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
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
pained with these diseases And can we live in daily pain and weariness and not be willing of release Is there a gracious soul that groaneth not under the burden of these miseries yea in every prayer what do we else but confess them and lament them and groan for help and for deliverance And yet shall we fear our day of freedom and be loth that Death should bring us news that our prayers are heard and our groans have reached up to heaven and that the bonds of flesh and sin shall be dissolved and we shall have need to watch and strive and fear and complain and sigh and weep no more Shall the face of death discourage us from desiring such a blessed day When we have so full assurance that at last this enemy also shall be destroyed The Lord heal and pardon the Hypocrisie of our complaints together with the unbelief and cowardliness of our Souls Do we speak so much and hear so much and seem to do so much against sin and yet had we rather keep it still then be stript of it together with the rags of our mortality and yet had we rather dwell with sin in tempting troubling corruptible flesh then lay them by and dwell with Christ O Lord how lamentably have we lost our wisdom and drowned our minds in flesh and folly by forsaking thee our light and life How come our reasonable souls to be so bewitched as after all our convictions complaints and prayers to be still more willing of our sickness then of the remedy and more afraid of this bitter Cup then of the poyson that lodgeth in our bowels which it would expel and that after all the labour we have used we had yet rather dwell with our greatest enemy then by a less to be transmitted to our dearest friend and had rather continue in a troublesome weary restless life then by the sleep of death to pass to Rest And this sin in others also is our trouble though not so much as in our selves It maketh those our bitter enemies whose good we most desire and endeavour and causeth the unthankful world to requite us with malicious usage For telling them the ungrateful truth and seeking their salvation It makes our friends to be but half-friends and some of them too like our enemies It puts a sting into the sweetest friendship and mixeth smart with all our pleasures It worketh us grief from precious mercies and abateth the comfort of our near Relations So that our smart by the pricks is often greater then our pleasure in the sweetness of the Rose No friend is so smoothed and squared to the temper and interest of another but that some inequality and unevenness doth remain which makes the closure to be less near and stedfast Even Family-relations are usually so imperfectly jointed and cemented that when the when the winds of tryal are any thing high they shake the frame and though they are but low they find an entrance and cause such a coldness of affections as is contrary to the nature and duty of the Relations Either a contrariety of opinions or of natural temperature and humours or else of the dispositions of the mind Sometime cross interests and sometime passions and cross words do cause such discontents and sowrness such frowns or jealousies or distances that our nearest friends are but as sackloth on our skins and as a shoo too strait for us or as a garment that is unmeet which pinch and trouble us in their use and those that should be to us as the Apple of our eyes are as the dust or smoak to them that vex or blind them And the more we Love them the more it grieveth us to be crossed in our love There is scarce any friend so wise so good so suitable to us or so near that we can alwayes please And the displeasure of a friend is as gravell in our shoos or as Nettles in our bed oft-times more grievous then the malice of an enemy There is no such doing as this in heaven because there is no such guest as sin We shall love each other far more then we do here and yet that Love shall never be inordinate nor in the least divert our love from God but every Saint and Angel in the Society shall be loved with most chaste and pure affections in a perfect subordination to the love of God and so as that God himself in them shall be the chiefest object of that love It is there that our friends being freed from all their imperfections do neither tempt us to a carnal Love nor have any thing in them to discourage the love that is spiritual and pure We have here our passionate friends our self-conceited friends our unkind unthankfull selfish friends our mutable and unfaithful friends our contentions friends that are like to enemies and who have used us more hardly then our friends But when we come to God we shall have friends that are like God that are wholly good and are participatively turned into Love and having left behind them all that was unclean and noysome and troublesome to themselves they have also cast off all that could be troublesome to us Our love will be there without suspicions without interruptions unkindnesses and discontents without disappointments frustrations and dissatisfactions For God himself will fully satisfie us and we shall love his goodness and glory in his Saints as well as immediately in himself Our friends are now lost at the turning of a straw the change of their interest their company their opinions the slanders of back-biters and mis-representations of malicious men can cool their Love and kill their friendship But Heaven is a place of constant Love The Love of Saints as all things else is there eternal And yet it declineth not with age It is a world of Love that we are hasting to It is a life of love that we must there live and a work of love and perfect love that we must be there employed in for ever If here we have a pure a dear a faithful friend that is without false-heartedness and deceit that loveth us as his own soul how quickly is he snatcht away by death and leaves us melted into tears and mourning over his earthly relicts and looking upward with grieved hearts as the Disciples did after their ascending Lord Acts 1. 