Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	death_n	eternal_a	life_n	3,513	5	5.2991	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69538	The last work of a believer his passing prayer recommending his departing spirit to Christ to be received by Him / prepared for the funerals of Mary the widow first of Francis Charlton Esq. and after of Thomas Hanmer, Esq., and partly preached at St. Mary Magdalens Church in Milk-Street, London, and now, at the desire of her daughter, reprinted by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1682 (1682)	Wing B1298; ESTC R5056	51,178	102

them to his cruelty that thou hast conquered him and yet wilt suffer him at last to have the prey To whom can a departing soul fly for refuge and for entertainment if not to thee that diedst for souls and sufferedst thine to be separated from the flesh that we might have all assurance of thy compassion unto ours Thou didst openly declare upon the Cross that the reason of thy dying was to Receive departed souls when thou didst thus encourage the soul of a penitent Malefactor by telling him This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise O give the same encouragement or entertainment to this sinful soul that flyeth unto thee and trusteth in thy death and merits and is coming to receive thy doom 3. Consider that Jesus Christ is full of Love and tender compassion to souls What his tears over Lazarus compelled the Jews to say John 11. 36. Behold how he loved him the same his incarnation life and death should much more stir us up to say with greater admiration Behold how he loved us The foregoing words though the shortest verse in all the Bible vers 35. Jesus wept are long enough to prove his love to Lazarus and the Holy Ghost would not have the tears of Christ to be unknown to us that his love may be the better known But we have a far larger demonstration of his love He loved us and gave himself for us Gal. 2. 20. And by what gift could he better testifie his love He loved us and washed us in his blood Rev. 1. 5. He loveth us as the Father loveth him John 15. 9. And may we not comfortably go to him that loveth us will Love refuse us when we fly unto him Say then to Christ O thou that hast loved my soul Receive it I commend it not unto an enemy Can that Love reject me and cast me into hell that so oft embraced me on earth and hath declared it self by such ample testimonies O had we but more love to Christ we should be more sensible of his love to us and then we should trust him and love would make us hasten to him and with confidence cast our selves upon him 4. Consider that it is the Office of Christ to save souls and to receive them and therefore we may boldly recommend them to his hands The Father sent him to be the Saviour of the world 1 John 4. 14. And he is effectively the Saviour of his body Eph. 5. 23. And may we not trust him in his undertaken office that would trust a Physician or any other in his office if we judge him faithful Yea he is engaged by Covenant to Receive us When we gave up our selves to him he also became ours and we did it on this condition that he should receive and save us And it was the condition of his own undertaking He drew the Covenant himself and tendred it first to us and assumed his own Conditions as he imposed ours Say then to him My Lord I expect but the performance of thy Covenants and the discharge of thine undertaken Of●●ce As thou hast caused me to believe in thee and ●●●…e and serve thee and perform the conditions which ●●…ou laidst on me though with many sinful failings which thou hast pardoned so now let my soul that hath trusted on thee have the full experience of thy fidelity and take me to thy self according to thy Covenant O now remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused him to hope Psalm 119. 49. How many precious promises hast thou left us that we shall not be forsaken by thee but that we shall be with thee where thou art that we may behold thy glory For this cause art thou the Mediator of the New Covenant that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal Inheritance Heb. 9. 15. According to thy Covenant Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. and when we have done thy will notwithstanding our lamentable imperfections we are to receive the promise Heb. 10. 36. O now receive me into the Kingdom which thou hast promised to them that love thee James 1. 12. 5. Consider how able Christ is to answer thine expectations All power is given him in Heaven and Earth Matth. 28. 19. and All things are given by the Father into his hands John 13. 3. All Judgment is committed to him John 5. 22. It is fully in his power to receive and save thee And Satan cannot touch thee but by his consent Fear not then he is the First and Last that liveth and was dead and behold he liveth for evermore Amen and hath the Keys of Hell and Death Rev. 1. 17 18. Say then If thou wilt Lord thou canst save this departing soul O say but the word and I shall live Lay but thy rebuke upon the destroyer and he shall be restrained When my Lord and dearest Saviour hath the Keys how can I be kept out of thy Kingdom or cast into the burning lake Were it a matter of Difficulty unto thee my soul might fear lest Heaven would not be opened to it But thy Love hath overcome the hindrances and it is as easie to receive me as to Love me 6. Consider how perfectly thy Saviour is acquainted with the place that thou art going to and the company and employment which thou must there have and therefore as there is nothing strange to him so the ignorance and strangeness in thy self should therefore make thee fly to him and trust him and recommend thy soul to him and say Lord it would be terrible to my departing soul to go into a world that I never saw and into a place so strange and unto company so far above me but that I know there is nothing strange to thee and thou knowest it for me and I may better trust thy knowledg than mine own when I was a child I knew not my own inheritance nor what was necessary to the daily provisions for my life but my parents knew it that cared for me The eyes must see for all the body and not every member see for it self O cause me as quietly and believingly to commit my Soul to thee to be possessed of the Glory which thou seest and possessest as if I had seen and possessed it my self ad let thy knowledg be my trust 7. Consider That Christ hath provided a glorious receptacle for faithful Souls and it cannot be imagined that he will lose his preparations or be frustrate of his end All that he did and suffered on earth was for this end He therefore became the Captain of our salvation and was made perfect through sufferings that he might bring many sons to glory Heb. 2. 10. He hath taken possession in our Nature and is himself interceding for us in the Heavens Heb. 7. 25. And for whom doth

