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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	great_a	think_v	1,609	5	3.8252	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26928	Faithful souls shall be with Christ the certainty proved and their Christianity described, and exemplified in the truely Christian life and death of that excellent saint, Henry Ashhurst, Esq ... : briefly and truly published for the conviction of hypocrites and the malignant, the strengthning of believers, and the imitation of all, especially the masters of families in London / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing B1265; ESTC R4853	35,484	74

Faithful Souls SHALL BE WITH CHRIST THE Certainty Proved and their Christianity Described and Exemplified in the truly-Christian Life and Death of that excellent amiable Saint HENRY ASHHURST Esq Citizen of London Briefly and truly Published for the Conviction of Hypocrites and the Malignant the Strengthning of Believers and the Imitation of all especially the Masters of Families in London By RICHARD BAXTER Luke 10. 37. Go and Do thou likewise LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Three Golden Cocks at the West end of St. Pauls Church 1681. To my worthy Friends Mrs. Judith Ashhurst Widdow of Henry Ashhurst Esq. and Mr. Henry Ashhurst their Son with all his Brethren and Sisters Grace Mercy and Peace Dear Friends I Am perswaded that the Image of so good a Husband and Father cannot but be deeply printed on your minds but yet it may not be wholly needless to be told of the Comfort and the Duty thence to be inferred It was you Sir his eldest Son and Executor who called me to the publick performance of that which I have thought meet to make more publick I have long known you so well that I am comfortably perswaded that your Father had great cause to place that great affection on you and confidence in you which he did Your dear Love to him and great Reverence of him and hearty Love to the good which he loved and your singleness and uprightness of Mind and Life are your amiableness and better than the greatest earthly birthright But I did purposely say little in the following discourse of your Fathers example as consolatory and obligatory to all his nearest Relations because I thought that their special interest in him did give them right to a special address which is the intent of this Epistle Gods Scripture blessings of the faithful and their seed doth make this relation honorable and comfortable to you all How chearfully may you all follow the footsteps of one so near you who sped so well in following Christ The greatest comforts and blessings are the greatest obligations to further duty and that duty is the way to get greater blessings It will be some help to you to Love God and Goodness good Men and all Men to remember how much all these were loved by one who so tenderly loved your selves You have not only heard but seen and felt that Holiness is not a bare name or dream and Religion a meer art or image but a Divine Nature a reall renovation of Heart and Life and that the effects of Gods Spirit in sanctifying Souls do greatly difference them from carnal minds You have seen that Godliness genuine and real is not a wearysom uncomfortable Life Live as he did and it will be a cure of melancholy passions and discontents and a constant tranquillity and delight What a help is his Example to you to live in true Love to one another to be of an humble meek and quiet Spirit neither vexatious to your selves or others As also to be absolutely devoted to God of publick minds and comforts to the poor and needy and to use all that you have as his Stewards daily preparing for your great account You have seen how you may live above the World even while you prosper in it and how to expound Love not the World nor the things that are in the World If any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him 1 Ioh. 2. 15. For where your Treasure is there will your Hearts be also Matth. 6. 21. The Spaniards have a Proverb The World is a Carrion and they are Dogs that love it much more that snarle and fight about it One would think that to read and believe Matth. 5. 6. Luk. 12. 16. and Jam. 4. should affright Men from being deceived by such a shaddow whose speedy vanishing all foresee You have seen what it is to be a Christian indeed and how your affairs your conversations and your families should be ordered And you have seen how the best may suffer and must die and therefore what need we all have to be prepared with strong and well exercised Faith Hope and Patience and by daily conversing in the heavenly regions to get sweeter thoughts of Heaven than of the most prosperous state on Earth that we may die like serious believers and joyfully commit our departing souls to Christ when we leave these corruptible bodies to the grave O dear Friends the day is at hand the change is of unspeakable importance the work of Faith and Hope is high and difficult Set to it speedily with heart and might and let not flesh and the world entangle and deceive you The great love which your Father had to me and much more which he had to Christ his Church and all the Faithful obliged me to be the larger in describing his example for your use and comfort For as Christ gone to Heaven hath left here his servants called his Brethren that men