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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64984	The death of ministers improved. Or, an exhortation to the inhabitants of Horsley on Glocester-shire, and others, on the much lamented death of that reverend and faithful minister of the Gospel, Mr. Henry Stubbs By Tho. Vincent, John Turner, Rob. Perrott, M. Pemberton. To which is added a sermon upon that occasion, by Richard Baxter.	Vincent, Thomas, 1634-1678.; Turner, Robert, b. 1649 or 50, 4aut.; R. P. (Robert Perrot) aut.; Pemberton, Matthew, d. 1691. aut.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1678 (1678)	Wing V430; ESTC R221906	43,418	108

Though it be an errour to be oft Baptized it is a hundred times worse errour never truly to understand consent and practice after so solemn a Vow and Covenant IV. When you have given up your selves to God as your God and Father your Saviour and your Sanctifier remember that your great relations have engaged you in the greatest business and the highest hopes in all the World And therefore now live as fellow Citizens of the Saints and the Houshold of God that have nobler converse work and hope than worldly unbelievers Remember now with whom and what you have to do and that it is not a by and trifling business but the best and greatest that you have undertaken V. Joyn with those that are for Heaven whose Counsel and Company may be your help separate from no Christians by way of division further than God commandeth you and do not easily forsake the judgment of the generality of godly men But make few your familiar friends and those such as are most wise and humble and sincere and cheerful in the belief and hopes of glory and suitable to your use and converse VI. In all doubts and difficulties of Religion judg not hastily before you have throughly heard and tryed Prefer a suspended judgment that stayeth till it have tryed before a rash and hasty judgment of what you know not and may repent of VII Carefully govern your fleshly appetites and sense and avoid needless temptations especially to sinful ●leasure For lust will conceive else and bring forth sin and sin being finished will bring forth death You will find sin and comfort contrary VIII Especially fear the flatteries of the world and hopes of a pleasant life to the flesh on earth and an itch after riches plenty or preferment and designs for the attaining them love not the World nor the things that are in the World the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and pride of life the portion of the wicked for if any man love the World for the flesh and it self so far the love of the Father is not in him 1 Ioh. 2.15 16. IX Value precious Time and live not in idleness spend time as you would hear of it at last and as those that know what it is to have but one short life to determine where they shall live for ever Hear and abhor all pastimes and triflings that would rob you of your time X. Converse daily in Heaven while you are on earth let Faith still see it Let Hope still make after it and let Love desire it and delightfully remember it There is our Father our Saviour our Comforter our friends with whom we must live for ever There let our hearts be as the place of all our hopes And let the strain of your Religion be as Heavenly as you can Let it consist in love in unity and concord in the joyful praises of Iehovah and in a pure holy life This will raise you above the sinful love of this transitory life and the fear of death and give you the soretasts of Heaven on Earth while you do Gods will on earth as it is done in Heaven But it is the Spirit and grace of Christ which you must beg and seek and on which you must obediently depend for the performance of all this and not upon your unconstant wills Without Christ we can do nothing but by his strengthening us we can do all things necessary to our Salvation and we are more than Conquerors even in our patient sufferings through the Captain of our Salvation who hath Conquered for us Thus we may finish our Course with Joy FINIS

departed our strength is decayed our Moses's our Iacobs our praying our wrestling Ministers are many of them gone lately to God and have we not reason to fear that God is about to remove his Gospel when he calls home his Embassadours so fast that a great storm is near when he houseth so many of his servants Is not our hedg in danger of falling when so many stakes are pluckt up and our houses of tumbling when so many pillars are thrown down When the righteous perish not only righteous men but Preachers of righteousness doth it not presage some great evil at hand which they are taken from to a place of rest and safety The times did look with a bad face before but do not they look worse and worse when so many Ministers are removed who by their prayers and ministerial labours might have been helpful to prevent those judgments which we are in such danger of The clouds do now gather blackness faster and faster and dreadful thunder storms do seem to be in their bowels and the Lord knows how soon all faces may gather paleness the most serious Christians and the most understanding and considering persons do look with trembling expectations when this Island will crack and break with a ter●ible voice over us and beat down with a fierce Tempest it may be in showers of blood upon us The loss of our dear brethren in the Ministry doth weaken our hands that are Ministers who have lost the advantage of their company and help but the loss is most near most sore to them who were under their charge and the loss of this our lately deceased Brother and Fellow-labourer should be bewailed especially and laid to heart by you who were under his care and Ministry There are two sorts of persons amongst you whom Mr. Stubbs hath left behind Unconverted and Converted persons we will speak to both First Are there not many unconverted persons whom your Minister after all