and name It was still the Spirit of Stephen that was received by Christ It sleepeth not To confute the dream of those that talk of the sleeping of Souls or any Lethargich unintelligent or unactive state of so excellent capacious and active a nature were but to dispute with sleeping men When we say it is Immortal we mean not that it or any creature hath in it self a self-supporting or self-preserving sufficiency or that they are Necessary Beings and not Contingent or Primitive Beings and not Derived from another by Creation We know that all the world would turn to nothing in a moment if God did but withdraw his preserving and upholding influence and but suspend that Will that doth continue them He need not exert any Positive Will or Act for their destruction or annihilation Though ejusdem est annihilare cujus est creare none can annihilate but God yet it is by a Positive efficient act of Will that he createth and by a meer cessation of the act of his preserving Will he can annihilate I mean not by any change in him but by willing the continuance of the creature but till such a period But yet he that will perpetuate the Spirit of Man hath given it a nature as he hath done the Angels fit to be perpetuated A Nature not guilty of composition and elementary materiallity which might subject it to corruption so that as there is an Aptitude in Iron or Silver or Gold to continue longer than Grass or Flowers or Flesh and a reason of its duration may be given a natura rei from that aptitude in subordination to the Will of God so there is such an Aptitude in the Nature of the Soul to be Immortal which God maketh use of to the accomplishment of his will for its actual perpetuity The Heathenish Socinians that deny the Immortality of the Soul yea worse than Heathenish for most Heathens do maintain it must deny it to Christ himself as well as to his Members For he used the like recommendation of his Soul to his Father when he was on the Cross as Stephen doth here to him If Lord Jesus receive my Spirit be words that prove not the surviving of the Spirit of Stephen then Father into thay hands I commend my Spirit will not prove the surviving of the Spirit of Christ And then what do these infidels make of Christ who also deny his Deity and consequently make him nothing but a Corpse when his body was in the grave How then did he make good his promise to the penitent malefactor This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise But he that said Because I live ye shall live also John 14. 19. did live in the Spirit while he was put to death in the flesh 1 Pet. 3. 18. and receiveth the Spirits of his Servants unto life eternal while their flesh is rotting in the grave This very Text is so clear for this if there were no other it might end the controversie with all that believe the Holy Scriptures I confess these is a sleep of Souls A Metaphorical sleep in sin and in security Or else the drowsie opinions of these Infidels had never found entertainment in the world A sleep so deep that the voice of God in the threatnings of his Word and the alarm of his Judgments and the thunder of his warnings by his most serious Ministers prevail not to awaken the most So dead a sleep possesseth the most of the ungodly world that they can quietly sin in the sight of God at the entrance upon eternity at the doors of Hell and the calls of God do not awaken them So dead a sleep that Scripture justly calls them dead Eph. 2. 1. 5. And Ministers may well call them dead For alas it is not our voice that can awake them They are as dead to us we draw back the curtains to let in the light and shew them that Judgment is at hand and use those true but terrible arguments from wrath and hell which we are afraid should too much frighten many tender hearers and yet they sleep on and our loudest calls our tears and our intreaties cannot awaken them We cry to them in the name of the Lord Awake thou that sleepest arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Eph. 5. 14. This Moral sleep and death of Souls which is the fore-runner of everlasting death in misery we cannot deny But after Death even this sleep shall cease and God will awaken them with his vengeance that would not be awaked by his Grace Then sinner sleep under the thoughts of sin and Gods displeasure if thou canst There is no sleeping Soul in Hell There are none that are past feeling The mortal stroke that layeth thy flesh to sleep in the dust le ts out the guilty Soul into a World where there is no sleeping where there is a Light irresistible and a Terrour and Torment that will keep them waking If God bid thee awake by the flames of Justice he will have no nay The first sight and feeling which will surprize thee when thou hast left this Flesh will awake thee to Eternity and do more than we could do in Time and convince thee that there is no sleeping state for separated Souls DOCT. 5. CHrist doth receive the Spirits of his Saints when they leave the Flesh Here we shall first tell you what Christs receiving of the Spirit is The Word signifieth to take it as acceptable to himself and it comprehendeth these Particulars 1. That Christ will not leave the new-departed Soul to the will of Satan its malicious Enemy How ready is he to receive us to perdition if Christ refuse us and receive us not to Salvation He that now seeketh as a roaring Lion night and day as our adversary to devour us by deceit will then seek to devour us by execution How glad was he when God gave him leave but to touch the goods and children and body of Job And how much more would it please his enmity to have power to torment our Souls But the Soul that fled to the arms of Christ by Faith in the day of tryal shall then find it self in the arms of Christ in the moment of its entrance upon Eternity O Christian whether thou now feel it to thy comfort or not thou shalt then feel it to the ravishing of thy Soul that thou didst not fly to Christ in vain nor trust him in vain to be thy Saviour Satan shall be for ever disappointed of his desired Prey Long wast thou combating with him frequently and strongly wast thou tempted by him Thou oft thoughtest it was a doubtful Question who should win the day and whether ever thou shouldest hold out and be saved But when thou passest from the Flesh in thy last Extremity in the end of thy greatest and most shaking Fears when Satan is ready if he might to carry thy Soul to Hell then even then shalt thou find that thou hast won the
Honour that is due to Parents when they are dead is to give just honour to their Names and to obey their Precepts and imitate their good examples It is the high commendation of the Rechabites that they strictly kept the â—recepts of their Father even in a thing indifferent a mode of living not to drink wine or build houses but dwell in tents an God annexeth this notable blessing Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel because ye have obeyed the commandemtent of Jonadab your Father and kept all his Precepts and done according to all that he hath commanded you Therefore thus siath the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Jonadab the Son of Rechab shall not mant to stand before me for ever Jer. 36. 6 7. 18. 19. But especially in the great duties of Religion where Parents do but deliver the mind of God and use their authority to procure obedience to Divine authority and where the matter it self is necessary to our Salvation the obligation to obedience and imitation is most indispensable and disobedience is an aggravated iniquity and the notorious brand of infelicity and Prognostick of ensuiing woe The ungodly Children of godly Parents being the most deplorable unhappy unexcusable persons in the World if they hold on There is yet another Doctrine that I should speak to Doct. 7. PRayer in general and this prayer in particular that Christ will Receive our depâ—rting souls is a most suitable conclusion of all the action of Christians life Prayer is the breath of a Christians life it is his work and highest converse and therefore fittest to be the concluding action of his life that it may reach the end at which he aimed We have need of Prayer all our lives because we have need of God and need of his manifold and continued Grace But in our last extreamity we have a special need Though sloath is apt to seize upon us while prosperity hindreth the sense of our necessities and health perswadeth us that Time is not near its journies end yet it is high time to pray with doubled fervour and importunity when we see that we are near our last when we find that we have no more time to pray but must now speak our last for our immortal Souls and must at once say all that we have to say and shall never have a hearing more O then to be unable to pray or to be faithless and heartless and hopeless in our prayers would be a calamity beyond expression Yet I know for ordinary observation tells it us that many truly gracious persons may accidentally be undisposed and disabled to pray when they are near to death If the Disease be such as doth disturb the Brain or take them up with violence of pain or overwhelm the mind by perturbation of the passions or abuse the imagination or notably waste and debilitate the spirits it cannot be expected that a body thus disabled should serve the Soul in this or any other duty But still the praying Habit doth remain though a distempered body do forbid the exercise The Habitual desires of the Soul are there and it is those that are the soul of Prayer But this should move us to pray while we have time and while our Bodies have strength and our spirits have vigour and alacrity to serve us seeing we are so uncertain of bodily disposition and capacity so near our end O pray and pray with all your hearts before any Fever or Deliration overthrow your understandings or your memories before your thoughts are all commanded to attend your pains and before your decayed spirits fail you and deny their necessary service to your suits and before the apprehensions of your speedy approach to the presence of the most Holy God and your entrance upon an endless state do amaze confound and overwhelm your Souls with fear and perturbation O Christians what folly what sin and shame is it to us that now while we have time to pray and leave to pray and helps to pray and have no such disturbing hindrances we should yet want hearts and have no mind no life and fervour for so great a work O pray now lest you are unable to pray then And if you are then hindred but by such bodily undisposedness God will understand your habitual desires and your groans and take it as if you had actually prayed Pray now that so you may be acquainted with the God that then you must fly unto for mercy and may not be strangers to him or unto Prayer and that he may not find then that your prayers are but the expressions of your fears and not of your Love and are constrained and not voluntary motions unto God Pray now in preparation to your dying prayers O what a terrible thing it is to be to learn to pray in that hour of extreamity and to have then no principle to pray by but natural self-love which every Thief hath at the gallows To be then without the Spirit of prayer when without it there cannot an acceptable word or groan be uttered and when the rejection of our suits and person will be the prologue to the final judicial rejection and will be a distress so grievous as presumptuous Souls will not believe till sad experience become their Tutor Can you imagine that you shall then at last be taught the art of acceptable Prayer meerly by horrour and the natural sense of pain and danger as Sea-men in a storm or a Malefactor by the rack when in your health and leasure you will not be perswaded to the daily use of serious Prayer but number your selves with the families that are under the wrath of the Almighty being such as call not on his name Jer. 10. 25. Psalm 79. 6. Indeed there are many prayers must go before or else this Prayer Lord Jesus receive my spirit will be in vain when you would be loth to find it so You must first pray for renewing Sanctifying grace for the death of sin and the Pardon of sin for a holy life and a Heavenly mind for obedience patience and perseverance and if you obtain not these there is no hope that Jesus Christ should receive your Spirits that never received his sanctifying spirit How sad is it to observe that those that have most need of Prayer have least mind to Pray as being least sensible of their needs Yea that those that are the next step to the state of Devils and have as much need of Prayer as any miserable souls on earth do yet deride it and hate those that seriously and fervently perform it a man of prayer being the most common objct of their malicious reproach and scorn O miserable Cainites that hate their brethren for offering more acceptable sacrifice then their own little do they know how much of the very Satanical nature is in that malice and in those reproachful scorns and little do they know how near they are to the curse and desparation of Cain and
