Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	book_n	life_n	write_v	4,779	5	6.1891	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26788	A funeral-sermon for the reverend, holy and excellent divine, Mr. Richard Baxter who deceased Decemb. 8, 1691 : with an account of his life / by William Bates ...	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1692 (1692)	Wing B1107; ESTC R21548	38,382	145

escape their deep Censures The Pulpit represented them as seditiously disaffected to the State as obstinate Schismaticks and often the Name of God was not onely taken in vain but in violence to authorise their hard Speeches and harder Actions against them Some drops of that Storm fell upon Mr. Baxter who calmly submitted to their injurious dealings I shall speak of that afterward In the Interval between his Deprivation and his Death he wrote and publisht the most of his Books of which I shall give some account His Books for their number and variety of Matter in them make a Library They contain a Treasure of Controversial Casuistical Positive and Practical Divinity Of them I shall relate the Words of one whose exact Judgment joyn'd with his Moderation will give a great value to his Testimony they are of the very Reverend Dr. Wilkins afterwards Bishop of Chester he said that Mr. Baxter had cultivated every Subject he handled and if he had lived in the Primitive Times he had been one of the Fathers of the Church I shall add what he said with admiration of him another time That it was enough for one Age to produce such a Person as Mr. Baxter Indeed he had such an amplitude in his Thoughts such vivacity of Imagination and such solidity and depth of Judgment as rarely meet together His inquiring Mind was freed from the servile dejection and bondage of an implicit Faith He adher'd to the Scriptures as the perfect Rule of Faith and searcht whether the Doctrines received and taught were Consonant to it This is the duty of every Christian according to his capacity especially of Ministers and the necessary means to open the Mind for Divine Knowledge and for the advancement of the Truth He publisht several Books against the Papists with that clearness and strength as will Confound if not Convince them He said he onely desir'd Armies and Antiquity against the Papists Armies he cause of their bloody Religion so often exemplified in England Ireland France and other Countries However they may appear on the Stage they are always the same persons in the Tyring-room their Religion binds them to extirpate Hereticks and often over-rules the milder inclinations of their nature Antiquity because they are inveigled with a fond pretence to it as if it were favourable to their Cause but it has been demonstrated by many learned Protestants that the Argument of Antiquity is directly against the principal Doctrines of Popery as that of the Supremacy of Transubstantiation of Image-worship and others He has wrote several excellent Books against the impudent Atheism of this loose Age. In them he establishes the fundamental Principle upon which the whole Fabrick of Christianity is built that after this short uncertain life there is a future state of happiness or misery equally Eternal and that Death is the last irrevocable step into that unchangeable state From hence it follows by infallible Consequence that the reasonable Creature should prefer the interest of the Soul before that of the Body and secure Eternal life This being laid he proves the Christian Religion to be the onely way of fallen Man's being restor'd to the favour of God and obtaining a blessed Immortality This great Argument he manages with that clearness and strength that none can refuse assent unto it without denying the infallible Principles of Faith and the evident Principles of Nature He also publisht some warm Discourses to Apologize for the Preaching of Dissenting Ministers and to excite them to do their Duty He did not think that Act of Uniformity could disoblige them from the Exercise of their Office 'T is true Magistrates are Titular-Gods by their Deputation and Vicegerency but subordinate and accountable to God above Their Laws have no binding force upon the Conscience but from his Command and if contrary to his Law are to be disobeyed The Ministers Consecrated to the Service of God are under a moral perpetual Obligation of Preaching the saving Truths of the Gospel as they have opportunity There needs no miraculous Testimony of their Commission from Heaven to authorize the doing their ordinary Duty In some points of modern Controversie he judiciously chose the middle way and advised young Divines to follow it His reverence of the Divine Purity made him very shy and jealous of any Doctrine that seem'd to reflect a blemish and stain upon it He was a clear asserter of the soveraign Freeness and infallible Efficacy of Divine Grace in the Conversion of Souls In a Sermon reciting the Words of the Covenant of Grace I will put my fear into their hearts and they shall not depart from me he observed the Tenor of it was I will and you shall Divine Grace makes the rebellious Will obedient but does not make the Will to be no Will. By the Illumination of the Mind the Will is inclin'd to Obedience according to the Words of our Saviour All that have heard and learn'd of the Father come to me He preach'd that the Death of Christ was certainly effectual for all the Elect to make them partakers of Grace and Glory and that it was so far beneficial to all Men that they are not left in the same desperate State with the fallen Angels but are made capable of Salvation by the Grace of the Gospel not capable of Efficience to convert themselves but as Subjects to receive saving Grace He did so honour the sincerity of God as entirely to believe his Will declared in his Word he would not interpret the Promises of the Gospel in a less gracious sense than God intended them Therefore if Men finally perish 't is not for want of Mercy in God nor Merits in Christ but for their wilfull refusing Salvation His Books of Practical Divinity have been effectual for more numerous Conversions of Sinners to God than any printed in our time and while the Church remains on Earth will be of continual Efficacy to recover lost Souls There is a vigorous Pulse in them that keeps the Reader awake and attentive His Book of the Saints Everlasting Rest was written by him when languishing in the suspence of Life and Death but has the Signatures of his holy and vigorous Mind To allure our Desires he unvails the Sanctuary above and discovers the Glory and Joys of the Blessed in the Divine Presence by a Light so strong and lively that all the glittering Vanities of this World vanish in that Comparison and a sincere Believer will despise them as one of mature Age does the Toys and Baubles of Children To excite our fear he removes the Skreen and makes the Everlasting Fire of Hell so visible and represents the tormenting Passions of the Damned in those dreadfull Colours that if duly considered would check and controul the unbridled licentious Appetites of the most sensual Wretches His Call to the Vnconverted how small in bulk but how powerfull in vertue Truth speaks in it with that authority and efficacy that it makes the Reader to lay