his Soul-travel and pains in Preaching hath left unconverted Are there not many grosly ignorant persons with you notwithstanding all his Catechizing and instructions Are there not many openly vicious persons notwithstanding all his reproofs and admonitions Are there no profane persons among you no swearers Are there no unclean persons no adulterers Are there no intemperate persons no drunkards Are there no unrighteous persons none that are fraudulent in their dealings And amongst those who are civilized and outwardly reformed are there none among you who are secretly wicked none who are covetous under the reigning power of that sin which is inconsistent with the power of godliness Are there no hypocrites among you painted Sepulchres rotten at heart whatever your outward show and profession of Religion is Are there not too many among you who mind your Bodies but neglect your Souls who make provision for your flesh but neglect your Salvation Alas Alas What is like to become of you who are still unconverted and have not been wrought upon effectually by such Preaching such a Ministry now this Minister is removed If you were not converted whilst you had such powerful means are you now like to be converted when the means are gone and you are never like to have such powerful means of grace again Did not your Minister whilst alive call upon you frequently and that with earnestness and importunity that you would repent and turn from your evil ways presently and that you would not delay lest God should leave off calling you and take away the means of your conversion from you And hath not God left off calling you now by his mouth And if you should not be effectually called at all if you should not be converted whilst you live which now seems very unlikely to be better had it been for you that you had never been born better you had been Dogs or Swine or Worms or Toads rather than Men and Women with immortal Souls because of the dreadful miseries coming upon you which inferiour Creatures will escape Without Conversion there is no Salvation without Repentance and Faith in Jesus Christ and love to God and a holy life there is no escaping the Damnation of Hell Our design is not to drive you to despair only to awaken you who have been so long and so fast asleep under such an awakening Ministry if you sleep still and are not startled by the loss of your Minister we much fear the next thing will be the loss of your Souls Awake Awake Ye drowsy secure sleepy sinners God calls upon you once more by us he calls you to awake to repent and turn from sin before it be too late and the door of mercy be shut and death hath unexpectedly surprised you in your sins God by us doth command the vilest of you to repent Act. 17.30 And he threatneth death if you disobey him should an earthly King command you to come out of a dirty way into a clean path and that upon pain of temporal death would not you obey And when God who is the King of Kings doth command you to repent to come out of the dirty ways of sin into the clean ways of holiness and that upon pain of eternal death of everlasting torment and punishment in Hell will you not obey will you not repent Will you chuse to dishonour God and damn your own Souls rather than to repent of your sins Shall the threatnings of a weak man have more force with you than the threatnings of the great and glorious Iehovah who made Heaven and Earth Shall the threatnings of lesser evils which are but for a moment have more place with you than the threatnings of the most dreadful evils and eternal plagues shall have Moreover God doth invite you to repent and useth arguments to prevail with you Ezek. 33.11 Say unto them Thus saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die O house of Israel God doth encourage you to repent by his promises all the promises which you will find in the Scripture of Remission of Adoption of Salvation of Spiritual priviledges here and eternal happiness hereafter are made to those that repent and believe both which are always in conjunction See Prov. 28.13 Isa. 55.17 Chap. 1.16 17 18. And will not Gods invitations Gods promises and none of the rich Gospel priveledges move you to repent Will you slight pardoning mercy and chuse rather to abide under guilt Is it good to keep wounds in your consciences when you may have them healed Is it good to have God your enemy when you may be reconciled Is it desirable to continue Children of the Devil when you may be made the Children of God Will you prefer raggs before robes to cover you And chuse poverty when you may have Jewels to enrich you And eternal misery when by repentance you may attain everlasting happiness There

are three sorts of unconverted and impenitent persons among you some of you are young some in your middle age and some of you are arived unto old age we would apply this Call to every one First You that are young men and young women repent of your sins and turn from your evil ways whilst you are young as you ought to remember your Creator so as to turn to him in the days of your youth so you ought to remember your sins so as to turn from them in the days of your youth Had any of you been born without sin and lived without sin there would have been no occasion for your repentance But who among you can say he is innocent Have you not original sin and actual sin to repent of Will not your consciences witness the corruption of your natures how averse naturally you are to good how prone to evil Is there not a Register in your bosomes of sins committed in your childhood together with your more late and more aggiavated youthful transgressions And do you not then need to repent Are you too young to repent when you are not too young to sin You have heard of Iosiah who had a tender heart in his tender years and of Timothy who when a Child did know the holy Scriptures which taught him the lesson of Repentance and if others have attained repentance