this part of my application having to do with Souls that are ready to depart and are in so sad an unprepared state as is not to be thought on but with great compassion I am next to come to that part of the application which I chiefly intended to those that are the Heirs of Life II. O You that are members of Jesus Christ receive this Cordial which may corroborate your hearts against all inordinate fears of Death Let it come when it will you may boldly recommend your departing Souls into the hands of Christ Let it be by a lingring disease or by an acute by a natural or a violent death at the fulness of your age or in the flower of your youth death can but separate the Soul from Flesh but not from Christ Whether you die poor or rich at liberty or in prison in your native Country or a forein Land whether you be buried in the Earth or cast into the Sea death shall but send your Souls to Christ Though you die under the reproach and slanders of the world and your names be cast out among men as evil doers yet Christ will take your Spirits to himself Though your Souls depart in fear and trembling though they want the sense of the Love of God and doubt of pardon and peace with him yet Christ will receive them I know thou wilt be ready to say that thou art unworthy Will he receive so unworthy a Soul as mine But if thou be a member of Christ thou art worthy in him to be accepted Thou hast a worthiness of Aptitude and Christ hath a worthiness of merit The day that cometh upon such at unawares that have their hearts over-charged with surfeiting drunkenness and the cares of this life and as a snare surprizeth the inhabitants of the earth shall be the day of thy great deliverance Watch therefore and pray alwayes that you way be accounted worthy to escape all those things that shall come to pass and to stand before the son of man Luke 21. 34 35 36. They that are accounted worthy to obtain that world can die no more for they are equal to the Angels and are the children of God Luke 20. 35 36. Object O but my sins are great and many and will Christ ever receive so ignorant so earthly and impure a Soul as mine Answ If he have freed thee from the reign of sin by giving thee a Will that would fain be fully delivered from it and given thee a desire to be perfectly holy he will finish the work that he hath begun and will not bring thee defiled into Heaven but will wash thee in his Blood and separate all the remnant of corruption from thy Soul when he separateth thy Soul from flesh There needs no purgatory but his blood and Spirit in the instant of death shall deliver thee that he may present thee spotless to the Father O fear not then to trust thy Soul with him that will Receive it And fear not death that can do thee no more harm And when once thou hast overcome the fears of death thou wilt be the more resolute in thy duty and faithful to Christ and above the power of most temptations and wilt not fear the face of man when Death is the worst that man can bring thee to It is true Death is dreadful but it is as true that the arms of Christ are joyful It is an unpleasing thing to leave the Bodies of our friends in the earth but it is unspeakable pleasure to their Souls to be Received into the Heavenly society by Christ And how confidently quietly and comfortably you may commend your departing Spirits to be received by Christ be informed by these considerations following 1 Your Spirits are Christs own And may you not trust him with his own As they are his by the title of creation All Souls are mine saith the Lord Ezek. 18. 4. So also by the title of redemption We are not our own we are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6. 19. Say therefore to him Lord I am thine much more than my own Receive thine own Take care of thine own Thou drewest me to consent to thy gracious Covenant and I resigned my self and all I had to thee and thou swarest to me and I became thine Ezek. 16. 8. and I stand to the Covenant that I made though I have offended thee I am sinful but I am thine and would not forsake thee and change my Lord and Master for a world O know thine own and own my Soul that hath owned thee though it hath sinned against thee Thy sheep know thy voice and follow not a stranger Now know thy poor sheep and leave them not to the devourer Thy Lambs have been preserved by thee among Wolves in the world Preserve me now from the enemy of souls I am thine O save me Psalm 119. 94. and lose not that which is thine own 2. Consider that thou art his upon so dear a purchace as that he is the more engaged to receive thee Hath he bought thee by the price of his most precious blood and will he cast thee off Hath he come down on earth to seek and save thee and will he now forsake thee Hath he lived in flesh a life of poverty and suffered reproach and scorn and buffetings and been nailed to the Cross and put to cry out My God My God why hast thou forsaken me And will he now forget his love and sufferings and himself forsake thee after this Did he himself on the Cross commend his spirit into his Father's hands and will he not receive thy spirit when thou at death commendest it to him He hath known himself what it is to have a humane soul separated from the body and the body buried in a grave and there lamented by surviving friends And why did he this but that he might be fit to receive and relieve thee in the like condition O who would not be encouraged to encounter death and lie down in a grave that believeth that Christ did so before him and considereth why he went that way and what a Conquest he hath made I know an Argument from the Death of Christ will not prove his love to the souls of the ungodly so as to infer that he wil receive them but it will prove his Reception of Believers souls He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Rom. 8. 32. is an infallible argument as to Believers but not as to those that do reject him Say therefore to him O my Lord Can it be that thou couldst come down in flesh and be abused and spit upon and slandred and crucified that thou couldst bleed and die and be buried for me and now be unwilling to receive me that thou shoulds pay so dear for souls and now refuse to entertain them that thou shouldst die to save them from the devil and now wilt leave
