to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You see here what it is that conquereth the enmity of death in our sanctification even that powerful love of God that is then given us which will go to him through the most cruel death 4. A fourth Antidote that is given us by Christ against the Enmity of Death is the Holy Ghost as he is the Comforter of the Saints He makes it his work to corroborate and confirm them As sin hath woven calamities into our lives and filled us with troubles and griefs and fears so Christ doth send his spirit to undo these works of Satan and to be a Comforter as well as a Sanctifier to his members As the Sanctifying Spirit striveth against the entising sinful flesh so the Comforting Spirit striveth against the troubling flesh as also against the persecuting as well as the tempting world and the vexing as well as the tempting Devil And greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world 1 John 4. 4. The Spirit of Christ overcomes the disquieting as well as the tempting Spirit But with some difference because our comforts are not in this life so necessary to us as our Holiness Joy being part of our Reward is not to be expected certainly or constantly in any high degree till we come to the state of our Reward And therefore though the Holy Ghost will carry on the work of Sanctification universally constantly and certainly in the Elect yet in many of them his Comforting work is more obscure and interrupted And yet he is a Conquerour here For his works must be judged of in reference to their ends And our comfort on earth is given us for our encouragement in holy wayes that we be not stopt or diverted by the fear of enemies and also to help on our love to God and to quicken us in thanks and praise and draw up our hearts to the life to come and make us more serviceable to others And such a measure of comfort we shall have as conduceth to these ends and is suitable to our present state and the employment God hath for us in the world if we do not wilfully grieve our Comforter and quench our joyes So that when Death and the Grave appear before and our flesh is terrified with the sight of these Anakims and say We are not able to overcome them and so brings up an evil report upon the promised Land and casts us sometime into murmuring lamentation and weakning-discouragements yet doth the ho-Ho-Ghost cause Faith and Hope as Caleb and Joshua to still the soul Numb 13. and causeth us to contemn these Gyants and say Let us go up and possess it for we are well able to overcome it Ver. 30. The Comforting Spirit sheweth us his death that conquered death Heb. 2. 14 15. even the Cross on which he triumphed openly when he seemed to be conquered Col. 2. 15. He sheweth us the glorious Resurrection of our Head and his promise of our own Resurrection He sheweth us our glorified Lord to whom we may boldly and confidently commend our departing souls Acts 7. 59. And he sheweth us the Angels that are ready to be their Convoy And he maketh all these Considerations effectual and inwardly exciteth our Love and heavenly desires and giveth us a triumphing Courage and Consolation So that Death doth not encounter us alone and in our own strength but finds us armed and led on by the Lord of life who helps us by a sling and stone to conquer this Goliah If a draught of Wine or some spiritful reviving liquor can take off fears and make men bold what then may the Spirit of Christ do by his powerful encouragements and comforts on the soul Did we but see Christ or an Angel standing by our sick-beds and saying Fear not I will convoy thy soul to God this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise What an unspeakable comfort would this be to a dying man Why the Spirit is Christ's Agent here on earth and what the Spirit speaks Christ speaks And therefore we may take its comforting words as spoken to us by Christ himself who spoke the like to the penitent Thief to shew bellevers the virtue of his Cross and what they also may expect from him in their extremity And our Physician is most wise and keeps his Cordials for a fainting time The Spirit useth so sustain and comfort us most in our greatest necessities We need not comforts against death so much in the time of prosperity and health as when death draws neer In health we have ordinarily more need of quickening than of comforting and more need to be awakened from security to a due preparation for death than to be freed from the terrible fore-thoughts of it though inordinate fears of death be hurtful to us security and deadness hurts us more And therefore the Spirit worketh according to our necessities And when Death is neerest and like to be most dreadful he usually giveth the liveliest sense of the joyes beyond it to abate the enmity and encourage the departing soul And if the comfort be but small it is precious because it is most pure as being then mixed with no carnal joyes and because it is most seasonable in so great a strait If we have no more but meer support it will be yet a precious mercy And thus I have done with the third degree of the destruction of Deaths Enmity by these four Antidotes which we receive at our Conversion and the Consequents thereof 4. The fourth degree of this Enemies destruction is by it self or rather by Christ at the time and by the means of death which contrary to its nature shall advantage our felicity When Death hath done its worst it hath half killed it self in killing us It hath then dismissed our imprisoned souls and ended even our fears of death and our fears of all the evils of this life It hath ended our cares and griefs and groans It hath finished our work and ended all our weariness and trouble And more then this it ends our sinning and so destroyeth that which caused it and that which the inordinate fears of it self had caused in us It is the time when sin shall gasp its last and so far our Physitian will perfect the cure and our greatest enemy shall follow us no further It is the door by which the soul must pass to Christ in Paradise If any Papist shall hence plead that therefore allmenmust be perfect without sin before death or else go to Purgatory to be cleansed because as we die so Christ will find us or if they ask How death can perfect us I answer them It is Christ our Physitian that finisheth the cure and Death is the time in which he doth it And if he undertake then do it it concerns not us to be too inquisitive how he doth it What if the patient understand not how blood-letting cureth the infected blood that
