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lord_n	death_n	die_v	live_v	21,229	5	6.1130	4	false

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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

Matth. 13. 34. God will put his Name upon them and they shall be Pillars in his Temple and go out no more Rev. 2. 3. Yea they shall be equal with the Angels Luke 20. 36. Thus shall it be done to them whom God delighteth to honour even to all in their several degrees who faithfully serve and follow Christ. And yet Christians are we afraid of dying I even hate my own Heart for the remnant of its unbelief which no more rejoiceth and no more longeth to be with Christ while I read and speak of all this to you I know that clear and full apprehensions are proper to possessors and therefore not to be here expected But Lord give us such a Light of Faith as may let in some such tastes of Glory as are needful to us in our hoping State How can we chearfully labour and suffer and overcome without them How shall we go through a tempting and troubling World And entertain with joy the sentence of Death and lay down the Body in the dust without the Joy of the Lord which is our strength Had our Hearts this one promise deeply written in them we should live in Holiness and die in Joy I Have spoken of my Text to my self and you I have now a Copy of it to describe Let none think that the praise of the Dead is a needless or inconvenient work Christ himself praiseth them and will praise them whom he justifieth them before all the World Well done good and faithful Servant c. Matth. 25. He will be admired and glorified in them 2 Thes. 1. 2. The 11th of the Hebrews is the praise of many of them of whom the World was not worthy this wicked world which know neither how to value them or to use them Christ will have the tears and costly love of a poor penitent Woman who anointed him to be spoken of wherever the Gospel is read The Orations of excellent Gregory Nazianzen Greater than Gregory the Great with many such shew us that the Ancients thought this a needful work Many live in times and places where few such men are known And they have need to know from others that there are and have been such Had not I known such I had wanted one of the greatest arguments for my Faith I should the hardlier have believed that Christ is a Saviour if I had not known such as he hath begun to save nor that there is a Heaven for Souls if I had not known some disposed and prepared for it by a holy mind and life I thank God I have known Many Many Many such of several ranks some High more Low O how many such though not all of the same degree of holiness have I lived with who are gone before me Holy Gentlemen Holy Ministers of Christ and holy poor men I love Heaven much the better when I think that they are there And while I am so near them and daily wait for my remove though I here yet breath and speak in flesh why may I not think that I am nearlier related to that Congregation than to this The saying is A friend is half our Soul If so sure the greater half of mine is gone thither long ago It is but a little of me that is yet in painful weary flesh And now one part of me more is gone the Holy and Excellent Henry Ashhurst And God will have me to live so long after him as to tell you what he was to his Fathers and Redeemers praise and to provoke you to imitation God saith The memory of the Iust shall be blessed while the Wickeds name shall rot Methinks even the natural pride of Princes who would not be the scorn of future ages but the praise should accidentally incline them to do good and seem good at the least while the Common experience of all the world tells us that God doth wonderfully shew himself the Governour of the world by ruling fame to the perpetual honour of good and the shame and scorn of evil Even among Heathens what a name is left of Titus Trajan Adrian and above all the Roman Emperours of Antonine the Philosopher and Alexander Severus And who nameth a Nero Domitian Commodus Heliogabalus c. without reproach Yea I have observed that though Malefactors hate the Prince that punisheth them and ungodly men hate piety and the persons that condemn and trouble them in their sins yet such a testimony for goodness is left in common nature that even the generality of the prophane and vicious world speak well of a Wise Just Godly Prince even living and much more when he is dead And so they do of other publick persons Magistrates and Ministers of the Gospel and they will praise goodness in others that will not practise it especially that which brings sensible good to mens bodies or to the Comon wealth And therefore Great men should hate that Counsel which cryeth down Popularity as a trick to make them contemn the sense of those below them For usually it is the best Rulers that are most praised by the Vulgar by reason of the self glorifying Light by which true goodness shineth in the world and by reason of the experience of mankind that good men will do good to others How commonly will even drunkards whoremongers and unjust men reproach a Magistrate or Teacher that is a Drunkard Whoremonger or Unjust and praise the contrary Much more will the Wise and Good do it who indeed are as the Soul of Kingdoms and other Societies and the chief in propagating fame It s true that the bellua multorum capitum is liable to disorders and unfit for secrets or uniting Government and its hypocrisie to affect Popular applause as our folicity or reward or to be moved by it against God and duty But many men see more and hear more than one and single men are apter to be perverted and Judge falsly by personal interests and prejudice than the