THE Last Work OF A BELIEVER His Passing-Prayer recommending his departing Spirit to Christ to be Received by him Prepared for the Funerals of Mary the Widow first of Francis Charlton Esq and after of Thomas Hanmer Esq And partly Preached at St. Mary Magdalens Church in Milk-street London And now at the desire of her Daughter before her Death reprinted By Richard Baxter Joh. 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my Servant be and If any man serve me him will my Father Honour LONDON Printed by B. Griffin for B. Simmons at the three Golden Cocks at the West-end of St. Pauls 1682. The Contents of the last work of a Believer THE Occasion of this Discourse pag. 1. The opening of the Text p. 3. Doct. 1. and 2 d passed by that Christ is exalted in glory and is to be prayed to p. 5. Doct. 3. Man hath a spirit as well as a body And what the soul is p. 6. Doct. 4. The spirit of man doth survive the body It dyeth not nor is annihilated nor sleepeth p. 11. Doct. 5. Christ doth receive the spirits of his Saints when they leave the flesh What his Receiving them is p. 14. Doct. 6. A dying Christian may confidently and comfortably commend his spirit to Christ to be Received by him p. 19. The Doctrine applyed to the unregenerate unprepared soul p. 20. Whom Christ will Receive and whom he will not refuse p. 26. Considerations to move them to prepare so as to be Received p. 30. Applyed to Believers p. 37. Encouraging proofs os Christs receiving their departed soul p. 39. Other Vses of the Doctrine p. 57. For the abatement of sorrow for the Death of our departed friend p. 61. The evidences of her happiness in the Graces in which she was eminent and exemplary p. 63. The use of her example to them that survive p. 70. Doct 7. Prayer in General and this prayer in particular That Christ will receive our departing souls is a most suitable conclusion of all the action of a Christians life p. 72. TO THE READER Reader THE person whose Death did occasion this Discourse was one that about five years ago removed from her antient habitation at Appley in Shropshire to Kederminster where she lived under my Pastoral care till I was come up to London and before she had lived there a twelve-month for thither she removed she died of the Fever then very common in the City She lived among us an example of Prudence Gravity Sobriety Righteousness Piety Charity and Self-denyal and was truly what I have described her to be and much more For I use not to flatter the living much less the dead And though I had personal acquaintance with her for no longer a time than I have mentioned yet I think it worthy the mentioning which I understand by comparing her last years with what is said of her former time by those that were then nearest to her and so were at her Death that whereas as I have said sudden Passion was the sin that she was wont much to complain of she had not contented her self with meer complainings but so effectually resisted them and applyed Gods remedies for the healing of her nature that the success was very much observed by those about her and the change and cure so great herein as was a comfort to her nearest Relations that had the benefit of her converse Which I mention as a thing that shews us 1. That even the Infirmities that are founded in nature and temperature of body are curable so far as they fall under the dominion of a sanctified will 2. That even in age when such Passions usually get ground and infirmities of mind increase with infirmities of body yet Grace can effectually do its work 3. That to attend God in his Means for the subduing any corruption is not in vain 4. That as God hath promised growth of Grace and flourishing in old age so in his way we may expect the fulfilling of his promise 5. That as Grace increaseth infirmities and corruptions of the Soul will vanislh This makes me call to mind that she was once so much taken with a Sermon which I preached at the Funerals of a holy aged woman and so sensibly oft recited the Text it self as much affecting her 2 Cor 4. 16 17. For which cause we faint not but tho our outward man perish yet the inward man is re-renewed day by day c. that I am perswaded both the Text it self and the example opened and well known to her did her much good Her work is done Her enemies are conquered except the remaining fruits of Death upon a corrupting Body which the Resurrection must conquer Her danger and temptations and troubles and fears are at an end She shall no more be discomfited with evil tidings nor no more partake with a militant Church in the sorrows of her diseases or distresses We are left within the reach of Satans assaults and malice and of the rage and violence which pride and faction and Cainish envy and enmity to serious holiness do ordinarily raise against Christs followers in the world We are left among the lying tongues of slanderous malicious men and dwell in a Wilderness among Scorpions where the Sons of Belial like Nabal are such that a man cannot speak to them 1 Sam 25. 17. The best of them is as a briar the most upright sharper than a thorn hedge Mic. 7. 4. But the Sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands but the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear and they shall be utterly burnt with fire in the place 2 Sam. 23. 6 7. We are left among our weak distempered sinful afflicted lamenting friends the sight of whose calamities and participation of their sufferings maketh us feel the stroaks that fall upon so great a number that we are never like to be free from pain But she is entred into the Land of Peace where Pride and Faction are shut out where Serpentine enmity malice and fury never come where there is no Cain to envy and destroy us no Sodomtes to rage against us and in their blindness to assault our doors No Ahitophels to plot our ruin No Judas to betray us No false-witnesses to accuse us No Tertullus to paint us out as pestilent fellows and movers of sedition among the people No Rehum Shimshai or their society to perswade the Rulers that the servants of the God of heaven are hurtful unto Kings and against their interest and honour Ezra 4. 9 12 13 14 22. and 5. 11. No rabble to cry away with them it is not fit that they should live No Demas that will forsake us for the love of present things No such contentious censorious friends as Jobs to afflict us by adding to our affliction No cursed Cham to dishonour parents No
presence of the Lord and yet should have kept her longer from it for our own and others sakes if our Wisdom had been fit to rule or our Wills to be fulfilled or if our Prayers must have been answered according to the measure of our sailing Apprehensions or precipitant Desires But Folly must submit to the Incomprehensible Wisdom and the Desire of the Creature must stoop to the Will of the Creator The Interest of Christ must be preferred when he calleth for his own and our temporary Interest must give place Flesh must be silent and not contend and Dust must not dare to question God He knoweth best when his Fruit is ripe and though he will allow our moderate Sorrows he will not so much damnifie his Saints as to detain them with us from their Joyful Rest till we are content to let them go Thus also did Blessed Stephen depart from Glory to Glory from a distant sight of the Glory of God and of Jesus standing at his right hand into the immediate presence and fruition of that Glory But yet he must pass the narrow Port enraged Malice must stone him till he die and he must undergo the Pains of Martyrdom before he reach to the Glory which he had seen And when he was arrived in safety he leaveth his Brethren scattered in the Storm and Devout men make great lamentation at his burial Acts 9. 2. Though it is probable by the ordinary acceptation of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were not professed Christians but devout Proselytes such as Cornelius and the Ethiopian Eunuch were that buried and thus lamented Stephen as knowing him to be an excellent Person cruelly murdered by the raging Jews yet their Example in a Case not culpable but commendable may be imitated by Believers upon condition that with our sense of the Excellency of the Persons and of our loss by their removal we exceed them that had but a darker Revelation in our joyful sense of the felicity of the translated Souls The occasion of the Death of this Holy Man was partly that he surpassed others as being full of Faith and of the Holy Ghost and partly that he plainly rebuked the blind and furious persecuting Zeal of the Jews and bore a most resolute Testimony of Christ It is an ill time when Men must suffer because they are good and deserve not suffering but reward And they are an unhappy People that have no more Grace or Wit but to fight against Heaven and set themselves under the Stroaks of God's severest Justice by persecuting them that are dear to Christ and faithfully perform their Duty It is no strange thing for the ZEAL and INTEREST of a FACTION to make Men mad so mad as implacably to rage against the Off spring of Heaven and to hate Men because they are faithful to their great Master and because they are against their Faction so mad as to think that the Interest of their Cause requireth them to destroy the best with the greatest malice because they stand most in their way and to forget that Christ the Revenger of his Elect doth take all as done to him that is done to them so mad as to forget all the terrible Threatnings of God and terrible Instances of his avenging Justice against the Enemies of his Servants whom he taketh as his own and to ruine their own Reputations by seeking to defame the Upright whose Names God is engaged to honour and whose Righteousness shall shine forth as the Sun when foolish Malignity hath done its worst When Christ had pleaded his Cause effectually with Saul that was one of the Persecutors of Stephen he maketh him confess that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceedingly excessively or beyond measure mad against the Christians But this Blessed Protomartyr in despite of Malice doth safely and joyfully pass through all their Rage to Heaven By killing him they make him more than Conquerour and send him to receive his Crown And he shuts up all the Action of his Life in imitation of his suffering Lord with a two-fold Request to Heaven the one for himself that his Spirit may be received the other for his Persecutors that this sin may not be laid to their charge Acts 7. 