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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	work_n	write_v	year_n	359	4	4.4571	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26870	A breviate of the life of Margaret, the daughter of Francis Charlton ... and wife of Richard Baxter ... : there is also published the character of her mother, truly described in her published funeral sermon, reprinted at her daughters request, called, The last work of a believer, his passing-prayer recommending his departing spirit to Christ, to be received by him.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing B1194; ESTC R1213	62,400	127

A BREVIATE OF THE LIFE OF MARGARET The Daughter of FRANCIS CHARLTON of Apply in Shropshire Esq And Wife of RICHARD BAXTER For the use of all but especially of their Kindred There is also Published the Character of her Mother truly described in her Published Funeral Sermon Reprinted at her Daughters Request called The Last Work of a Believer His passing-prayer recommending his departing Spirit to Christ to be received by him LONDON Printed for B. Simmons at the Three Golden Cocks at the West-end of St. Pauls 1681. TO THE READER Reader GOD having called away to his Blessed Rest and Glory the Spirit of the most dear Companion of these last Nineteen Years of my Life or near I found in her Last Will a request that I should reprint five Hundred of her Mothers Funeral-Sermons written by me 1661 being now out of Press called The last Work of a Believer his Passing Prayer c. Not only her very great Love and Honour of her remembred Mother moved her to it but the apprehension of the Vsefulness of that subject to Dying Christians a Subject about which her Soul was awakened the more by the Death of many Friends and excellent Christians taken away this Year And the day somewhat excited her for it was written by her on Decem. 30 the same day which she kept secretly as an Anniversary Remembrance of the Sentence of Death from which she had been delivered and the same day when our dear Friend Mr. Corbet lay dying And I finde some expectations of her own speedy Death had some hand in it Being thus obliged by her Request mine own Affections urged me to premise this Breviate of her own Life Written I confess under the power of melting Grief and therefore perhaps with the less prudent judgment but not with the less but the more Truth For passionate Weakness poureth out all which greater Prudence may conceal Conscionable mens Histories are true but if they be also wise they tell us but some part of Truth concealing that which would do harm and which the depraved world cannot bear without abusing it But we that are less wise tell all the Truth too little regarding how men will receive it And hence comes all History which hath not evidence equal to natural to be of less credit than most men think while bad men lie and good men leave out so much of the Truth as makes the rest to be as another thing than altogether it would appear And having purposed to write this Breviate concerning my dear Wife God having the same year taken away two more of my ancient Family I wrote a Breviate of their Lives also One was my excellent holy Mother-in-Law Mary the Daughter of Sir Thomas Hunks Widow to my dear Father She was one of the most humble mortified holy persons that ever I knew and lived in longing to be with Christ till she was an Hundred years old wanting three or four in full understanding and at last rejoycing in the triumphant frequent hearing and repeating the 91 Psalm The other was my old Friend and Housekeeper Jane Matthews who lived in pious humble Virginity with eminent worth to about Seventy six or Seventy seven years and Died of mere decay without considerable Pain or Sickness about a Month or six Weeks before my Wife To these I added a fourth a Breviate of the Life and Death of that worthy Mother of my Wife as to the time since I knew her But I have cast by all these later three and much of the first by the Counsel of wise Friends as things which they think that Strangers will not make so great a matter 〈◊〉 Love and Nearness made me do And I must 〈◊〉 that God's Image is the same thing on all his Children and when you have described one you have described all as to the Essentials But as in Faces and bodily Strength they so much differ in Integrals Degrees and Accidents that the Lives of some are far more Exemplary and Honourable to Christ their Lord and their Christian Profession than others are And some are so much blemished by Errours Soul-Diseases and miscarriages of Life yea and injuries to the Church of Christ by their carnal Animosities and Divisions as rendereth the Examples of the more wise holy loving and peaceable and patient Christians the more conspicuous and honourable by the difference On this account finding young people naturally much delighted in History and that for want of better abundance are quickly corrupted and ensnared by Tale-books Romances Play-books and false or hurtful History I have long thought that true and useful History is of great use to prevent such evils and