multitude are Vox populi is oft times Vox Dei I have Read Dr. Heylin villifying A Bishop Abbot and saying the Church hath no greater a plague than a Popular Prelate or to that sense And I have heard some reproach the late Judge Hale as a Popular man But as my intimacy with the last assured me that he set very little by the opinion of high or low in comparison of Justice and Conscience so while God keeps up a testimony for goodness in Humane nature men will not think ill of a man because his goodness hath constrained even the most to praise him Nor will it prove the way to please God or profit themselves or others to make themselves odious by cruelty or wickedness and then to despise their judgments that dispraise them and to cry down Popularity Wo to you when all men speak well of you meaneth when either you do the evil that the wicked praise or forsake truth and duty lest they dispraise you or as hypocrites make mens praise your end

compleat perfect Teacher who teacheth you by words and works and inspiration and can make you what he bids you be and leaveth out nothing that is necessary to your salvation 7. And you have the only sufficient Guid to happiness He is the Way the Truth and the Life and no man cometh to the Father but by him No man but he hath revealed the God and Glory which he hath fully seen and known All men are liers and deceivers not to be trusted further than some way they have learnt of him by the teaching of his Works or Word or Spirit And now shall we need to say more to men that are already vowed to Christ in their Baptism who profess themselves Christians who know that they must die and who know that there is no other hope or way to perswade them to be what they profess that they may not miss of what they hope for But the following Promises if believed will perswade you III. Where I am there shall my servant be They that Serve and follow Christ shall in their measure speed as he doth and be with him where he is Quest. And where is that Ans. It is certainly in no ill place Though it be a controversie whether Christ descerded to Hell it is certain that now he is not there And therefore his members shall not be there He is certainly in Paradise for there he promised the converted thief to be that day with him He is in Heaven Acts 1. 11. This same Iesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven Acts 3. 21. Whom the heaven must receive till the time of restitution of all things John 17. And now O Father glorifie me with thine own self Vers. 13. And now I come to thee It is in the Glorious presence of God that Christ now abideth in our nature Even at the Right hand of God Matth. 26. 64. Mark 14. 62. 16. 19. Luk. 22. 6. 9. Act. 7. 55. 56. Rom. 8. 34. Eph. 1. 20 Col. 3. 1. Heb. 1. 3 13. 8. 1. 12. 2. 10. 12. 1 Pet. 3. 22. Therefore though many Texts do seem to intimate that he will return to earth again and that the New Ierusalem shall come down from Heaven and that we look for a new Heaven and Earth in which righteousness shall dwell yet these Texts do fully prove that faithful Souls go presently to Christ who is in Heaven and that there will be no such descent to earth as shall be any diminution of the Glory of the Saints For it shall be no diminution of the Glory of Christ And we shall be where Christ will be If Heaven come down to Earth and the Vail be drawn it will be no loss 2. That departed faithful Souls go to him the Scripture elsewhere also tells us Ioh. 17. 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which thou hast given me Luke 23. 43. To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 16. 9. When we fail here we shall be received into the everlasting habitations Vers. 22. The beggar died and was carryed by Angels into Abrahams bosome Vers. 25. Now he is comforted 2 Cor. 5. 1 8. We know that if our earthly house of this 〈…〉 were dissolved we have a building of God 〈…〉 not made with hands eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to 〈…〉 upon with our house which is from heaven that 〈…〉 might be swallowed up of life Vers. ● We are confident and willing rather to be 〈◊〉 from the body and present with the Lord. Phil. 1. 21 22. To me to live in Christ and 〈…〉 gain having a desire to depart to be with 〈…〉 Heb. 12. 22 23 24. We are come to Mount Sion and to the City of the living God the heavenly Ierusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the Spirits of just men made perfect and to Iesus the mediator of the new Covenant Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them I heap all these Texts together for my self as well as you that we may see that as the faithful shall certainly have a blessed resurrection so their departing souls at death shall certainly be with Christ in glory For I take the assurance of the Souls immortality and felicity at death to be a point that deserveth as much of our thoughtful diligence as any one that we have to think of He is mad that doubteth whether there be a God if he live with his eyes open in the world And as for Christianity it is Life and Immortality which Christ came to secure us of and bring to light And he that by the light of Nature doth but believe the Souls immortality and a life of retribution is much prepared to be a Christian so suitable will he find Christianity to our everlasting interest But yet all will be dark to men and seem uncertain till Christ be their Teacher and they truly believe in him and take it on his certain word Truly believe that Iesus is the Christ and his Gospel true and there is no room for a doubt of the Immortality of Souls and future blessedness so plainly is it exprest in all the Gospel The Socinians that look for nothing till