9 10 11. We are left almost as lifeless by such friends as the body is left by the departed soul We have nothing but grief to tell us that we live and that our souls are not departed with them we are left in greater lamentation then if we had never known a faithful friends And alas how quickly are they gone when once God sees them ripe for heaven When Droans and Dullards live much longer If we see a Saint that 's clear of judgement and low in humility and naked-hearted in sincerity and that abounds in love to God and man that 's faithful and constant to their friend and
yet are distressed when they are at the dispose of the will of God But perhaps you will say It is the error of my own will that hath procured my Death if it had been meerly the fruit of the will of God I could be easily satisfied Answ Wo to us if we had not ground of comfort against the errors of our own wills When our destruction is of our selves our help is of God So much as is of our selves in it is evil but so much as is of God is good I do not say that you should rest in your own wills nor in your own wayes but in the will and wayes of God The rod is good though the fault that makes it necessary be bad The Chastising will is good though the sinning will be evil And it is good that is intended to us and shall be performed in the event Object But how can we rest in the angry afflicting will of God when it is this that we must be humbled under and it is the will of God that is the condemnation of the wicked Ans The effect being from a twofold cause the sinning will of man and the punishing will of God is accordingly good as from the latter and so far should be loved and consented to by all and evil as from the former and so may be abhorred But to the Saints there is yet greater Consolation Though affliction is their grief as it signifieth Gods displeasure and causeth the smart or destruction of the flesh yet it is their mercy as it proceedeth from the Love of God and prepareth them for the greatest mercies And therefore seeing God never bringeth evil on them that Love him but what is preparatory to a far greater good we may well take comfort in our Death that it is our Fathers will it should be so Use 8. IF Death shall be conquered as the last enemy from hence Christians may receive exceeding consolation as knowing that they have no enemy to their happiness but such as shall be conquered by Christ sooner or later he will overcome them all Let faith therefore foresee the conquest in the conflict and let us not with too much despondency hang down our heads before any enemy that we know shall be trodden down at last We have burdensome corruptions that exercise our graces and grieve the spirit and wrong our Lord but all these shall be overcome Though we have heard and read and prayed and meditated and yet our sins remain alive they shall be conquered at last Our Love and Joy and praise shall be everlasting but our ignorance and unbelief and pride and passion shall not be everlasting Our Holiness shall be perfected and have no end but our sin shall be abolished and have an end Our friends shall abide with us for ever and the holy love and communion of Saints shall be perfected in heaven But our enemies shall not abide with â—s for ever nor malice follow us to our Reâ—t The wicked have no comforts but what will have an end and the fore-thought of that is sufficient to imbitter even the present sweetness And the godly have no sorrows but such as are of short continuance And nethinks the fore-sight of their end should sweeten the present bitter Cup and make our sorrows next to none We sit weeâ—ing now in the midst of manifold afflictions But we fore-see the day when we shall weep no more but all tears shall be wiped from our eyes by the tender hand of our merciful Redeemer We are now afraid of love it self even of our dear and blessed Father lest he should hate us or be angry with us for ever But heaven will banish all these fears when the perfect fruition of the eternal Love hath perfected our love Our doubtings and perplexities of mind are many and grievous but they will be but short When we have full possession we shall be past our doubts Our work is now to pour out our grieved souls into the bosome of some faithful friend or ease our troubled minds by complaining of our miseries to our faithful Pastors that from them we may have some words of direction and consolation But O how different a work is it that we shall have in heaven where no more complainings shall be heard from our mouths nor no more sorrow shall possess our hearts and we shall have no need of men to comfort us but shall have comfort as naturally from the face of God as we have light and heat in the summer from the sun When we all make one celestial Chore to sing the praises of the King of Saints how unlike will that melody be to the broken musick of sighs and groans and lamentations which we now take to be almost our best We are now glad when we can find but words and groans and tears to lament our sin