Two Treatises The first of DEATH On 1 Cor. 15. 26. The Second of JUDGMENT On 2 Cor. 5. 10 11. By Rich. Baxter LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Princes-Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1672. A Treatise of DEATH The last ENEMY to be destroyed Shewing wherein its enmity consisteth and how it is destroyed Part of it was Preached at the Funerals of Elizabeth the late Wife of Mr. Joseph Baker Pastor of the Church at Saint Andrews in Worcester By Rich. Baxter With some few passages of the life of the said Mrs. Baker observed Psal 15. 4. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 57. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Princes-Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1672. To the Worshipfull the Major Aldermen and Sheriff of the City of Worcester with the rest of the Inhabitants especially those of the Parishes of Andrews and Hellens Worshipfull and the rest Beloved THE chief part of this following Discourse being preached among you and that upon an occasion which you are obliged to consider Isa 57. 1. being called to publish it I thought it meet to direct it first to your hands and to take this opportunity plainly and seriously to exhort you in some matters that your present and everlasting peace is much concerned in Credible fame reporteth you to be a people not all of one mind or temper in the matters of God but that 1. Some of you are Godly Sobe and Peaceable 2. Some well-meaning and zealous but addicted to divisions 3. Some Papists 4. Some Hiders seduced by your late deceased neighbour Clement Writer to whom the Quakers do approach in many opinions 5. And too many prophane and obstinate persons that are heartily and seriously of no Religion but take occasion from the divisions of the rest to despise or neglect the Ordinances of God and join themselves to no Assemblies 1. To the first sort having least need of my exhortation I say no more but As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith as ye have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving and beware lest any man spoil you by deceit c. Col. 2. 6 7 8. Walk as a chosen generation a royal Priest-hood a holy Nation a peculiar people to shew forth the praises of him that hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light having your conversation honest among the ungodly that whereas they are apt to speak against you as evil doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of visitation For so is the will of God that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men 1 Pet. 2. 9 11 12 15. Your labour and patience is known to the Lord and how ye cannot bear them which are evill but have tried them which say they speak from the Lord and are Apostles and are not and have found them lyars even the woman Jezabel that is suffered to teach and seduce the people calling her self a Prophetess who shall be cast into a bed of tribulation and all that commit adultery with her except they repent and her children shall be killed with death and all the Churches shall know that Christ is he which searcheth the reines and hearts and will give to every one according to their work As for your selves we put upon you no other burden but that which you have already Hold fast till the Lord come Rev. 2. Be watchfull that ye fall not from your first Love and if any have declined and grown remiss remember how you have received and heard and hold fast and repent and strengthen the things that remain which are ready to die lest your Candlestick should be removed Rev. 3. 2 3 c. And beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3. 17 18. And I beseech you brethren do all things without murmurings and disputings that ye may be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation among whom you and your brethren shine as lights in the world Phil. 2. 14 15. And if in well doing you suffer think it not strange but rejoyce that ye are partakers of the sufferings of Christ that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy If ye be reproached for the name of Christ ye are happy for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you being glorified on your part while he is evil spoken of on theirs 1 Pet. 4. 12 13 14. 2. To the second sort inclinable to divisions let me tender the Counsel of the Holy Ghost Jam. 3. 1. My brethren be not many Masters or Teachers knowing that ye shall receive the greater condemnation The wisdom that is from above is first pure and then Peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy good fruits without partiality and without hipocrisie And the fruit of Righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Who then is the wise and knowing man amongst you Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lye not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensuall devilish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work Look on those Assemblies where the people professing the fear of God are of one heart and mind and walk together in Love and holy Order and people give due honour and obedience to their faithful Guides and compare them with the Congregations where professors are self-conceited unruly proud and addicted to ostentation of themselves and to divisions and see which is likest to the Primitive pattern and in which it is that the power of godliness prospereth best and the beauty of Religion most appears and Christians walk as Christians indeed If pride had not brought the heavy judgment of infatuation or insensibility on many the too clear discoveries of the fruits of divisions in the numerous and sad experiences of this age would have caused them to be abhorred as odious and destructive by those that now think they do but transcend their lower brethren in holiness and zeal I beseech you therefore brethren by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that you be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and