shortly begin their everlasting triumph The sin which thou hatest and longest to be delivered from and art willing to use Gods means against it is the conquered enemy which may assure thee of a full and final conquest supposing that thy hatred is against all known sin and that there is none so sweet or profitable in thy account which thou hadst not far rather leave then keep Quest 4. Moreover art thou not truly willing to yield to all the terms of grace Thou hast heard of the yoak and burden of Christ and of the conditions of the Gospel on which peace is offered to the sinful world and what Christ requireth of such as will be his Disciples What saith thy heart now to those terms Do they seem so hard and grievous to thee that thou wilt venture thy soul in thy state of sin rather then accept of them If this were so thou hadst yet no part in Christ indeed But if there be nothing that Christ requireth of thee that is not desirable in thy eyes or which thou dost not stick at so far as to turn away from him and forsake him and refuse his Covenant and grace rather then submit to such conditions thou art then in Covenant with him and the blessings of the Covenant belong to thee Canst thou think that Christ hath purchased and offered and promised that which he will not give Hath he sent forth his Ministers and commanded them to make the Motion in his name and to invite and compell men to come in and to beseech them to be reconciled to God and that yet he is unwilling to accept thee when thou dost consent If Christ had been unwilling he had not so dearly made the way nor begun as a suitor to thy soul nor so diligently sought thee as he hath done If the blessings of the Covenant are thine then Heaven is thine which is the chiefest blessing And if they be not thine it is not because Christ is unwilling but because thou art unwilling of his blessings on his terms Nothing can deprive thee of them but thy refusal Know therefore assuredly whether thou dost consent thy self to the terms of Christ and whether thou art truly willing that he be thy Saviour and if thy conscience bear thee faithful witness that it is so dishonour not Christ then so far as to question whether be be willing who hath done so much to put it out of doubt The stop is at thy will and not at his If thou know that thou art willing thou mayst know that Christ his benefits are thine if thou be not willing what makes theewish groan pray labour in the use of means Is it not for Christ his benefits that thy heart thus worketh and thou dost all this Fear not then if thy own hand be to the Covenant it is most certain that the hand of Christ is at it Quest 5. Moreover I would ask thee Whether thou see not a beauty in Holiness which is the Image of Christ and whether thy soul do not desire it even in perfection So that thou hadst rather if thou hadst thy choice be more Holy then more rich or honourable in the world If so be assured that it is not without Holyness that thou choosest and preferrest Holyness Hadst thou not rather have more faith and hope and love to God and patience and contentment and communion with Christ then have more of the favour and applause of man or of the riches or pleasures of this world If so I would know of thee whether this be not from the spirit of Christ within thee and be not his Image it self upon thee and the motions of the new and heavenly nature which is begotten in thee by the Holy Ghost Undoubtedly it is And the spirit of Christ thus dwelling in thee is the earnest of thy inheritance Dost thou find the spirit of Christ thus working in thee causing thee to love Holiness and hate all sin and yet canst thou doubt of thy part in Christ Quest 6. Moreover canst thou not truly say that Christs friends so far as thou knowest them are thy friends and that whinh is against him thou takest as against thy self If so undoubtedly thy enemies also are to him as his enemies and he will lay them at thy feet Thy troubles are as his troubles and in all thy afflictions he is as careful of thy good as if he himself were thereby afflicted Fear not those enemies that Christ takes as his own It is he that is engaged to overcome them And now when Conscience it self beareth witness that thus it is with thy soul and that thou wouldst fain be what God would have thee be and desirest nothing more then to be more like him and nearer to him and desirest no kind of life so much as that in which thou maist be most serviceable to him Consider what a wrong it is then to Christ and to the honour of his Covenant and grace and to thy poor dejected soul that thou shouldst lie questioning his love and thy part in him and looking about for matter of accusation or causeless suspition against his spirit working in thee and that thou shouldst cast away the joy of the Lord which is thy strength and gratifie the enemy of thy peace When sickness is upon thee and death draws nigh thou shouldst then with joy lift up thy head because