in them may shew their Love and thankfulness to him which he will reward as done unto himself so the way which I must take to express my Love and gratitude to your deceased Father is by desiring and endeavouring the true felicity of his Wife and Children whom he so dearly loved And that must be by taking God for your God and Father Christ for your Saviour the Holy Spirit for your Sanctifier the Holy Scriptures for your Rule the Church for the Body of which you are Members true Pastors for your Teachers the Faithful for your most beloved Companions especially each other who are by so many bonds obliged to more than ordinary endearedness and Love and Christ for your chief pattern and such as your Father in following him Heaven for your felicity home and hope and this short life for the day of your preparation and salvation and the world flesh and Devil so far as they are against any of this for the Enemies which with all vigilancy and resolution must be overcome O how great how good and absolutely necessary a work is this which if any one of you should miscarry about you would be more unexcusable than most persons in the world But that you will all faithfully imitate such an example of holiness humility meekness mortification peace and dearest Love to one another and to all good men is the comfortable hope and hearty Prayer as it is the present faithful Counsel of Dec. 7. 1680. Your Servant for such ends Ri. Baxter JOHN 12 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be if any man serve me him will my Father honour IF our Judgments and Wills had been the choosers and disposers of Humane events as the affairs of the world would be otherwise managed than they are so the meeting of this day would rather have been for a joyful thanksgiving for our deceased friends recovery to health than a mournful solemnizing of his Funerals But it is not we

confidently as we believe and trust a parent or a tried friend for any thing promised which is in their power yea or but as confidently as we can trust their Love without a Promise O how joyfully should we live and die O bend your prayers and best endeavours against the unbelief and doubtings of the Gospel and the unseen World were your Faith here strong it would bring you to that Holiness which would much end your doubts of your own sincerity and part in Christ. Had we nothing else to prove the sinful weakness of our Faith but our uncomfortable thoughts of the Life to come and the State of our departing Souls alas how sad an evidence is it Come on then Christians Think further what this Text containeth and beg of God that you and I may believe it as we need and as Christ deserveth to be believed Think what it is to be with Christ We shall be with our compassionate great High Priest with him that came down in flesh to us with him that loved us to the death and redeemed us by his blood to God and will make us Kings and Priests for ever We shall be with him that is gone to prepair a place for us in his Fathers house he hath many mansions Ioh. 14. 3. It was not a meer man it was not an Angel that made us this promise but the Son of God who hath confirmed it by four Seals his Blood his Miracles and Resurrection his Sacraments and his Spirit Are you afraid that your Souls shall die with your Bodies Christ is not dead and we shall be with him It is his promise Because I live ye shall live also Ioh. 14. 19. The Article of his descending to Hades called Hell is to tell us that Christs Soul died not with his Body yea it went that day to Paradise Our Head and we shall not be separated Are you afraid of going to Hell Christ is not there Are you afraid lest God forsake you He forsaketh not Christ though for our sakes he once in part forsook him that we might not be forsaken Can you fear Devils or any Enemies Where Christ is glorified there come no Devils Enemies or Fears We are here with him as Chickens under the wings of the Hen Matth. 23. 37. How safely and how joyfully then shall we be lodged in the bosom of eternal Love But we see not the place nor what our depated friends enjoy But Christ seeth it who is there But we see not Christ. But firm Belief will make us Love him and rejoice with unspeakable glorying joy 1 Pet. 6. 8 9. But we cannot conceive of the state and operations of a separated Soul nor where it is nor how God is there enjoyed But is it not enough to believe that we shall be with Christ and fare in our measure no worse than he If you are afraid lest Christ be deceived or deceive you that is a sinful fear indeed But if you only fear lest you have no part in him Consent to his Covenant do but give up your selves in Obedience and Trust though not in perfection yet in sincere desire and resolution and then you have no just cause to fear it O Sirs why do not our Hearts rejoyce when we think that we shall shortly be with Christ Here we have ill company too oft implacable enemies unsuitable and sinful Friends and worst of all a foolish and perverted Heart that is in effect our greatest Enemy But where Christ is none of this is so With him we shall have the company of our holy departed Friends even all of them that we conversed with in the Flesh whom we lamented and wept over as if they had been lost We shall with Christ have the company of innumerable Angels and all the faithful from the days of Adam And O how much