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A26929 Richard Baxter's farewel sermon prepared to have been preached to his hearers at Kidderminster at his departure, but forbidden.; Farewel sermon prepared to have been preached to his hearers at Kidderminster at his departure but forbidden Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1683 (1683) Wing B1266; ESTC R4900 39,816 48

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Tuesday May the first 1660. Ordered THat the thanks of this House be given to Mr. Baxter for his great pains in carrying on the work of Preaching and Prayer before the House at Saint Margarets Westminster yesterday being set apart by this House for a day of Fasting and Humiliation And that he be desired to Print his Sermon and is to have the same Priviledge in Printing the same that others have had in the like kind And that Mr. Swinfin do give him notice thereof W. Jessop Cler. of the Commons House of Parliament Richard Baxter's Farewel Sermon Prepared to have been Preached to his Hearers AT Kidderminster At his departure but forbidden LONDON Printed for B. Simmons at the Three Golden Cocks on Ludgate-Hill at the West End of St. Pauls 1683. To the Inhabitants of the Burrough and Forreign of Kidderminster in the County of Worcester Dear friends WHile I was lately turning up the rubbish of my old Papers I found this Sermon in the bottom which I had quite forgotten that I kept but thought it had been cast away with many hundred others Much of the last sheet was added to the Sermon after I came from you and I remember that when I intended to send you this Sermon as my farewel I durst not then have so much converse with you for your own sakes lest it should raise more enmity against you and your displeasing circumstances of religious practice should be said to come from my continued Counsels to you I have lately taken my farwel of the World in a Book which I called My Dying Thoughts My pain of Body and debility increasing and my Flesh being grown to me more grievous than all my enemies or outward troubles I remembred the benefit I often received uppon your Prayers and craving the continuance of them till you hear of my dissolution therewith I send this as my special farewel to your selves whom I am bound to remember with more than ordinary Love and Thankfulness while I am Richard Baxter John 16.22 And ye now therefore have sorrow but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy no man taketh from you My dearly beloved in our dearest Lord I Will so far consent to your troubled thoughts of this unwelcome day as to confess that to me as well as you it somewhat resembleth the day of death 1. Death is the separation of the dearest consorts Soul and Body And how near the Union is betwixt us both that of Relation and that of Affection which must admit this day of some kind of dissolution I will rather tell to strangers then to you 2. Death is unwelcom both to Soul and Body of itself though it destroy not the Soul it doth the body So dear Companions part not willingly Your hearts and Mine are here so over forward in the application that words may be well spared where sense hath taken so deep possession 3. Death is the end of humane converse here on earth We must see and talk with our friends here no more And this our separation is like to end that converse between you and me which formerly we have had in the duties of our Relations We must no more go up together as formerly to the house of God I must no more speak to you publickly in his name nor solace my own soul in opening to you the Gospel of Salvation nor in the mention of his Covenant his Grace or Kingdom Those Souls that have not been convinced and Converted are never like to hear more from me for their conviction or conversion I have finished all the instruction reproof exhortation and ●erswasion which ever I must use in order to their salvation I must speak here no more to inform the ignorant to reform the wicked to reduce the erroneous to search the hypocrite to humble the proud to bow the obstinate or to bring the worldly the impenitent and ungodly to the knowledge of the world themselves and God I must speak no more to strengthen the weak to comfort the afflicted nor to build you up in faith and holiness Our day is past our night is come when we cannot work as formerly we have done My opportunities here are at an end 4 Death is the end of earthly comforts And our separation is like to be the end of that comfortable communion which God for many years hath granted us Our publick and private communion hath been sweet to us The Lord hath been our Pastour and hath not suffered us to want He made us lye down in his pleasant pastures and hath led us by the silent streams Psal 23.1 2. He restored our Souls and his very Rod and Staff did comfort us But his smiting scattering time is come These pleasures now are at an end 5. Death is the end of humane labours There is no plowing or sowing no building or planting in the grave And so doth our Separation end the works of our mutual relation in this place 6 Death is the effect of painful sickness and usually of the folly intemperance or oversight of our selves And though our conscience reproach us not with gross unfaithfulness yet are our failings so many and so great as force us to justify the severity of our father and to confess that we deserve this rod. Though we have been censured by the world as being over strict and doing too much for the saving of our own and others Souls yet it is another kind of charge that conscience hath against us How earnestly do we now wish that we had done much more that I had preached more fervently you had heard more diligently and we had all obeyed God more strictly and done more for the Souls of the ignorant careless hardened sinners that were among us It is just with God that so dull a preacher should be put to silence that could ever speak without tears and fervent importunity to impenitent sinners when he knew that it was for no less than the saving of their Souls and foresaw the joys which they would lose and the torment which they must endure if they repented not With what shame sorrow do I now look back upon the cold and lifeless Sermons which I preached and upon those years neglect of the duty of private instructing of your families before we set upon it orderly and constantly Our destruction is of our selves Our undervaluings and neglects have forfeited our opportunities As good Melancthon was wont to say In vulneribus nostris proprias agnoscimus pennas The arrow that woundeth us was feathered from our own wings 7. Death useth to put surviving friends into a dark and mourning habit Their lamentations are the chief part of funeral Solemnities And in this also we have our part The compassion of condolers is greater than we desire For sorrow is apt to grow unruly and exceed its bounds and bring on more sufferings by lamenting one and also to look too much at the instruments and to be more