the Resurrection dream of a dreaming sleep of Souls but dare not talk of any cessation or annihilation of them For then a Resurrection is a Contradiction Another soul may be created but it cannot be the same that was annihilated And as no man can believe that Christ speaketh truth and is Christ indeed but he must needs believe his promise that the faithful Soul shall be where he is So no man can truly believe that all faithful Souls and only such shall be with Christ and partake of blessedness but it will constrain him to a life of serious holiness at least if it feast him not with the foretast of heavenly joys Can you imagine that any man can firmly believe that all and only holy souls go to Christ in glory when they leave the body and yet not seek first the Kingdom of God and make the securing of this his chiefest care and business in the World It cannot be every man loveth himself And no man can be indifferent whether his Soul be in Heaven or Hell for ever Dulness and present diverting things may make a man negligent and inconsiderate about lesser matters where the loss seemeth tolerable But I cannot believe that if a man be awake and in his wits any thing but secret unbelief and doubting can make one so dull or inconsiderate about his everlasting joy or

Ministers of Christ to help you where you found your self insufficient Have you daily beg'd the help of the Spirit of God as knowing that heavenly things must be discerned by a heavenly light Have you honestly obeyed so much as you did know If you have done this which reason requireth I do not think that thus waiting on God he will leave you to any damnable unbelief or to an unholy sensual life But because the strengthening of our belief herein is the most needful thing even to the best both for their hope and joy and duty and all that understand themselves must earnestly desire that their belief of the Gospel and the Life to come did reach to a satisfying certainty I will shortly repeat the proofs that must ascertain us Though I have largely done it in my Books called The Life of Faith and The Reasons of the Christian Religion and The Unreasonableness of Infidelity I care not how oft when necessary I repeat them and wish that they were more of the daily study of those that now study Controversies or only Superstructures I. And first Nature giveth us these Arguments to prove Mans future State 1. God hath made Man with an essential capacity to think and care as his greatest concern what shall become of his Soul when he dieth And God maketh none of his Works in vain much less so noble a one as Man 2. A bare probability of the life to come as now revealed with our certainty of the brevity and vanity of this Life maketh it the interest and certain duty of all Men in the World to be far more careful for their future state than for the Body and this present Life He liveth against Reason that doth not this 3. And can a wise Man believe that God bindeth all Men by their essential Reason to make the care of a thing that is not or ever shall be to be the chief business of their lives and that deceit and falshood should be the guide of all our greatest actions and Man should be made to follow a lie to his everlasting disappointment Judge reasonably whether this be like to be the work of the most Great and Wise and Holy God 4. History and experience assureth us that it is the expectation of a Life to come the hope of Reward there and the fear of punishment which are Gods means for the actual government of mankind And though many Atheists are in the World and more Saduces and Unbelievers yet few if any are wholly such but have Consciences that keep them in some awe And Laws and professed Religion tell you that it is hopes and fears of another life which are the ruling principles which as they reign in the best so few of the worst will directly contradict And were it not for such fears of punishment hereafter the Lives of no Princes or Enemies would be safe from destroying Malice Policy or Power And is it likely that this World is governed by a Lie by that God who wants no Power Wisdom or Love to govern it by Truth and who maketh the best Men the greatest haters of Lying that they may be like Him 5. And how comes the belief of the Souls immortality to be so common a principle in the nature of Man if it be not true II. But seeing it is the Gospel that must give us the full and satisfying certainty keep these few evidences of its Truth continually Printed on your Minds 1. Remember that Promises Types and Prophesies foretold Christs coming long before even Prophesies sealed with Miracles and fulfilled 2. Remember that Christs own Person and Doctrine did bear that Image of God which is unimitable and had that Power Wisdom and Love which prove them to be of God Gods Image and Superscription discernable by holy minds doth difference the Gospel from all the words of fallible Men. 3. Remember that it was proved to be of God by multitudes of open and uncontrolled Miracles And God will not work Miracles remedilesly to deceive mankind especially the great Miracle of Christs Resurrection long by him foretold and his visible ascending up to Heaven 4. The sending down the promised Spirit on the Apostles and on other believers then for Languages Miracles Prophesyings c. And the long exercise of these Tongues and Miracles by many and in many parts of the World and the gathering of the Churches by them 5. The full and certain Historical conveyance of these matters of fact to us in and by the sacred Scriptures Church Ordinances and Tradition as the Statutes of the Land are delivered us without any weakning contradiction of the said History or fact 6. Above