better will Christs own glorious presence be than his presence in humbled Flesh was to his followers on Earth Here Christ was a despised crucifyed Man There even his Body is more glorious than the Sun and the Heaven or holy City needs no Sun because God and the Lamb is the light thereof Spirits are there in confirmed Holiness and not left to that imperfect Liberty of Will which lets in by abuse all sin and misery on the World They strive not in the dark in ignorant Zeal or mixtures of Error and selfish partiality as we do here There are no silencers of the holy Ministers that continually sing Iehovahs praises There is no malignant calumny or persecution no envious reproach of one another or striving who shall have his will or be the Master of the rest But holy Love uniteth animateth and delighteth all For it is God that they Love in one another There is no selfish foolish fear lest individuation cease and Saints shall be too much one and all be one common Soul In a word to be with Christ is to be perfect in Holiness and Glory in God in the Heavenly society in the Joys of Sight and Love and Praise delivered from the bondage of corruption from sin and fear and from temptation and troubles of all our Enemies IV. But yet the promise here saith more If any man serve Me him will my Father honour The Fathers Love did give us the Redeemer and the Fathers Love shall Glorifie us with him What is the Honour that is here meant Honour some time signifieth Advancement in General making one Great and Happy Numb 22. 17. 37. 24. 11. 27. 20. 1 King 3. 13. 1 Chron. 16. 27. Psal. 8. 5. 1 Sam. 2. 30. And sometime it signifieth the provision and maintenance which is due to deserving superiors which is half the double honour due to the Elders that rule well especially that labour in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5. 17. And sometime it is taken for a magnified praised State God will honour faithful Christians all these ways He will advance them to the highest dignity they are meet for He will give them the most bounteous provisions of his houshold even more than they can now desire or believe He will make them Kings and Priests to God and coheirs with Christ in the glorious Inheritance Rom. 8. 17. Rev. 1. 6. 5. 1● 20. 6. They shall Iudge the World and Angels 1 Cor. 6. 2 3. They shall see God Matth. 5. and be called his Children and all together the spouse and Body of Christ Eph. 5. Rev. 21. 22. c. They shall at Christs appearing who is their Life appear with him in Glory Col. 3. 4. When he cometh to be admired in his Saints and glorified in all them that Believe 2 Thes. 1. 10. c. We shall see face to face and shall see him as he is 1. Ioh. 3. 2. We shall behold the Glory that God hath given him Ioh. 17. 24. The Righteous shall have dominion in that Morning And shall shine as Stars Dan. 12. 13. yea as the Sun in the firmament of the Father

in his house and seen his children and servants carry themselves as reverently and respectfully to him as if he had been a Lord when yet he was so lovingly familiar with them will think there was some cause for this Those that hear it the common speech of Magistrates godly Ministers and people that we have lost the most excellent pattern of Piety Charity and all virtue that this City hath bred in our times will think that there is some reason for this praise Some of us seem to shine to strangers who are cloudy and contemptible to those that are near us And many excellent obscure poor Christians are taken little notice of in a low retired or unobserved station But his esteem and honour and love was at home and abroad by his Children Servants Neighbours Fellow-citizens that I say not even by some that loved not his Religiousness or that took him to be too much a friend to those whom their opinions and interest engaged them against And if you would truly know what was the meritorious cause of all this Love and Honour I will tell you It was the Image of Christ and the fruits of his holy Doctrine and his Spirit No man believeth that there is a God who doth not believe that the liker any man is to God the better and the more honourable he is All is Glorious that is Holy that is of God and for God separated to him from all that is common and unclean Base fools may more admire and reverence a proud Man or gilded Idol but all that know God and the almost nothingness of vain Man do value all things and persons in the measure as they are dispositively actively and relatively Divine The Spirit of God by David begins the Psalms with describing such blessed Men as these And Christ next after his preaching Repentance begins with such Mens characters and blessedness Matth. 