thy warfare is almost accomplished and thy Saviour ready to deliver thee the Crown Is this a time to fear and mourn when thou art entring into endless joy Is it a time of lamentation when thou art almost at thy journeys end ready to see thy Saviours face and to take thy place in the Heavenly Jerusalem amongst those millions of holy souls that are gone before thee Is it seemly for thee to lament thus at the door when they are feasted with such unconceivable joys within Dost thou know what thy Brethren are now enjoying and what the heavenly Host are doing how full they are of God and how they are ravished with his Light and Love and canst thou think it seemly to be so unlike them that are passing to them I know there is such difference between imperfection and perfection and between earth and heaven that it justifieth our moderate sorrows and commandeth us to take up infinitely short of their delights till we are with them But yet let there not be too great a disproportion between the members of Jesus Christ We have the same Lord and the same Spirit and all that is theirs in possession is in right and title ours They are our elder brethren and being at age have possession of the inheritance but we that are yet in the lap of the Church on earth our Mother and in the arms of our Fathers grace are of the same family and have the same nature in our low degree They were once on earth as low as we and we shall be shortly in heaven as high
Two Treatises The first of DEATH On 1 Cor. 15. 26. The Second of JUDGMENT On 2 Cor. 5. 10 11. By Rich. Baxter LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Princes-Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1672. A Treatise of DEATH The last ENEMY to be destroyed Shewing wherein its enmity consisteth and how it is destroyed Part of it was Preached at the Funerals of Elizabeth the late Wife of Mr. Joseph Baker Pastor of the Church at Saint Andrews in Worcester By Rich. Baxter With some few passages of the life of the said Mrs. Baker observed Psal 15. 4. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 57. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Princes-Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1672. To the Worshipfull the Major Aldermen and Sheriff of the City of Worcester with the rest of the Inhabitants especially those of the Parishes of Andrews and Hellens Worshipfull and the rest Beloved THE chief part of this following Discourse being preached among you and that upon an occasion which you are obliged to consider Isa 57. 1. being called to publish it I thought it meet to direct it first to your hands and to take this opportunity plainly and seriously to exhort you in some matters that your present and everlasting peace is much concerned in Credible fame reporteth you to be a people not all of one mind or temper in the matters of God but that 1. Some of you are Godly Sobe and Peaceable 2. Some well-meaning and zealous but addicted to divisions 3. Some Papists 4. Some Hiders seduced by your late deceased neighbour Clement Writer to whom the Quakers do approach in many opinions 5. And too many prophane and obstinate persons that are heartily and seriously of no Religion but take occasion from the divisions of the rest to despise or neglect the Ordinances of God and join themselves to no Assemblies 1. To the first sort having least need of my exhortation I say no more but As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith as ye have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving and beware lest any man spoil you by deceit c. Col. 2. 6 7 8. Walk as a chosen generation a royal Priest-hood a holy Nation a peculiar people to shew forth the praises of him that hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light having your conversation honest among the ungodly that whereas they are apt to speak against you as evil doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of visitation For so is the will of God that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men 1 Pet. 2. 9 11 12 15. Your labour and patience is known to the Lord and how ye cannot bear them which are evill but have tried them which say they speak from the Lord and are Apostles and are not and have found them lyars even the woman Jezabel that is suffered to teach and seduce the people calling her self a Prophetess who shall be cast into a bed of tribulation and all that commit adultery with her except they repent and her children shall be killed with death and all the Churches shall know that Christ is he which searcheth the reines and hearts and will give to every one according to their work As for your selves we put upon you no other burden but that which you have already Hold fast till the Lord come Rev. 2. Be watchfull that ye fall not from your first Love and if any have declined and grown remiss remember how you have received and heard and hold fast and repent and strengthen the things that remain which are ready to die lest your Candlestick should be removed Rev. 3. 2 3 c. And beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3. 17 18. And I beseech you brethren do all things without murmurings and disputings that ye may be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation among whom you and your brethren shine as lights in the world Phil. 2. 14 15. And if in well doing you suffer think it not strange but rejoyce that ye are partakers of the sufferings of Christ that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy If ye be reproached for the name of Christ ye are happy for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you being glorified on your part while he is evil spoken of on theirs 1 Pet. 4. 12 13 14. 