Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	day_n	lord_n	week_n	2,734	5	9.9831	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26928	Faithful souls shall be with Christ the certainty proved and their Christianity described, and exemplified in the truely Christian life and death of that excellent saint, Henry Ashhurst, Esq ... : briefly and truly published for the conviction of hypocrites and the malignant, the strengthning of believers, and the imitation of all, especially the masters of families in London / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing B1265; ESTC R4853	35,484	74

It is not solow a matter as great birth or riches or any other worldly honour which I am to remember of our deceased friend Multitudes that are now in misery did once excel him in all these But yet as a touch of the History of his life is fit to go before his exemplary Character which is my work and because it it is a great honour and blessing to be the seed of the faithful I shall premise a little first of his Parentage and then of that part of his life which I knew not but give you on the unquestionable credit of others He was the third Son of Henry Ashhurst of Ashhurst in Lancashire Esquire by Cassandra his wife daughter of Iohn Bradshaw of Bradshaw of the same County Esquire His Father was a Gentleman of great Wisdom and Piety and zealous for the true Reformed Religion in a Countrey where Papists much abounded And when King Iames the more to win them was prevailed with to sign the Book for dancing and other such sports on the Lords days he being then a Justice of Peace as his Ancestors had been and the Papists thus embolded sent a Piper not far from the Chappel to draw the People from the publick worship he sent him to the house of correction And being for this misrepresented to the King and Council he was put to justifie the legality of what he did at the Assizes which he so well performed that the Judge was forced to acquit him though he was much contrary to him and an occasion being offered to put the Oath of Allegiance on his Prosecutors their refusal shewed them Papists as was before suspected God blessed this Gentleman in his three Sons The eldest was a man eminent for his Wisdom Integrity and Courage a Member of the Long Parliament called 1640. though all such by interested partial men are accounted and called what their prejudice and enmity doth suggest and though with many more such he was by the Conquering Army abused and cast out The second Son was a Colonel and Henry the youngest about Fifteen years old was sent to London and bound Apprentice to a Master somewhat severe And whereas such severity tempteth many proud and graceless young men to be impatient and weary of their Masters and to break out to seek forbidden pleasure at Play-houses Taverns and perhaps with Harlots and to rob their Masters to maintain these lusts til they are hardened in sin and break their own hopes and their Parents hearts alas how many such wretches hath this City Gods grace in our friend did teach him to make a clean contrary use of it This affection did helpe to drive him to hear good Preachers for his comfort and to betake himself to God in prayer and to search the Scripture for direction In which way he found the teaching and blessing of his heavenly Master which helpt him to bear all harshness and hardness in his place And having no place of retirement but a cold hole in the Cellar in the coldest nights he spent much time in prayer and meditation and his good Father allowing him a yearly pension for his expences he spent it mostly in furnishing his poor closet with good Books Not Play-books or Romances and idle Tales but such as taught him how to please God and to live for ever From his childhood he had a humble meekness and sweetness of temper which made his life easie to himself and others and made him so acceptable to godly Ministers and People that their acquaintance and converse and love became to him a great confirmation and help to his growth in grace especially good Mr. Simeon Ash a man of his plainness and of the Primitive strein of Christianity His Master I need not tell how so wasted his Estate that he shut up shop when Mr. Ashhurst was gone from him whose great fidelity had helpt to keep him up And he took care of his indigent children afterwards His Portion was but 500 l. and a small Annuity and one Mr. Hyet a Minister lent him 300 l. more with which stock he set up in partnership with one Mr. Row a Draper and so continued three years Mr. Row took up his stock and was a Major in the Earl of Essex's Army and left Mr. Ashhurst to the whole Trade narrowly escaping the misery of an unsuitable match he married on Mr. Ash's motion the daughter of one Mr. Risby who is now his sorrowful widow having with her about 1500 l. He began his Trade at the beginning of the Warrs when others left off theirs He dedicated yearly a good part of his gain to God in works of Charity and it encreased greatly And as his known trustiness made men desirous to deal with him so God strangely kept those men that he trusted from breaking when the most noted Tradesmen in the same Towns broke to the undoing of those that trusted them And though his Trading was great about thirty years he managed it with ease and calmness of mind and was not by it diverted from duties of Religion He usually was at one word in his Trading His body being healthful he rose about four a clock or five and in secret usually spent about two houres in Reading Meditation and Prayer and then went to his Family duties as is afterward described He was a great improver of his time or else he could never have done what he did for so many persons usually saying He desired to live no longer than he might be serviceable to God and men But he was most regardful to lose no part of the Lords day in which he did all towards God and his Family with great reverence and humble seriousness And as he much desired godly trusty servants he had much of his desire and his house was as a school of piety meekness and as a Church When his faithful Pastor Mr. Simeon Ash was buried the very day before the new Act of Uniformity would have silenced him being an old Nonconformist he used to go at the end of the week to Hackney to his Countrey house and there spend the Lords day In the Common fire his house was burnt as well as others but is rebuilded with advantage And all Gods corrections and the hurt which by his permission we undergo from bad men will turn to our gain if we believe and patiently expect the end Thus far I have given you for the most part but what his best knowing friends have most credibly given me of the history of his Pilgrimage But I will next tell you what I knew my self in above twenty years familiarity with him And that shall be more descriptive than Historical though in what is already said from others you may much know what he was Mr. Ash's praise and his own free love first brought on our acquaintance And indeed my many restraining hinderances have kept me from so much familiarity with many Those that knew him need little of my description Those that have been much