Honour that is due to Parents when they are dead is to give just honour to their Names and to obey their Precepts and imitate their good examples It is the high commendation of the Rechabites that they strictly kept the â—recepts of their Father even in a thing indifferent a mode of living not to drink wine or build houses but dwell in tents an God annexeth this notable blessing Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel because ye have obeyed the commandemtent of Jonadab your Father and kept all his Precepts and done according to all that he hath commanded you Therefore thus siath the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Jonadab the Son of Rechab shall not mant to stand before me for ever Jer. 36. 6 7. 18. 19. But especially in the great duties of Religion where Parents do but deliver the mind of God and use their authority to procure obedience to Divine authority and where the matter it self is necessary to our Salvation the obligation to obedience and imitation is most indispensable and disobedience is an aggravated iniquity and the notorious brand of infelicity and Prognostick of ensuiing woe The ungodly Children of godly Parents being the most deplorable unhappy unexcusable persons in the World if they hold on There is yet another Doctrine that I should speak to Doct. 7. PRayer in general and this prayer in particular that Christ will Receive our depâ—rting souls is a most suitable conclusion of all the action of Christians life Prayer is the breath of a Christians life it is his work and highest converse and therefore fittest to be the concluding action of his life that it may reach the end at which he aimed We have need of Prayer all our lives because we have need of God and need of his manifold and continued Grace But in our last extreamity we have a special need Though sloath is apt to seize upon us while prosperity hindreth the sense of our necessities and health perswadeth us that Time is not near its journies end yet it is high time to pray with doubled fervour and importunity when we see that we are near our last when we find that we have no more time to pray but must now speak our last for our immortal Souls and must at once say all that we have to say and shall never have a hearing more O then to be unable to pray or to be faithless and heartless and hopeless in our prayers would be a calamity beyond expression Yet I know for ordinary observation tells it us that many truly gracious persons may accidentally be undisposed and disabled to pray when they are near to death If the Disease be such as doth disturb the Brain or take them up with violence of pain or overwhelm the mind by perturbation of the passions or abuse the imagination or notably waste and debilitate the spirits it cannot be expected that a body thus disabled should serve the Soul in this or any other duty But still the praying Habit doth remain though a distempered body do forbid the exercise The Habitual desires of the Soul are there and it is those that are the soul of Prayer But this should move us to pray while we have time and while our Bodies have strength and our spirits have vigour and alacrity to serve us seeing we are so uncertain of bodily disposition and capacity so near our end O pray and pray with all your hearts before any Fever or Deliration overthrow your understandings or your memories before your thoughts are all commanded to attend your pains and before your decayed spirits fail you and deny their necessary service to your suits and before the apprehensions of your speedy approach to the presence of the most Holy God and your entrance upon an endless state do amaze confound and overwhelm your Souls with fear and perturbation O Christians what folly what sin and shame is it to us that now while we have time to pray and leave to pray and helps to pray and have no such disturbing hindrances we should yet want hearts and have no mind no life and fervour for so great a work O pray now lest you are unable to pray then And if you are then hindred but by such bodily undisposedness God will understand your habitual desires and your groans and take it as if you had actually prayed Pray now that so you may be acquainted with the God that then you must fly unto for mercy and may not be strangers to him or unto Prayer and that he may not find then that your prayers are but the expressions of your fears and not of your Love and are constrained and not voluntary motions unto God Pray now in preparation to your dying prayers O what a terrible thing it is to be to learn to pray in that hour of extreamity and to have then no principle to pray by but natural self-love which every Thief hath at the gallows To be then without the Spirit of prayer when without it there cannot an acceptable word or groan be uttered and when the rejection of our suits and person will be the prologue to the final judicial rejection and will be a distress so grievous as presumptuous Souls will not believe till sad experience become their Tutor Can you imagine that you shall then at last be taught the art of acceptable Prayer meerly by horrour and the natural sense of pain and danger as Sea-men in a storm or a Malefactor by the rack when in your health and leasure you will not be perswaded to the daily use of serious Prayer but number your selves with the families that are under the wrath of the Almighty being such as call not on his name Jer. 10. 