ambitious rebellious Absolom to molest us or to lament No sinful scandalous or impatient friends to be our grief And which is more than all no earthly sinful inclinations in our selves no passions or infirmities no languishings of soul no deadness dulness hard heartedness or we aknesses of grace no backwardness to God or estrangedness from him nor fears or doubtings of his love nor frowns of his displeasure None of these do enter into that serene and holy region nor ever interrupt the joy of Saints The great work is yet upon our hands to fight out the good fight to finish our course to run with patience the remainder of the race that is before us And as we must look to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith as our great exemplar so must we look to his Saints and Martyrs as our encouraging examples under him Put the case you were now dying and O how near is it and how sure What would you need most if the day were come That is it that you need most now Look after it speedily while you have time Look after it seriously if you have the hearts of men and sin have not turned you into Ideots or blocks What a disgrace is it to mankind to hear men commonly at death cry out O for a little more time and O for the opportunities of grace again and O how shall I enter upon eternity thus unprepared As if they had never heard or known that they must die till now Had you not a lifes time to put these questions and should you not long ago have got them satisfactorily resolved And justly doth God give over some to that greater shame of humane nature as not to be called to their wits even by the approach of death it self but as they contemned everlasting Life in their health God justly leaveth them to be so sottish as to venture presumptuously with unrenewed souls upon death and the conceit that they are of the right Church or party or opinion or that the Priest hath absolved them doth pass with them for the necessary preparation and well were it for them if these would pass them currantly into heaven But O what heart can now conceive how terrible it is for a new departed soul to find it self remedilesly disappointed and to be shut up in flames and desperation before they would believe that they were in danger of it Reader I beseech thee as ever thou believest that thou must shortly die retire from the crowd and noise of worldly vanity and vexation O bethink thee how little a while thou must be here and have use for honour and favour and wealth and what it is for a soul to pass into heaven or hell and to dwell among Angels or Devils for ever And how men should live and watch and pray that are near to such a change as this Should I care what men call me by tongue or pen Should I care whether I Live at liberty or in prison when I am ready to die and have matters of infinite moment before me to take me up Honour or dishonour liberty or prison are words of no sound or signification scarce to be heard or taken notice of to one of us that are just passing to God and to everlasting life The Lord have mercy upon the distracted world how strangely doth the Devil befool them in the day-light and make them needlesly trouble themselves about many things when one thing is needful and Heaven is talk'd of and that but heartlesly and seldom while fleshly provision only is the prize the pleasure the business of their lives Some are diverted from their serious preparation for death by the leastly avocations of lust and gâ—wdiness and meats and drinks and childish sports and some by the businesses of ambition and covetousness contriving how to feather their nests and exercise their Wills over others in the world and some that will seem to be doing the work are diverted as dangerously as others by contending about formalities and Ceremonies and destroying Charity and Peace rending the Church and strengthening factions and carrying on Interests hypocritically under the name of Religion till the Zeal that Saint James describeth Jam. 3. 13 14 c. having consumed all that was tike to the Zeal of Love and Holiness in themselves proceed to consume the Servants and interest of Christ about them and to bite and devoure till their Lord come and find them in a day that they locked not for him smiting their fellow-servants and eating and drinking with the drunken and cut them asunder and appoint them their portion with the hypocrites where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matth 24. 