and misery But then our joy shall know no sorrow nor our voice any sad and mournful tune And may we not bear a while the sorrows that shall have so good an end We shall shortly have laid by the hard unprofitable barren hearts that are now our continual burden and disease Love not your corruptions Christians but yet be patient under the unavoidable relicts that offend you remembring that your conflict will end in conquest and your faith and watchfulness and patience will be put to it but a little while Who would not enter willingly into the fight when he may before hand be assured that the field shall be cleared of every enemy All this must be ascribed to our dear Redeemer Had not he wrought the conquest the enemies that vex us would have destroyed us and the Serpent that now doth but bruise our heel would have bruised our head and the sorrows that are wholesome sanctified and short would have been mortal venemous and endless What suffering then can be so great in which a believer should not rejoyce when he is before hand promised a gracious end What though at the present it be not joyous but greivous in it self We should bear it with patience when we know that at last it shall bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to all them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12. 11. If we should be alwayes abused and alwayes unthankfully and unkindly dealth with or alwayes under the scorns or slanders or persecutions of unreasonable men or alwayes under our poverty and toilsome labours or alwayes under our pains and pining sicknesses we might then in deed dismiss our comforts But when we know that it will be but a little while and that all will end in Rest and Joy and that our sorrows are but preparing for those Joyes even Reason it self is taught by Faith to bid us rejoyce in all our tribulations and to lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees Heb. 12. 12. We make nothing to endure a sudden prick that by blood-letting we may prevent a long disease The short pain of pulling out a tooth
off your siding keep this blessed simple Unity you will then be wiser then in a passion to cast your selves into Hell because some fall out in the way to Heaven Nor will it serve your turn at the bar of God to talk of the miscarriages or scandalls of some that took on them to be godly no more then to run out of the Ark for the sake of Cham on out of Christs familie for the sake of Judas What ever men are God is Just and will do you no wrong and you are called to Believe in God and to serve him and not to believe in men Nothing but wickedness could so far blind men as to make them think they may cast off their love service to the Lord because some others have dishonoured him Or that they may cast away their souls by carelesness because some others have wounded their souls by particular sins Do you dislike the sins of Professors of Godliness So much the better We desire you not to agree with them in sinning Joyn with them in a Holy life and imitate them so far as they obey the Lord go as far beyond them in avoiding the sins that you are offended at as you can and this is it that we desire Supose they were Covetous or Liars or Schismatical Imitate them in holy duties and fly as far from Covetousness Lying and Schism as you will You have had Learned and Godly Bishops of this City Search the writings of those of them that have left any of their labours to posterity and see whether they speak not for the same substantials of faith and godliness which are now Preacht to you by those that you set so light by Bishop Laitmer Parrey Babington c. while they were Bishops and Rob. Abbot Hall c. before they were Bishops all Excellent Learned Godly men have here been Preachers to your Ancestors Read their Books and you will find that they call men to that strictness and holiness of life which you cannot abide Read your Bishop Babington on the Commandments and see there how zealously he condemneth the Prophaners of the Lords Day and those that make it a day of idleness or sports And what if one man think that one Bishop should have hundreds of Churches under his sole jurisdiction and another man think that every full Parish-Church should have a Bishop of their own and that one Parish will find him work enough be he what he will be which is the difference now amongst us is this so heinous a disagreement as should frighten you from a holy life which all agree for To conclude remember this is the day of your salvation Ministers are your Helpers Christ and Holiness are your way Scripture is your Rule the Godly must be your company and the Communion of Saints must be your desire If now any scandals divisions displeasures or any seducements of secret or open adversaries of the truth or temptations of Satan the world or flesh whatsoever shall prevaile with you to lose your day to refuse your mercies and to neglect Christ and your immortal souls you are conquered and undone and your enemy hath his will and the more confidently and fearlesly you brave it out the more is your misery for the harder are your hearts and the harder is your cure and the surer and sorer will be your damnation I have purposely avoided the enticing words of worldly wisdom and a stile that tends to claw your ears and gain applause with aery wits and have chosen these familiar words and dealt thus plainly and freely with you because the greatness of the cause perswaded me I could not be too serious Whether many of you will read it what success it shall have upon them or how those that read it will take it I cannot tell But I know that I intended it for your good and that whether you will hear or whether you will forbear the Ministers of Christ must not forbear to do their duty nor be rebellious themselves but our Labours shall be acceptable with our Lord and you shall know that his Ministers were among you Ezek. 2. 