25. Psalm 79. 6. Indeed there are many prayers must go before or else this Prayer Lord Jesus receive my spirit will be in vain when you would be loth to find it so You must first pray for renewing Sanctifying grace for the death of sin and the Pardon of sin for a holy life and a Heavenly mind for obedience patience and perseverance and if you obtain not these there is no hope that Jesus Christ should receive your Spirits that never received his sanctifying spirit How sad is it to observe that those that have most need of Prayer have least mind to Pray as being least sensible of their needs Yea that those that are the next step to the state of Devils and have as much need of Prayer as any miserable souls on earth do yet deride it and hate those that seriously and fervently perform it a man of prayer being the most common objct of their malicious reproach and scorn O miserable Cainites that hate their brethren for offering more acceptable sacrifice then their own little do they know how much of the very Satanical nature is in that malice and in those reproachful scorns and little do they know how near they are to the curse and desparation of Cain and
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. 1661â—â—… 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
and name It was still the Spirit of Stephen that was received by Christ It sleepeth not To confute the dream of those that talk of the sleeping of Souls or any Lethargich unintelligent or unactive state of so excellent capacious and active a nature were but to dispute with sleeping men When we say it is Immortal we mean not that it or any creature hath in it self a self-supporting or self-preserving sufficiency or that they are Necessary Beings and not Contingent or Primitive Beings and not Derived from another by Creation We know that all the world would turn to nothing in a moment if God did but withdraw his preserving and upholding influence and but suspend that Will that doth continue them He need not exert any Positive Will or Act for their destruction or annihilation Though ejusdem est annihilare cujus est creare none can annihilate but God yet it is by a Positive efficient act of Will that he createth and by a meer cessation of the act of his preserving Will he can annihilate I mean not by any change in him but by willing the continuance of the creature but till such a period But yet he that will perpetuate the Spirit of Man hath given it a nature as he hath done the Angels fit to be perpetuated A Nature not guilty of composition and elementary materiallity which might subject it to corruption so that as there is an Aptitude in Iron or Silver or Gold to continue longer than Grass or Flowers or Flesh and a reason of its duration may be given a natura rei from that aptitude in subordination to the Will of God so there is such an Aptitude in the Nature of the Soul to be Immortal which God maketh use of to the accomplishment of his will for its actual perpetuity The Heathenish Socinians that deny the Immortality of the Soul yea worse than Heathenish for most Heathens do maintain it must deny it to Christ himself as well as to his Members For he used the like recommendation of his Soul to his Father when he was on the Cross as Stephen doth here to him If Lord Jesus receive my Spirit be words that prove not the surviving of the Spirit of Stephen then Father into thay hands I commend my Spirit will not prove the surviving of the Spirit of Christ And then what do these infidels make of Christ who also deny his Deity and consequently make him nothing but a Corpse when his body was in the grave How then did he make good his promise to the penitent malefactor This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise But he that said Because I live ye shall live also John 14. 19. did live in the Spirit while he was put to death in the flesh 1 Pet. 3. 18. and receiveth the Spirits of his Servants unto life eternal while their flesh is rotting in the grave This very Text is so clear for this if there were no other it might end the controversie with all that believe the Holy Scriptures I confess these is a sleep of Souls A Metaphorical sleep in sin and in security Or else the drowsie opinions of these Infidels had never found entertainment in the world A sleep so deep that the voice of God in the threatnings of his Word and the alarm of his Judgments and the thunder of his warnings by his most serious Ministers prevail not to awaken the most So dead a sleep possesseth the most of the ungodly world that they can quietly sin in the sight of God at the entrance upon eternity at the doors of Hell and the calls of God do not awaken them So dead a sleep that Scripture justly calls them dead Eph. 2. 