49 50 51. O study and preach and hear and pray and live and use your brethren that differ from you in some opinions as you would do if you were going to receive your doom and as will then be most acceptable to your Lord The guilt of sensuality worldiness ambition of uncharitableness cruelty and injustice of losing time and betraying your souls by negligence or perfidiousness and wilful sin will lie heavyer upon a departing Soul then now in the drunkenness of prosperity you can think Christ will never receive such Souls in their extremity unless upon repentance by faith in his blood they are washed from this pollution It is unspeakably terrible to die without a confidence that Christ will receive us And little knows the graceless world what sincerity and simplicity in holiness is necessary to the soundness of such a confidence Let those that know not that they must die or know of no life hereafter hold on their chase of a feather till they find what they lost their lives and Souls and labour for But if thou be a Christian remember what is thy work Thou wilt net need the favour of man nor worldly wealth to prevail with Christ to Receive thy spirit O learn thy Last Work before thou art put upon the doing of it The world of spirits to which we are passing doth better know than this world of fleshly darkened sinners the great difference between the Death of a Heavenly Believer and of an earthly sensualist Believe it is a thing possible to get that apprehension of the Love of Christ that confidence of his Receiving us and such familiar pleasant thoughts of our entertainment by him as shall much overcome the fears of Death and make it a welcome day to us when we shall be admitted into the Celestial society And the difference between one mans Death and anothers dependeth on the difference between Heart and Heart Life and Life Preparation and Vnpreparedness It you ask me How may so happy a Preparation be made I have told you in this following Discourse and more fully else where formerly I shall add now these few Directions following 1. Follow the flattering world no further Come off from all expectation of felicity below Enjoy nothing under the Sun but only use it in order to your
not be in vain 1 Cor. 15. 58. Now give the full and final answer unto all my Prayers Now that I have done the fight and finished my course let me find the Crown of righteousness which thy mercy hath laid up 2 Tim. 4. 8. O Crown thy graces and with thy greatest mercies recompence and perfect thy preparatory mercies and let me be Received to thy glory who have been guided by thy counsel Psalm 73. 24. 13. Consider That Christ hath already received millions of Souls and never was unfaithful unto any There are now with him the spirits of the just made perfect that in this life were imperfect as well as you Why then should you not comfortably trust him with your Souls and say Lord thou art the Common Salvation and refuge of thy Saints Both strong and weak even all that are given thee by the Father shall come to thee and those that come thou wilt in no wise cast out Thousands have been entertained by thee that were unworthy in themselves as well as I It is few of thy members that are now on earth in comparison of those that are with thee in Heaven Admit me Lord into the new Jerusalem Thou wilt have thy house to be filled O take my Spirit into the number of those belssed ones that shall come from East West North and South and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom that we may together with eternal joyes give thanks and praise to thee that hast redeemed us to God by thy blood 14. Consider That it is the will of the Father himself that we should be glorified He therefore gave us to his Son and gave his Son for us to be our Saviour that whoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life All our Salvation is the product of his Love Joh. 3. 16 17. Eph. 2. 4. Joh. 6. 37. Joh. 16. 26 27. I say not that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me c. John 14. He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Say therefore with our dying Lord Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit By thy Son who is the way the truth and the life I come to thee Joh. 14. 6. Fulness of joy is in thy presence and everlasting pleasures at thy right hand Psalm 16. 11. Thy love redeemed me renewed and preserved me O now receive me to the fulness of thy Love This was thy will in sending thy Son that of all that thou gavest him he should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day O let not now this Soul be lost that is passing to thee through the straits of death I had never come unto thy Son if thou hadst not drawn me and if I had not heard and learnt of thee John 6 44 45. I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast revealed to me a babe an ideot the blessed mysteries of thy Kingdom Luk. 10. 21. Acts 4 13. O now as the vail of flesh must be withdrawn and my soul be parted from this body withdraw the vail of thy displeasure and shew thy servant the glory of thy presence that he that hath seen thee but as in a glass may see thee now with open face and when my earthly house of this Tabernacle is dissolved let me inhabit thy building not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5. 1. 15. Lastly consider That God hath designed the everlasting glory of his name and the pleasing of his blessed will in our salvation And the Son must triumph in the perfection of his conquest of Sin and Satan and in the perfecting of our Redemption And doubtless he will not lose his Fathers glory and his own Say then with confidence I resign my soul to thee O Lord who hast called and chosen me that thou mightest make known the riches of thy glory on me as a vessel of mercy prepared unto glory Rom. 9. 