3 4 5 6 7 8. Yet a little while is the Lightwith you Walk while ye have the Light lest darkness come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth Joh. 12. 35. O take this warning from Christ and from An earnest desirer of your everlasting Peace Rich. Baxter The CONTENTS THE Introduction p. 1. What is meant by an Enemy and how Death is an Enemy to Nature p. 4 5. How Death is an Enemy to Grace and to our salvation discovered in ten particulars p. 10. How Christ conquereth this Enemy p. 23. Four Antidotes given us against the Enmity of Death at our Conversion p. 26. How Death is made a destruction of it self p. 36. The full destruction at the Resurrection p. 39. The first Use to resolve the doubt Whether Death be a punishment to Believers p. 41. Use 2. To shew us the malignity of sin and how we should esteem and use it p. 43. Use 3. To teach us that man hath now a need of Grace for difficulties which were not before him in his state of innocency p. 47 Use 4. To inform us of the Reasons of the sufferings and death of Christ p. 50. Use 5. To rectifie the mistakes of some true Believers that think they have no saving Grace because the fears of Death deterr them from desiring to be with Christ p. 53. Use 6. To teach us to study and magnifie our Redeemers conquering Grace that overcometh Death and makes it our advantage p. 62. Use 7. To direct us how to prepare for Death and overcome the enmity and fear of it p. 71 Direct 1. Make sure that Conversion be sound p. 74. Direct 2. Live by faith on Christ the Conquerour p. 75 Direct 3. Live also by faith on the Heavenly Glory p. 77. Direct 4. Labour to encrease and exercise Divine Love p. 80. Direct 5. Keep conscience clear or if it be wounded presently seek the cure p. 82. Direct 6. Redeem and improve your precious time p. 84. Direct 7. Crucifie the flesh and die to the world p. 85. Direct 8. A conformity to God in the hatred of sin and love of holiness and especially in the point of justice p. 87. Direct 9. The due consideration of the restlesness and troubles of this life and of the manifold evils that end at Death p. 89. Direct 10. Resign your wills entirely to the will of God and acquiesce in it as your safety felicity and Rest p. 103. Use 8. Great comfort to Believers that they have no enemy but what they are sure shall be conquered at last p. 106. Object But what comfort is all this to me that know not whether I have part in Christ or no Answered to satisfie the doubts and further the assurance of the troubled Christian p. 111 Use 9. What a mercy the Resurrection of Christ
and live not in a wounded state The face of Death will waken conscience and cause it to speak much lowder than it did in health and in prosperity And then sin will seem another thing and wrath more terrible than it did in your security Conscience will do much to make your burden light or heavy If Conscience groundedly speak peace and all be sound and well at home Death will be less terrible the heart being fortified against its enmity But to have a pained body and a pained soul a dying body and a scorched Conscience that is afraid of everlasting Death this is a terrible case indeed Speedily therefore get rid of sin and get your Consciences throughly cleansed by sound repentance and the blood of Christ For so much sin as you bring to your death-bed so much bitterness will there be in Death Away then with that sin that Conscience tells you of and touch the forbidden fruit no more and kindle not the sparks of Hell in your souls to make the sting of Death more venemous As it will quiet a believing soul through Christ when he can say with Hezekiah Isa 38. 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and it will be our rejoycing if we have the testimony of our Consciences that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1. 12. So will it be most terrible to dye in the fears of unpardoned sin and to have Conscience scourging us with the remembrance of our folly when God is afflicting us and we have need of a well-composed mind to bear the troubles of our flesh A little from without is grievous when any thing is amiss within Get home therefore to Christ without delay and cease not till you have peace in him that Death may find your Consciences whole DIRECTION VI. REdeeming time is another means to prevent the hurtful fears of Death When we foreknow that it will shortly end our time let us make the best of time while we have it And then when we find that our work is done and that we did not loyter nor lose the time that God vouchsafed us the end of it will be less grievous to us A man that studieth his duty and spareth for no cost or pains and is as loath to lose an hours time as a covetous man is to lose an hundred pound will look back on his life and look before him to his Death with greater peace and less perplexity than another man But the thoughts of Death must needs be terrible to a man that hath trifled away his life and been an unthrift of his time To think when you must dye that now you are at your last day or hour and withall to think how many hours you vainly lost and that you knew not the worth of time till it was gone will make Death more bitter than now you can imagine What else is