to many profitable ends And that to young people it is very profitable to begin with the Scripture-History and next the Lives of holy persons and next to read the true Church-Historians and the History of our Native Country Melchior Adamus in Germany Beza in his Icones Thuanus and many others in France have done the Church this way great service by a due Commemoration of Exemplary persons And such as Junius Scultetus Thuanus and others who have recorded the chief passages of their own Lives have done a profitable work though Mom'es will say They publish their own Praise in Pride There is no saying or doing any 〈◊〉 the world which bad men will not reproach or put an evil face on or make an ill use of to themselves But he that reads such Lives as Bucholtzers melanchtons and their like and then readeth their Church-Histories will the better discern that they were no Liars As it is Satans work to counterwork Christ by the Abuse and Perversion of his own Ordinances and Means as to disgrace Revelation by feigned Revelation and Spirituality by false pretendings to the Spirit and Magistracy by wicked Magistrates and the Ministry by worldly and ungodly Ministers and Christianity by hypocrite false Christians so he doth enervate the credit and use of History by false History And how great use he hath made of this to promote Popery he that readeth Jacobus de Voragine and many other of their Legends or Saints Lives and Miracles and such as Tympius and many more besides their voluminous deceitful Histories of Church Popes and Councils may quickly finde And being my self a vehement Hater of false History I beg Pardon of the Reader for interposing this Digression Lately writing of the Iudgment of Cranmer and others as cited by Dr. Stillingfleet in his Irenicon about Episcopacy that the Reader might know where to find it I added in a Parenthesis that it was left out in Dr. Burnet's Book For this I am accused as disgracing him and his Book falsly I here do him right and confess it was ill done of me to judge so hastily without better tryal But I must tell him wherein my fault consisted Not in accusing him I take it not to be a fault in D. B. that he hath omitted many things that are in Fuller Fox and others I had

most to those who are best to me whether they have more or less of the Spirit To go no further it is now evident that I am a graceless person Though all these things be imperfect in the best and some are more wanting in one particular than in another yet where all their contraries are predominant as in me that person is told by this Sermon that they are none of Christs how much doth my behaviour at this time make this appear when I can with a hard heart and a dry eye and a steady hand declare my self at present heir of everlasting wo But the longest day will quickly come though I strive to put it as far from me § 4. It would be too long to recite a paper which I find next to this containing the great necessity of self-judging the reasons for it the rules for performing it and the due manner especially in dangers and before the Sacraments or any Conclusions of our state of Grace § 5. But these Convictions did neither die nor pass unto despair but to serious conversion yet put her to struggle hard against backwardness to secret duties and the forsaking of some vanities but presently God seemed sharply to entertain this returning soul. And while we were all rejoicing in her change she fell into a Cough and seeming Consumption in which we almost despaired of her life Mr. Iackson the Physician and my self seeing the case too hard for us described it to Dr. Prujean and Dr. G. Bates who both judged it a Consumption arising from the obstructions of the vessels in the Lungs and corrupting the tender adjoining parts and both prescribed her the same Medicines But all these and change of air long and breast-milk c. did no good I and my praying-neighbours were so sorry that such a changed person should presently b● taken away before she had time to manifest her sincerity and do God any service in the world that in grief they resolved to fast and pray for her For former experience had lately much raised their belief of the success of prayer They had lately prayed for one that seemed Demoniack that after some years misery was suddenly freed of that disease They had oft prayed for me in dangerous illness and I had speedy help I had lately swallowed a Goldbullet for a Medicine and it lodged in me long and no means would bring it away till they met to fast and pray and it came away that morning A young man yet living falling into a violent Epilepsie and after all means long remaining uncured they set to fasting and prayer in his hearing and the second day he was suddenly cured and never had a fit since God did not deny their prayers though they were without Book and such as some deride as extemporate I was not with them in any of these but lay-men that were humble praying persons only But I was with them at prayer for this woman and compassion made us all extraordinary servent and God heard us and speedily delivered her as it were by