the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith who is he that overcometh but he that believeth c. For greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world 1 John 4. 4. The believing Soul foreseeing the day when death shall be swallow'd up in Victory may sing beforehand the triumphing song O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy Victory 1 Cor. 15. 54 55. For this cause we faint not though our outward man perish our inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction though it reach to death which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things that are seen but at the things which are not seen for the hings which are seen are temporal and therefore not worthy to be looked at but the things that are not seen are eternal and therefore more prevalent with a believing Soul than either the enticing pleasures of sin for a season or the light and short afflictions or the death that standeth in our way 2 Cor. 5. 16 17 18. Heb. 11. 24 25 26. 2. A second Antidote against the Enmity of Death that is given us at the time of our Conversion is The Pardon of our sins and Justification of our persons by the blood and merits of Jesus Christ When once we are forgiven we are out of the reach of the greatest terrour being saved from the second death Though we must feel the killing stroke we are delivered from the damning stroke Yea more than so it shall save us by destroying us It shall let us into the glorious presence of our Lord by taking us from the presence of our mortal friends It shall help us into Eternity by cutting off our Time For in the hour that we were justified and made the Adopted Sons of God we were also made the Heirs of Heaven even Coheirs with Christ and shall be glorified with him when we have suffered with him Rom. 8. 17. As Death was promoting the Life of the world when it was killing the Lord of Life himself So is it hastnening the deliverance of believers when it seems to be undoing them No wonder if Death be that mans terrour that must be conveyed by it into Hell or that imagineth that he shall perish as the beast But to him that knows it will be his passage into Rest and that Angels shall convey his Soul to Christ what an Antidote is there ready for his Faith to use against the enmity and excess of fears Hence faith proceedeth in its triumph 1 Cor. 15. 56 57. The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Let him inordinately fear Death that is loth to be with Christ or that is yet the heir of Death eternal Let him fear that is yet in the bondage of his sin and in the power of the Prince of darkness and is not by Justification delivered from the curse But joy and holy triumph are more seemly for the Justified 3. A third Antidote against the Enmity of Death is the Holiness of the soul By this the Power of sin is mortified and therefore the fears of Death cannot actuate and use it as in others they may do By this the Interest of the flesh is cast aside as nothing and the flesh it self is crucified with Christ and therefore the destruction of the flesh will seem the more tolerable and the fears of it will be a less temptation to the Soul By this we are already crucified to the world and the world to us and therefore we can more easily leave the world We now live by another Life than we did before being dead in our selves our life is hid with Christ in God and being crucified with Christ we now so Live as that it is not we but Christ Liveth in us the life which we Live in the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God that hath loved us Gal. 2. 20. The things that made this life too dear to us are now as it were annihilated to us and when we see they are Nothing they can do nothing with us Sanctification also maketh us so weary of sin as being our hated enemy that we are the more willing to die that it may die that causeth us to die And especially the Holy Ghost which we then receive is in us a Divine and heavenly Nature and so inclineth us to God and Heaven This Nature principally consisteth in the superlative Love of God And Love carrieth out the soul to the beloved As the Nature of a prisoner in a dungeon carrieth him to desire Liberty and Light so the Nature of a holy Soul in flesh inclineth it to desire to be with Christ As Love maketh husband and wife and dearest friends to think the time long while they are asunder so doth the Love of the Soul to God How fain would the holy loving Soul behold the pleased face of God and be glorified in the beholding of his glory and live under the fullest influences of his Love This is our conquest over the Enmity of Death As strong as Death is Love is stronger Eccles 8. 6 7. Love is strong as Death the coals thereof are coals of fire a most vehement flame which will not by the terrible face of Death be hindered from ascending up to God Many waters cannot quench Love neither can the floods drown it if a man would give all the substance of his house for Love that is to bribe it and divert it from its object it would utterly be contemned If the Love of David could carry Jonathan to hazard his life and deny a Kingdom for him and the Love of David to Absalom made him wish that he had died for him and the Love of friends yea lustful love hath carried many to cast away their lives no wonder if the Love of God in his Saints prevail against the fear of Death The power of holy Love made Moses say Else let my name be blotted out of the Book of Life And it made Paul say That he could wish that he were accursed from Christ for his brethren and kindred according to the flesh Rom. 9. 3. And doubtless he felt the fire burning in his breast when he broke out into that triumphant challenge Rom. 8. 35 36. to the end Who shall separate us from the love of God shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword As it is written For thy sake we are killed all the day long we are counted as Sheep to the slaughter Nay in all this we are more then Conquerours through him that loved us For I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able