59 60. For so you may find Christ did before him Luke 23. 34 46. Father forgive them for they know not what they do and Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Only Christ directeth his Prayer immediately to the Father and Stephen to Christ as being one that had a Mediator when Christ had none as needing none and being now bearing witness by his suffering to Christ and therefore it was seasonable to direct his Prayer to him but especially because it was an Act of Mediation that he petitioneth for and therefore directeth his Petition to the Mediator This first Request of this dying Saint which I have chosen to handle as suitable and seasonable for our Instruction at this time in a few Words containeth not a few exceeding useful wholesom Truths As 1. It is here plainly intimated that Jesus Christ is exalted in Glory in that he hath power to receive departed Souls 2. That Christ is to be prayed to and that it is not our Duty to direct all our Prayers only to the Father Especially those things that belong to the Office of the Mediator as interceding for us in the Heavens must be requested of the Mediator And those things which belong to the Father to give for the sake of the Mediator must be asked of the Father for his sake I cannot now stay to tell you in particular what belongeth to the one and what unto the other 3. That Man hath a Spirit as well as a Body of which more anon 4. That this Spirit dieth not with the Body unless you will call a meer separation a dying 5. That Christ doth receive the Spirits of his Saints when they are separated from the Body 6. That a dying Christian may confidently and comfortably commend his Spirit to Christ to be received of him 7. That Prayer in general and this Prayer in special That Christ will receive our departing Souls is a most suitable Conclusion of all the Actions of a Christian's Life THe first and second of these Doctrines offered us by this Text I shall pass by The third is not questioned by any that knoweth himself to be a Man But that we may understand it and the rest we must consider what the Word Spirit doth here signifie By Spirit here can be meant nothing but the Rational Soul which is the principal constitutive part of the man For though the word do sometime signifie the Wind or Breath and sometime the moral and intellectual Qualifications and have divers other senses I need not stay to prove that it is not here so taken Stephen prayeth not to Christ to receive his Breath his Graces or the Holy Ghost but to receive his Rational immortal Soul It is not only the Soul
but God himself that is called a Spirit And though the Name be fetch'd from lower things that is because that as we have no adequate positive conception of God or Spirits so we can have no adequate proper names for them but must take up with borrowed Names as answerable to our Notions Sometime the Word Spirit as Heb. 4. 12. c. is distinguished from the Soul And then it either signifieth the superior Faculties in the same Soul or the same Soul as elevated by Grace Do you ask What the Soul is You may also ask What a Man is And it is pity that a Man should not know what a Man is It is our Intellectual Nature containing also the Sensitive and Vegetative The Principle or first Act by which we live and feel and understand and freely will The Acts tell you what the Faculties or Powers are and so what the Soul is If you know what Intellection or Reason and Free-will are you may know what it is to have a spiritual Nature essentially containing the Power of Reasoning and Willing It is thy Soul by which thou art thinking and asking What a Soul is And as he that reasoneth to prove that Man hath no Reason doth prove that he hath Reason by reasoning against it so he that reasoneth to prove that he hath no Soul doth thereby prove that he hath a Reasonable though abused Soul Yet there are some so blind as so question Whether they have Souls because they see them not Whereas if they could see them with Eyes of Flesh they were no Souls For Spirits are invisible They see not the Air or Wind and yet they know that Air or Wind there is They see not God or Angels and yet they are Fools indeed if they doubt whether there be a God and Angels If they see not their Eyes yet they know that they have Eyes because with those Eyes they see other things And if they know not directly and intuitively that they have Rational Souls they might know it by their knowing other things which without such Souls cannot be known It is just with God that those that live as carnally and brutishly and neglegently as if they had no Souls to use or care for should at last be given up to question whether they have Souls or no. O woful Fall depraved Nature O miserable Men that have so far departed from God as to deny both themselves and God! or to question Whether God be God and Man be Man Return to God and thou wilt come to thy self Forget not Man thy Noble Nature thy chiefest Part Think not that thou art only Shell because thou seest not through the Shell It is Souls that converse by the Bodies while they are in Flesh It is thy Soul that I am speaking to and thy Soul that understandeth me When thy Soul is gone I will speak to thee no more It is thy Soul that is the Workmanship of God by an immediate or special way of Fabrication Isa 57. 16. The souls that I have made Gen. 2. 7. He breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soul It is thy Soul that is said to be made after God's Image in that thou art ennobled with a capacious Vnderstanding and Free-will And it is thy Soul that is the immediate subject of his Moral Image even spiritual Wisdom Righteousness and Holiness God hath not Hands and Feet and other Members as thy Body hath How noble a Nature is that which is capable of knowing not only all things in the World in its measure but God himself and the things of the world that is to come and capable of loving and enjoying God and of seeking and serving him in order to that Enjoyment Christ thought not basely of a Soul that redeemed Souls at such a price when he made his soul an offering for sin Isa 53. 10. Were it not for our immortal Souls would God ever honour us with such Relations to him as to be his Children For he is first the Father of Spirits Heb. 12. 9. and then the Father of Saints Should we be called the Spouse and the Members of Christ Would he be at so much cost upon us Should Angels attend us as ministring Spirits if we had not Spirits fit to minister to God Would the Spirit of God himself dwell in us and quicken and beautifie us with his Grace Should a world of Creatures whose Corporeal Substance seems as excellent as ours attend and serve us if we were but an ingenuous sort of Brutes and had not rational immortal Souls Should such store of Mercies be provided for us Should Ministers be appointed to preach and pray and labour for us if we had not Souls to save or lose They watch for your souls as those that must give account Heb. 13. 17. Why should they preach in season and out of season and suffer so much to perform their Work but that they know that He that winneth souls is wise Prov. 11. 30. and that he which converteth a sinner from the errour of his way doth save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins Jam. 6. 20. The Devil himself may tell you the worth of Souls when he compasseth the earth Job 1. 7. and goeth about night and day to deceive them and devour them 1 Pet. 5. 8. And yet can he make you believe that they are so worthless as to be abused to the basest drudgery to be poysoned with sin and Sensuality to be ventured for a thing of naught O Sirs have you such immortal Souls and will you sell them for a Lust for a beastly Pleasure for liberty to glut your Flesh or for the Price that Judas sold his Lord for Is thy Soul no more worth than Honour or Wealth or foolish Mirth Is thy Soul so base as not to be worth the care and labour of a Holy Life Is the World worth all thy Care and Labour and shall less be called too much ado when it is for thy precious Soul Alas one would think by the careless felshly Lives of many that they remember not that they have Souls Have they not need in the depth of their Security in the height of their Ambition and in the heat of Fleshly Lusts to have a Monitor to call to them Remember that thou art a man and that thou hast a Soul to save or lose What thinkest thou of thy negligence and carnal Life when thou readest that so holy a Man as Paul must keep under his body and bring it into subjection lest he should be a cast-away after all his Labours 1 Cor. 9. 25. 26 27. O live not as if the Flesh were the Man and its Pleasure your Felicity but live as those that have Spirits to take care for DOCT. 4 THe spirit of man doth survive the Body It dyeth not with it It is not annihilated It is not resolved into the essence of some common element of souls where it loseth its specifick form
day And yet not thou but Christ is he that hath been victorious for thee even as when thou livedst the life of Faith it was not thou but Christ lived in thee Gal. 2. 20. Thou mayst fear at thy departure and leave the Flesh with terrour and imagine that Satan will presently devour thee But the experience of a moment will end thy Fears and thou shalt triumph against thy conquered Foe He that saved thee from the dominion of a tempting Devil will certainly save thee from him when he would torment thee Here he would have us that he may sift us and get advantage on our weakness but Christ prayeth for us and strengthneth us that our faith may not fail Luke 22. 31. And he that saveth us from the sin will save us from the punishment and from Satans fury as he did from his fraud 2. Christs Receiving us doth include his savourable entertainment and welcoming the departed Soul Poor Soul thou wast never so welcome to thy dearest Friend nor into the arms of a Father a Husband or a Wife as thou shalt be then into the presence and embracements of thy Lord. Thou hearest and readest and partly believest now how he loveth us even as his Spouse and Members as his Flesh and Bone Eph. 6. But then thou shalt feel how he loveth thee in particular If the Angels of God have joy at thy Conversion what joy will there be in Heaven at thy enterance into that Salvation And sure those Angels will bid thee welcome and concur with Christ in that triumphant joy If a returning Prodigal find himself in the arms of his Fathers Love and welcomed home with his kisses and his robe and feast What welcome then may a cleansed conquered Soul expect when it cometh into the presence of Glorious Love and is purposely to be received with such demonstrations of Love as may be fitted to magnifie the Love of God which exceedeth all the Love of man as Omnipotency doth exceed our Impotency and therefore will exceed it in the effects Though thou hast questioned here in the dark whether thou wert welcome to Christ when thou camest to him in prayer or when thou camest to his holy Table yet then doubt of thy welcom if thou canst O had we but one moments sense of the delights of the embraced Soul that is newly received by Christ into his Kingdom it would make us think we were in Heaven already and transport us more than the Disciples that saw the Transfiguration of Christ and make us say in comparing this with all the Glory of the World Master it is good for us to be here but in consideration of the full to say It is better to be there But it must not be Earth must not be so happy as to have a moments sense of the unconceivable Pleasures of the received Soul that is the Reward and Crown and therefore not fit for us here in our Conflict But low things may by dark resemblance a little help us to conceive of something that is like them in a low degree How would you receive your Son or Husband the next day after some bloody Fight where he had escaped with the Victory Or your Child or Friend that arrived safely after a long and a dangerous Voyage Would you not run and meet him and with joy embrace him if he had been many years absent and were now come home I tell thee poor Soul thy Saviour hath a larger heart and another kind of Love than thou and other Reasons of greater force to move him to bid dice Welcome into his Presence 3. Christ's Receiving the departed Soul includeth the State of Blessedness into which he doth receive it If you ask What that is I answer It is unto himself to be with him where he is And that in general is full of comfort if there were no more For we know that Christ is in no ill place He is glorified at the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1. 