nothing or by an altogether undesigned means She drank of her own inclination not being directed a large quantity of syrrup of Violets and the next morning her nose bled which it scarce ever did before or since and the Lungs seemed cleared and her pulse suddenly amended her cough abated and her strength returned in short time CHAP. III. The workings of her soul in and after this Sickness § 1. SHE being of too timerous and tender a nature and the sharp work of her Repentance being yet upon her spirit for Death to come and seem to summon her away to Eternity at such a season and unsetled state must needs greatly encrease her fears when the strongest long experienced Christians find it no easie work to dye in peace and willing resignation But she had still a concealing temper which made it never the easier within § 2. When God had recovered her her Mother invited those that fasted and prayed for her to keep a Day of Thanksgiving for her Deliverance I asked her what she would have us give thanks for particularly And in the morning as we began she that was recovered gave us in this following Paper MY life hath been a life of very great mercies and these have aggravated my sin in overlooking them Some of those which God hath most affected my heart with I shall here mention but alas with a heart very insensible of the greatness of them 1. My Mothers restoration first I thank God did for and next for many Mercies of mine own Four times before this I have been delivered from great danger of death And now I desire to acknowledg his mercy in delivering me from this death threatning disease and that in answer to prayers I am here now in competent health to speak of the goodness of the Lord. 2. I desire to acknowledg it a mercy that God afflict me and though I cannot with the Psalmist say but now I keep thy statutes I can say before I was afflicted I went astray And how many great sins God hath prevented by this affliction I cannot tell but am sure that God hath dealt very graciously with me and I have had many comforts in my sufferings which God hath not given to many of his beloved ones 3. I desire to acknowledg Gods great mercy to me in bringing me to this Town under so useful means of Grace and that at such a time when I was even ready to engage in a course of sin and vanity beyond what I had formerly lived in This mercy is much greatned by the time for had the Lord brought me hither in Infancy and removed me at riper years the mercy would not have been so great And if I had gone longer on in a course of hardning sins it had been less than now it is 4. I desire to acknowledg it a great mercy that I want no outward thing but am enabled to be helpful unto others and have all the temporal mercies that I can well desire for my encouragement in the ways of God 5. I desire to acknowledg it a great mercy that God hath given me an interest in the hearts and prayers of so many of his faithful servants in this place 6. I desire to acknowledg it a great mercy that God hath made me the child of godly Parents and a child of many prayers 7. I desire to acknowledg it a great mercy which I can never be thankful enough for that God hath given me a heart in any measure willing to acknowledg his mercies and be thankful for them and that notwithstanding all that sin and Satan hath done to hinder it he hath made me desirous this day to give up my self and all that I have to him taking him only for my God and chief felicity And now the Requests that I desire you to make to God on my behalf are these 1. That he will give me a more thankful soul that I may praise

do it resolutely and cheerfully and scorn to run away and turn your back that you may do it without censure where you are unknown Use well the means God here vouchsafes you and do your duty with a quiet mind and follow God in your removes § 8. Much more of such counsels she transcribed but I forbear reciting more She ends those Papers with these words The best creature-affections have a mixture of creature-imperfections and therefore need some gall to wean us from the faulty part God must be known to be God our rest and therefore the best creature to be but a creature O miserable world how long must I continue in it And why is this wretched heart so loth to leave it where we can have no fire without smoak and our dearest friends must be our greatest grief and when we begin in hope and love and joy before we are aware we fall into an answerable measure of distress Learn by experience when any condition is inordinately or excessively sweet to thee to say From hence must be my sorrow O how true CHAP. V. Her temper occasioning these troubles of mind § 1. THE soul while in the body works much according to the bodies disposition 1. She was of an extraordinary sharp and piercing Wit 2. She had a natural reservedness and secrecy increased by thinking it necessary prudence not to be open by which means she was oft mis-understood by her nearest friends and consequently often crost and disappointed by those that would have pleased her And as she could understand men much by their looks and hints