is left behind Must he therefore plead against his Physician and say It will not be done because he knoweth not how it s done We feel that here we have our sinful imperfections we have for all that a promise that we shall be with Christ when death hath made its separation and we are assured that no sin doth enter there And is not this enough for us to know But yet I see not why the difficulty of the Objection should trouble us at all Death doth remove us from this sinful flesh and admits the soul into the sight of God And in the very instant of its remove it must needs be perfected even by that remove and by the first appearance of his blessed face If you bring a candle into a dark room the access of the light expelleth the darkness at the same instant And you cannot say that they consist together one moment of time So cold is expelled by the approach of heat And thus when death hath opened the door and let us into the immortal light neither before nor after but in that instant all the darkness and sinful imperfections of our souls are dissipated Throw an empty Bottle into the Sea and the emptiness ceaseth by the filling of the water neither before nor after but in that instant If this should not satisfie any let it satisfie them that the Holy Ghost in the instant of death can perfect his work So that we need not assert a perfection on earth which on their grounds must be the case of all that will escape Hell and Purgatory nor yet any Purgatory-torments after death for the deliverance of the soul from the relicts of sin seeing at the instant of death by the spirit or by the deposition of the flesh or by the sight of God or by the sight of our glorified Redeemer or by all this work will be easily and infallibly accomplished 5. The last degree and perfect conquest will be at the Resurrection And this is the victory that is mentioned in my Text. All that is fore-mentioned doth abate the enmity and conquer death in some degree But the enmity and the enemy it self is conquered at the Resurrection and not till then And therefore Death is the last enemy to be destroyed The Body lyeth under the penal effects of sin till the the Resurrection And it is penal to the soul to be in a state of separation from the Body though it be a state of glory that its in with Christ For it is deprived of the fulness of glory which it shall attain at the Resurrection when the whole man shall be perfected and glorified together Then it is that the Mediators work will be accomplished and all things shall be restored All that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth John 5. 28. For this is the Fathers will that sent him that of all that he hath given him he should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day John 6. 39 40. We have hope towards God that there shall be a Resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust Acts 25. 15. As by man came death so by man came also the Resurrection from the dead 1 Cor. 15. 21. Then shall there be no more death nor sorrow nor crying nor pain Rev. 21. 4. No more diseases or fears of death or grave or of corruption No terrible enemy shall stand betwixt us and our Lord to frighten our hearts from looking towards him O what a birth-day will that be when Graves shall bring forth so many millions of sons for Glory How joyfully will the soul and body meet that were separated so long Then sin hath done its worst and can do no more Then Christ hath done all and hath no more to do as our Redeemer but to justifie us in judgement and give us possession of the joy that he is preparing And then he will deliver up the Kingdom to the Father If you expect now that I should give you resons why Death is the last Enemy to be destroyed though much might be said from the nature of the matter the Wisdom and will of God shall be to me instead of all other Reasons being the fountain and the summ of all He knows best the Order that is agreeable to his Works and Ends to his honour and to our good and therefore to his Wisdom we submit in the patient expectance of the accomplishment of his promises SECT III. Use 1. I Now come to shew you the Usefulness of this Doctrine the for further Information of our understandings the well ordering of our hearts and the reforming of our lives And first you may hence be easily resolved Whether Death be truly penal to the godly which some have been pleased to make a Controversie of late though I am past doubt but the hearts of those men do apprehend it as a punishment whose tongues and pens do plead for the contrary Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return was part of the sentence past on Adam and all his posterity which then proved it a punishment and it was not remitted to Adam that at the same time had the promise of a Redeemer nor is it remitted to any of us all Were it not for sin God would not inflict it who hath sworn that he takes no pleasure in the death of sinners And that he afflicts not willingly nor grieves the sons of men But my text it self decides the controversie Sin and punishment are the evils that Christ removeth And if death were no punishment as it is no sin how could it be an Enemy and the last enemy to be destroyed by the Redeemer When we feel the Enmity before described against our souls and also know its Enmity to our bodies we cannot think that God would do all this were it not for sin especially when we read that death passeth upon all for that all have sinned Rom. 5. 11 12. and that death is the wages of sin Rom. 6. 23. Though Christ do us good by it that proveth it not to be no punishment For castigatory punishments are purposely to do good to the chastised Indeed we may say O Death Where is thy sting because that the mortal evil to the Soul is taken out and because we foresee the Resurrection by faith when we shall have the victory by Christ But thence to conclude that Death hath no sting now to a believer is not only besides but against the text which telling us that the sting of death is sin and that the strength of sin is the Law doth inform us that Death could not kill us and be Death to us if sin gave it not a sting to do it with as sin could not oblige us to this punishment if the threatning of the Law were not its strength But Christ hath begun the Conquest and will finish it SECT IV. Use 2. FROM all this Enmity in Death we may see
