Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A27044
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A sermon preached at the funeral of that faithful minister of Christ, Mr. John Corbet with his true and exemplary character / by Richard Baxter.
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Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing B1416; ESTC R17576
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26,901
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40
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charging God foolishly as if he did them wrong 3. It shall keep them from damning despair When Satan sifteth them Christs intercession shall keep their faith from failing Grace shall humble them and save them from sin and the flesh and world they shall cast soul and body upon Christ and trust him in hope in their several degrees And those that have been more believing heavenly and fruitful than the rest are likest to have the greatest peace and comfort especially in their greatest need Quest And how is Gods strength manifested in our weakness Ans 1. It is manifested to our selves by keeping us from sin and sinking into despair and enabling us to bear and trust and wait and usually in the peace or joy of hope We know we are insufficient for this our selves When flesh and heart as natural fail us God is the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever Psal 73. 26. We do not think oft before that ever we can bear and overcome as grace enableth us 2. And it 's manifest oft to others who shall see that power of grace in the sufferings of believers which they did not see in their prosperity Vse 1. Let not then our own weakness and insufficiency too much distress us with fears of suffering and death yea when we feel the thorn let us not forget our help and strength By Grace here is meant the living and merciful help of God especially giving us the inward strength by which we may not only bear but improve the sufferings of the flesh This body was not made to be here incorruptible or immortal we were born in sin and therefore born to pain and death We have lived in sin and no wonder if we live in sorrow but the sufferings of our Redeemer have sanctified our sufferings The Cross is not now such a cursed thing as guilt had made it He took our suffering flesh and blood that he might destroy by death the devil that had the power of death and deliver us who by the fear of death were all our life-time subject to bondage Heb. 2. 14. Our pain prepareth us for endless pleasures and our sorrows for our Masters joy When we have suffered with him we shall reign with him He liveth and we shall live by him He is risen and we shall rise by him He is in Glory and we must be with him In the mean time his Grace is sufficient for us not only in health and ease but in all our pain and sickness He is not so unskilful or unkind as to give such physick to his own which shall do them more harm than good Though it be grievous at the present it brings forth the quieting-fruit of righteousness but we must first be exercised therein Let us not then be his impatient patients Grace can support us and overcome Men are not sufficient Our wit our power our worthiness are not sufficient but God's grace is sufficient If ease and life had been better than Grace and Glory we might have had them But God giveth us better than flesh would chuse Though the body be weak the head weak the memory weak the stomack weak and all weak yet God is strong and his strength will support us and bring us safe to our journeys end Lazarus lay among dogs in weakness at the rich mans doors but the Angels convey'd him in strength to Abrahams bosom We must lie and languish and groan in weakness but Omnipotence is engaged for us We must die in weakness but we shall be raised in power by him who will change these vile bodies and make them like to his glorious body by the power by which he can subdue all things to himself Phil. 3. 20 21. Let us therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees Heb. 12. 12. Looking to Jesus the Author and finisher of our saith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross And let us beg more for divine grace and strength than for the departing of the thorn Grace is better than ease and health If the soul be our nobler part than the body the health of it is more desirable Bodily ease is common to bruits and wicked men strength of Grace is proper to Saints Ease and health in this life are short but Holiness will be everlasting Health fits us for fleshly pleasure but Holiness for Communion with God O pray not carnally for the flesh more than for the spirit for earth more than for heaven Pray that while the outward man is perishing the inward man may be renewed day by day and that our light afflictions which are but for a moment may work for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the temporal things which are seen but at the eternal things which are unseen to us 2 Cor. 4. 16 17 18. Why should we grudg at any sufferings which are for the glory of Gods grace and strength As Christ said of Lazarus This sickness is not unto death that is the end of it is not to end his life though he dye but that the glory of God may be revealed So pain and death are not Gods ends but the manifesting of his grace and strength But alas it is not only the flesh that is weak but Grace it self as it is in us though not as it is in God and of God nor is it flesh only that hath the thorn but the heart or conscience also hath its part The spirit of a man if sound and well will sustain his bodily infirmities But a wounded spirit who can bear If faith were not weak if hope and love and desire were not weak the weakness of the body might well be born If sin and guilt were no wound or thorn in the soul and conscience we could be more indifferent as to the flesh and almost as quietly bear our own pain and death as our neighbours Though it 's hard to say is Tertullian Nihil crus sentit in nervo cum animus est in coelo yet our content and joy would overcome the evil of our suffering But alas when soul and body must be both at once lamented this this is hardly born Lord seeing it is thy sufficient Grace and not my bodily ease which I must trust to and my weakness must manifest thy strength O let not Grace also be in me insufficient and weak O let not Faith be weak nor Hope nor Love nor Heavenly desires and foretasts be weak Nor Patience and Obedience weak Head is weak and heart is weak but if Faith also be weak what shall support us At least let it be unfeigned and effectual and attain its end and never fail Flesh is failing and health as to its proper strength is failing But be thou my God the strength of my heart and my portion for ever And what ever thorn the flesh must feel yet let me finish my course with joy Amen I have run over many things in
