if it had been meerly the fruit of the will of God It could be easily satisfied Answ Wo to us if we had not ground of comfort against the errors of our own wills When our destruction is of our selves our help is of God So much as is of our selves in it is evil but so much as is of God is good I do not say that you should rest in your own wills nor in your own wayes but in the will and wayes of God The rod is good though the fault that makes it necessary be bad The Chastising will is good though the sinning will be evil And it is good that is intended to us and shall be performed in the event Object But how can we rest in the angry afflicting will of God when it is this that we must be humbled under and it is the will of God that is the condemnation of the wicked Answ The effect being from a twofold cause the sinning will of man and the punishing will of God is accordingly good as from the latter and so far should be loved and consented to by all and evil as from the former and so may be abhorred But to the Saints there is yet greater Consolation Though affliction is their grief as it signifieth Gods displeasure and causeth the smart or destruction of the flesh yet it is their mercy as as it proceedeth from the Love of God and prepareth them for the greatest mercies And therefore seeing God never bringeth evil on them that Love him but what is preparatory to aâ— far greater good we may well take comfort in our Death that it is our Fathers will it should be so Vse 8. IF Death shall be conquered as the last enemy from hence Christians may receive exceeding consolation as knowing that they have no enemy to their happiness but such as shall be conquered by Christ sooner or later he will overcome them all Let faith therefore foresee the conquest in the conflict and let us not with too much despondency hang down our heads before any enemy that we know shall be trodden down at last We have burdensome corruptions that exercise our graces and grieve the spirit and wrong our Lord but all these shall be overcome Though we have heard and read and prayed and meditated and yet our sins remain alive they shall be conquered at last Our Love and Joy and Praise shall be everlasting but our ignorance and unbelief and pride and passion shall not be everlasting Our Holiness shall be perfected and have no end but our sin shall be abolished have an end Our friends shall abide with us for ever and the holy love and communion of Saints shall be perfected in heaven But our enemies shall not abide with us for ever nor malice follow us to our Rest The wicked have no comforts but what will have an end and the fore-thought of that is sufficient to imbitter even the present sweetness And the godly have no sorrows but such as are of short continuance And me thinks the fore-sight of their end should sweeten the present bitter Cup and make our sorrows next to none We sit weeping now in the midst of manifold afflictions But we foresee the day when we shall weep no more but all tears shall be wiped from our eyes by the tendeâ— hand of our mercifull Redeemer We are now afraid of love it self even of our dear and blessed Father lest he should hate us or be angry with us foâ— ever But heaven will banish all these fears when the perfect fruition of the eternal love hath perfected our Love Our doubtings and perplexities of mind are many and grievous but they will be but short When we have full possession we shall be past our doubts Our work is now to pour out our grieved souls into the bosome of some faithfull friend or ease our troubled minds by complaining of our miseries to our faithfull Pastors that from them we may have some words of direction and consolation But O how different a work is it that we shall have in heaven where no more complainings shall be heard from our mouths for no more sorrow shall possess our hearts and we shall have no need of men to comfort us but shall have comfort as naturally from the face of God as we have light and heat in the summer from the Sun When we all make one celestial Chore to sing the praises of the King of Saints how unlike will that melody be to the broken musick of sighs and groans and lamentations which we now take to be almost our best We are now glad when we can find but words and groans and tears to lament our sin and misery But then our joy shall know no sorrow nor our voice any sad and mournfall tune And may we not bear a while the sorrows that shall have so good an end We shall shortly have laid by the hard unprofitable barren hearts that are now our continuall burden and disease Love not your corruptions Christians but yet be patient under the unavoidable relicts that offend you remembring that your conflict will end in conquest and your faith and watchfulness and patience will be put to it but a little while Who would not enter willingly into the fight when he may before hand be assured that the field shall be cleared of every enemy All this must be ascribed to our dear Redeemer Had not he wrought the conquest the enemies that vex us would have destroyed us and the Serpent that now doth but bruise our heel would have bruised our head and the sorrows that are wholesome sanctified and short would have been mortall venemous and endless What suffering then can be so great in which a believer should not rejoyce when he is before hand promised a gracious end What though at the present it be not joyous but grievous in it self We should bear it with patience when we know that at last it shall bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to all them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12.11 If we should be alwayes abused and alwayes unthankfully and unkindly dealt with or alwayes under the scorns or slanders or persecutions of unreasonable men or alwayes under our poverty and toilsome labours oâ— alwayes under our pains and pining sicknesses we might then indeed dismiss our comforts But when we know that it will be but a little while and that all will end in Rest and Joy and that our sorrows are but preparing for those Joyes even Reason it self is taught by Faith to bid us rejoyce in all our tribulations and to lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees Heb. 12.12 We make nothing to endure a sudden prick that by blood-letting we may prevent a long disease The short pain of pulling out a tooth is ordinarily endured to prevent a longer A woman doth bear the pains of her travail because it is short and tends to the bringing of a child into the world Who would
