sickness than afterwards, when the strength of the fever or the quality of the remedies may render a person absolutely unfit for so great a work. Sickness is often sent for a punishment of sin, and therefore a sincere repentance and confession of sins is often a more effectual means of recovery than any other.

"2. If you have not your will already made, as it is prudent you ought, let this also be done in the beginning of your sickness, that, having settled your temporal affairs, you may apply your soul, without disturbance, to the spiritual.

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3. Engage your best friends to give you timely notice if your distemper be dangerous, and not to flatter you with hopes of life when there are little or no grounds for hope. Make the best use you can of that time which, perhaps, is to be your last. Admit but of few visits, nor of any other discourse but such as may be for your soul's profit.

4. Take proper care for the discharge of your debts and all other obligations incumbent upon you; and this as much as may be in the beginning also of your sickness: forgive aľ

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those who have any way injured you, and ask pardon of those you have injured.

"5. Receive your sickness from the hand of God, with a perfect resignation to his holy will, as a just punishment of your offences; frequently offer yourself up to him, and beg that he would give you patience, and sanctify your sufferings, and that he would accept of all your pains and uneasinesses, in union with the sufferings of your Saviour, Jesus Christ, in deduction of the punishment due to your sins.

"6. Often procure some friend to read to you such prayers as are most effective, and most proper for your present condition; especially the Penitential Psalms, the Litanies, Acts of the Love of God, of Patience and Resignation, &c.

"7. Have the crucifix, or the picture of Christ crucified, always before your eyes; think often upon his passion, and the hopes which it has opened to you, and embrace his feet with all the affections of your soul.

"8. Aim, as much as you can, at a penitential spirit during your sickness; often cry to God for mercy, and make frequent acts of contrition for your sins. St. Augustine used to say that no Christian, however innocent his life might have been, ought to venture to die in any other state tan in that of a penitent "

ness,

A PRAYER IN TIME OF SICKNESS.

Lord Jesus Christ, behold I receive this sickwith which thou art pleased to visit me, as coming from thy fatherly hand. It is thy will it should be thus with me, and therefore I submit: thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. May this sickness be to the honour of thy holy name, and for the good of my soul. For this end I here offer myself with an entire submission to all thy appointment; to suffer whatever thou pleasest, as long as thou pleasest, and in what manner thou pleasest; for I am thy creature, O Lord, who have most ungratefully offended thee; and since my sins have a long time cried aloud to heaven for justice, why shall I now complain if I feel thy hand upon me? No, my God, thou art just in all thy ways; I have truly deserved thy punishment, and therefore I have no reason to complain of thee, but only of my own wicked

ness.

But rebuke me not, O Lord, in thy fury, nor chastise me in thy wrath; and have regard to my weakness. Thou knowest how frail I am; that I am nothing but dust and ashes: deal not with me, therefore, according to my sins, neither punish me according to my iniquities, but, according to the multitude of thy most tender mercies, have compassion on me. Oh let thy justice be tempered with mercy, and let thy hea venly grace come to my assistance, to supp

Confirm my

soul with

me under this my illness. strength from above, that I may bear, with a true Christian patience, all the uneasinesses, pains, disquiets, and difficulties of my sickness, and that I may cheerfully accept them as the just punishment of my offences; preserve me from all temptations, and be thou my defence against all the assaults of the enemy, that in this illness I may in no way offend thee; and if this is to be my last, I beg of thee so to direct me by thy grace that I may neither neglect nor be deprived of those helps which thou hast, in thy mercy, ordained for the good of my soul, to prepare it for its passage into eternity; that, being perfectly cleansed from all my sins, I may believe in thee, put my whole trust in thee, love thee above all things, and, through the merits of thy death and passion, be admitted into the company of the blessed, where I may praise thee for ever. Amen Short acts of the most necessary virtues, proper to be inculcated in the time of sickness.

Lord, I accept this sickness from thy hands, and entirely resign myself to thy blessed will, whether it be for life or death. Not my will, but thine, be done: thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

Lord, I submit to all the pains and uneasinesses of this illness; my sins have deserved infinitely more. Thou art just, O Lord, and thy judgment is right.

Lord, I offer up to thee all that I now suffer, or may have yet to suffer, to be united to the sufferings of my Redeemer, and sanctified by his passion.

I adore thee, O my God and my All, as my first beginning and last end! and I desire to pay thee the best homage I am able, and to bow down all the powers of my soul to thee.

Lord, I desire to praise thee for ever, in sickness as well as in health; I desire to join my heart and my voice with the whole church of heaven and earth, in blessing thee for ever.

I give thee thanks, from the bottom of my heart, for all the mercies and blessings bestowed upon me and thy whole church, through Jesus Christ thy Son; and above all, for having loved me from all eternity, and redeemed me with his precious blood. Oh! let not that blood be shed for me in vain.

Lord, I believe all those heavenly truths which thou hast revealed, and which thy holy Catholic Church believes and teaches. Thou art the Sovereign Truth, who neither canst deceive nor be deceived; and thou hast promised the Spirit of Truth to guide thy Church into all truth. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, &c. In this faith I resolve, through thy grace, both to live and die. O Lord, strengthen and increase this my faith.

O my God, all my hopes are in thee; and through Jesus Christ, my Redeemer, and through