enjoyment of the real sure delight Take heed of being too much pleased in the creature Have you houses and lands and offices and honours and friends that are very pleasing to you Take heed for that is the killing snare Shut your eyes and wink them all into nothing and cast by your contrivances and cares and fears and remember you have another work to do 2. Live in Communion with a suffering Christ study well the whole life and nature of his sufferings and the reason of them and think how desirable it is to be conformed to him Thus look to Jesus that for the joy that was set before him despised the shame and endured the Cross and the contradiction of sinners against himself Dwell upon this example that the image of a humbled suffering Christ being deeply imprinted on thy mind may draw thy heart into a juster relish of a mortified state Sure he is no good Christian that thinks it not better to live as Christ did in holy poverty and sufferings in the world then as Croesus or Caesar or any such worldling and self-pleasure lived Die daily by following Jesus with your Cross and when you have a while suffered with him he will make you perfect and receive your spirits and you shall reign with him It wonderfully prepareth for a comfortable Death to live in the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ He is most likely to die quietly patiently and joyfully that can first be poor be neglected be scorned be wronged be slandered be imprisoned quietly patiently and joyfully If you were but at Hierusalem you would with some love and pleasure go up Mount Olivet and think Christ went this very way You would Love to see the place where he was born the way which he went when he carryed his Cross the holy grave where he was buried where there in a Temple which Pilgrims use to visit from whence they use to bring the mark as a pleasing badge of honour But how much More of Christ is there in our suffering for his Cause and Truth and in following him in a mortified self-denying life then in following him in the path that he hath trodden upon earth His enemies saw his Cross his Grave his Mother his person This did not heal their sinful Souls and make them happy But the Cross that he calleth us to bear is a life of suffeing for Righteousness sake in which he commandeth us to rejoyce and be exceeding glad because our Reward is great in Heaven though all manner of evil be spoken of us falsly by men on earth Mat. 5. 11 12. This is called a being pertakers of Christs sufferings in which we are commanded to rejoyce that when this glory shall be revealed we may be glad with exceeding joy 1 Pet. 4. 13. And as the sufferings of Christ abound towards us so will our Consolation abound by Christ 1 Cor. 1. 5. Till we come up to a life of willing mortification and pleased contented suffering with Christ we are in the lower form of his School and as Children shall tremble at that which should not cause our terrour and through misapprehensions of the case of a departing soul shall be afraid of that which should be our joy I am not such an enemy to the esteem of relicks but if one could shew me the very stock that Paul and Silas sate in when they sung Psalms in their imprisonment Acts 16. I could be contented to be put for the like cause into the same stocks with a special willingness and pleasure How much more should we be willing to be conformed to our suffering Lord in a Spirit and life of true mortification 3. Hold Communion also with his suffering Members Desire not to dwell in the tents of wickedness nor to be planted among them that flourish for a time that they may be destroyed for ever Psal 92. 6 7. I had rather have Bradford's heart and faggot than Bonners Bishoprick It was holy Stephen and not those that stoned him that saw Heaven opened and the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God Acts 7. 56. and that could joyfully say Lord Jesus Receive my Spirit He liveth not by Faith though he may be a hanger on that keepeth up some profession for fear of being damned who chooseth not rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and esteemeth not the very reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of the world as having respect to the recompence of reward Heb. 11. 25. 26. 4. Live as if Heaven were open to your sight and then dote upon the delights of worldlings if you can Then love a life of fleshly case and honour better than to be with Christ if yon can But of this I have spoken at large in other writings Christian make it the study and business of thy Life to learn to do thy Last Work well that Work which must be done but once that so Death which transmits unholy Souls into utter darkness and despair may deliver thy Spirit into thy Redeemers deemers hands to be Received to his Glory according to that blessed promise John 12. 26. And while I am in the flesh beg the same mercy for Thy Brother and Companion in tribulation and in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ Richard Baxter London Jan. 31. 1661●●… A BELIEVERS Last Work ACTS 7. 59. Lord Jesus receive my Spirit THE Birth of Nature and the New Birth of Grace in their measure resemble the Death of Saints which is the Birth of Glory It is a bitter-sweet day a day that is mixt of sorrow and joy when Nature must quit its familiar Guest and yield to any of these Changes Our Natural Birth is not without the throws and pain and groanings of the Mother though it transmit the Child into a more large and lightsom and desirable Habitation Our Spiritual Birth is not without its humbling and heart-piercing sorrows and when we are brought out of darkness into the marvellous light we leave our old Companions in displeasure whom we forsake and our Flesh repining at the loss of its sensual delights And our passage into Glory is not without those pangs and fears which must needs be the attendants of a pained Body ready to be dissolved and a Soul that is going through so strait a door into a strange though a most blessed place And it leaveth our lamenting Friends behind that feel their loss and would longer have enjoyed our Company and see not though they believe the Glory of the departed Soul And this is our case that are brought hither this day by an act of Providence sad to us though joyous to our departed Friend by a Voice that hath called her into Glory and called us into this Mourning plight Even us that rejoyce in the thoughts of her Felicity and are not so cruel as to wish her again into this corruptible Flesh and calamitous World from the glorious