3. And that the Souls of the Righteous and at last their Bodies are received to himself he often telleth us John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be John 14. 2 3. And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there you may be also And in the mean time when we once are absent from the body we are present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 8. and that is in the building of God not made with hands eternal in the heavens V. 1. Paul therefore desired to depart and be with Christ as being far better Phil. 1. 23. And Christ promiseth the converted Thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 23. 43. And our State after the Resurrection hath the same description 1 Thess 4. 17. And so shall we ever be with the Lord And what it shall be he declareth himself John 17. 24. Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me The Soul of Lazarus Luke 16. was received into Abrahams bosom where he is said to be comforted The heavens receive Christ Acts 3. 21. and therefore the heavens receive the spirits that go to him even the spirits of the just made perfect Heb. 12. 23. that is that are crowned with Christ in Glory and freed from the Imperfections and Evils of this Life And so that 1 Thess 5. 10. is plain though some would pervert it That whether we wake or sleep we may live together with him Not Whether we wake to righteousness or sleep in sin for such Sleepers live not with him Nor whether we wake by sollicitude or sleep in security Nor Whether we naturally wake or sleep only But whether we live or die and so our Bodies sleep in death yet we live together with him In a word Christ will receive us unto a participation of his Joy and Glory into a Joy as great as our Nature shall be capable of and more than we can now desire and that the largest Heart on Earth can justly conceive of or comprehend And because all this tells you but to the ear stay yet but a little while and experimental sight nnd feeling shall tell you What this Receiving is even when we receive the kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. and when we receive the end of our faith the salvation of our souls 1 Pet. 1. 9. DOCT. 6. A Dying Christian may confidently and comfortably commend his Spirit to Christ to be received by him Though he have formerly been a grievous sinner though at the present he be frail and faulty though he be weak in faith and love and duty though his body by sickness be become unfit to serve his Soul and as to present sensibility activity or joy he seem to be past the best or to be nothing
though the Tempter would aggravate his sins and weakness and dulness to his discouragement yet he may he must with confidence recommend his Spirit to Christ to be Received by him O learn this Doctrine Christians that you may use it in the hour of your last distress The hour is near the distress will be the greatest that ever you were in As well as we seem now while we are hearing this our turn is nigh The Midwife is not so neccssary to the life of the Child that Receiveth it into the world as Christs Receiving will be then to our everlasting life To say over heartlesly these words Lord Jesus receive my Spirit will be no more than a dead hearted Hypocrite may do such formal lip-service in life or at death doth profit nothing to salvation Now make such necessary preparation that at Death you may have well-grounded confidence that Jesus Christ will receive your Spirits 1. And first let me bring this to the carnal unprepared sinner Poor sinner What thoughts hast thou of thy dying hour and of thy departing Soul I wonder at thee what thoughts thou hast of them that thou canst sin so boldly and live so carelesly and talk or hear of the life to come so senselesly as thou dost Thou mightest well think I wronged thee if I took thee to be such a brute as not to know that thou must die Thy Soul that brought thy body hither that causeth it now to hear and understand that carryeth it up and down the world must very shortly be required of thee and must seek another habitation What thoughts hast thou of thy departing Soul Will Christ receive it Hast thou made sure of that Or hast thou made it thy principal care and business to make sure O what doth intoxicate the brains of sensual worldly men that they drown themselves in the Cares of this Life and ride and run for transitory Riches and live upon the Smoak of Honour and Applause and never soberly and seriously bethink them whether Christ will receive their departed Souls That they can fill their minds with other thoughts and fill their mouthes with other talk and consume their time in other inconsiderable employments and take no more care and spend no more thoughts and words and time about the entertainment of their departing Souls When they are even ready to be gone and stand as it were on tip-toes when Fevers and Consumptions and many hundred Diseases are all abroad so busily distributing their Summons and when the Gates of Death have so many Passengers crowding in and Souls are making such haste away will you not consider what shall become of yours Will you say that you hope well and you must venture If God had appointed you nothing to do to prepare for your safe passage and entertainment with Christ you might then take up with such an Answer But it 's a mad adventure to leave all undone that is necessary to your salvation and then to say You must put it to the venture If you die in and unrenewed and unjustified state it is past all ventures for it is certain that Christ will not receive you You may talk of hoping dut it is not a matter to be hoped for Hope that God will make good every word of his Promise and spare not But there is no more Hope that Christ will Receive the souls of any but of his members than there is that he will prove a lyar He never promised to save any others and that is not all but he hath declared and professed frequently that he will not And you are no Believers if you will not believe him And if you believe him you must believe that the unbelievers the unregenerate the unholy and the workers of iniquity shall not be received into the Kingdom of Heaven For he hath professed it John 3. 3 36. Heb. 12. 14. Matth. 7. 23. If Christ would Receive the souls of all your venture then had reason for it Or if he had left it as a thing that depended only on his unrevealed will and not on any preparations of our own we might then have quit our selves of the care and cast it all on him as being his part and none of ours But it is not so I hope I need not tell you that it is not so Believe it the Question must be Now resolved and resolved by your selves whether Christ shall Receive your departed souls or cast them off as firebrands for Hell He hath made the Law and set down the terms already to which he will unalterably stand and which we must trust to It is now that you must labour to be accepted of him For we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5. 9 10. O Sirs this is the reason of our importunity with you Knowing the terrors of the Lord we persuade men saith the Apostle in the next words vers 11. We know that the sentence will be just and that it is now in your own hands what judgment then shall pass upon you And if just now your souls were passing hence before you went from the place you sit in would you think any care could be too great to make sure that they should go to happiness O that you would consider how much it is your own work and how much it resteth on your selves what Christ shall then do with you Then you will cry to him for mercy O cast not away a miserable soul Lord receive me into thy Kingdom But now he must intreat you to be saved and to be the people that he may then Receive and you will not hear him And if you will not hear him when he calleth on you and beseecheth you to Repent and to prepare as sure as Christ is Christ he will not hear you when you cry and call for mercy too late in your extremity Read Prov. 1. and you will see this is true It is you that are to be entreated that Christ may receive you for the unwillingness and backwardness is on your part You are now poysoning your souls by sin and when we cannot intreat you either to forbear or to take the Vomit of Repentance yet when you are gasping and dying of your own willful self-murder you will then cry to Christ and think he must receive you upon terms inconsistent with his justice holiness and truth But flatter not your selves it will not be This is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation refuse it now and it is lost for ever O Sirs if this were the hour and you were presently to be received or refused would you blame me to cry and call to you with all the fervour of my soul if I knew that it were in your own choice whether you would go to Heaven or Hell Why now it is in your choice Life and