what it is that sin hath done and consequently how vile and odious it is and how we should esteem and use it Sin hath not only forfeited our Happiness but laid those impediments in the way of our recovery which will find us work and cause our danger and sorrow while we live And Death is not the least of these impediments O foolish man that still will love such a mortal Enemy If another would rob them but of a groat or defame them or deprive them of any accommodation how easily can they hate them and how hardly are they reconciled to them But sin depriveth them of their lives and separates the soul and body asunder and forfeiteth their everlasting happiness and sets death betwixt them and the Glory that is purchased by Christ and yet they love it and will not leave it Though God have made them and do sustain them and provide for them and all their hope and help is in him they are not so easily drawn to love him And yet they can love the sin that would undo them Though Christ would deliver them and bring them to everlasting blessedness and hath assumed flesh and laid down his life to testifie his Love to them yet are they not easily brought to love him but the sin that made them enemies to God and hath brought them so near to everlasting misery this they can love that deserves no love A Minister or other friend that would draw them from their sin to God and help to save them they quarrel against as if he were their enemy but their foolish companions that can laugh and jest with them at the door of Hell and clap them on the back and drive away the care of their salvation and harden them against the fear of God these are the only acceptable men to them O Christians leave this folly to the world and do you judge of sin by its sad effects You feel if you have any feeling in you in some measure what it hath done against your Souls The weakness of your faith and love the distance of your hearts from God your doubts and troubles tell you that it is not your friend You must shortly know what it will do to your bodies As it keeps them in pain and weariness and weakness so it will ere long deliver them up to the jaws of death which will spare them no more then the beasts that perish Had it not been for sin we should have had no cause to fear a dissolution nor have we had any use for a coffin or a winding-sheet nor been beholden to a grave to hide our carkasses from the sight and smell of the living But as Henoch and Elias were translated when they had walked with God even so should we as those shall that are alive and remain at the coming of Christ shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall they ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4. 17. Use sin therefore as it will use you Spare it not for it will not spare you It is your murderer and the murderer of the world Use it therefore as a Murderer should be used Kill it before it kills you and then though it kill your bodies it shall not be able to kill your souls and though it bring you to the grave as it did your Head it shall not be able to keep you there If the thoughts of death and the grave and rottenness be not pleasant to you let not the thoughts of sin be pleasant Hearken to every temptation to sin as you would hearken to a temptation to self-murder And as you would do if the Devil brought you a knife and tempted you to cut your throat with it so do when he offereth you the bait of sin You love not Death Love not the cause of Death Be ashamed to stand weeping over a buried friend and never to weep over a sinning or ungodly friend nor once to give them a compassionate earnest exhortation to save their Souls Is it nothing to be dead in sins and trespasses Ephes 2. 1 5. Col. 2. 13. Yea it is a worse Death than this that is the wages of sin and the fruit which it brings forth Rom. 6. 21 23. and 7. 5. Surely God would never thus use mens bodies and forsake them soul and body for ever if sin were not a most odious thing What a poyson is this that kills so many millions and damneth so many millions and cannot be cured but by the blood of Christ that killed our Physician that never tasted it because he came so near to us O unbelieving stupid souls that smart and sin and groan and sin and weep and lament our bodily sufferings and yet sin still that fear a grave and fear not sin that have heard and seen and felt so much of the sad effects and yet sin still Psal 78. 32. Alas that murderers should be so common and that we should be no wiser when we have paid so dear a price for wisdom SECT V. Use 3. FROM the Enmity of Death we may further learn that Man hath now a need of Grace for such exceeding difficulties which were not before him in his state of innocency Though Adam was able to have obeyed perfectly without sin and had Grace sufficient to have upheld him and conquered temptations if he had done his part which by that Grace he might have done yet whether that Grace was sufficient to the works that we are called to is a doubt that many have been much troubled with It is certain that he was able to have done any thing that was suitable to his present state if it were commanded him And it is certain that much that is now our duty would have been unsuitable to his state But whether it belonged to his perfection to be able and fit for such duties that were then unsuitable to him on supposition they had been suitable and duties this is the difficulty which some make use of to prove that such works cannot now be required of us without suitable help because we lost no such grace in Adam But this need not trouble us For 1 Though Adam was put on no such difficulty in particular as to encounter death yet the perfect obedience to the whole Law required a great degree of internal Habitual holiness and to determine the case Whether our particular difficulties or his sinless perfect obedience required greater strength and help is a matter of more difficulty then use For 2. It is but about the Degrees of Holiness in him and us and not about the Kind that the difficulty lyeth For it is the same End that he was created for and disposed to by Nature and that we are redeemed for and disposed to supernaturally But yet it is worthy our observation what a difficulty sin hath cast before us in the way of life which Adam was unacquainted with that so we may see the nature of our works