1. 5. And Ministers may well call them dead For alas it is not our voice that can awake them They are as dead to us we draw back the curtains to let in the light and shew them that Judgment is at hand and use those true but terrible arguments from wrath and hell which we are afraid should too much frighten many tender hearers and yet they sleep on and our loudest calls our tears and our intreaties cannot awaken them We cry to them in the name of the Lord Awake thou that sleepest arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Eph. 5. 14. This Moral sleep and death of Souls which is the fore-runner of everlasting death in misery we cannot deny But after Death even this sleep shall cease and God will awaken them with his vengeance that would not be awaked by his Grace Then sinner sleep under the thoughts of sin and Gods displeasure if thou canst There is no sleeping Soul in Hell There are none that are past feeling The mortal stroke that layeth thy flesh to sleep in the dust le ts out the guilty Soul into a World where there is no sleeping where there is a Light irresistible and a Terrour and Torment that will keep them waking If God bid thee awake by the flames of Justice he will have no nay The first sight and feeling which will surprize thee when thou hast left this Flesh will awake thee to Eternity and do more than we could do in Time and convince thee that there is no sleeping state for separated Souls DOCT. 5. CHrist doth receive the Spirits of his Saints when they leave the Flesh Here we shall first tell you what Christs receiving of the Spirit is The Word signifieth to take it as acceptable to himself and it comprehendeth these Particulars 1. That Christ will not leave the new-departed Soul to the will of Satan its malicious Enemy How ready is he to receive us to perdition if Christ refuse us and receive us not to Salvation He that now seeketh as a roaring Lion night and day as our adversary to devour us by deceit will then seek to devour us by execution How glad was he when God gave him leave but to touch the goods and children and body of Job And how much more would it please his enmity to have power to torment our Souls But the Soul that fled to the arms of Christ by Faith in the day of tryal shall then find it self in the arms of Christ in the moment of its entrance upon Eternity O Christian whether thou now feel it to thy comfort or not thou shalt then feel it to the ravishing of thy Soul that thou didst not fly to Christ in vain nor trust him in vain to be thy Saviour Satan shall be for ever disappointed of his desired Prey Long wast thou combating with him frequently and strongly wast thou tempted by him Thou oft thoughtest it was a doubtful Question who should win the day and whether ever thou shouldest hold out and be saved But when thou passest from the Flesh in thy last Extremity in the end of thy greatest and most shaking Fears when Satan is ready if he might to carry thy Soul to Hell then even then shalt thou find that thou hast won the
though the Tempter would aggravate his sins and weakness and dulness to his discouragement yet he may he must with confidence recommend his Spirit to Christ to be Received by him O learn this Doctrine Christians that you may use it in the hour of your last distress The hour is near the distress will be the greatest that ever you were in As well as we seem now while we are hearing this our turn is nigh The Midwife is not so neccssary to the life of the Child that Receiveth it into the world as Christs Receiving will be then to our everlasting life To say over heartlesly these words Lord Jesus receive my Spirit will be no more than a dead hearted Hypocrite may do such formal lip-service in life or at death doth profit nothing to salvation Now make such necessary preparation that at Death you may have well-grounded confidence that Jesus Christ will receive your Spirits 1. And first let me bring this to the carnal unprepared sinner Poor sinner What thoughts hast thou of thy dying hour and of thy departing Soul I wonder at thee what thoughts thou hast of them that thou canst sin so boldly and live so carelesly and talk or hear of the life to come so senselesly as thou dost Thou mightest well think I wronged thee if I took thee to be such a brute as not to know that thou must die Thy Soul that brought thy body hither that causeth it now to hear and understand that carryeth it up and down the world must very shortly be required of thee and must seek another habitation What thoughts hast thou of thy departing Soul Will Christ receive it Hast thou made sure of that Or hast thou made it thy principal care and business to make sure O what doth intoxicate the brains of sensual worldly men that they drown themselves in the Cares of this Life and ride and run for transitory Riches and live upon the Smoak of Honour and Applause and never soberly and seriously bethink them whether Christ will receive their departed Souls That they can fill their minds with other thoughts and fill their mouthes with other talk and consume their time in other inconsiderable employments and take no more care and spend no more thoughts and words and time about the entertainment of their departing Souls When they are even ready to be gone and stand as it were on tip-toes when Fevers and Consumptions and many hundred Diseases are all abroad so busily distributing their Summons and when the Gates of Death have so many Passengers crowding in and Souls are making