this part of my application having to do with Souls that are ready to depart and are in so sad an unprepared state as is not to be thought on but with great compassion I am next to come to that part of the application which I chiefly intended to those that are the Heirs of Life II. O You that are members of Jesus Christ receive this Cordial which may corroborate your hearts against all inordinate fears of Death Let it come when it will you may boldly recommend your departing Souls into the hands of Christ Let it be by a lingring disease or by an acute by a natural or a violent death at the fulness of your age or in the flower of your youth death can but separate the Soul from Flesh but not from Christ Whether you die poor or rich at liberty or in prison in your native Country or a forein Land whether you be buried in the Earth or cast into the Sea death shall but send your Souls to Christ Though you die under the reproach and slanders of the world and your names be cast out among men as evil doers yet Christ will take your Spirits to himself Though your Souls depart in fear and trembling though they want the sense of the Love of God and doubt of pardon and peace with him yet Christ will receive them I know thou wilt be ready to say that thou art unworthy Will he receive so unworthy a Soul as mine But if thou be a member of Christ thou art worthy in him to be accepted Thou hast a worthiness of Aptitude and Christ hath a worthiness of merit The day that cometh upon such at unawares that have their hearts over-charged with surfeiting drunkenness and the cares of this life and as a snare surprizeth the inhabitants of the earth shall be the day of thy great deliverance Watch therefore and pray alwayes that you way be accounted worthy to escape all those things that shall come to pass and to stand before the son of man Luke 21. 34 35 36. They that are accounted worthy to obtain that world can die no more for they are equal to the Angels and are the children of God Luke 20. 35 36. Object O but my sins are great and many and will Christ ever receive so ignorant so earthly and impure a Soul as mine Answ If he have freed thee from the reign of sin by giving thee a Will that would fain be fully delivered from it and given thee a desire to be perfectly holy he will finish the work that he hath begun and will not bring thee defiled into Heaven but will wash thee in his Blood and separate all the remnant of corruption from thy Soul when he separateth thy Soul from flesh There needs no purgatory but his blood and Spirit in the instant of death shall deliver thee that he may present thee spotless to the Father O fear not then to trust thy Soul with him that will Receive it And fear not death that can do thee no more harm And when once thou hast overcome the fears of death thou wilt be the more resolute in thy duty and faithful to Christ and above the power of most temptations and wilt not fear the face of man when Death is the worst that man can bring thee to It is true Death is dreadful but it is as true that the arms of Christ are joyful It is an unpleasing thing to leave the Bodies of our friends in the earth but it is unspeakable pleasure to their Souls to be Received into the Heavenly society by Christ And how confidently quietly and comfortably you may commend your departing Spirits to be received by Christ be informed by these considerations following 1 Your Spirits are Christs own And may you not trust him with his own As they are his by the title of creation All Souls are mine saith the Lord Ezek. 18. 4. So also by the title of redemption We are not our own we are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6. 19. Say therefore to him Lord I am thine much more than my own Receive thine own Take care of thine own Thou drewest me to consent to thy gracious Covenant and I resigned my self and all I had to thee and thou swarest to me and I became thine Ezek. 16. 8. and I stand to the Covenant that I made though I have offended thee I am sinful but I am thine and would not forsake thee and change my Lord and Master for a world O know thine own and own my Soul that hath owned thee though it hath sinned against thee Thy sheep know thy voice and follow not a stranger Now know thy poor sheep and leave them not to the devourer Thy Lambs have been preserved by thee among Wolves in the world Preserve me now from the enemy of souls I am thine O save me Psalm 119. 94. and lose not that which is thine own 2. Consider that thou art his upon so dear a purchace as that he is the more engaged to receive thee Hath he bought thee by the price of his most precious blood and will he cast thee off Hath he come down on earth to seek and save thee and will he now forsake thee Hath he lived in flesh a life of poverty and suffered reproach and scorn and buffetings and been nailed to the Cross and put to cry out My God My God why hast thou forsaken me And will he now forget his love and sufferings and himself forsake thee after this Did he himself on the Cross commend his spirit into his Father's hands and will he not receive thy spirit when thou at death commendest it to him He hath known himself what it is to have a humane soul separated from the body and the body buried in a grave and there lamented by surviving friends And why did he this but that he might be fit to receive and relieve thee in the like condition O who would not be encouraged to encounter death and lie down in a grave that believeth that Christ did so before him and considereth why he went that way and what a Conquest he hath made I know an Argument from the Death of Christ will not prove his love to the souls of the ungodly so as to infer that he wil receive them but it will prove his Reception of Believers souls He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Rom. 8. 32. is an infallible argument as to Believers but not as to those that do reject him Say therefore to him O my Lord Can it be that thou couldst come down in flesh and be abused and spit upon and slandred and crucified that thou couldst bleed and die and be buried for me and now be unwilling to receive me that thou shoulds pay so dear for souls and now refuse to entertain them that thou shouldst die to save them from the devil and now wilt leave
Father which art in Heaven shut not out thy Children the Children of thy love and promise The compassion that thou hast put into Man ingageth him to relieve a Neighbour â—ea an Enemy much more to entertain a Child Our Children and our Friends dare trust themselves upon our kindness and fidelity and fear not that we will reject them in their distress or destroy them though they do sometime offend us Our kindness is cruelty in comparison of thine Our Love dserveth not the name of Love in comparison of thy most precious Love Thine is the love of God who is Love it self 1 Joh. 4. 8 16. and who is the God of Love 2 Cor. 1. 13 11. and is answerable to thine Omnipotency Omniscience and other Attributes But ours is the love of frail and finite sinful men As we may pray to thee to Forgive us our trespasses for we also forgive those that have trespassed against us So we may pray to thee to receive us though we have offended thee for even we receive those that have offended us Hath thy Love unto thine own its breadth and length and height and depth and is it such as passeth knowledge Ephes 3. 17 18 19. and yet canst thou exclude thine own and shut them out that cry unto thee Can that love which washed me and took we home when I lay wallowing in my Blood reject me when it hath so far recovered me Can that Love now thrust me out of Heaven that lately fetch'd me from the gates of Hell and placed me among thy Saints Whom thou lovest thou lovest to the end John 13. 1. Thou art not as man that thou shouldst repent Num. 23. 19. with thee is no variablenes or shadow of turning Jam. 1. 17. If yesterday thou so freely lovedst me as to adopt me for thy child thou wilt not to day refuse me and cast me into Hell Receive Lord Jesus a member of thy body A weak one indeed but yet a member and needeth the more thy tenderness and compassion who hast taught us not to cast out our Infants because they are small and weak We have forsaken all to cleave unto thee that we might with thee be one flesh and spirit Ephes 5. 31. 1 Cor. 6. 17. O cut not off and cast not out thy members that are engrafted into thee Thou hast dwelt in me here by faith and shall I not now dwell with thee Ephes 3. 17. Then hast prayed to the Father that we may be one in thee and may be with thee to behold thy Glory John 17. 20 21 22 23 24. And wilt thou deny to receive me to that glory who pray but for what thou hast prayed to thy Father Death maketh no separation between thee and the members It dissolveth not the union of souls with thee though it separate them from the flesh And shall a part of thy self be rejected and condemned 10. Consider That Christ hath sealed thee up unto salvation and given thee the earnest of his Spirit and therfore will certainly receive thee 2 Cor. 1. 22. and 5. 5 Eph. 1. 13 14. and 4. 30. Say therefore to him Behold Lord thy mark thy feal thine earnest Flesh and blood did not illuminate and renew me Thy spirit which thou hast given me is my witness that I am thine Rom. 8. 16 And wilt thou disown and refuse the soul that thou hast sealed 11. Consider That he that hath given thee a Heavenly mind will certainly Receive thee into heaven If thy treasure were not there thy heart would never have been there Mat. 6. 21. Thy weak desires do shew what he intends thee he for kindled not those desires in vain Thy Love to him though too small is a certain proof that he intends not to reject thee It cannot be that God can damn or Christ refuse a Soul that doth sincerely Love him He that Loveth dwelleth in God and God in him 1 John 4. 15 16. And shall he not then dwell with God for ever God fitteth the nature of every creature to its use and agreeably to the element in which they dwell And therefore when he gave thee the heavenly nature though but in weak beginnings it shewed his will to make thee an inhabitant of heaven Say therefore to him O Lord I had never loved thee if thou hadst not begun and loved me first I had not not minded thee or desired after thee if thou hadst not kindled these desires It cannot be that thy Grace it self should be a deceit and misery and intended but to Tantalizeus and that thou hast set thy Servants Souls on longing for that which thou wilt never give them Thou wouldst not have given me the wedding garment when thou didst invite me if thou hadst meant to keep me out Even the grain of mustard-seed which thou sowedst in my heart was a kind of Promise of the Happiness to which it tendeth indeed I have loved thee so little that I am ashamed of my self and confess my cold indifferency deserves thy wrath But that I Love thee and desire thee is thy gift which signifieth the higher satisfying gift Though I am cold and dull my eyes are towards thee It is thee that I mean when I can but groan It is long since I have bid this world away It shall not be my home or portion O perfect what thou hast begun This is not the time or place of my perfection And though my life be now hid with thee in God when then appearest let me appear with thee in glory Col. 3. 4. and in the mean time let this soul enjoy its part that appeareth before thee Give me what thou hast caused me to Love and then I shall more perfectly love thee when my thirst is satisfied and the water which thou hast given me shall spring up to everlasting life Joh. 4. 14. 12. Consider also That he that hath engaged thee to seek first his Kingdom is engaged to give it them that do sincerely seek it He called thee off the pursuit of vanity when thou wast following the pleasures and profits of the world and he called thee to labour for the food that perisheth not but endureth to everlasting life John 6. 27. Since then it hath been thy care and business notwithstanding all thine imperfections to seek and serve him to please and honour him and so to run that thou mightest obtain Say then Though my sins deserve thy wrath and nothing that I have done deserve thy favour yet Godliness hath thy Promise of the Life to come and thou hast said that he that seeks shall find Matth. 7. 7. 8. O now let me find the Kingdom that I have sought and sought by thy encouragement and help It cannot be that any should have cause to repent of serving thee or suffer disappointment that trusts upon thee My labour for the World was lost and vain but thou didst engage me to be stedfast and abound in thy work on this account that my labour should