own satisfaction and sincerity yet so lively were his apprehensions of the greatness of his approaching change and the weight of an everlasting state and what it is to enter upon another world that he was not without such fears as in our frail condition here poor mortals that are near death are lyable to And indeed fear signifieth a belief of the word of God and the life to come much more than dull insensibility But he signified his belief both by fear and hope and strong assurance XII He had the comfort of sensible growth in grace He easily perceived a notable increase of his faith and holiness and heavenliness and humility and contempt of worldly vanity especially of late years and under his affliction as the fruit of Gods correcting-rod I have truly given you the description of the man according to my familiar knowledge I shall yet review the similitude of his case with this of Paul described in my Text. I. Paul was accused by envious contentious Teachers And so was he Though I never heard any one person else speak evil of him as is said They that upbraided not Paul with his former persecution nor had any crime to charge him with yet accused his Ministry As they said of Daniel We shall find no fault against him except it be concerning the law of his God His Preaching and Writings though all for peace were the matter of his accusations The Bishop blamed him for Preaching even when the King had licensed him And a nameless Writer published a bloody Invective against his Pacificatory-book called The Interest of England as if it had been written to raise a War The enemies of Peace were his enemies II. He took boasting to be inexpedient as Paul did And when he was silenced as unworthy to be suffered in the Ministry he once offered a modest defence to the Bishop and wrote a short and peaceable account of his judgment about the sin of Schism in his own Vindication III. He had though not the Extasie of Paul yet great knowledge of things Divine and Heavenly to have been the matter of his glory IV. The heavenly Paradise was the place of his hopes where he daily studied to lay up his treasure which had his chiefest thoughts and care V. He found by experience that an immortal soul is not so tyed to this body of flesh but that it can get above it and all its interest and pleasure and live on the hopes of unseen glory VI. As he knew the incapacity of mortals to have formal and adequate conceptions of the state of the heavenly Paradise and separated souls so he submitted to Gods-concealing Will and lived on the measure of Gospel-revelation VII He knew the danger of being exalted above measure by occasion of holy Knowledge and how apt man is to be so puffed up VIII God himself saved him from that danger by his humbling wholesome sharper remedy IX A Thorn in the flesh was Gods remedy to keep him in a serious humble frame Three great Stones were found in his bladder and one small one in a corrupted Kidney And how painful a thorn these were for many years it is easie to conjecture X. Satan was permitted to try him as Job not only by the pain of his flesh but also by reproaches as aforesaid and by casting him out of his Ministry as unworthy to preach the Gospel of Christ unless he would say swear and do all that was by men imposed and the rest of those afflictions which are contained in such an ejected impoverished calumniated state are described in the late and former experience of may such XI Though I never heard him pray against poverty or reproach yet for the liberty of his Ministry he did that he might preach that Gospel of Salvation And pain forced him to have recourse to God for deliverance from the thorn in his flesh And if Christ and Paul prayed thrice with earnestness no wonder if continued pain made him continue his suit to God XII As Christ was heard in the thing which he feared and yet must drink that cup and Paul instead of the departing of the one was promised sufficient grace and the manifesting of Gods strength in his pain and weakness so it pleased not God to take away the Thorn from our dear Brothers flesh but he did better for him and gave him his supporting help and an increase of grace and shewed his own strength in all his weakness and also hastened his final deliverance beyond expectation And now he is past all at rest with Christ and all the blessed We see not them but they see God and God feeth us and is preparing us for the same felicity And if it be by the same means and we must bear the Cross and feel the Thorn it will be wholesome and short and good is the will and work of God Lord let me not account ease honour or life dear to me that I may finish my course with joy and the Ministry received of the Lord and come in season and peace to thee And is not this Providence of God and this example of our deceased friend of use to us Yes no doubt of manifold use I. It is of great use to all the Land to good and bad to observe Gods threatning in the removal of his servants O how many excellent Christians and faithful Ministers of Christ have been taken hence within a few months The same week we hear of four or five more besides our brother and some of them the most excellent useful men And is it not time 1. To repent of our neglect of such helps as God is now removing 2 And to be presently awakened to use them better before the rest be taken away Alas poor Souls what a case are you in if you dye or the word be taken from you before you are regenerated and prepared for a better life It is not so much their loss and hurt as yours which Satan endeavoureth in silencing so many hundred such And it is your heavy punishment more than theirs which God inflicteth by their death O speedily repent before that death have stopt the mouths which call'd you to repentance And it should awaken the best to prepare for death and for publick suffering It seems there is some great evil to come when God thus takes away the best Yea if it should be a forerunner of a better state yet all save two of the old stock that dishonoured God in the Wilderness must fall and it was by bloody Wars a dreadful means that Joshua and the new generation were to possess the Land of promise II. It is of use to us unworthy Ministers of Christ who yet survive 1. It calleth loudly to us to work while it is day for our night is near when we cannot work Death will shortly silence us all more effectually than men have done Do Gods work prudently do it patiently peaceably and in as much concord and true obedience as you can