such haste away will you not consider what shall become of yours Will you say that you hope well and you must venture If God had appointed you nothing to do to prepare for your safe passage and entertainment with Christ you might then take up with such an Answer But it 's a mad adventure to leave all undone that is necessary to your salvation and then to say You must put it to the venture If you die in and unrenewed and unjustified state it is past all ventures for it is certain that Christ will not receive you You may talk of hoping dut it is not a matter to be hoped for Hope that God will make good every word of his Promise and spare not But there is no more Hope that Christ will Receive the souls of any but of his members than there is that he will prove a lyar He never promised to save any others and that is not all but he hath declared and professed frequently that he will not And you are no Believers if you will not believe him And if you believe him you must believe that the unbelievers the unregenerate the unholy and the workers of iniquity shall not be received into the Kingdom of Heaven For he hath professed it John 3. 3 36. Heb. 12. 14. Matth. 7. 23. If Christ would Receive the souls of all your venture then had reason for it Or if he had left it as a thing that depended only on his unrevealed will and not on any preparations of our own we might then have quit our selves of the care and cast it all on him as being his part and none of ours But it is not so I hope I need not tell you that it is not so Believe it the Question must be Now resolved and resolved by your selves whether Christ shall Receive your departed souls or cast them off as firebrands for Hell He hath made the Law and set down the terms already to which he will unalterably stand and which we must trust to It is now that you must labour to be accepted of him For we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5. 9 10. O Sirs this is the reason of our importunity with you Knowing the terrors of the Lord we persuade men saith the Apostle in the next words vers 11. We know that the sentence will be just and that it is now in your own hands what judgment then shall pass upon you And if just now your souls were passing hence before you went from the place you sit in would you think any care could be too great to make sure that they should go to happiness O that you would consider how much it is your own work and how much it resteth on your selves what Christ shall then do with you Then you will cry to him for mercy O cast not away a miserable soul Lord receive me into thy Kingdom But now he must intreat you to be saved and to be the people that he may then Receive and you will not hear him And if you will not hear him when he calleth on you and beseecheth you to Repent and to prepare as sure as Christ is Christ he will not hear you when you cry and call for mercy too late in your extremity Read Prov. 1. and you will see this is true It is you that are to be entreated that Christ may receive you for the unwillingness and backwardness is on your part You are now poysoning your souls by sin and when we cannot intreat you either to forbear or to take the Vomit of Repentance yet when you are gasping and dying of your own willful self-murder you will then cry to Christ and think he must receive you upon terms inconsistent with his justice holiness and truth But flatter not your selves it will not be This is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation refuse it now and it is lost for ever O Sirs if this were the hour and you were presently to be received or refused would you blame me to cry and call to you with all the fervour of my soul if I knew that it were in your own choice whether you would go to Heaven or Hell Why now it is in your choice Life and
Father which art in Heaven shut not out thy Children the Children of thy love and promise The compassion that thou hast put into Man ingageth him to relieve a Neighbour â—ea an Enemy much more to entertain a Child Our Children and our Friends dare trust themselves upon our kindness and fidelity and fear not that we will reject them in their distress or destroy them though they do sometime offend us Our kindness is cruelty in comparison of thine Our Love dserveth not the name of Love in comparison of thy most precious Love Thine is the love of God who is Love it self 1 Joh. 4. 8 16. and who is the God of Love 2 Cor. 1. 13 11. and is answerable to thine Omnipotency Omniscience and other Attributes But ours is the love of frail and finite sinful men As we may pray to thee to Forgive us our trespasses for we also forgive those that have trespassed against us So we may pray to thee to receive us though we have offended thee for even we receive those that have offended us Hath thy Love unto thine own its breadth and length and height and depth and is it such as passeth knowledge Ephes 3. 17 18 19. and yet canst thou exclude thine own and shut them out that cry unto thee Can that love which washed me and took we home when I lay wallowing in my Blood reject me when it hath so far recovered me Can that Love now thrust me out of Heaven that lately fetch'd me from the gates of Hell and placed me among thy Saints Whom thou lovest thou lovest to the end John 13. 1. Thou art not as man that thou shouldst repent Num. 23. 19. with thee is no variablenes or shadow of turning Jam. 1. 