2. To the second sort inclinable to divisions let me tender the Counsel of the Holy Ghost Jam. 3. 1. My brethren be not many Masters or Teachers knowing that ye shall receive the greater condemnation The wisdom that is from above is first pure and then Peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy good fruits without partiality and without hipocrisie And the fruit of Righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Who then is the wise and knowing man amongst you Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lye not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensuall devilish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work Look on those Assemblies where the people professing the fear of God are of one heart and mind and walk together in Love and holy Order and people give due honour and obedience to their faithful Guides and compare them with the Congregations where professors are self-conceited unruly proud and addicted to ostentation of themselves and to divisions and see which is likest to the Primitive pattern and in which it is that the power of godliness prospereth best and the beauty of Religion most appears and Christians walk as Christians indeed If pride had not brought the heavy judgment of infatuation or insensibility on many the too clear discoveries of the fruits of divisions in the numerous and sad experiences of this age would have caused them to be abhorred as odious and destructive by those that now think they do but transcend their lower brethren in holiness and zeal I beseech you therefore brethren by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that you be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and
was great upon the earth and if it prepared for that great destruction of the universal deluge Should men live now but to the age of three hundred or four hundred years I fear it would so tempt them to over-value the world and so embolden them to delay repentance that one would be as a Wolf to another and the weak but be a prey to the strong and wickedness would overwhelm the world despising the reins and bearing down Religious and Civil opposition But when we stand over the grave and see our friends laid in the dust how mortified do we seem how do we even shake the head at the folly of ambitious and covetous worldlings and are ashamed to think of fleshly lusts So far are men from owning their vanities when that silent teacher standeth by It is Death that helps to humble the proud and abate the arrogancy and obstinacy of the wicked and make them regard the messengers of Christ that before despised them and their message It is Death that allayeth the ebullition of destracting thoughts and passions and helpeth to bring men to themselves and fixeth giddy discomposed minds and helps to settle the light and the unsettled and to restrain the worst As we are beholden to the Gallows for our purses and our lives so are we to the grave and hell for much of the order that is in the world and our peace and freedom procured thereby But it is a greater good that it procureth to believers If you ask How is all this to be ascribed to Christ I answer many wayes 1. It is he that hath now the Keys or power of Death and Hell even he that liveth and was dead and that liveth for evermore Rev. 1. 18. and therefore is to be feared by the world 2. It is he that hath by his Blood and Covenant brought us the Hope of Everlasting life which is it that gives the efficacy to Death Without this men would be but desperate and think that it is better have a little pleasure than none at all and so would give up themselves to sin and desperately gratifie their flesh by all the wickedness they could devise 3. And it ls Christ that teacheth men the right use of Death by his holy Doctrine having brought life and immortality to light by his Gospel 4. And it is Christ that sendeth forth the holy Spirit which only doth so illuminate the mind and quicken and dispose the heart that Death may be savingly improved The poyson is our own but it is his skill and love that hath made a Soveraign Antidote of it And let our bodies dye so our sin may dye If the foresight of Death destroy our sin and further our sanctification and the hour of Death doth end our fears and enter us into the state of glory though we will love Death as Death never the better for this much less the sin that caused it yet must we admire the love of our Redeemer And it is not only the Peril but also the Terrous of Death that we are in part delivered from Though Christ himself was in a bloody sweat in his Agony before his death and cryed out on the Cross My God why hast thou forsaken me because he bore the sins of the world yet Death is welcome to many of his followers that drink of his cup and are baptized with his Baptism For they taste not of these dreggs which he drunk up and they are strengthned by his supporting grace He that doth comfort them against sin and Hell doth also comfort them against Death So great is the glory that he hath promised them and so great is his comforting confirming grace that dreadful Death is not great enough to prevail against them As it was too weak to conquer Christ so is it too weak to conquer his Spirit in his peoples souls Without Christ we could not live and we durst not die but through him we can do and suffer all things and can boldly pass through this dark and shady vail of death yea we can desire to depart and to be with Christ as best for us for to Live is Christ and to die is gain Phil. 1. 