23. Thou hast predestinated me to the adoption of thy child by Christ unto thy self to the praise of the glory of thy grace wherein thou hast made me accepted in thy beloved Eph. 1. 5 6 11 12 Receive me now to the glory which thou hast prepared for us Mat. 25. 34. The hour is at hand Lord glorifie thy poor adopted child that he may for ever glorify thee Joh. 17. 1. It is thy Promise to glorify those whom thou dost justify Rom. 8. 30. As therere is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8. 1. so now let him present me faultless before the presence of the glory with exceeding joy And to thee the only wise God our Saviour be the glory Majesty Dominion and Power for evermore Amen Jude v. 23 24. WHat now remaineth but that we all set our selves to learn this sweet and necessary task that we may joyfully perform it in the hour of our extremity even to recommend our departing Souls to Christ with confidence that he will receive them It is a lesson not easie to be learnt For Faith is weak and doubts and fears will easily arise and nature will be loth to think of dying and we that have so much offended Christ and lived so strangely to him and been entangled in too much familiarity with the World shall be apt to shrink when we should joyfully trust him with our departing Souls O therefore now set your selves to overcome these difficulties in time You know we are all ready to depart It is time this last important work were throughly learned that our death may be both safe and comfortable There are divers other Uses of this Doctrine that I should have urged upon you had there been time As 1. If Christ will Receive your departing Souls then fear not death but long for this Heavenly entertainment 2. Then do not sin for fear of them that can but kill the body and send the Soul to Christ 3. Then think not the righteous unhappy because they are cast off by the world neither be too much troubled at it your selves when it comes to be your case but remember that Christ will not forsake you and that none can hinder him from the Receiving of your Souls No malice nor slanders can follow you so far as by defamation to make your justifyer condemn you 4. If you may trust him with your Souls then trust him with your friends your Children that you must leave behind with all your concernments and affairs and trust him with his Gospel and his Church for they are all his own and he will prevail to the accomplishment of his blessed pleasure But 5. I shall only add that Use which the sad occasion of our meeting doth bespeak What cause have we now to mix our sorrows for our deceased friend with the joyes of faith for her felicity we have left the body to the earth and
THE Last Work OF A BELIEVER His Passing-Prayer recommending his departing Spirit to Christ to be Received by him Prepared for the Funerals of Mary the Widow first of Francis Charlton Esq and after of Thomas Hanmer Esq And partly Preached at St. Mary Magdalens Church in Milk-street London And now at the desire of her Daughter before her Death reprinted By Richard Baxter Joh. 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my Servant be and If any man serve me him will my Father Honour LONDON Printed by B. Griffin for B. Simmons at the three Golden Cocks at the West-end of St. Pauls 1682. The Contents of the last work of a Believer THE Occasion of this Discourse pag. 1. The opening of the Text p. 3. Doct. 1. and 2 d passed by that Christ is exalted in glory and is to be prayed to p. 5. Doct. 3. Man hath a spirit as well as a body And what the soul is p. 6. Doct. 4. The spirit of man doth survive the body It dyeth not nor is annihilated nor sleepeth p. 11. Doct. 5. Christ doth receive the spirits of his Saints when they leave the flesh What his Receiving them is p. 14. Doct. 6. A dying Christian may confidently and comfortably commend his spirit to Christ to be Received by him p. 19. The Doctrine applyed to the unregenerate unprepared soul p. 20. Whom Christ will Receive and whom he will not refuse p. 26. Considerations to move them to prepare so as to be Received p. 30. Applyed to Believers p. 37. Encouraging proofs os Christs receiving their departed soul p. 39. Other Vses of the Doctrine p. 57. For the abatement of sorrow for the Death of our departed friend p. 61. The evidences of her happiness in the Graces in which she was eminent and exemplary p. 63. The use of her example to them that survive p. 70. Doct 7. Prayer in General and this prayer in particular That Christ will receive our departing souls is a most suitable conclusion of all the action of a Christians life p. 72. TO THE READER Reader THE person whose Death did occasion this Discourse was one that about five years ago removed from her antient habitation at Appley in Shropshire to Kederminster where she lived under my Pastoral care till I was come up to London and before she had lived there a twelve-month for thither she removed she died of the Fever then very common in the City She lived among us an example of Prudence Gravity Sobriety Righteousness Piety Charity and Self-denyal and was truly what I have described her to be and much more For I use not to flatter the living much less the dead And though I had personal