and subjection to Obey and Trust and Love him and joyfully to hope for everlasting happiness in his Love 4. To give up our selves to Christ as our Saviour by his Sacrifice Merits Teaching Government and Intercession to bring us home to God by Justifying Sanctifying and finally Glorifying us 5. To obey the motions of his Spirit to that end which are but to bring us to a Conformity to his Word 6. To Love God in his Saints and Creatures and do all the good to one another that we can and cherish a holy Unity and Peace and to do wrong to none 7. To watch against and resist all the Temptations of the Flesh the World and the Devil which would draw us from any of this duty 8. To bear our Medicinal corrections patiently and profitably and pray seek and wait for blessed Immortality 9. To pray long and labour for the publick good the Churches welfare and the Conversion of the dark unbelieving World 10. To do all this for the glorifying of God and our Redeemer and the pleasing of his holy Will as the End and only Rest of Souls This is the service which Christ requireth and is there any thing in all this which is not safe delightful honorable profitable and exceeding desirable to every one that knoweth what it is to hope for happiness and to live like a Christian or a Man II. And what is it that is meant by following Christ Disciples then were wont to dwell with their Master that they might be always at hand to do what he bid them To follow Christ includeth 1. The absolute taking him for the Guide and Saviour to whom we Trust our Bodies and Souls 2. The obedient following of his Instruction and Commands 3. The following of his Example in all the imitable parts of his Life 4. The submissive following him through all the sufferings wherewith God trieth us and by what death he chuseth for us into the heavenly mansions whether he is ascended This is the following of Christ which the streights of this hour allow me but to name Use. Before we proceed let us consider how to improve what is said and open the two promises after in our application I. And first it is hence evident what it is to be indeed a Christian It is to serve and follow Christ in Trust as the Procurer the Captain the Giver of Salvation Our relation to him by a sacred Covenant and Vow is the thing from which we are named Christians Deceitful Covenanting may give us the name among Men that cannot see the Heart and may deceive our selves and others But if the Soul consent not God doth not consent to justifie or save us O Sirs try quickly try faithfully before death say It is row too late whether you are such as God as well as Men will judge to be Christians indeed O be not self-deceivers for God will not be mocked with names and shaddows and heartless words and the false pretenses of a worldly fleshly unsanctified mind You will find one day that Christ came not to be a shadow nor a stepping stone to worldly ends nor a patron of pride and fleshly lusts you will find ear long that to be a Christian is a great and serious business on which lieth the everlasting saving of our Souls Greater than Life or Death Crowns and Kingdoms or any concerns of this corruptible flesh A business which will not be done a sleep nor with a careless mind nor with a slothful unresolved Soul nor with the thoughts and hours which pride and vanity can spare and which are the leavings of fleshly lusts and pleasures To be a Christian is to turn our backs on all these deceitful vanities and sinful pleasures and to place our absolute Trust in Christ and serve and follow him to the death in hope of everlasting glory obtained by his manifold Grace Have you no careful thoughts of another Life And no fear what will become of your departing Souls at death If not your reason is asleep If you have what is it that quieteth and comforteth you Is it only a careless venture because God is merciful As if his mercy saved all God forbid that your Souls should go out of your bodies without a better preparation than this But if finding your selves undone by sin and liable to Gods destroying justice and believing that Christ is the only sufficient and faithful Saviour you give up Soul and Body in Trust to him resolvedly consenting to serve and follow him who hath purchas'd and promis'd you blessedness with himself This is true Christianity and this is a Trust which will not deceive Sirs You send for us in sickness and perhaps we cannot come or we find men overwhelmed with pain and fear and with a feeble Body and fainting Spirits unfit to try and judge themselves and to do so great a work as is here described if not unable to hear much discourse of it O what a sad time is that for a Minister to give you that instruction which a long time of strength was too little to improve What a dreadful thing is it for a Soul then to have all the work that you lived for to begin and do and for to have but a sick and fainting hour or day to do that which you could not do in all your Lives and which turneth the Key for Heaven or Hell The Lord give you awakened reason and wisdom before it be too late The name of Christians is not to be used to deceive fleshly men into damning presumption but to signifie a Soul that trusteth in Christ and followeth him in obedience and patience to Salvation O that you all feelingly knew how much it concerneth you presently to set home and resolve this question Do I trust serve and follow Christ Let us now a little look to his footsteps that we may know 1. Christ lived in the World to do his Fathers work and will to glorifie and please him See Ioh. 4. 34. 17. 4. 9. 4. 8. 29. 12. 27 28. 17. 4. Is it Gods work that you live for and his will that you chiefly study to please in your inferior degree and place 2. Christ was the greatest lover of Souls his business on Earth was to seek and save them and he is still about that work in Heaven He thought not his strange condiscending Incarnation his sufferings and Heart Blood his Labour and Life too dear to save them Are your own and others Souls thus precious in your Eyes Do you think no labour loss no cost or suffering too dear to save your selves and others Do your prayers and your practices prove this to be true 3. Christs great work was to gather a Church on Earth which should be his peculiar Kingdom Spouse and Body to glorifie God and be glorified with him Eph. 4. to 17. 5. 25. to 32. 3. 21. Act. 20. 28. If you are Christians indeed Christs Church is to you as your Body to