5. I shall therefore now truly tell you what our deceased Brother was and what of God so shined in him as commanded all this Love and Praise While far greater Men by their filth and folly their sin and hurtful cruelty have made themselves the Plague and burden of their Times as the Children of him whose name is but the contract of Do-evil I. His Religion was only the Bible as the Rule He was a meer Scipture Christian of the Primitive Spirit and strein No Learning signified much with him but what helpt him to understand the Scripture The Bible was his constant Book and in it he had great delight And he loved no Preaching so well as that which made much and pertinent use of Scripture by clear exposition and suitable application He liked not that which worthy Dr. Man●●n was wont to call Gentleman Preaching set out with fine things and laced and gilded plainly speaking self-preaching man-pleasing and pride For when Pride chooseth the Text the method and the style the Devil chooseth it though the Matter be of God Therefore he also highly valued those Books which are much in such wise and seasonable use of Scripture of which he commended above all the Lectures of Mr. Arthur Hildersham II. He neither much studied books of Controversie nor delighted in discourse of any of our late differences I scarce ever heard him engage in any of them But his constant talk was of practical matter of God of Christ of Heaven of the Heart and Life of Grace and Duty or of the sense of some practical Text of Scripture He so little 〈◊〉 and minded the quarrels that many lay out their greatest zeal on and find matter in them to condemn and backbite one another that he either carried it as a stranger or an adversary to such 〈…〉 III. Accordingly while Men were guilty of no 〈…〉 Heresie or Sin but held all great and necessary Truths in love and holiness and righteousness of Life he made little difference in his Respects and Love A serious godly Independant Presbyterian or Episcopal Christian was truly Loved and Honoured by him Indeed he Loved not Church Tyranny nor Hypocritical Images of Religion on one hand nor confusion on the other But the Primitive Spirit of Seriousness Purity and Charity he valued in all A differing tolerable opinion never clouded the glory of sincere Christianity in his Eyes He was of no Sect and he was against Sects as such being of a truly Catholick Spirit but he could see true godliness and honesty in many whose weakness made them culpable in too much adhering to a Side or Sect. IV. He greatly hated backbiting and obloquy Speak evil of no man was a Text which he often had in his Mouth I never knew any noted Men so free from that vice as Judge Hale and Mr. Ashhurst If a Man had begun to speak ill of any Man behind his back either they would say nothing or divert him to something else or shew their distast of it Sin he would speak against but very little of the Person Only one sort of Men he would take the liberty to express his great dislike of and that was The Hinderers of the Gospel and Silencers of faithful Preachers of it and Persecutors of Godly Christians and Oppressors of the Poor and their pretenses of Government and Order and talk against Schism could never reconcile him to that sort of Men But his distast was never signified by scurrility nor any thing that savoured of an unruly or Seditious Spirit V. His Heart was set on the hallowing of Gods Name the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven on the propagating of Religion and encouraging all able faithful Preachers and Practicers of it to his power Ever since I knew him it seemed much more of his serious business in the World than his Trade or worldly gain was He was a right hand to his faithful Pastor good old Mr. Simeon Ash How seldom did I visit Mr. Ash at any time but I ●ound or left them together And now they are together with Christ He did not Love with barren words nor serve God of that which cost him nothing Few but I knew from his own mouth that he gave these 18 years since August 24. 1662. an hundred pound a year to the ejected Ministers of Lancashire and some Schools there and in the neighbour parts and many Bibles Catechisms and other good Books to divers places besides the said 100l a year And a friend of his and mine tell me that it was to him that he yearly delivered it to be distributed save that lately twenty pound a year of it went to Northumberland VI. Indeed Charity was his Life and business Another mean man that was oft with him saith that he hath had of him many score pounds to give away which few ever knew of I do not think that there are many that can say that ever they were denyed when they askt him for money to a Charitable use I am sure I never was About 1662 and

1663 he endeavoured hard to have got the pious Citizens of London to contribute yearly to the relief of the poor ejected Ministers of the several Counties where they were born and I was employed to the Lord Chancellor Hide to acquaint him with it and get his consent that it might not be taken for a fomenting of faction But though he said God forbid that he should be against Mens charity yet most durst not trust him and so it fell Since then he and others set up a Conventicle which methinks might be tolerated by Bishops themselves They met often to consult and contribute for the relief of poor House-keepers and they chose an ancient active godly Man fit for that work to be as a Deacon I mean to go about the City and find out such House-keepers as were very poor sick or impotent or any way in want and to bring in a Catalogue of their names places and degrees of need always preferring the pious honest poor And they made Mr. Tho. Gouge their Treasurer one of the same Trade whose Hands could not be tyed from doing good when his Tongue was tyed by the silencers And the foresaid messenger brought them their contributions with good instructions and prayer when there was need for which use sometime they procured a Minister for the ignorant Indeed he was the common comforter