acquaintance with her for no longer a time than I have mentioned yet I think it worthy the mentioning which I understand by comparing her last years with what is said of her former time by those that were then nearest to her and so were at her Death that whereas as I have said sudden Passion was the sin that she was wont much to complain of she had not contented her self with meer complainings but so effectually resisted them and applyed Gods remedies for the healing of her nature that the success was very much observed by those about her and the change and cure so great herein as was a comfort to her nearest Relations that had the benefit of her converse Which I mention as a thing that shews us 1. That even the Infirmities that are founded in nature and temperature of body are curable so far as they fall under the dominion of a sanctified will 2. That even in age when such Passions usually get ground and infirmities of mind increase with infirmities of body yet Grace can effectually do its work 3. That to attend God in his Means for the subduing any corruption is not in vain 4. That as God hath promised growth of Grace and flourishing in old age so in his way we may expect the fulfilling of his promise 5. That as Grace increaseth infirmities and corruptions of the Soul will vanislh This makes me call to mind that she was once so much taken with a Sermon which I preached at the Funerals of a holy aged woman and so sensibly oft recited the Text it self as much affecting her 2 Cor 4. 16 17. For which cause we faint not but tho our outward man perish yet the inward man is re-renewed day by day c. that I am perswaded both the Text it self and the example opened and well known to her did her much good Her work is done Her enemies are conquered except the remaining fruits of Death upon a corrupting Body which the Resurrection must conquer Her danger and temptations and troubles and fears are at an end She shall no more be discomfited with evil tidings nor no more partake with a militant Church in the sorrows of her diseases or distresses We are left within the reach of Satans assaults and malice and of the rage and violence which pride and faction and Cainish envy and enmity to serious holiness do ordinarily raise against Christs followers in the world We are left among the lying tongues of slanderous malicious men and dwell in a Wilderness among Scorpions where the Sons of Belial like Nabal are such that a man cannot speak to them 1 Sam 25. 17. The best of them is as a briar the most upright sharper than a thorn hedge Mic. 7. 4. But the Sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands but the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear and they shall be utterly burnt with fire in the place 2 Sam. 23. 6 7. We are left among our weak distempered sinful afflicted lamenting friends the sight of whose calamities and participation of their sufferings maketh us feel the stroaks that fall upon so great a number that we are never like to be free from pain But she is entred into the Land of Peace where Pride and Faction are shut out where Serpentine enmity malice and fury never come where there is no Cain to envy and destroy us no Sodomtes to rage against us and in their blindness to assault our doors No Ahitophels to plot our ruin No Judas to betray us No false-witnesses to accuse us No Tertullus to paint us out as pestilent fellows and movers of sedition among the people No Rehum Shimshai or their society to perswade the Rulers that the servants of the God of heaven are hurtful unto Kings and against their interest and honour Ezra 4. 9 12 13 14 22. and 5. 11. No rabble to cry away with them it is not fit that they should live No Demas that will forsake us for the love of present things No such contentious censorious friends as Jobs to afflict us by adding to our affliction No cursed Cham to dishonour parents No
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
but God himself that is called a Spirit And though the Name be fetch'd from lower things that is because that as we have no adequate positive conception of God or Spirits so we can have no adequate proper names for them but must take up with borrowed Names as answerable to our Notions Sometime the Word Spirit as Heb. 4. 12. c. is distinguished from the Soul And then it either signifieth the superior Faculties in the same Soul or the same Soul as elevated by Grace Do you ask What the Soul is You may also ask What a Man is And it is pity that a Man should not know what a Man is It is our Intellectual Nature containing also the Sensitive and Vegetative The Principle or first Act by which we live and feel and understand and freely will The Acts tell you what the Faculties or Powers are and so what the Soul is If you know what Intellection or Reason and Free-will are you may know what it is to have a spiritual Nature essentially containing the Power of Reasoning and Willing It is thy Soul by which thou art thinking and asking What a Soul is And as he that reasoneth to prove that Man hath no Reason doth prove that he hath Reason by reasoning against it so he that reasoneth to prove that he hath no Soul doth