17. If yesterday thou so freely lovedst me as to adopt me for thy child thou wilt not to day refuse me and cast me into Hell Receive Lord Jesus a member of thy body A weak one indeed but yet a member and needeth the more thy tenderness and compassion who hast taught us not to cast out our Infants because they are small and weak We have forsaken all to cleave unto thee that we might with thee be one flesh and spirit Ephes 5. 31. 1 Cor. 6. 17. O cut not off and cast not out thy members that are engrafted into thee Thou hast dwelt in me here by faith and shall I not now dwell with thee Ephes 3. 17. Then hast prayed to the Father that we may be one in thee and may be with thee to behold thy Glory John 17. 20 21 22 23 24. And wilt thou deny to receive me to that glory who pray but for what thou hast prayed to thy Father Death maketh no separation between thee and the members It dissolveth not the union of souls with thee though it separate them from the flesh And shall a part of thy self be rejected and condemned 10. Consider That Christ hath sealed thee up unto salvation and given thee the earnest of his Spirit and therfore will certainly receive thee 2 Cor. 1. 22. and 5. 5 Eph. 1. 13 14. and 4. 30. Say therefore to him Behold Lord thy mark thy feal thine earnest Flesh and blood did not illuminate and renew me Thy spirit which thou hast given me is my witness that I am thine Rom. 8. 16 And wilt thou disown and refuse the soul that thou hast sealed 11. Consider That he that hath given thee a Heavenly mind will certainly Receive thee into heaven If thy treasure were not there thy heart would never have been there Mat. 6. 21. Thy weak desires do shew what he intends thee he for kindled not those desires in vain Thy Love to him though too small is a certain proof that he intends not to reject thee It cannot be that God can damn or Christ refuse a Soul that doth sincerely Love him He that Loveth dwelleth in God and God in him 1 John 4. 15 16. And shall he not then dwell with God for ever God fitteth the nature of every creature to its use and agreeably to the element in which they dwell And therefore when he gave thee the heavenly nature though but in weak beginnings it shewed his will to make thee an inhabitant of heaven Say therefore to him O Lord I had never loved thee if thou hadst not begun and loved me first I had not not minded thee or desired after thee if thou hadst not kindled these desires It cannot be that thy Grace it self should be a deceit and misery and intended but to Tantalizeus and that thou hast set thy Servants Souls on longing for that which thou wilt never give them Thou wouldst not have given me the wedding garment when thou didst invite me if thou hadst meant to keep me out Even the grain of mustard-seed which thou sowedst in my heart was a kind of Promise of the Happiness to which it tendeth indeed I have loved thee so little that I am ashamed of my self and confess my cold indifferency deserves thy wrath But that I Love thee and desire thee is thy gift which signifieth the higher satisfying gift Though I am cold and dull my eyes are towards thee It is thee that I mean when I can but groan It is long since I have bid this world away It shall not be my home or portion O perfect what thou hast begun This is not the time or place of my perfection And though my life be now hid with thee in God when then appearest let me appear with thee in glory Col. 3. 4. and in the mean time let this soul enjoy its part that appeareth before thee Give me what thou hast caused me to Love and then I shall more perfectly love thee when my thirst is satisfied and the water which thou hast given me shall spring up to everlasting life Joh. 4. 14. 12. Consider also That he that hath engaged thee to seek first his Kingdom is engaged to give it them that do sincerely seek it He called thee off the pursuit of vanity when thou wast following the pleasures and profits of the world and he called thee to labour for the food that perisheth not but endureth to everlasting life John 6. 27. Since then it hath been thy care and business notwithstanding all thine imperfections to seek and serve him to please and honour him and so to run that thou mightest obtain Say then Though my sins deserve thy wrath and nothing that I have done deserve thy favour yet Godliness hath thy Promise of the Life to come and thou hast said that he that seeks shall find Matth. 7. 7. 8. O now let me find the Kingdom that I have sought and sought by thy encouragement and help It cannot be that any should have cause to repent of serving thee or suffer disappointment that trusts upon thee My labour for the World was lost and vain but thou didst engage me to be stedfast and abound in thy work on this account that my labour should