and reliever of distressed Ministers and others I know of none in London that they so commonly resorted to as him VII And so large was his desire of doing good that not only England Scotland and Ireland knew it but it specially extended to the Natives in America of whose conversion to Christianity he had a fervent desire In Oliver Cromwells time a publick Collection was made all over England for the educating of Schollars and defraying other charges in New England for that Work of which good old Mr. Fliots the Indians Evangelist was the chief operator with that money Lands were purchased to the value of about 800l a year and setled on a Corporation of Citizens in Trust and Mr. Ashhurst must be the Treasurer on whom lay the main care and work When the King was restored the Corporation was dead in Law and one that sold most of the Lands which were setled for that use Colonel Bedingfield a Papist seized on his sold Land and yet refused to repay the money The care of the recovery and of restoring the Corporation and all the work was the business of Mr. Ashhurst for which he desired my solicitation of the Lord Chancellor Hide who did readily own the justness of the cause and goodness of the Work and first gave us leave to nominate the new Corporation and Mr. Boyle for President and Mr. Ashhurst for Treasurer and afterwards when it came to Suite before him did justly determine it for the Corporation And so these nineteen years last past it was he by the help of Mr. Boile and the rest who hath had the main care of the New England assistance by which a Printing press hath been there set up and the Bible translated into the Indians Tongue and other Books also for their instruction and the Agents encouraged to help them till the late unhappy War there interrupted much of their endeavours And of their Victory in that War the converted Indians were not the least cause O how sad will the news of his death be to old Mr. Eliots if he live to hear it and to his American Converts And he hath left by his Will an hundred pound to the Colledge there and fifty pound to their Corporation IX Some may think that he wanted a publick Spirit because he avoided being a Magistrate and payed his Fine rather than take an Aldermans place But it was only to keep the peace of his Conscience which could not digest 1. The Corporation Declaration and Oath Nor 2. The execution of the Laws against Nonconforming Ministers and People I never heard him plead that the solemn Oath called the National Covenant was not unlawfully imposed or taken His thoughts of that I know not But he was not ignorant that the words shewed that it was a Promise or Vow to God and that a Vow made sinfully bindeth notwithstanding to the Lawful and necessary part of the Matter And he thought that to oppose in our places Prophaneness Popery and Schism and to Repent of Sin and amend were lawful and necessary things And therefore to say that there is no obligation by that Oath on me or any other person without excepting any of these aforesaid was a thing that he would rather I believe have suffered death than do He would not do that which he thought Perjury himself much less justifie it in thousands whom he never knew And he feared lest he should become guilty of constituting all the Cities and Corporations of England by Perjury and stigmatizing the front of the Nation with such a fearful brand Some men think that the Mark of the beast in Rev. without which none might buy or sell was PERIURY and PERSECUTION finding that the Laterane Council sub Innoc. 3. and others which are of their Religion do absolve Subjects of their Temporal Lords whom the Pope Excommunicateth from their Oaths of Allegiance which was ordinarily practised against Emperors and Kings and finding that these Lords or Princes themselves were to swear to exterminate all called Hereticks on pain of Excommunication Deposition and Damnation and that every such Ruler that professeth himself a Papist knowingly bindeth himself to destroy all Protestants or exterminate them if he can do it without danger to the Papal Church and also finding that all their Clergy must swear the Trent Oath by which they cannot but be Perjured And they say that they never heard or read that ever such a thing was done by Heathens Infidels or Mahometans And Mr. Ashhurst was afraid of any thing that seemed to him such a brand Yet I never heard him speak uncharitably of those worthy Men who do what he refused supposing that they in words or writing declared as openly as they sware and took the Declaration that they took it but in such or such a lawful sence Though he could not do so himself IX He had an earnest desire of the welfair of the City that it might flourish in Piety Sobriety Justice and Charity and that good men might be in power believing that the welfair of the World lieth not so much in the forms of Government as in the goodness of the Men and that that is the best form which best secureth us from bad Men And all such service as he could do no Man was readier to do As when he was Master of the Merchant Taylors company and on many other occasions he shewed His Relations tell me that he then gave them about 300 l. of his own monies and greatly promoted the improvement of their Stock to the rebuilding of their Hall and abatement of their debts X. He never was a Souldier even when