not be in vain 1 Cor. 15. 58. Now give the full and final answer unto all my Prayers Now that I have done the fight and finished my course let me find the Crown of righteousness which thy mercy hath laid up 2 Tim. 4. 8. O Crown thy graces and with thy greatest mercies recompence and perfect thy preparatory mercies and let me be Received to thy glory who have been guided by thy counsel Psalm 73. 24. 13. Consider That Christ hath already received millions of Souls and never was unfaithful unto any There are now with him the spirits of the just made perfect that in this life were imperfect as well as you Why then should you not comfortably trust him with your Souls and say Lord thou art the Common Salvation and refuge of thy Saints Both strong and weak even all that are given thee by the Father shall come to thee and those that come thou wilt in no wise cast out Thousands have been entertained by thee that were unworthy in themselves as well as I It is few of thy members that are now on earth in comparison of those that are with thee in Heaven Admit me Lord into the new Jerusalem Thou wilt have thy house to be filled O take my Spirit into the number of those belssed ones that shall come from East West North and South and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom that we may together with eternal joyes give thanks and praise to thee that hast redeemed us to God by thy blood 14. Consider That it is the will of the Father himself that we should be glorified He therefore gave us to his Son and gave his Son for us to be our Saviour that whoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life All our Salvation is the product of his Love Joh. 3. 16 17. Eph. 2. 4. Joh. 6. 37. Joh. 16. 26 27. I say not that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me c. John 14. He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Say therefore with our dying Lord Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit By thy Son who is the way the truth and the life I come to thee Joh. 14. 6. Fulness of joy is in thy presence and everlasting pleasures at thy right hand Psalm 16. 11. Thy love redeemed me renewed and preserved me O now receive me to the fulness of thy Love This was thy will in sending thy Son that of all that thou gavest him he should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day O let not now this Soul be lost that is passing to thee through the straits of death I had never come unto thy Son if thou hadst not drawn me and if I had not heard and learnt of thee John 6 44 45. I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast revealed to me a babe an ideot the blessed mysteries of thy Kingdom Luk. 10. 21. Acts 4 13. O now as the vail of flesh must be withdrawn and my soul be parted from this body withdraw the vail of thy displeasure and shew thy servant the glory of thy presence that he that hath seen thee but as in a glass may see thee now with open face and when my earthly house of this Tabernacle is dissolved let me inhabit thy building not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5. 1. 15. Lastly consider That God hath designed the everlasting glory of his name and the pleasing of his blessed will in our salvation And the Son must triumph in the perfection of his conquest of Sin and Satan and in the perfecting of our Redemption And doubtless he will not lose his Fathers glory and his own Say then with confidence I resign my soul to thee O Lord who hast called and chosen me that thou mightest make known the riches of thy glory on me as a vessel of mercy prepared unto glory Rom. 9. 23. Thou hast predestinated me to the adoption of thy child by Christ unto thy self to the praise of the glory of thy grace wherein thou hast made me accepted in thy beloved Eph. 1. 5 6 11 12 Receive me now to the glory which thou hast prepared for us Mat. 25. 34. The hour is at hand Lord glorifie thy poor adopted child that he may for ever glorify thee Joh. 17. 1. It is thy Promise to glorify those whom thou dost justify Rom. 8. 30. As therere is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8. 1. so now let him present me faultless before the presence of the glory with exceeding joy And to thee the only wise God our Saviour be the glory Majesty Dominion and Power for evermore Amen Jude v. 23 24. WHat now remaineth but that we all set our selves to learn this sweet and necessary task that we may joyfully perform it in the hour of our extremity even to recommend our departing Souls to Christ with confidence that he will receive them It is a lesson not easie to be learnt For Faith is weak and doubts and fears will easily arise and nature will be loth to think of dying and we that have so much offended Christ and lived so strangely to him and been entangled in too much familiarity with the World shall be apt to shrink when we should joyfully trust him with our departing Souls O therefore now set your selves to overcome these difficulties in time You know we are all ready to depart It is time this last important work were throughly learned that our death may be both safe and comfortable There are divers other Uses of this Doctrine that I should have urged upon you had there been time As 1. If Christ will Receive your departing Souls then fear not death but long for this Heavenly entertainment 2. Then do not sin for fear of them that can but kill the body and send the Soul to Christ 3. Then think not the righteous unhappy because they are cast off by the world neither be too much troubled at it your selves when it comes to be your case but remember that Christ will not forsake you and that none can hinder him from the Receiving of your Souls No malice nor slanders can follow you so far as by defamation to make your justifyer condemn you 4. If you may trust him with your Souls then trust him with your friends your Children that you must leave behind with all your concernments and affairs and trust him with his Gospel and his Church for they are all his own and he will prevail to the accomplishment of his blessed pleasure But 5. I shall only add that Use which the sad occasion of our meeting doth bespeak What cause have we now to mix our sorrows for our deceased friend with the joyes of faith for her felicity we have left the body to the earth and
that is our lawful sorrow for it is the fruit of sin But her spirit is Received by Jesus Christ and that must be our joy if we will behave our selves as true Believers If we can suffer with her should we not rejoyce also with her And if the joy be far greater to the Soul with Christ than the ruined state of the body can be lamentable it is but reason that our joy should be greater for her joy than our sorrow for the dissolution of the flesh we that should not much lament the passage of a friend beyond the Seas if it were to be advanced to a Kingdom should less lament the passage of a Soul to Christ if it were not for the remnant of our woful unbelief She is arrived at the everlasting Rest where the burden of corruption the contradictions of the flesh the molestations of the Tempter the troubles of the world and the injuries of malicious men are all kept out and shall never more disturb her peace She hath left us in these storms who have more cause to weep for our selves and for our Children that have yet so much to do and suffer and so many dangers to pass through than for the Souls that are at Rest with Christ We are capable of no higher hopes than to attain that state of blessedness which her Soul possesseth And shall we make that the matter of our lamentation as to her which we make the matter of our hopes as to our selves Do we labour earnestly to come thither and yet lament that she is there You will say It is not because she is cloathed upon with the house from Heaven but that she is uncloathed of the flesh But is there any other passage than Death unto immortality Must we not be uncloathed before the garments of Glory can be put on She bemoaneth not her own dissolved Body The glorified Soul can easily bear the corruption of the flesh And if you saw but what the Soul enjoyeth you would be like minded and be moderate in your griefs Love not your selves so as to be unjust and unmerciful in your desires to your friends Let Satan desire to keep them out of Heaven but do not you desire it You may desire your own good but not so as to deprive your friends of theirs yea of a greater good that you may have a lesser by it And if it be their company that you desire in reason you should be glad that they are gone to dwell where you must dwell for ever and therefore may for ever have their company Had they stayed on earth you would have had their company but a little while because you must make so short a stay your selves Let them therefore begin their journy before you and grudge not that they are first at home as long as you expect to find them there In the mean time he that called them from you hath not left you comfortless He is with you himself who is better than a Mother or than ten thousand friends When grief or negligence hindereth you from observing him yet he is with you and holdeth you up and tenderly provideth for you Though turbulent passions injuriously question all his Love and cause you to give him unmannerly and unthankful words yet still he beareth with you and forgiveth all and doth not forsake you for your peevishness and weakness because you are his Children and he knoweth that you mean not to forsake him Rebuke your passions and calm your minds Reclaim your thoughts and cast away the bitterness of suspicious quarrelsome unbelief and then you may perceive the presence of your dearest friend and Lord who is enough for you though you had no other friend Without him all the friends on earth would be but silly comforters and leave you as at the gates of Hell Without him all the Angels and Saints in Heaven would never make it a Heaven to you Grieve not too much that one of your Candles is put out while you have the Sun Or if indeed it be not day with any of you or the Sun be clouded or ecclipsed let that rather be the matter of your grief Find out the cause and presently submit and seek reconciliation Or if you are deprived of this Light because you are yet asleep in sin hearken to his call and rub your eyes Eph. 5. 14. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Rom. 13. 11 12 13 14. Knowing that it is now high time to awake out of sleep our salvation being nearer than when we first believed the night is far spent the day of eternal light is even at hand cast off therefore the works of darkness and put on all the armour of light walk honestly and decently as in the day And whatever you do make sure of the friend that never dyeth and never shall be separated from you and when you die will certainly Receive the souls which you commend unto him And here though contrary to my custom I shall make some more particular mention of our deceased friend on several accounts 1. In prosecution of this Use that now we are upon that you may see in the evidences of her happiness how little cause you have to indulge extraordinary grief on her account and how much cause to moderate your sense of our loss with the sense of her felicity 2. That you many have the benefit of her example for your imitation especially her Children that are bound to observe the holy actions as well as instructions of a Mother 3. For the honour of Christ and his Grace and his Servant For as God hath promised to honour those that honour him 1 Sam 2. 30. and Christ hath said If any man serve me him will My Father honour John 12. 26. So I know Christ will not take it ill to be honoured in his members and to have his Ministers subserve him in so excellent a work It is a very considerable part of the love or hatred honour or dishonour that Christ hath in the world which he receiveth as he appeareth in his followers He that will not see a cup of cold water given to one of them go unrewarded and will tell those at the last day that did or did not visit and relieve them that they did or did it not to him will now expect it from me as my duty to give him the honour of his Graces in his deceased servant and I doubt not will accordingly accept it when it is no other indeed than his own honour that is my End and nothing but the words of Truth and Soberness shall be the means And here I shall make so great a transition as shall retain my discourse in the narrow compass of the Time in which she lived near me and under my care and in my familiar acquaintance omitting all the rest of her life that none may say I speak but by hear-say of things which I am uncertain of and I
