Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A27055
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A true believer's choice and pleasure Instanced in the exemplary life of Mrs Mary Coxe, the late wife of Doctor Thomas Coxe. Preached for her funeral by Richard Baxter.
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Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing B1433; ESTC R218157
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25,373
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74
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How they are called an Heritage for ever III. How they are so taken by Believers IV. How far they are their Joy I. In God's Covenant or Testimonies there is 1. The Author 2. The Mediator 3. The applying Agent 4. The ascertaining Revelation 5. The Donative or Benefit given 6. The Guiding Doctrine and Law 7. And the Persons or Subjects connoted to whom all this is suited to be an Heritage for ever and the rejoycing of their hearts 1. The Author is God the Lord of us and all in whose hand and will is our Soul and Body our Life and Death our Health and Sickness our Joy and Sorrow whose loving-kindness is life and better than life Psal 63.3 who if he will can make us whole and happy and who hath told us what he will do by his Covenant He wanteth not Love for he is Love it self Essential Infinite Self love communicating to his creatures such Love as his Wisdom seeth meet for them to receive The Love that gave us the Mediator and the Covenant will certainly perform it It was of mercy that he promised It is now of mercy and justice that he perform it He wanteth not Wisdom to Rule the world by Truth and Goodness and needeth not deceit and falshood hereunto nor to flatter such worms as we into obedience Nor doth he that maintaineth Heaven and Earth want power to make good all his Word nor is there any adverse power to make it difficult and hazard the success Indeed he that seriously considereth the Divine Perfection will think it were more strange and incredible that God should not bless and glorifie the faithful according to his Word If it be credible that the Sun sends forth its illuminating and enlivening beams so far and wide to so many millions of various creatures though it scorch the unsuitable objects that are too neer it is credible that God who is Infinite Goodness should bless the capable with heavenly Glory And did we not see that sin maketh many uncapable it would be harder to reason to believe that all shall not be blessed by such a God than that all the faithful shall be blessed And we find that though both be hard to unbelievers they are of the two more hardly brought to believe the Threatnings than the Promises of God What wonder is it that Infinite Power Wisdom and Love should make some of his creatures blessed by communication and Man in special when he hath made him capable of it And what greater satisfaction and security can a fearful troubled dying man have than the Infallible word of the most gloririous God Sure he that firmly believeth it to be his Word can hardly choose but believe that it is true and meet for our most quieting trust 2. The Angel and Moses were the Mediators of the Jewish Law But the Eternal Word incarnate is the Mediator of the New Covenant promised only before to Abraham David c. yea to Adam but sent when made man in the fulness of time Gal. 4.4 And it must needs be a sure and excellent Covenant which is made and confirmed by such a Mediator named in the Prophecy Isa 9.6 Wonderful Counsellor the Mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace of the increase of whose Government and Peace there is no end he is the heir of all things by whom the Worlds were made the Brightness of God's Glory the express Image of his Person and upholding all things by the word of his power made better than Angels having by Inheritance obtained a more excellent name whom all the Angels of God do worship and for whom they disdain not to minister to the Faithful It is a sure and comfortable Doctrine which must have such a Preacher sent from Heaven and a certain Covenant which hath such a wonderful Mediator 3. But it is not like the powerless word of man but the Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son undertaketh to accompany it and as the Arm of God to set it home and make it effectual to its proper ends We have not only heard this word but felt it As we hear and feel the powerful Winds though we see them not and perceive not whence they come or whither they go All have felt this who are born of the Spirit Joh. 3.8 God spake not like man when he said Let there be light Gen. 1. And he teacheth not like man when his Spirit by his Word doth quicken illuminate and regenerate Souls It is a sure Covenant that hath such an inward Mediator such an Agent and Advocate and Witness of Christ speaking operatively from God to man and speaking prevailingly in man to God 4. And the sure manner of Revelation doth make it fit to be our Trust and Joy As it beareth on it self the Image or Impress of God's Power Wisdom and Goodness so by powerful Miracles and manifold Wisdom and unmeasurable Goodness it hath been delivered sealed defended and propagated And by a communicated Spirit of Life Light and Love in all sound Believers confirmed to this day 5. And what is it that with such glory and certainty is delivered to us from Heaven It is a Deed of Gift thus sealed by Christ's Blood and Spirit of Grace and Glory of Christ to be our Head and Lord and Husband and Life in and with him John 5.10 12. of the free pardon of all our sins how many and great soever and of reconciliation with God and of justification by the blood and righteousness of our Redeemer and of the continued teaching preserving sanctifying strengthening comforting aid of the Holy Spirit of adoption and title to the Heavenly Inheritance that being Sons and having the Spirit of the Son by it we shall be sealed up to Glory and be made the Habitation and Temples of God In a word it is a promise of this Life so far as that all things shall work together for our good Rom. 8.28 and of the life which is to come where we shall live in Glory with Christ for ever This is the sure and blessed Covenant of God 6. And what is the Doctrine and Laws of God are they not also suited to our Trust and Joy Is it not a delightful thing to read that which no meer man could tell us How God made Man and all the World and what Laws he gave him How sin came into the world and death by sin How God hath governed the World from the beginning and how he hath redeemed us What Christ is and what he hath done and what he will do And what man is and what he should be and what he shall be and do and have for ever And what is there in God's Laws but that which is our safety and should be our joy If good Laws be the safety and honour of Kingdoms are not God's Laws so to all the World What an ugly Dungeon were the World without them and what a worse than bruitish thing were man O how happy were Man were