thereby prove that he hath a Reasonable though abused Soul Yet there are some so blind as so question Whether they have Souls because they see them not Whereas if they could see them with Eyes of Flesh they were no Souls For Spirits are invisible They see not the Air or Wind and yet they know that Air or Wind there is They see not God or Angels and yet they are Fools indeed if they doubt whether there be a God and Angels If they see not their Eyes yet they know that they have Eyes because with those Eyes they see other things And if they know not directly and intuitively that they have Rational Souls they might know it by their knowing other things which without such Souls cannot be known It is just with God that those that live as carnally and brutishly and neglegently as if they had no Souls to use or care for should at last be given up to question whether they have Souls or no. O woful Fall depraved Nature O miserable Men that have so far departed from God as to deny both themselves and God! or to question Whether God be God and Man be Man Return to God and thou wilt come to thy self Forget not Man thy Noble Nature thy chiefest Part Think not that thou art only Shell because thou seest not through the Shell It is Souls that converse by the Bodies while they are in Flesh It is thy Soul that I am speaking to and thy Soul that understandeth me When thy Soul is gone I will speak to thee no more It is thy Soul that is the Workmanship of God by an immediate or special way of Fabrication Isa 57. 16. The souls that I have made Gen. 2. 7. He breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soul It is thy Soul that is said to be made after God's Image in that thou art ennobled with a capacious Vnderstanding and Free-will And it is thy Soul that is the immediate subject of his Moral Image even spiritual Wisdom Righteousness and Holiness God hath not Hands and Feet and other Members as thy Body hath How noble a Nature is that which is capable of knowing not only all things in the World in its measure but God himself and the things of the world that is to come and capable of loving and enjoying God and of seeking and serving him in order to that Enjoyment Christ thought not basely of a Soul that redeemed Souls at such a price when he made his soul an offering for sin Isa 53. 10. Were it not for our immortal Souls would God ever honour us with such Relations to him as to be his Children For he is first the Father of Spirits Heb. 12. 9. and then the Father of Saints Should we be called the Spouse and the Members of Christ Would he be at so much cost upon us Should Angels attend us as ministring Spirits if we had not Spirits fit to minister to God Would the Spirit of God himself dwell in us and quicken and beautifie us with his Grace Should a world of Creatures whose Corporeal Substance seems as excellent as ours attend and serve us if we were but an ingenuous sort of Brutes and had not rational immortal Souls Should such store of Mercies be provided for us Should Ministers be appointed to preach and pray and labour for us if we had not Souls to save or lose They watch for your souls as those that must give account Heb. 13. 17. Why should they preach in season and out of season and suffer so much to perform their Work but that they know that He that winneth souls is wise Prov. 11. 30. and that he which converteth a sinner from the errour of his way doth save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins Jam. 6. 20. The Devil himself may tell you the worth of Souls when he compasseth the earth Job 1. 7. and goeth about night and day to deceive them and devour them 1 Pet. 5. 8. And yet can he make you believe that they are so worthless as to be abused to the basest drudgery to be poysoned with sin and Sensuality to be ventured for a thing of naught O Sirs have you such immortal Souls and will you sell them for a Lust for a beastly Pleasure for liberty to glut your Flesh or for the Price that Judas sold his Lord for Is thy Soul no more worth than Honour or Wealth or foolish Mirth Is thy Soul so base as not to be worth the care and labour of a Holy Life Is the World worth all thy Care and Labour and shall less be called too much ado when it is for thy precious Soul Alas one would think by the careless felshly Lives of many that they remember not that they have Souls Have they not need in the depth of their Security in the height of their Ambition and in the heat of Fleshly Lusts to have a Monitor to call to them Remember that thou art a man and that thou hast a Soul to save or lose What thinkest thou of thy negligence and carnal Life when thou readest that so holy a Man as Paul must keep under his body and bring it into subjection lest he should be a cast-away after all his Labours 1 Cor. 9. 25. 26 27. O live not as if the Flesh were the Man and its Pleasure your Felicity but live as those that have Spirits to take care for DOCT. 4 THe spirit of man doth survive the Body It dyeth not with it It is not annihilated It is not resolved into the essence of some common element of souls where it loseth its specifick form
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