Death are set before you Christ will receive you if you will but come within the capacity of his acceptation If you will not there will then be no remedy It is a doleful thing to observe how Satan doth bewitch poor sinners That when time is gone and the door of mercy is shut against them they would think no cries too loud for mercy and no importunity too great for Christ telleth us Matth. 25. 10 11. that they they will cry Lord Lord open to us And yet now when the door stands open no arguments no earnestness no tears can intreat them to enter in Then there is not the most senseless sinner of you all but would cry more strongly than Esau for the blessing when his tears could find no place for repentance Heb. 12. 16 17. Lord receive a miserable soul O whither shall I go if thou receive me not I must else be tormented in those scorching flames And yet now you will sell your birthright for one morsel for a little of Judas or Gehezi's gain for the applause of worms for the pleasing of your flesh that is turning to corruption for the delights of gluttony drunkenness sports or lust There is not a man of you but would then pray more earnestly than those that you now deride for earnest praying as if they whined and were ridiculous And yet now you will neither be serious in prayer nor hear Christ or his messengers when he maketh it his earnest request to you to come in to him that you may have life John 5. 40. Then you will knock when the door is shut and cry Lord open to a miserable sinner and yet now you will not open unto him when by his word and spirit her mercies and afflictions he standeth at the door of your stubborn hearts and calleth on you to repent and turn to God Now our intreaties cannot so much as bring you on your knees or bring you to one hours serious thoughts about the state of those souls that are so near their doom O Sirs for your souls sake lay by your obstinacy Pity those souls that then you will beg of Christ to pity Do not you damn them by your sloth and sin in the day of your visitation and then cry in vain to Christ to save them when it is too late Yet the door of grace is open But how speedily will it be shut One stroak of an Apoplexy a Consumption a Fever can quickly shut it and then you may tear your hearts with crying Lord open to us and all in vain O did you but see departed souls as you see the corps that is left behind Did you see how they are treated at their removal from the flesh how some are taken and others left how some are welcomed to Christ and others are abhorred and turned over to the tormenter and thrust out with implacable indignation and disdain Luk. 13. 28. Prov. 1. 24 26 27. sure you would enter into serious consideration this day What it is that makes this difference and why Christ so useth the one and the other and what must be done now by the soul that would be received then Alas men will do any thing but that which they should do Among the superstitious Papists the conceit of a deliverance from Purgatory makes them bequeath their Lands and Moneys to Priests and Friars to pray for them when they are dead and to have other men cry to Christ to receive them and open to them when time is past And yet now in the accepted time now when it is at your choice and the door is open men live as if they were past feeling and cared not what became of them at the last and would not be beholden to Christ to receive them when the deceitful world hath cast them off And now Beloved Hearers all I would make it my most earnest request to you as one that knoweth we are all passing hence and foreseeth the case of a departed soul that you would now without any more delay prepare and make sure that you may be received into the everlasting habitations And to this end I shall more distinctly though briefly tell you 1. What souls they are that Christ will receive and what he will not and consequently what you must do to be received 2. What considerations should stir you up to this preparation I. Nothing is more sure than that Christ will not receive 1. Any unregenerate unconverted soul John 3. 3 5. Matth. 18. 3. that is not renewed and sanctified by his spirit Rom. 8. 9. Heb. 12. 14. Acts 26. 18. They must have the new and heavenly nature that will ever come to Heaven Without this you are morally uncapable of it Heaven is the proper inheritance of Saints Col. 1. 12. This heavenly nature and spirit is your earnest If you have this you are sealed up unto salvation 2 Cor. 1. 22. Ephes 1. 13. 4. 30. 2. Christ will receive none but those that make it now their work to lay up a treasure in heaven rather than upon the earth Matth. 6. 20 21. and that seek it in the first place Mat. 6. 33. and can be content to part with all to purchase it Matth. 13. 44 46. Luk. 14. 33. 18. 22. An earthly-minded worldling is uncapable of heaven in that condition Phil. 3. 17 18. Luk. 16. 13. You must take it for your portion and set your hearts on it if ever you will come thither Matth. 6. 21. Col. 3. 1 2 3. 3. Christ will Receive no soul at last but such as sincerely received him as their Lord and Saviour now and gave up themselves to him and received his Word and yield obedience to it and received his Spirit and were cleansed by him from their iniquities John 1. 11 12 Luk. 19. 27. 2 Thes 2. 10 12. That all they might be damned that believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness They are God's own words be not offended at them but believe and fear He hateth all the workers of iniquity and will say to them Depart from me I know you not Psal 5. 5. Matth. 7. 23. 4. He will receive none but those that loved his servants that bore his holy image and received them according to their abilities Matth. 25. 40 41 c. And if he will say to those that did not entertain them Depart form me ye cursed into everlasting fire what will he say to those that hate and persecute them 1 Joh. 3. 14. 5. 2. 5. He will receive none but those that live to him in the body and use his gifts and talents to his service and make it their chief business to serve and honour and please him in the world Matth. 25. 21 26. 2 Cor. 5. 9 15. Gal. 6. 7 8. and live not to the pleasing of the flesh but have crucified it and its lusts Rom. 8. 1 13. Gal. 5. 24. Examine all these Texts of Scripture for the matter is worthy of your
study and you will see what souls they are that Christ will then Receive and what he will reject You may see also what you must now be and do if you will be then Received If you are not regenerate by the Spirit of God though you may be Sacramentally regenerate in Baptism If you are not justified by Christ though you may be absolved by a Minister If If you seek not Heaven with higher estimation and resolutions that any felicity on earth and take not God for your satisfying portion though you be never so Religious in subserviency to a fleshly worldly happiness If you Receive not Christ as your only Saviour and set him not in the Throne and Government of your hearts and lives though you may go with men for currant Christians If you hate not sin if you love not the holy image and children of God and use them not accordingly If you crucifie not the flesh and die not to the world and deny not your selves and live not unto God as making it your chief business and happiness to please him I say if this be not your case as sure as you are men if you died this hour in this condition Christ will not own you but turn you off with a Depart ye cursed You may as well think of reconciling light and darkness or persuade a man to live on the food of beasts or the stomach to welcome deadly poyson as to think that Christ will receive an ungodly earthly guilty soul Deceive not your selves sinners If God could have entertained the ungodly and Heaven could hold unholy souls answer me then these two or three Questions 1. What need Christ then to have shed his blood or become a sacrifice for sin if he could have received the ungodly he might have done it upon cheaper rates This feigneth him to have died to no purpose but to bring the unsanctified to heaven that might have been as well entertained there without his sufferings 2. To what use doth Christ send the Holy-Ghost to sanctifie his Elect Or send his Word and Ministers to promote it if they may come to heaven unsanctified 3. If the ungodly go to Heaven what use is Hell for There is no Hell if this be true But you will quickly find that to be too good news to the ungodly to be true II. In Luk. 16. Christ teacheth us our duty by the parable of the Steward that asketh himself before-hand What he shall do when he must be no longer Steward and contriveth it so that others may receive him when he is cast off And he applieth it to us hat must now so provide that when we fail we may be received into the everlasting habitations This is the work that we have all to mind We always knew that this world would fail us O how uncertain is your tenure of the dwellings that you now possess Are you provided certainly provided whither to go and who shall Receive you when your Stewardship is ended and you must needs go hence O think of these considerations that should move you presently to provide 1. Your Cottages of earth are ready to drop down and it is a stormy time there are many sicknesses abroad One blast may quickly lay them in the dust and them the flesh that had so much care and was thought worthy to be preferred before the soul must be laid and left to rot in darkness to avoid the annoyance of the living And when you may justly look every hour when you are turned out of these dwellings that you are in is it not time to be provided of some other 2. Consider if Christ should not receive thy spirit how unspeakably deplorable thy case will be I think there is no man in all this Assembly so mad that would take all the world now to have his soul refused then by Christ that would professedly make and subscribe such a bargain And yet alas how many are they that will be hired for a smaller price even for the pleasure of a sin to do that which Chirst himself hath told them will cause him to Refuse them O Sirs for ought you know before to morrow or within this week you may be put to know these things by tryal and your Souls may be refused or received And wo to you that ever you were Men if Christ receive you not Consider 1. If Chirst receive thee not thou hast no Friend left then to receive thee Thy House and Land an Riches and Reputation are all left behind none of them will go with thee or if they did they could afford thee no relief Thy Bosom-friends thy powerful Defenders are all left behind or if they go before or with thee they can do nothing there that could do so much for thee here No Minister so holy no Friend so kind no Patron so powerful that can give thee any entertainment if Christ refuse to entertain thee Look to the right hand or the left there will be none to help thee or care for thy forsaken Soul Then thou wilt find that one Christ had been a better Friend than all the Great ones upon Earth 2. If Christ then receive not thy departed Soul the Devils will receive it I am loth to speak so terrible a word but that it must be spoken if you will be awaked to prevent it He that deceived thee will then plead Conquest and claim thee as his due that he may torment thee And if the Devil say This Soul is mine and Christ do not rescue and justifie thee but say so too no heart is able to conceive the horrour that will then overwhelm thee Doth not the reading of the Sentence make thee tremble Matth. 25. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels This is that dreadful delivering up to Satan when the Soul is excommunicated from the City of God O therefore if thou be yet unreconciled to God agree with him quickly while thou art here in the way lest he deliver thee to this terrible Jaylor and Executioner and thou be cast into the prison of the bottomless pit Verily I say unto thee thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing Mat. 5. 25 26. 3. The greatness of the change will increase the amazement and misery of thy Spirit if Christ receive it not To leave a World that thou wast acquainted with a World that pleased thee and entertained thee a World where thou hadst long thy business and delight and where wretched man thou hadst made thy chief provision and laid up thy treasure this will be a sad part of the Change To enter into a World where thou art a stranger and much worse and see the company and the things that before thou never sawest and to find things go there so contrary to thy expectation to be turned with Dives from thy sumptuous Dwelling Attendance and Fare into a place of easeless torment this will