dare not stand the charge of Death and with it the charge of the Law and of our Consciences How dreadfully should we then be foiled and nonplust if we must be found in no other righteousness but what we have received from the first Adam and have wrought by the strength received from him But being gathered under the wings of Christ as the chickens under the wings of the Hen Mat. 23. 37. and being found then in him having the righteousness which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith we may boldly answer to all that can be charged on us to our terrour If we know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and are made conformable to his death Phil. 3. 9 10. if we are dead with him to the world and risen with him to a holy life if we have believingly traced him in his sufferings and conquest and perceive by faith how we participate in his victories we shall then be able to grapple with the hands of Death and though we know the grave must be for a while the prison of our flesh we can by faith foresee the opening of our prison-doors and the loosing of our bonds and the day of our last and full Redemption It strengtheneth us exceedingly to look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God When we consider what he endured against himself we shall not be weary nor faint in our minds Heb. 12. 2 3. DIRECTION III. LIve also by faith on the Heavenly Glory As one eye of faith must be on an humbled crucified Christ so must the other be on Heaven on a glorified Christ and on the glory and everlasting Love of God which we shall there enjoy This is it that conquereth the fears of Death when we belive that we shall pass thorow it into everlasting life If a man for health will take the most ungrateful potion the bitterness being short and the benefit long and if he will suffer the Surgeon to let out his blood and in case of necessity to cut of a member how light should we make of Death that have the assured hopes of glory to encourage us What door so streight that we would not pass thorow if we could to our dearest friend What way so soul that we would not travel to our beloved home And shall Death seem intolerable to us that letteth in our souls to Christ Well might Paul say To dye is gain Phil. 1. 21. when we gain deliverance from all those sins that did here beset us all those sorows that sin had bred We gain the accomplishment of our desires the end of our faith the salvation of oursouls We gain the Crown that fadeth not away a place before the Throne of Christ in the Temple of God in the City of God the New Jerusalem to eat of the hidden Manna and of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2. 3. We gain the place prepared for us by Christ in his Fathers house Joqn 14. 1 2. For we shall be with him where he is that we may behold his glory Joh. 17. 24. We shall gain the sight of the glory of God and the feeling of his most precious love and the fulness of joy that is in his presence and the everlasting pleasures at his right hond Psal 16. 11. And shall we think much to dye for such a gain we will put off our cloaths and welcome sleep which is the Image of death that our bodies may have rest and refuse not thus to dye every night that we may rise more refreshed for our employments in the morning And shall we stick at the uncloathing of our souls in ordâ—â— to their everlasting Rest Set but the eye of Faith to the Prospective of the Promise and take a serious frequent view of the promised Land and this if any thing will make Death more welcome than Physick to the sick than uncloathing to a beggar that puts on new or better cloaths Shall a poor man chearfully ply his labour all day in hope of a little wages at night and shall not a believer chearfully yield to Death in hope of everlasting glory so far as Heaven is soundly believed and our conversations and hearts are there the fears of Death will be asswaged and nothing else will well asswage them DIRECTION IV. MOreover if you will conquer the enmity of Death do all that you can to encrease and exercise the love of God in you For love will so encline you to the blessed object of it that Death will not be able to keep down the flame Were God set as a seal upon our hearts we should find that Love is as strong as Death and the coals thereof are coals of fire and the flame is vehement many waters cannot quench it nor can the floods drown it Cant. 8. 6 7. If carnal Love have made the amorous to chuse Death that they might passionately express it especially when they have heard if the death of their beloved and if natural fortitude and love to their Country have made many valiant men though Heathens to contemn Death and readily lay down lives and if the love of fame and vain glory in a surviving name have caused many to dye through pride how much more will the powerful love of God put on the soul to leave this flesh and pass through Death that we may see his face and fully enjoy the object of our love So much as you love God so much will you be above the terrours of the grave and past through Death for the enjoyment of your beloved Perfect Love casteth out fear and he tqat feareth is not made perfect in love in Death and Judgement we shall have boldness if our love be perfect 1 John 4. 17 18. This maketh the Martyrs chearfully lay down their lives for Christ and love is glad of so precious an opportunity for its exercise and manifestation Love is a restless working thing that will give you no rest till your desires are attained and you be with God Nothing is so valiant as Love It rejoyceth when it meeteth with difficulties which it may encounter for the sake of our beloved It contemneth dangers It glorieth in sufferings Though it be humble and layeth by all thoughts of merit yet it rejoyceth in sufferings for Christ and glorieth in the Cross and in the participation of his sufferings and in the honourable wounds and fears which we receive for him that died for us DIRECTION V. TO overcome the terrours and enmity of Death it is necessary that we keep the Conscience clear from the guilt of wilful sin and of impenitency If it may be see that you wound it not if you have wounded it presently seek a cure