21 23. For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens And therefore sometimes we can earnestly groan desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven And we are alwayes confident knowing that whilest we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord and therefore labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him For we walk by faith and not by sight and it is God that hath wrought us for the self same thing who also hath given us the earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5. 1 to 10. Though we long not to dye yet we long to see the face of God And though we lay down our bodies with natural unwillingness yet we lay down our sin and sorrows with gladness and spiritual delight And though our hearts are ready to faint as Peter's when he walked to Christ upon the waters yet Christ puts forth his hand of love and soon recovereth us from our fear and danger Melancholy and Impatience may make men weary of their lives and rush upon Death with a false conceit that it will end their sorrows But this is not to conquer Death but to be conquered by a lesser evil and it is not an effect of fortitude but of an imbecillity and impotency of mind And if a Brutus a Cato or a Seneca be his own Executioner they do but chuse a lesser evil in their conceits even a Death which they accounted honourable before a more ignominious Death or a Life of shame and scorn and misery But the true believer is raised above the fears of Death by the love of God and the hopes of Glory and Death though ungrateful in it self is welcome to him as the way to his felicity Let Tyrants and Souldiers take it for their glory that they can take away mens lives that is they have the power of a Serpent or of Rats-bane as if it were their honour to be their Countries pestilence and a Ruler and a Dose of Poyson were things of equal strength and use But it is the Glory of Christ to enable his Disciples to conquer Death and bear the fury of the most cruel persecutors The Martyrs have been more joyful in their sufferings than the Judges that condemned them in their Pomp and Glory When we are pressed above strength and despair of life and have the sentence of Death in our selves we are then taught to trust in the Living God that raiseth the dead 2 Cor. 1. 8 9 10. the saints by faith have been tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection
they have had tryal of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword Heb. 11. 35 36 37. Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. 57. They overcome by the blood of the Lamb and love not their lives unto the death Rev. 12. 11. They fear not them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do Luke 124. They trust upon his promise that hath said I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeem them from Death O Death I will be thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction Hos 13. 14. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the Death of his Saints Psal 116. 15. Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Rev. 14. 13. SECT IX Use 7. MOreover from the Enmity of Death we may be directed which way to bend our cares and seeing where our difficulty most lyeth we may see which way our most diligent preparations must be turned Death cannot be prevented but the malignant influence of it on our souls may be much abated If you let it work without an Antidote it will make you live like unbelieving worldlings It will deterr your hearts from Heaven and dull your love to God himself and make your meditations of him and of your Everlasting Rest to be seldom and ungrateful to you And it will make you say It s good to be here and have sweeter thoughts of this present life than of your inheritance It will rob you of much of your heavenly delights and fill you with slavish fears of Death and subject you unto bondage all your lives and make you dye with agony and horrour so that your lives and deaths will be dishonourable to your holy faith and to your Lord. If it were meerly our own suffering by fears and horrours or meerly our loss of spiritual delights the matter were great but not so great But it is more than this For when our joyes are overwhelmed with the fears of Death and turned into sorrows our love to God will be abated and we shall deny him the thanks and cheerful praises which should be much of the employment of our lives and we shall be much discomposed and unfitted for his service and shall much dishonour him in the world and shall strengthen our temptations to the overvaluing of earthly things Think it not therefore a small or an indifferent matter to fortifie your souls against these malignant fears of death Make this your daily care and work your peace your safety your innocency and usefulness and the honour of God do much lie on it And it is a work of such exceeding difficulty that it requireth the best of your skill and diligence and when all is done it must be the illuminating quickning beams of grace and the shining face of the Eternal Love that must dothe work though yet your diligence is necessary to attend the spirit and use the means in subservience to grace and in expectation of these oelestiall rayes And above all take heed lest you should think that carnall mirth or meer security and casting away the thoughts of Death will serve to overcome these fears or that it is enough that you resolve against them For it is your safety that must be lookt to as well as your present ease and peace and fear must be so overcome as that a greater misery may not follow Presumption and security will be of very short continuance To dye without fear and pass into into endless desperation which fear should have wakened you to prevent is no desirable kind of dying And besides resolving against the terrours of Death will not prevent them When Death draws near it will amaze you in despight of all your resolutions if you are not furnished with a better Antidote The more jocund you have been