Deaah but the ending of our Time and what can be more necessary to a comfortable end then faithfully to use it while we have it DIRECTION VII ANother help against the Enmity of Death is the Crucifying of the flesh with its affections and lusts and the conquest of the world by the life of faith and crucifying it by the Cross of Christ and dying daily by the patient suffering of the Cross our selves When we are loose from all things under the Sun and there is nothing that entangleth our affections on earth a great part of the difficulty is then removed But Death will tear the heart that is glued to any thing in this world Possess therefore as if you possessed not and rejoyce as if you rejoyced not and use the world as not abusingit for the fashion of this world doth pass away 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. It is much for the sake of our flesh that must perish that Death doth seem so bitter to us If therefore we can throughly subdue the flesh and live above its pleasure and desires we shall the more easily bear its dissolution Shut up your senses then a little more and let your hearts grow stranger to this world and if you have known any persons relations accomodations after the flesh from henceforth know them so no more How terrible is Death to an earthly-minded man that had neglected his soul for a treasure here which must then be dissipated in a moment How easie is Death to a heavenly-mind that is throughly weaned from this world and taketh it but for his pilgrimage or passage unto life and it hath made it the business of his dayes to lay up for himself a treasure in Heaven He that hath unfeignedly made Heaven his end in the course of his life will most readily pass to it on the hardest terms For every man is willing to attain his end DIRECTION VI. IT will much help us against the enmity of Death to be duly conformed to the Image of God in the hatred of sin and love of holiness and in special in the point of Justice When we hate sin throughly and find it so incorporated into our flesh that they must live and dye together it will make Death the more easie to us because it will be the dath of sin even of that sin which we most hate and that God hateth and that hath cost us so dear as it hath done When we are in love with holiness and know that we shall never be perfect in it till after Death it will make Death the more welcome as the passage to our desired life When the Justice even the castigatory and vindictive Justice of God is more amiable in our eyes and we are not blinded by self-love to judge of God and of his wayes according to the interest of our flesh we shall then consent to his dissolving stroke and that see the bitterness of Death proceedeth from that which is good in God though from that which is evil in our selves Doubtless as Justice is one of the blessed Attributes of God so should it be amiable to man there being nothing in God but what is lovely It is the prevalency of self-love that makes men so insensible of the excellency of Divine Justice while they speak so respectfully of his mercy So far as men are carnal and selfish they cannot love that by which they smart or of which they are in danger But the soul that is got above it self and is united unto God in Christ and hath that Image of God which containeth the impress and effect of all his Attributes hath such an habit of impartial justice in himself and such a hatred of sin and such a desire that the honour of God should be vindicated and maintained and such an approbation of the Justice of God that he can the more easily consent or submit to the dissolving stroke of Death He hateth his own sin
these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements melt with fervent heat But we according to his promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness 2 Pet. 3. 7 8 9 10 11 12 13. Beza marvelleth at Tertullian for saying that the Christians in their holy Assemblics prayed pro mora finis Apologet. c. 39. And so he might well enough if it were not that to Christians the Glory of God is dearer than their own felicity and the salvation of millions more precious than the meer hastening of their own and the glory of the Church more desirable than our personal glory and the hallowing of Gods Name were not to be prayed for before the coming of his Kingdom and the Kingdom of grace must not necessarily go before the Kingdom of glory But as much as we long for the coming of our Lord we are content to wait till the Elect be gathered and can pray that he will delay it till the Universal Body be made up and all are called that shall be glorified But to our selves that are brought out of Aegypt into the Wilderness how desirable is the promised Land When we think on our own interest we cry Come Lord Jesus Come quickly The sooner the better Then shall our eyes behold him in whom we have believed Not as he was beheld on earth in his despised state but as the glorious King of Saints accompanied with the Celestial Host coming in flaming fire to render vengeance to the rebellious and Rest and Joy to believing souls that waited for this day of his appearance Then Faith and Patience shall give up their work and sight and fruition and perfect love shall everlastingly succeed them The rage of Persecutors shall no more affright us the folly of the multitude shall no more annoy us the falseness of our seeming selfish friends shall no more betray us the pride of self-conceited men shall no more disturb us the turbulency of men distracted by ambition shall cast us no more