in their Childhood and youth why may not you attain it The Devil will perswade you it is too soon and the flesh will perswade you it is too soon to repent and your companions in sin will perswade you to hold on with them still in your sinfull practices many carnal arguments you may find out to move and plead for indulgence of your selves still in your sensual and sinful delights and you may be prone to think graver years will be most sutable for the serious and severe work of Repentance and you may presumingly hope when you are grown up to years of more maturity then you will mourn for your iniquity then you will turn over a new leaf return unto God and lead a new life But doth God allow you to procrastinate your Repentance Doth God give you a dispensation to sin so long as you are so young If it be a duty to repent hereafter is it not now as much your duty If it be good to repent at all is it not good to repent whilst you are young Are you sure to live till you are grown men and grown women Did you never see or hear that others have died as young as your selves and as likely to live and that notwithstanding their hopes and presumptions of long life Indeed you may live to be old but think also that you may die whilst you are young you may die suddenly before you have time to call upon God for mercy and if you die in your impenitency you will most certainly be thrown for your sins into Hell that place of most horrible and unspeakable misery and will you venture your everlasting damnation on presumption of long life and future Repentance Besides are you sure to repent should your life be continued Is Repentance in your own power If you have not hearkned unto former calls of your deceased Minister and if you will not hearken to the call of divers Ministers now together are you sure God will call you any more that he will send any other Minister to you Or if he should may not he withhold his blessing and swear in his wrath that his Spirit which hath been striving with you so long shall strive with you no more Moreover can there be a more fit a more reasonable time for your Repentance than whilst you are young Will not your Repentance now be with the less difficulty If it be difficult to repent when your sins are fewer will not the difficulty encrease when your sins are encreased and grown more numerous If it be difficult to repent when your sins are lesser will not the difficulty greaten when your sins are greatned and grown more heinous Is not a twig more easily bended than a grown Tree Will not long custom in sin added to your natural propensity add to the difficulty of your repentance Is it not easier to repent when you have less sin and more time than when you shall have less time and more sin Will not sin be more easily mortified whilst it is more weak than when by long continuance it hath gathered more strength Will it not be very hard to remove long contracted hardness Do you think the Devil will be easily cast out when he hath had long possession Or can your last Repentance if it were easily attainable be so pleasing and acceptable unto God as Repentance in your youth Doth not God call for your first fruits Shall the Devil and the flesh and the World ravish your Virgin-affections and then will you repent Hath not God work enough for you to do although you begin never so young And will you chuse rather to serve the Devil and your own lusts in the spring the prime and vigour of your years than to serve the glorious Iehovah when the service of the former is such slavery such drudgery and the ways will be eternal death and the service of the latter is so honourable so beneficial and its reward eternal life May this Call these arguments prevail with all of you that are young without any further delay to repent of your sins and to day whilst it is called to day to hearken unto Gods voice and no longer to harden your hearts through the deceitfullness of sin Secondly You that have continued in your sinful ways and practices to your middle age it is high time that you should repent If your Spring be over and your Summer be come and hitherto you have neglected your Souls and allowed your selves in your sins O delay no longer time repent of your sins and repent that you have repented no sooner God stretcheth sorth his hand all the day long to a stubborn and gainsaying people if you have been stubborn hitherto If you have deafned your ear to former calls don't deafen your ear to this call which may be your last call God hath been very patient with you he might have cut you off in your sins long ago and think where your Souls would have been now Have not some of you been visited with sickness and brought down to the sides of the pit and been raised again beyond your own and others expectations Have not others of you escaped great perils and dangers and been wonderfully preserved when your lives were in great jeopardy And shall your restoration or your preservation be but a reservation unto more dreadful destruction Or rather shall not Gods patience and goodness lead you to Repentance Will you return evil for good Because God doth not speedily execute his vengeance upon you shall your hearts be fully set in you to do evil If your youth hath been given