all the continued Testimony of Gods Spirit in all true believers that is the same Spirit which indited the Scripture writeth it out on all holy Souls or formeth reneweth and disposeth them to answerable holyness even to the Image of God in holy Light and Love and Life and to a heavenly Mind and Conversation and to be sober ●●st and loving to all And God would never bless a Lye to do the greatest work in this World to make Men good and like himself And remember that the whole frame and tendency of the Spirits sanctifying work on Souls is to prepair them for a Life to come by causing them to believe it desire it hope for it and seek it and hate sin and part with any thing to obtain it All sound believers have this work upon them and are of such a Mind and Spirit And this Spirit or holy nature in them is Christs witness and theirs They have the witness in themselves 1 Ioh. 5. 10. 7. And remember that even the Malice of Satan affordeth us much help to confirm our Faith It is notorious that he keepeth up through all the World a war against Christ and against our hopes of future glory How he followeth Men with inward importunate temptations against their own interest and reason and what proof of his malice we have in Humane wickedness and in Witches Witchrafts or operations on Bodies Apparitions c. I have so often proved to you that I will now forbear the repetition And doth not all this contain assuring evidence of the Truth of Christ his Gospel and our future hopes Use Come then fellow Christians Let us pray Lord increase our Faith Let us detest all suggestions which tend to Unbelief and so would bring us to the rank of Bruits and to despair Let us live according to our most holy Faith and shew our selves and others that we heartily believe that the Servants of Christ that follow him shall be with him where he is O pray for Faith Meditate for Faith Lament your Unbelief O fools that we are and slow of Heart to believe a Gospel so revealed and confirmed Why are we so fearful of dying O we of little Faith Were but this one Text written on our Hearts and turned into Faith and Hope yea did we believe Christ speaking it but as

joyfully trusted him rejoyced in his love and hoped for his Kingdom But without any overvaluing of his own worth or works having much in his mouth those words of St. Paul I have nothing to glory of and I am nothing XXI The last part of his example which I have to commend to you and specially to my self is his marvellous Patience as through all his life so specially in his last and sharp affliction It was a providence which posed many of us that God should so smartly handle such a man as this till Gods Oracles told our Faith enough to silence all murmuring thoughts of God For God had given him before the blessings of Iob a healthful body and constant prosperity and shall Sinners taste no correction and receive nothing of God but pleasant things All Gods graces must have their exercise and tryal And Faith and Patience are most tried and exercised in a suffering state God loveth not Martyrs less than others 2. And he had served God before by Action and usually our last service is by Patience And Lazarus in sores and wants was in a safer way to Abrahams bosom than Dives in his silks and sumptuous fare 3. And we are naturally so loth to leave this world and flesh that God seeth it meet to help our willingness by making us weary of it And affliction though grievous for the present tendeth to the quiet fruit of righteousness And making us partakers of Gods holiness certainly tendeth to make us partakers of his Glory Cross-bearing and partaking of the sufferings of Christ is an indispenable Christian duty We must be conformed to him in his sufferings if we will reign with him and be partakers of our Masters joy And in heaven all tears are wiped away and there are no groans nor moans no sorrows nor repining or accusing God for any of our former sufferings What need have I yea what need have you all to remember this Flesh will feel and Faith will not avoid pain and present torment no more than death but it fortified our dear Brothers Soul that it should not too much suffer with his Body Several years he was molested most with some cloudy trouble of his head which Tunbridge waters eased for a time And next with Acrimony of Urine And next it too painfully appeared to be the Stone in the Bladder He long resolved to endure it to the death but at last extremity of torment despair of any other ease did suddenly cause him to choose to be cut Two stones were found and one of them in the operation was broken into pieces many of which were taken out by very terrible search about thirty pieces after came away through the wound Physicians and all present admired at his patience No word no action signified any distressing sense And though he was about 65 years old God did recover him and heal the wound But we were too unthankful and his pains returned Gently at first but afterwards as terribly as before And after that a strong Fever of which unexpectedly he recovered And then oft inflammations and at last a dangerous one And finally so great torment that a French Lithotomist being here he was over-perswaded to be searcht and cut again a third stone was taken away with competent speed and ease and divers big fragments of it which had been broken off in the first operation Thus was he cut twiee in about a years space and the wound seemed marvellously to heal for divers months and when we had prayed hard for him we turned it to thanksgiving and thought the danger of death was past But after his strength failed and he died in peace God gave him those months of ease and calmness the better