into confusions The Kingdom that we shall possess shall not be lyable to mutations nor be tossed with pride and faction as are these below There is no monthly or annual change of Governours and Laws as is in Lunatick Common-wealths but there will be the same Lord and King and the same Laws and Government and the same Subjects and obedience without any mutinies rebellions or discontents to all eternity The Church of which we shall then be members shall not be divided into parties and factions nor the members look strangely at each other because of difference of opinions or distance of affections as now we find it to our daily grief in the militant Church We shall then need no tedious debates to reconcile us Unity will be then quickly and easily procured There will be no falling out in the presence of our Lord. There will be none of that darkness uncharitableness selfishness or passion left that now causeth our dissentions When we have perfect Light and perfect Love the perfect Peace will be easily attained which here we labour for in vain Now there is no Peace in Church or State in Cities or Countries in families or scarce in our own souls But when the glorious King of Peace hath put all his enemies under his feet what then is left to make disturbance Our enemies can injure us no more for it is then their portion to suffer for all their former injuries to Christ and us Our friends will not injure us as here they do because their corruption and weakness is put off and the relicks of sin that caused the trouble are left behind O that is the sight that faith prepareth for that is the day the blessed day that all our dayes are spent in seeking and waiting and praying for then shall the glory of holiness appear and the wisdom of the Saints be justified by all that now is justified by her children Then it shall be known Whether faith or unbelief whether a heavenly or earthly mind and life was the wiser and more justifiable course then shall all the world discern between the righteous and the wicked between them that serve God and them that serve him not Mal. 3. 18. Then sin that is now so obstinately defended and justified by such foolish cunning shall never more find a tongue to plead for it or a Patron to defend it more Then where is the man that will stand forth and break a jest at godliness or make a scorn of the holy diligence of Believers How pale then will those faces look that here were wont to jear at piety What terrour will seize upon those hearts that here were wont to make themselves sport at the weaknesses of the upright servants of the Lord That is the day that shall rectifie all judgements and cure the errours and contemptuous thoughts of an holy life which no perswasions now can cure that is the day that shall set all straight that now seems crooked and shall satisfie us to the full that God was just even when he prospered his enemies and afflicted the souls that loved him and walkt in their integrity before him We shall then see that which shall fully satisfie us of the reason and equity of all our sufferings which here we underwent we shall marvel no more that God lets us weep and groan and pray and turns away his face and seems not to regard us We shall then find that all our groans were heard and all our tears and prayers did succeed which we suspected had been lost We shall then find that a duty performed in sincerity through all our lives was never lost no nor a holy thought nor a Cup of cold water that from holy love we gave to a Disciple We shall then see that our murmurings and discontents and jealous unbelieving thoughts of God which sickness or poverty or crosses did occasion were all injurious to the Lord and the fruit of infirmity and that when we questioned his Love on such accounts we knew not what we said We shall then see that Death and Grave and Devils were all but matter for the glorifying of Grace and for the triumph of our Lord and us Up then my soul and shake off thy unbelief and dulness Look up and long and meet thy Lord. The more thou art afraid of death the more desire that blessed day when mortality shall be swallowed up of life and the name of death shall be terrible no more Though death be thy enemy there is nothing but friendly in the coming of thy Lord. Though death dissolve thy nature the Resurrection shall restore it and make thee full reparation with advantage How glad would I have been to have seen Christ but with the Wise Men in the Manger or to have seen him
disputing with the Doctors in his Child-hood in the Temple or to have seen him do his Miracles or heard him Preach much more to have seen him as the three Disciples in his transfiguration or to have seen him after his Resurrection and when he ascended up to Heaven But how far is all this below the sight that we shall have of him when he comes in glory when the brightness of his shining face shall make us think the Sun was darkness and the glory of his attendants shall make us think what a sorbid thing and childish foolery was all the glory of this world The face of Love shall be then unvailed and ravish us into the highest Love and Joy that our natures are capable of Then doubt and fear and grieve if thou canst What then wilt thou think of all these disquieting distrustful Thoughts that now so wrong thy Lord and thee If going into the Sanctuary and foreseeing the end can cure our brutish mis-apprehensions of Gods providences Psal 73. 