Families were Cities were Kingdoms if all had made God's Laws their Rule and all Mens Laws and Lives had been ruled by them Then there would have been none but wise just and holy Rulers that would have governed for God and for the common good and Princes would have been indeed the Fathers of their Countries and Masters of their Families abhorring all contradicting selfish Interests and all Injustice Tyranny and Oppression Then Subjects would have with reverence readiness and fidelity obeyed God in obeying and honouring their Parents Princes and Masters Then all men would love their Neighbours as themselves and do as they would be done by Love and Justice would reign among all and Injury Partiality and Selfishness would be abhorred And which of us cannot say Had I been ruled by God's Laws I had escaped all the guilt the shame the corrections the terrours that have befallen me It is our sin against that sacred Rule which is the cause of all our sorrows else what Peace might we have had in our Consciences in our Bodies in our Houses in our Cities and Countrey as having Peace with God God's strictest Laws are but his strict forbidding us to destroy or hurt our selves and others as you forbid fire and water and Knives and Gunpowder surfeiting and poyson to your Children for their preservation O how glad would every true Christian be if God's Laws were fuller written on his heart and he could but be and do all that God therein commandeth For want of this perfect Conformity it is that he cryeth out with Paul Rom. 7. To will is present with me but to do I find not O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death How joyful should we be if we could but trust God and love him and obey him and be free from sin as much as the Law of God commandeth us We testifie therefore that the Law is holy and just and good while we repent that we break it and wish that we could better keep it For this would keep our Souls from guilt and shame and terrors and our bodies from much calamity and pain all Gods ways are pleasantness and all his paths are peace Great peace have they that love his Law and nothing shall offend them let Papists hide it and accuse it and let the ignorant and malignant scorn it yet will Believers judge it fit for their confidence and delight 7. And the rather because that all this is admirably suited to our necessity We are undone sinners and had perished for ever without a Saviour and a pardoning Covenant We are dark and foolish and should have erred to Damnation without this sure and heavenly guide We are beset with Temptations and how should we overcome them without God's promise of better things than this World can give us We are under manifold pains and sorrows and must shortly dye And how should we undergo all this in peace if we had not hopes of future happiness and of that which will compensate all our losses We have a life of service to God which must be faithfully and chearfully done and how should we so do it without good perswasion of this revvard He that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him O then what a joyful Word should that be to us which is sent from God himself thus to guide to secure to strengthen and comfort us by the promise of all that we need and can well desire sealed by the Blood Miracles and Spirit of Christ and bearing the impress of God the Author and that to such miserable Sinners as vve are II. But how are God's Testimonies our Heritage for ever When in Heaven vve shall have no need of Scriptures Ans 1. For ever sometime signifieth to the end of my life as David saith Psal 23. I shall dwell in the House of the Lord for ever and so oft And so Gods Testimonies vvere taken for his Heritage or chiefest Portion and rejoycing constantly and to his lives end as securing him of an everlasting Heritage 2. And the Heritage promised by them and connoted is everlasting and the holiness imprinted by them on his Soul vvill be perpetuated and perfected in Heaven III. What is it for Believers to take God's Testimonies for their Heritage Ans It is supposed that the flattering world and the pleasures of the flesh do stand here in competition and are by many taken for their best and this beeause they either think not of or believe not the better things of a life to come and the comforts of a holy prospect and preparation In this case every true Believer seriously weighing all and what can be said on both sides what the world and flesh will be and do for him and what God and grace and glory will be and do doth wisely discern and resolve 1. That the world is vanity and sin abominable 2. That God is all suffient infinitely good and to be trusted and his word most wise and just and true And therefore though his belief have its imperfections and assaults yet he so far believeth Gods promises to be sure and his precepts to be good and necessary as that he resolveth here to place his hope and trust for his whole felicity in this life and hereafter and to give up himself to the study love and obedience of Gods Laws as the guide and security and comfort of his Soul renouncing all the flatteries of the flesh and world which stand against it and are preferred by sensual Unbelievers In few words this was Davids faith and choice and this is the faith and choice of all true Believers by which we may discern whether we are such though all have not the same degree of trust and fixed resolution yet all have this much in sincerity IV. Quest But can all say They are the Rejoycing of my heart Ans All of them can say 1. We see that there is in the Word and Covenant of God in Christ unspeakably more matter fit to be our Joy than in all the pleasures and wealth and honours of this world 2. And therefore we prefer it before them all in our desire and our fixed choice 3. And we find so much goodness and sutableness to us in this sacred Word as that we love it as our food and our security though not with the appetite and love which we desire 4. And though we have not that joy in this our love to it and in the hopes of promised glory which a stronger faith and love would cause yet we find that it is our best and we perceive more good in it than in sinful pleasures and the true and chief support of our Souls in all our fears and troubles and in our prospect of another life is from the love and Word of God through Christ And though our pleasure in it be not sensual and luscious it is much more solid and satisfying