so she expected all should know her mind without her expressing it which bred her frustrations and discontents 3. And she had a natural tenderness and troubledness of mind upon the crossing of her just desires too quick and ungovernable a sense of displeasing words or deeds 4. She had a diseased unresistible fearfulness her quick and too sensible nature was over-timerous and to increase it she said she was four times before I knew her in danger of death of which one was by the Small-Pox And more to increase it her Mothers house Apply-Castle near Wellington being a Garison it was stormed while she was in it and part of the housing about it burnt and men lay killed before her face and all of them threatened and stript of their cloathing so that they were fain to borrow cloaths 5. And the great work upon her soul in her coversion moved all her passions 6. And then her dangerous sickness and the sentence of death to so young a Convert must needs be a very awaking thing and coming on her before she had any assurance of her justification did increase her fear 7. And in this case she lived in the Church-Yard side where she saw all the Burials of the dead and kept a deaths head a skull in her Closet still before her And other such mortifying spectacles increased her sad disposition § 2. And the excessive love which she had to her Mother did much increase her grief when she expected death § 3. Though she called it melancholly that by all this she was cast into yet it rather seemed a partly natural and partly an adventitious diseased fearfulness in a tender over-passionate nature that had no power to quiet her own fears without any other cloud on her understanding § 4. And all was much encreased by her wisdom so stifling all the appearances of it that it all inwardly wrought and had no ease by vent § 5. And having keen spirits and thin sharp blood she had a strong Hemicrania or Head-ake once a month and oft once a fortnight or more from the age of fifteen or sixteen years All these together much tended to hinder her from a quiet and comfortable temper § 6. And in a word all the operations of her soul were very intense and strong strong wit and strong love and strong displeasure And when God shewed her what Holiness was she thought she must presently have it in so great a degree as the ripest Saints do here attain and that because she had not as much heavenly life and sense and delight in God as she knew she should have and desired she concluded of it that she had none that was sincere § 7. One of the first things by which her change was discovered to her Mother and Friends was her fervent secret prayers for living in a great house of which the middle part was ruined in the Wars she chose a Closet in the further end where she thought none heard her But some that over-heard her said they never heard so fervent prayers from any person § 8. Yet she desired me to draw up a form suited to her own condition which I did and find it now reserved among her Papers but I cannot tell whether she ever used it having affections and freedom of expression without it I had thought to have annexed it for the use of afflicted Penitents But it will be but a digression in this Narrative CHAP. VI. Of our Marriage and our Habitations § 1. THE unsuitableness of our age and my former known purposes against Marriage and against the conveniency of Ministers Marriage who have not sort of necessity made our marriage the matter of much publick talk and wonder And the true opening of her case and mine and the many strange occurrences which brought it to pass would take away the wonder of her friends and mine that knew us and the notice of it would much conduce to the understanding of some other passages of our lives Yet wise Friends by whom I am advised think it better to omit such personal particularities at least at this time Both in her case and mine there was much extraordinary which it doth not much concern the world to be acquainted with From the first thoughts of it many changes and stoppages intervened and long delays till I was silenced and ejected with many hundreds more and so being separated from my old Pastoral Charge which was enough to take up all my time and labour some of my disswading Reasons were then over And at last on Septemb. 10. 1662. we were married in Bennet-Fink Church by Mr. Samuel Clerk yet living having been before Contracted by Mr. Simeon Ash both in the presence of Mr. Henry Ashurst and Mrs. Ash. § 2. She consented to these Conditions of our Marriage 1. That I would have nothing that before our Marriage was hers that I who wanted no outward supplies might not seem to marry her for covetousness 2. That she would so alter her affairs that I might be intangled in no Law-suits 3. That she would expect none of my time which my Ministerial work should require § 3. When we were married her sadness and melancholy vanished counsel did something to it and contentment something and being taken up with our houshold affairs did somewhat And we lived in inviolated love and mutual complacency sensible of the benefit of mutual help These