to bear his approaching change In all this none heard him express any querulous impatience Most of his words were telling men how tolerable his pain was and how good God was and thankfully acknowledging his mercy The last words which I had from him were of the goodness of God concluding O that we could love God more And when he thought he should recover he was very solicitous in his enquiry what God would have him do in gratitude And one of the chief things which he resolved on to one of his old friends was that he would set upon as many Parliament-men as he could speak with to repeal all the Laws which hinder good men from preaching Christs Gospel Adding moreover And Countrey man saith he you and I will take care for Lancashire that the Gospel may be more preached among them It being their Native Countrey and abounding with Papists and many parts have scarcity of Preachers But suddenly he past from the Exercise of Faith and Patience unto sight and rest His last words save his farewel and Come Lord Iesus were to an old friend Mr. Nathaniel Hulton to walk in the way of God will be comfort at death being not of their mind who for fear of fetching too much comfort from our own duty which they call works do think Christs merits injured by such thoughts and words as these as if the Cure were a disgrace to our Physician or Christ Matth. 25. had misdescribed the last judgment or God were no rewarder of them that diligently seek him and laying up our treasure and hearts in heaven were no means to be received into the everlasting habitation And thus passed this faithful Soul to Christ. And now Reader have I not shewed thee a true Copy of the first part of my Text One that indeed served Christ and followed him Is not this his Image and Imitation And is it not sure then that he is where Christ is and that God that maketh it our duty to honour his memory on earth hath given him another kind of honour in the heavens And to what other end have I said all this of him In General Go and do thou likewise I. I do it much for the use of the Magistrates and People of this City I commend this example to them all O what an honourable and happy City would this be if you were all such as our deceased Brother was We joyfully thank God for so much goodness as flourished among you The Lord make London still the glory of the Cities on earth But were all Families used as his Family was and all men here lived as this man lived we should suspect we had the new earth wherein dwelt righteousness And were Princes and Nobles such the World such or but the Christian Church such what a taste of Heaven should we have on earth But should we not then be too loth to die and too little difference earth from heaven But O that London who know that I do not over-praise this holy man would but imitate his example II. I do it much for his Childrens use Their Honour their Comfort but especially their everlasting good Will they ever forget the instructions the Love and the life of such a Father III. I do it partly for the use of the Clergy and their Agents that have judged such men as this to be worthy of all the reproach and sufferings which some Canons and late Laws have laid on such I write not to cast reproach back upon them But Reverend Fathers and brethren as you believe a God a Christ a Judgment and a Life to come be think you whether such men as this should be sined or Excommunicated ipso sacto as your Canon doth it And when Christ hath promised that if they serve him they shall be where he is and his Father will honour them dare you make your Church-doors too narrow to receive them when Dr. Heylin tells us how far Bishop Laud would have had it widened to receive the Papists if they would come in Do not such men as this serve and follow Christ And are they yet excommunicate Schismaticks if they will not serve and follow you in the things that neither Christ nor his Apostles commanded or practised yea which they forbid as I have proved in my first Plea and my Treat of Episcopacy I am in great hope that if you knew but the tenth part of the now silenced Ministers and prosecuted People that I do your consciences would constrain you to publish your repentance and petition King and Parliament for better terms of Unity and Peace For I will hope that most silencers and afflicters do it more through ignorance and unacquantedness with the men than in Diabolical malignity IV. And I have done this for my own use To discharge my duty To set before me this pattern of Sincerity Love and Patience for my reproof and imitation We were of the same year for age and of the same judgment and desire and aim But I have not attained to his degree of goodness and patience Being not unlikely to be exercised with some like afflictions after a life of wonderful mercy and quickly to follow my departed Friend I beg of God that he will not trie me beyond the strength which he will give me but so increase my faith and patience that I may finish my course with joy V. Lastly I have written this for the comfort of all serious suffering Believers Christians let us not think that we serve Christ for nought or that our labour for Holiness and Heaven is in vain Nor let us faint when we are tried and chastised Labour and Sorrow will quickly have an end Angels are ready to convoy us home How low soever you are here in your Bodies Estates Employment or Reputation you have Christs promise that his Father will honour you Look then to Iesus the Author and Perfecter of your Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame lest you be weary and faint in your minds And comfort one one another with these words that we shall be ever with the Lord. Amen FINIS