Catholick Church is One and containeth all that heartily and practically believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and live a holy heavenly life Leave off your siding and keep this blessed simple Unity and you will then be wiser then in a passion to cast your selves into Hell because some fall out in the way to Heaven Nor will it serve your turn at the bar of God to talk of the miscarriages or scandalls of some that took on them to be godly no more then to run out of the Ark for the sake of Cham or out of Christs family for the sake of Judas What ever men are God is just and will do you no wrong and you are called to believe in God and to serve him and not to believe in men Nothing but wickedness could so far blind men as to make them think they may cast off their love and service to the Lord because some others have dishonoured him Or that they may cast away their souls by carelesness because some others have wounded their souls by particular sins Do you dislike the sins of the Professors af Godliness So much the better We desire you not to agree with them in sinning Joyn with them in a Holy life and imitate them so far as they obey the Lord and go as far beyond them in avoiding the sins that you are offended at as you can and this is it that we desire Suppose they were Covetous or Lyars or Schismaticall Imitate them in holy duties and fly as far from Covetousness Lying and Schism as you will You have had Learned and Godly Bishops of this City Search the writings of those of them that have left any of their labours to posterity and see whether they speak not for the same substantials of faith and godliness which are now preacht to you by those that you set so light by Bishop Latimer Parrey Babington c. while they were Bishops and Rob. Abbot Hall c. â—efore they were Bishops all Excellent Learned Godly â—en have here been Preachers â—o your Ancestors Read their â—ooks and you will find that â—hey call men to that strictness â—nd holiness of life which you cannot abide Read your Biâ—hop Babington on the Commandments and see there how zealously he condemneth the Prophaners of the Lords day and those that make it a day of idleness or sports And what if one man think that one Bishop should have hundreds of Churches under his sole jurisdiction and another man think that every full Parish Church should have a Bishop of their own and that one Parish will find him work enough be he what he will be which is the difference now among us is this so heinous a disagreement as should frighten you from a holy life which all agree for To conclude remember this is the day of your salvation Ministers are your Helpers Christ and Holiness are your way Scripture is your Rule the Godly must be your company and the Communion of Saints must be your desire If now any scandals divisions displeasures or any seducements of secret or open adversaries of the truth or temptations of Satan the world or flesh whatsoever shall prevail with you to lose your day to refuse your mercies and to neglect Christ and your immortal souls you are conquered and undone and your enemy hath his will and the more confidently and fearlesly you brave it out the more is your misery for the harder are your hearts and the harder is your cure and the sureâ— and sorer will be your damnation I have purposely avoided the enticing words of worldly wisdom and a stile that tends to claw your ears and gain applause with aery wits and have chosen these familiar words and dealt thus plainly and freely with you because the greatness of the cause perswaded me I could not be too serious Whether many of you will read it or how those that read it will take it and what success it shall have upon them I cannot tell but I know that I intended it for your good and that whether you will hear or whether you will forbear the Ministers of Christ must not forbear to do their duty nor be rebellious themselves but our Labours shall be acceptable with our Lord and you shall know that his Ministers were among you Ezek. 2.3 4 5 6 7 8. Yet a little while is the Light with you Walk while ye have the Light lest darkness come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth John 12.35 O take this warning from Christ and from An earnest desirer of your everlasting Peace Rich. Baxter The Contents THE Introduction p. 1 What is meant by an Enemy and how death is an Enemy to Nature p. 6 7 How Death is an Enemy to Grace and to our salvation discovered in ten particulars p. 15 How Christ conquereth this Enemy p. 35 Four Antidotes given us against the Enmity of Death at our Conversion p. 39. How Death is made a destruction of it self p. 56 The full destruction at the Resurrection p. 60 The first Use to resolve the doubt Whether Death be a punisâ—ment to believers p. 63 Use 2. To shew us the malignity of sin and how we should esteem and use it p. 66 Use 3. To teach us that man hath now a need of Grace for difficulties which were not before him in his state of innocency p. 72 Use 4. To inform us of the Reasons of the sufferings and death of Christ p. 77 Use 5. To rectifie the mistakes of some true believers that think they have no saving grace because the fears of death deter them from desiring to be with Christ p. 83 â—se 6. To teach us to study and magnifiâ— our Redeemers conquering grace that overcometh death and makes it our advantage p. 96 Use 7. To direct us how to prepare for Death and overcome the enâ—ity and fear of it p. 110 Direct 1. Make sure that conversion be sound p. 115 Direct 2. Live by faith on Christ the Conquerour p. 116 Direct 3. Live also by faith on the Heavenly Glory p. 120 Direct 4. Labour to encrease and exercise Divine Love p. 124 Direct 5. Keep conscience clear or if it be wounded preseâ—tly seek the cure p. 127 Direct 6. Redeem and improve your pretious time p. 130 Direct 7. Crucifie the flesh and die to the world p. 132 Direct 8. A conformity to God in the hatred of sin and love of holiness and especially in the point of justice p. 134 Direct 9. The due consideration of the restlesness and troubles of this life and of the manifold â—vils that end at death p. 13 Direct 10. Resign your wills entirely to the will of God and acquiesce in it as your safety felicity and Rest p. 159 Use 8. Great comfort to believers that they have no enemy bâ—t what they are sure shall be conquered at last p. 165 Object But what comfort is all this to me that