17. how perfectly will they be cured when we see the glorious face of Christ and behold the New Jerusalem in its glory and when we are numbred with the Saints that judge the world We shall never more be tempted then to condemn the generation of the just nor to think it vain to serve the Lord nor to envy the prosperity of the wicked nor to stagger at the promise through unbelief nor to think that our sickness death and grave were any signs of unkindness or unmercifulness in God We shall then be convinced that sight and flesh were unfit to censure the wayes of God or to be our guides Hasten O Lord this blessed day Stay not till Faith have left the earth and infidelity and impiety and tyranny have conquered the rest of thine inheritance Stay not till selfish uncharitable pride hath vanquished love and self-denyal and planted its Colonies of Heresie confusion and cruelty in thy dominions and Earth and Hell be turned into one Stay not till the eyes of thy servants fail and their hearts and hopes do faint and languish with looking and waiting for thy salvation But if yet the day be not at hand O keep up Faith and Hope and Love till the Sun of perfect Love arise and Time hath prepared us for Eternity and Grace for Glory FINIS Some imitable Passages of the Life of Elizabeth late Wife of Mr. Joseph Baker THough I spoke so little as was next to nothing of our dear deceased friend it was not because I wanted matter or thought it unmeet But I use it but seldom lest I raise expectations of the like where I cannot conscionably perform it But he that hath promised to honour those that serve and honour him Joh. 12. 26. 1 Sam. 2. 30. and will come at last to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that do believe 2 Thes 1. 10. I know will take it as a great and acceptable act of service to proclaim the honour of his grace and to give his servants their due on earth whose souls are glorified with Christ in Heaven though Serpentine enmity will repine and play the envious accuser It is not the history of the Life of this precious servant of the Lord which I intend to give you for I was not many years acquainted with her but only some passages which either upon my certain knowledge or her own Diurnal of her course or the most credible testimony of her most intimate judicious godly friends I may boldly publish as true and imitable in this untoward distempered generation She was born Novem. 1634. in Southwark near London the only child of Mr. John Godeschalk alias Godscall Her Father dying in her Child-hood she was left an Orphane to the Chamber of London Her Mother after married Mr. Isaac Barton with whom she had the benefit of Religious Education But between sixteen and seventeen years of age by the serious reading of the Book called The Saints Everlasting Rest she was more throughly awakened and brought to set her heart on God and to seek salvation with her chiefest care From that time forward she was a more constant diligent serious hearer of the ablest Ministers in London rising early and going far to hear them on the week dayes waiting on God for his confirming grace in the use of those ordinances which empty unexperienced hypocrites are easily tempted to despise The Sermons which she constantly wrote she diligently repeated at home for the benefit of others and every week read over some of those that she had heard long before that the fruit of them might be retained and renewed it being not novelty that she minded In the year 1654. being near one and twenty years of age after seeking God and waiting for his resolving satisfying directions she consented to be joyned in marriage to Mr. Joseph Baker by the approbation of her nearest friends God having taken away her Mother the year before With him she approved herself indeed such a Wife as Paul no Papist describeth as meet for a Bishop or Pastor of the Church 1 Tim. 3. 11. Even so must their Wives be grave not slanderers sober faithful in all things Some instances I shall give for the imitation of others 1. She was very exemplary in self-denial and humility And having said thus much what abundance have I comprehended O what a beauty doth self-denyal and humility put on souls Nay what a treasure of everlasting consequence do these two words express I shall give you a few of the discoveries 1. It appeared in her accompanying in London with the holiest how mean soever avoiding them that were proud and vain and carnal She desired most to be acquainted with those that she perceived were best acquainted with God neglecting the pomp and vain glory of the world 2. When she was called to a married state though her portion and other advantages invited persons of greater estates in the world She chose rather to marry a Minister of known integrity that might be a near and constant guide and stay and comfort to her in the matters which she valued more than riches And she missed not of her expectations for the few years that she lived with him Even in this age when the Serpent is hissing in every corner at faithful Ministers and they are cnotemned both by Prophane and Heretical Malignants She preferred a mean life with such a one for her spiritual safety and solace before the Grandeur of the world 3. When some inhabitants of the City of Worcester were earnest with me to help them to an able Minister Mr. Baker then living in Kent had about an hundred pound per annum and when at my motion he was readily willing to take a great charge in Worcester upon a promise from two men to make the maintenance fifty pounds a year by a voluntary Contribution of the continuance of which he had no security his Wife was a promoter and no discourager of his self