day And yet not thou but Christ is he that hath been victorious for thee even as when thou livedst the life of Faith it was not thou but Christ lived in thee Gal. 2. 20. Thou mayst fear at thy departure and leave the Flesh with terrour and imagine that Satan will presently devour thee But the experience of a moment will end thy Fears and thou shalt triumph against thy conquered Foe He that saved thee from the dominion of a tempting Devil will certainly save thee from him when he would torment thee Here he would have us that he may sift us and get advantage on our weakness but Christ prayeth for us and strengthneth us that our faith may not fail Luke 22. 31. And he that saveth us from the sin will save us from the punishment and from Satans fury as he did from his fraud 2. Christs Receiving us doth include his savourable entertainment and welcoming the departed Soul Poor Soul thou wast never so welcome to thy dearest Friend nor into the arms of a Father a Husband or a Wife as thou shalt be then into the presence and embracements of thy Lord. Thou hearest and readest and partly believest now how he loveth us even as his Spouse and Members as his Flesh and Bone Eph. 6. But then thou shalt feel how he loveth thee in particular If the Angels of God have joy at thy Conversion what joy will there be in Heaven at thy enterance into that Salvation And sure those Angels will bid thee welcome and concur with Christ in that triumphant joy If a returning Prodigal find himself in the arms of his Fathers Love and welcomed home with his kisses and his robe and feast What welcome then may a cleansed conquered Soul expect when it cometh into the presence of Glorious Love and is purposely to be received with such demonstrations of Love as may be fitted to magnifie the Love of God which exceedeth all the Love of man as Omnipotency doth exceed our Impotency and therefore will exceed it in the effects Though thou hast questioned here in the dark whether thou wert welcome to Christ when thou camest to him in prayer or when thou camest to his holy Table yet then doubt of thy welcom if thou canst O had we but one moments sense of the delights of the embraced Soul that is newly received by Christ into his Kingdom it would make us think we were in Heaven already and transport us more than the Disciples that saw the Transfiguration of Christ and make us say in comparing this with all the Glory of the World Master it is good for us to be here but in consideration of the full to say It is better to be there But it must not be Earth must not be so happy as to have a moments sense of the unconceivable Pleasures of the received Soul that is the Reward and Crown and therefore not fit for us here in our Conflict But low things may by dark resemblance a little help us to conceive of something that is like them in a low degree How would you receive your Son or Husband the next day after some bloody Fight where he had escaped with the Victory Or your Child or Friend that arrived safely after a long and a dangerous Voyage Would you not run and meet him and with joy embrace him if he had been many years absent and were now come home I tell thee poor Soul thy Saviour hath a larger heart and another kind of Love than thou and other Reasons of greater force to move him to bid dice Welcome into his Presence 3. Christ's Receiving the departed Soul includeth the State of Blessedness into which he doth receive it If you ask What that is I answer It is unto himself to be with him where he is And that in general is full of comfort if there were no more For we know that Christ is in no ill place He is glorified at the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1. 3. And that the Souls of the Righteous and at last their Bodies are received to himself he often telleth us John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be John 14. 2 3. And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there you may be also And in the mean time when we once are absent from the body we are present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 8. and that is in the building of God not made with hands eternal in the heavens V. 1. Paul therefore desired to depart and be with Christ as being far better Phil. 1. 23. And Christ promiseth the converted Thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 23. 43. And our State after the Resurrection hath the same description 1 Thess 4. 17. And so shall we ever be with the Lord And what it shall be he declareth himself John 17. 24. Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me The Soul of Lazarus Luke 16. was received into Abrahams bosom where he is said to be comforted The heavens receive Christ Acts 3. 21. and therefore the heavens receive the spirits that go to him even the spirits of the just made perfect Heb. 12. 23. that is that are crowned with Christ in Glory and freed from the Imperfections and Evils of this Life And so that 1 Thess 5. 10. is plain though some would pervert it That whether we wake or sleep we may live together with him Not Whether we wake to righteousness or sleep in sin for such Sleepers live not with him Nor whether we wake by sollicitude or sleep in security Nor Whether we naturally wake or sleep only But whether we live or die and so our Bodies sleep in death yet we live together with him In a word Christ will receive us unto a participation of his Joy and Glory into a Joy as great as our Nature shall be capable of and more than we can now desire and that the largest Heart on Earth can justly conceive of or comprehend And because all this tells you but to the ear stay yet but a little while and experimental sight nnd feeling shall tell you What this Receiving is even when we receive the kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. and when we receive the end of our faith the salvation of our souls 1 Pet. 1. 9. DOCT. 6. A Dying Christian may confidently and comfortably commend his Spirit to Christ to be received by him Though he have formerly been a grievous sinner though at the present he be frail and faulty though he be weak in faith and love and duty though his body by sickness be become unfit to serve his Soul and as to present sensibility activity or joy he seem to be past the best or to be nothing