he provide this Heavenly Building not made with hands but for Believers If therefore any inordinate fear surprize thee remember what he hath said John 14. 1 2 3. Let not your hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were nor so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also Say therefore Lord when thou hadst made this lower narrow world thou wouldst not leave it uninhabited for Man thou madest it and Man thou placedst in it And when thou hast prepared that more capacious glorious World for thy redeemed flock it cannot be that thou wilt shut them out O therefore receive my fearful Soul and help me to obey thine own command Luke 12. 32. Fear not little flock for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom O let me hear that joyful Sentence Matth. 25. 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world 8. Consider That Christ hath received thy Soul unto Grace and therefore he will receive it unto Glory He hath quickned us who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past we walked c. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins and trespasses quickned us together with Christ and raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2. 1 2 3 4 5 6. The State of Grace is the kingdom of heaven as well as the State of Glory Matth. 3. 2. 10. 7. 13. 11 24 31 33 44 45 47. By Grace thou hast the heavenly birth and nature We are first born to trouble and sorow in the World but we are new born to everlasting joy and pleasure Grace maketh us Heirs and giveth us Title and therefore at death we shall have possession The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us 1 Peter 1. 3 4. The great work was done in the day of thy Renovation Then thou wast entred into the houshold of God and made a fellow Citizen with the Sants and receivedst the Spirit of adoption Eph. 2. 19. Gal. 4. 6. He gave thee life eternal when he gave the knowledge of himself and of his Son John 17. 3. And will he now take from thee the Kingdom which he hath given thee Thou wast once his Enemy and he hath Received thee already into his favour and reconciled thee to himself and will he not then receive thee to his Glory Rom. 5. 8 9 10 11. God commendeth his Love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life And not only so but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the attonement And when we have peace with God being justifiied by faith Rom. 5. 1. why should we doubt whether he will receive us The great impediments and cause of fear are now removed Unpardoned sin is taken away Our debt is discharged We have a sufficient Answer against all that can be alledged to the prejudice of our Souls yea it is Christ himself that answereth for us It is he that justifieth Who then shall condemn us Will he not justifie those at last whom he hath here justified Or will he justifie us and yet not receive us That were both to justifie and condemn us Depart then in peace O fearful Soul Thou fallest into his hands that hath justified thee by his Blood will he deny thee the Inheritance of which he himself hath made thee Heir yea a Joynt-heir with himself Rom. 8. 17. Will he deprive thee of thy Birth-right who himself begot thee of the incorruptible Seed If he would not have received thee to Glory he would not have drawn thee to himself and have blotted out thine Iniquities and received thee by reconciling Grace Many a time he hath received the secret Petitions Complaints and Groans which thou hast poured out before him and hath given thee access with boldness to his Throne of Grace when thou couldst not have access to Man and he hath taken thee up when Man hath cast thee off Surely he that received thee so readily in thy distress will not now at last repent him of his love As Manoah's Wife said Judges 13. 23. If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things He hath received thee into his Church and entertained thee with the delights and fatness of his House Psalm 36. 8. and bid thee welcome to his Table and feasted thee with his Body and his Blood and communicated in these his quickning Spirit And will he then disown thee and refuse thee when thou drawest nearer him and art cast upon him for thy final doom After so many receptions in the way of Grace dost thou yet doubt of his Receiving thee 9 Consider How nearly thou art related to him in this state of Grace Thou art his Child and hath he not the bowels of a Father when thou didst ask bread he was not used to give thee a stone and will he give thee Hell when thou askest but the entertainment in Heaven which he hath promised thee Thou art his friend John 15. 14. 15. and will he not receive his friends Thou art his Spouse betrothed to him the very day when thou consentedst to his Covenant and where then shouldst thou live but with him Thou art a member of his body of his flesh and bone Eph. 5. 30. and no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church ver 29. As he came down in flesh to be a Suitor to thee so he caused thee to let go all for him and will he now forsake thee Suspect it not but quietly resign thy soul into his hands and say Lord take this Soul that pleads Relation to thee It is the voice of thy Child that cryeth to thee The name of a Father which thou hast assumed towards me is my encouragement When thou didst call us 〈◊〉 out of the world unto thee thou saidst I will receive you and I will be a Father to you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters 2 Cor. 6. 17 18 O our
with what horrour they shall cry out My punishment is greater then I can bear Gen. 4. 11 13. If God and Good men condemn you for your lip-service and heartless devotions and ungodly lives will you therefore hate the holy nature and better lives of those that judge you when you should hate your own ungodliness and hypocrisie Hear what God said to the leader of your sect Gen 4. 6. Why art thou wroth and why is thy countenance faln If thou do well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou dost not well sin lyeth at the door Have you not as much need to pray as those that you hate and reproach for praying Have you not as much need to be oft and earnest in prayer as they Must Christ himself spend whole nights in prayer Luke 6. 12. and shall an ignorant sensual hardened sinner think he hath no need of it though he be unconverted unjustified unready to die and almost past the opportunity of praying O miserable men that shortly would cry and roar in the anguish of their Souls and yet will not pray while there is time and room for prayer Their judge is willing now to hear them and now they have nothing but hypocritical lifeless words to speak Praying is now a wearisom tedions and unpleasant thing to them that shortly would be glad if the most heart-tearing lamentations could prevail for the crums and drops of that mercy which they thus despise Luke 16. 24. Of all men in the world it ill becomes one in so deep necessities and dangers to be prayerless But for you Christians that are daily exercised in this holy converse with your Maker hold on and grow not strange to heaven and let not your holy desires be extinguished for want of excitation Prayer is your ascent to heaven your departure from a vexatious world to treat with God for your Salvation your retirement from a World of dangers into the impregnable fortress where you are safe and from vanity unto felicity and from troubles unto Rest Which though you cannot come so near nor enjoy so fully and delightfully as hereafter you shall do yet thus do you make your approaches to it and thus do you secure your future full fruition of it And let them all scoff at hearty fervent Prayer as long as they will yet Prayer shall do that with God for you which health and wealth and dignity and honor and carnal pleasures and all the World shall never do for one of them And though they neglect and villifie it now yet the hour is near when they will be fain to scamble and bungle at it themselves and the face of death will better teach them the use of prayer than our doctrine and example now can do A departing Soul will not easily be prayerless nor easily be content with sleepy prayers But alas it is not every Prayer that hath some fervency from the power of fear that shall succeed Many a thousand may perish for ever that have prayed Lord Jesus receive my Spirit But the Soul that breatheth after Christ and is weary of sinning and hath long been pressing toward the mark may receive incouragement for his last petitions from the bent and success of all the foregoing prayers of his life Believe it Christians your cannot be so ready to beg of Christ to Receive your souls as he is ready and willing to receive them As you came praying therefore into the world of Grace go praying out of it into the world of Glory It is not a work that you were never used to though you have had lamented backwarness and coldness and omissions It is not to a God that you were never with before As you know whom you have believed so you may know to whom you pray It is indeed a most important suit to beg for the Receiving of a departing soul but it is put up to him to whom it properly doth belong and to him that hath encouraged you by answering many a former prayer with that mercy which was the earnest of this and it is to him that loveth souls much better than any soul can love it self O live in prayer and die in prayer And do not as the graceless witless world despise prayer while they live and then think a Lord have mercy on me shall prove enough to pass them into heaven Mark their Statutes and Monuments in the Churches whether they be not made kneeling and lifting up the hands to tell you that all will be forced to pray or to approve of prayer at their death whatever they say against it in their life O pray and wait but a little longer and all your danger will be past and you are safe for ever Keep up your hands a litte longer till you shall end your conflict with the last enemy and shall pass from Prayer to everlasting Praise FINIS * Good old Mris. Doughty sometime of Shrewsbury who had long walked with God and longed to be with him and was among us an excellent example of holiness blamelesness contempt of the world constancy patience humility and which makes it strange a great and constant desire to die though she was still complaining of doubtings and weakness of assurance