and affections the resolving and removing groundless doubts and perplexing fears concerning your spiritual condition the arming you against Satans temptations the guiding of you in the dark night of desertion and when under the Eclipse of th● light of Gods countenance and for your quickning and encouragement under affliction● and all oppositions and difficulties which you do or may meet withall in Heavens way But should we write particularly and fully to you of these things our Letter would grow into a treatise which is beyond our design therefore we must refer you for Counsel in these things unto the Word of God and those Books in our English tongue which are written on these Subjects and particularly to call to remembrance what your dear Pastor hath taught you and advised you who was the best acquainted with the state of your Souls All that we shall further add is to mind you of some duties and to suggest some considerations for your comfort and encouragement under this so great a loss The duties which God calleth you more especially unto after his taking away your Pastor from you are 1 Watchfulness 2 Fruitfulness 3 Prayer 4 Family-instruction First Watchfulness All Ministers are or ●ught to be the Lords Watchmen the Watch●●n whom the Lord set over you was emi●ently faithful but he is now gone and will ●●itch over you no longer and therefore you ●●ve the more need and are now called to ●atch over your selves the more diligently ●nd to watch over one another 1. Watch over your selves guard your ●●nses which are the inlets of sin and keep ●our hearts with all diligence from whence ●re the issues of sin it is not long since you ●ad the eye of your Minister over you ●ho was a faithful reprover now he is removed take heed you give not your selves the more liberty either to neglect duties or to comply with temptations whereby you may be enticed unto any sin were Mr. Stubbs alive and by you it may be you would not yield to such and such Temptations lest you should offend him and be reproved by him but think with your selves that God is by you always and being infinitely holy is more highly offended with sin than the most holy man on earth can be and you have also an observer within you a reprover we mean your own Consciences and take heed of offending them in offending of God for if God and Conscience should be against you it is a thousand times worse than to have all the men on Earth and all the Devils in Hell against you Watch not only against grosser and more scandalou● sins but also against lesser sins and such as a●● of more ordinary practice in the World an● that not only amongst the profane but all amongst professors of Religion themselve● amongst whom too many hypocrites will b● found at the last day Watch also again● errours especially such as are damnable su● as are in the foundations of Religion whi●● should you entertain would be mor● effectual to ruin your Souls than if you we●● guilty of the grossest immoralities Havin● received the truth hold it fast prize it abo●● Silver and Gold as being far more preciou● yea above life it self and let all go rather tha● let any truth go let truths be rooted in you● hearts imbrace them with love and delight otherwise you may be imposed upon with e●rours by some cunning impostors and be tosse● to and fro with divers winds of Doctrine● by the flight of men and cunning craftiness 〈◊〉 such as lie in wait to deceive always suspec● them as dangerously erroneous who endeavou● to bring the Ministry of Christ's appointme●● into contempt and perswade you to a neglec● thereof which you have reason above othe● ●ighly to esteem and keep close unto having ●●d so eminent and faithful a Minister amongst ●ou Secondly As you ought to watch over ●our selves so also to watch over one another ●hat so instead of one there may be many ●atchmen amongst you Watch over one ●nother in reference to sin and in reference to ●uty In reference to sin both to prevent sin 〈◊〉 one another and to restore such as are fallen 〈◊〉 it Watch to prevent sin so far as you have ●ower say not with Cain Am I my brothers ●eeper As you ought not to murder the ●odies of any nor to suffer any if you can ●inder it to murder themselves so you ought ●ot to murder the Souls of any nor to permit ●hem if you can hinder it to murder their ●wn Souls should you see any of your neigh●ours or acquaintance take Swords or Dag●ers and therewith to gash and wound them●lves lift up their hands to thrust them into ●heir hearts would not you run to them and ●atch away those weapons and instruments of ●eath from them Would not you argue and ●ead with them to forbear the laying such ●●olent hands upon themselves By sin your ●●ighbours wound themselves if they wound 〈◊〉 their flesh they wound their Spirit if they wound not their bodies they wound their Souls and as those wounds are most inward so they are the most deep and dangerous the wounds of sin are mortal wounds and not only temporal death but eternal will be the effect of them without a seasonable application of the blood of Christ. O do what you can to prevent sin in your friends do what you can to arm them against Temptations and to encourage them to resist the Devil to expose themselves to any kind of sufferings and pains and to deny themselves any kind of delights and gains rather than to offend God and wound their Consciences by their sins But if any of your Brethren have been tempted and have yielded if they are falle● and wounded watch to restore such and there in follow the direction of the Apostle Gal. 6 1● Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault 〈◊〉 which are Spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest tho● also be tempted If you hear of a fault in any of your neighbours be not forward to believe it unless the thing be evident by clear proof or the parties own confession and then think what the Law of love doth require Lev. 19.17 Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thine heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sin upon him When your neighbours lie under guilt let love to their Souls prompt you to use your endeavour for the removal thereof don 't speak of their faults behind their backs to their defamation and the wounding of their names but speak of their faults to themselves in your plain and faithful reproofs in order to their amendment and the healing of the wounds in their Consciences and that your reproofs may be successful they must be managed with much prudence with a due consideration of the fault the person the place the time and the manner as to the manner the Apostle directs you to do it in the