to set it off than refined Gold wants Paint to add Lustre and Value to it I shall not speak of his Parentage and his first Years but I must not omit a Testimony I receiv'd concerning his early Piety His Father said with Tears of Joy to a Friend my Son Richard I hope was sanctified from the Womb for when he was a little Boy in Coats if he heard other Children in play speak profane Words he would reprove them to the Wonder of those that heard him He had not the Advantage of Academical Education but by the Divine Blessing upon his rare Dexterity and Diligence his Sacred Knowledge was in that Degree of Eminence as few in the University ever arrive to Not long after his Entrance into the Ministry the Civil War began and the Times rain'd Blood so long till the languishing State of the Kingdom was almost desperate and incurable How far he was concern'd as a Chaplain in the Parliament's Army he has publisht an Account and the reasons of it After the War he was fixt at Kederminster There his Ministry by the Divine Influence was of admirable Efficacy The Harvest answer'd the Seed that was sowed Before his coming the Place was like a Piece of dry and barren Earth onely Ignorance and Profaneness as Natives of the Soil were rise among them but by the Blessing of Heaven upon his Labour and Cultivating the Face of Paradise appear'd there in all the Fruits of Righteousness Many were translated from the state of polluted Nature to the state of Grace and many were advanc'd to higher degrees of Holiness The bad were chang'd to good and the good to better Conversion is the Excellent Work of Divine Grace the Efficacy of the Means is from the Supreme Mover But God usually makes those Ministers successfull in that Blessed Work whose principal Design and Delight is to glorifie him in the saving of Souls This was the reigning Affection in his Heart and he was extraordinarily qualified to obtain his End His Prayers were an Effusion of the most lively melting Expressions and his intimate ardent Affections to God from the abundance of his Heart his Lips spake His Soul took Wing for Heaven and rapt up the Souls of others with him Never did I see or hear a holy Minister address himself to God with more Reverence and Humility with respect to his glorious Greatness never with more Zeal and Fervency correspondent to the infinite Moment of his requests nor with more Filial Affiance in the Divine Mercy In his Sermons there was a rare Union of Arguments and Motives to convince the Mind and gain the Heart All the Fountains of Reason and Perswasion were open to his discerning Eye There was no resisting the Force of his Discourses without denying Reason and Divine Revelation He had a marvellous Felicity and Copiousness in speaking There was a noble Negligence in his Stile for his great Mind could not stoop to the affected Eloquence of Words he despis'd flashy Oratory but his Expressions were clear and powerful so convincing the Understanding so entring into the Soul so engaging the Affections that those were as deaf as Adders who were not charm'd by so wise a Charmer He was animated with the Holy Spirit and breath'd Celestial Fire to inspire Heat and Life into dead Sinners and to melt the obdurate in their frozen Tombs Methinks I still hear him speak those powerfull Words A Wretch that is condemn'd to dy to Morrow cannot forget it And yet poor Sinners that continually are uncertain to live an Hour and certain speedily to see the Majesty of the Lord to their unconceivable Joy or Terror as sure as they now live on Earth can forget these things for which they have their memory and which one would think should drown the matters of this World as the report of a Canon does a Whisper or as the Sun obscures the poorest Glo-worm O wonderfull stupidity of an unrenewed Soul O wonderfull folly and distractedness of the ungodly That ever Men can forget I say again that they can forget Eternal joy Eternal Woe and the Eternal God and the place of their Eternal unchangeable Abodes when they stand even at the door and there is but the thin Vail of Flesh between them and that amazing sight that Eternal gulph and they are daily dying and stepping in Besides his wonderfull diligence in Catechizing the particular Families under his Charge was exceeding usefull to plant Religion in them Personal instruction and application of Divine Truths has an excellent advantage and efficacy to insinuate and infuse Religion into the Minds and Hearts of Men and by the Conversion of Parents and Masters to reform whole Families that are under their immediate direction and government While he was at Kederminster he wrote and publisht that accomplisht Model of an Evangelical Minister styled Gildas Salvianus or the Reform'd Pastor In that book he clears beyond all cavil That the Duty of Ministers is not confin'd to their Study and the Pulpit but that they should make use of opportunities to instruct Families within their Care as 't is said by the Apostle that he had kept back nothing from his Hearers that was profitable but had taught them publickly and from house to house The Idea of a faithfull Minister delineated in that book was a Copy taken from the Life from his own zealous Example His unwearied industry to do good to his Flock was answer'd by Correspondent Love and Thankfulness He was an Angel in their Esteem He would often speak with great Complacence of their dear Affections and a little before his Death said He believ'd they were more Expressive of kindness to him than the Christian Converts were to the Apostle Paul by what appears in his Writings While he remain'd at Kederminster his Illustrious Worth was not shaded in a Corner but dispers'd its Beams and Influence round the Countrey By his Counsel and Excitation the Ministers in Worcestershire Episcopal Presbyterian and Congregational were united that by their Studies Labours and Advice the Doctrine and Practise of Religion the Truths and Holiness of the Gospel might be preserved in all the Churches committed to their Charge This Association was of excellent use the ends of Church-government were obtain'd by it and it was a leading Example to the Ministers of other Counties Mr. Baxter was not above his Brethren Ministers by a Superiour Title or any secular advantage but by his divine endowments and separate excellencies his extraordinary wisdom zeal and fidelity he was the Soul of that Happy Society He continued among his beloved people till the year 1660. then he came to London A while after the King's Restoration there were many Endeavours us'd in order to an Agreement between the Episcopal and Presbyterian Ministers For this end several of the Bishops elect and of the Ministers were call'd to attend the King at Worcester-House there was read to them a Declaration drawn up with great wisdom and moderation by the