snacht away and we are left in our temptations repining and murmuring at God as Jonah when his gourd was withered as if the Lord had destinated this world to be the dwelling of unfaithfull worthless men and envied us the presence of one eminent Saint one faithfull friend and one that as Moses when he had talkt with God hath a face that shineth with the reflected raies of the heavenly glory when indeâ—d it is because this world is unworthy of them Heb. 11.38 not knowing their worth nor how to use them nor how to make use of them for their good and because when they are ripe and mellow for eternity it is fit that God be served before us and that Heaven have the best and that be left on earth that is earthly Must Heaven be deprived of its inhabitants Must a Saint that is ripe be kept from Christ and so long kept from his inheritance from the company of Angels and the face of God and all lest we should be displeased and grudge at God for glorifying those whom he destinated to glory before the foundations of the world and whom he purchased and prepared for Glory Must there a place be empty and a voice be wanting in the Heavenly Chore lest we should miss our friends on earth Are we not hasting after them at the heels and do we not hope to live with them for ever and shall we grudge that they are gone a day or week or year before us O foolish unbelieving souls We mourn for them that are past mourning and lament for our friends that are gone to Rest when we are left our selves in a vexatious restless howling wilderness as if it were better to be here we mourn and weep for the souls that are triumphing in their Masters joy And yet we say we believe and hope and labour and wait for the same felicity â— Shall the happiness of our friends be our sorrow and lamentation O did we but see these blessed souls and where they are and what they are enjoying and what they are doing we should be ashamed to mourn thus for their change Do you think they would wish themselves again on earth or would they take it kindly of you if you could bring them down again into this world though it were to reign in wealth and honour O how would they disdain or abhorr the motion unless the commanding will of God did make it a part of their obedience And shall we grieve that they are not here when to be here would be their grief But thus our lives are filled with griefs Thus smiles and frowns desires and denyals hopes and frustrations endeavours and disappointments do make a quotidian ague of our lives The persons and the things we love do contribute to our sorrows as well as those we hate If our friends are bad or prove unkind they gall and grieve us while they live If they excell in holiness fidelity and suitableness the dart that kills them deeply woundeth us and the sweeter they were to us in their lives the bitterer to us is their death We cannot keep a mercy but sin is ready to take it from us or else to marr it and turn it into Vinegar and Gall. And doth not Death accidentally befriend us that puts an end to all these troubles and lands us safe on the Celestiall shore and puts us into the bosome of perpetual Rest where all is calm and the storms and billows that tost us here shall fear or trouble us no more And thus Death shall make us some recompence at last for the wrong it did us and the mortal blow shall hurt us less then did the dreadfull apparition of it in our fore-thoughts Let not our fears then exceed the cause Though we fear the pangs throws of travel let us withall remember that we shall presently rejoyce and all the holy Angels with us that a soul is born into the world of glory And Death shall gain us much more then it deprived us of DIRECTION X. THE last Direction that I shall give you to conquer the enmity of Death is this Give up your wills entirely to the will of God as knowing that his will is your beginning and your end your safety your felicity and rest in which you should gladly acquiesce When you think of Death remember who it is that sends it It is our Fathers messenger and is sent but to execute his will And can there be any thing in the will of God that his servants should inordinately fear Doubtless his Will is much safer and better for us then our own And if in generall it were offered to our choice Whether all particulars of our lives should be disposed of by Gods will or by ours common reason might teach us to desire to be rather in Gods hands then our own The fulfilling of his will is the care and business of our lives and therefore it should be a support and satisfaction to us at our death that it is but the fulfilling of his will His Justice and punishing will is good though selfishness maketh it ungratefull to the offender But his children that are dear to him and taste no evil but that which worketh for their good have no cause to quarrell at his will Whatsoever our surest dearest friends would have us take or do or suffer we are ready to submit to as being confident they will do nothing for our hurt if they do but know what is for our good And shall we not more boldly trust the will of God then of our dearest friend He knows what he hath to do with us and how he will dispose of us and whether he will bring us and his interest in us is more then ours in our selves and shall we then distrust him as if we had to do with an enemy or one that were evil and not with love and infinite goodness It is the will of God that must be the everlasting Rest the Heaven the pleasure of our souls And shall we now so fear it and fly from it as if it were our ruine Look which way you will through all the world your souls will never find repose nor satisfying quietness and content but in the will of God Let us therefore commit our souls to him as to a faithfull Creator and desire unfeignedly the fulfilling of his will and believe that there is no ground of confidence more firm Abraham may boldly trust his Son his only Son on the will of God And Christ himself when he was to drink the bitter Cup submitteth his own naturall love of life to his Fathers will saying Not my will but thine be done It is a most unworthy abuse of God that we could be quiet and rejoyce if our own wills or our dearest friends might dispose of our lives and yet are distressâ—d when they are at the dispose of the will God But perhaps you will say It is the error of my own will that hath procured my Death