in carnal mirth and the more you have presumptuously slighted Death it is likely your horrour will be the greater when it comes And therefore see that you make a wise and safe preparation and that you groundedly and methodically cure these fears and not securely cast them away Though I have given you to this end some Directions in other writings in the Saints Rest and in the Treatise of Self-denyal and that of Crucifying the world yet I shall add here these following helps which faithfully observed and practised will much promote your victory over Death which conquereth all the strength of flesh and glory of this world DIRECTION I. IF you would overcome the danger and the fears of Death Make sure of your Conversion that it is sound and see that you be absolutely devoted unto God without Reserves Should you be deceived in your foundations your life and hopes and joyes would all be delusory things Till sin be mortified and your souls reconciled to God in Christ you are still in danger of worse than Death and it is but the senselesness of your dead condition that keepeth you from the terrours of damnation But if you are sure that you are quickened by renewing grace and possessed by the sanctifying spirit and made partakers of the Divine nature you have then the Earnest of your inheritance Ephes 1. 14. 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. and the fire is kindled in your breast that in despight of Death will mount you up to God DIRECTION II. TO Conquer the Enmity of Death you must live by faith in Jesus Christ as men that are emptied of themselves and ransomed from his hands that had the power of Death and as men that are redeemed from the curse and are now made heirs of the grace of life being made his members who is the Lord of Life even the second Adam who is a quickning spirit The serious believing study of his design and office to destroy sin and death and to bring many Sons to glory and also of his voluntary suffering and his obedience to the death of the Cross may raise us above the fears of Death When we live by faith as branches of this blessed Vine and are righteous with his righteousness justified by his blood and merits and sanctified by his Word and Spirit and find that we are united to him we may then be sure that Death cannot conquer us and nothing can take us out of his hands For our life being hid with Christ in God we know that we shall live because he liveth Col. 3. 3. Joh. 14. 19. and that when Christ who is our life appeareth we shall also appear with him in glory Col. 3. 4. And that he will change our vile bodies and make them like to his glorious body by his mighty power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3. 20 21. In our own strength we
yet are distressed when they are at the dispose of the will of God But perhaps you will say It is the error of my own will that hath procured my Death if it had been meerly the fruit of the will of God I could be easily satisfied Answ Wo to us if we had not ground of comfort against the errors of our own wills When our destruction is of our selves our help is of God So much as is of our selves in it is evil but so much as is of God is good I do not say that you should rest in your own wills nor in your own wayes but in the will and wayes of God The rod is good though the fault that makes it necessary be bad The Chastising will is good though the sinning will be evil And it is good that is intended to us and shall be performed in the event Object But how can we rest in the angry afflicting will of God when it is this that we must be humbled under and it is the will of God that is the condemnation of the wicked Ans The effect being from a twofold cause the sinning will of man and the punishing will of God is accordingly good as from the latter and so far should be loved and consented to by all and evil as from the former and so may be abhorred But to the Saints there is yet greater Consolation Though affliction is their grief as it signifieth Gods displeasure and causeth the smart or destruction of the flesh yet it is their mercy as it proceedeth from the Love of God and prepareth them for the greatest mercies And therefore seeing God never bringeth evil on them that Love him but what is preparatory to a far greater good we may well take comfort in our Death that it is our Fathers will it should be so Use 8. IF Death shall be conquered as the last enemy from hence Christians may receive exceeding consolation as knowing that they have no enemy to their happiness but such as shall be conquered by Christ sooner or later he will overcome them all Let faith therefore foresee the conquest in the conflict and let us not with too much despondency hang down our heads before any enemy that we know shall be trodden down at last We have burdensome corruptions that exercise our graces and grieve the spirit and wrong our Lord but all these shall be overcome Though we have heard and read and prayed and meditated and yet our sins remain alive they shall be conquered at last Our Love and Joy and praise shall be everlasting but our ignorance and unbelief and pride and passion shall not be everlasting Our Holiness shall be perfected and have no end but our sin shall be abolished and have an end Our friends shall abide with us for ever and the holy love and communion of Saints shall be perfected in heaven But our enemies shall not abide with â—s for ever nor malice follow us to our Reâ—t The wicked have no comforts but what will have an end and the fore-thought of that is sufficient to imbitter even the present sweetness And the godly have no sorrows but such as are of short continuance And nethinks the fore-sight of their end should sweeten the present bitter Cup and make our sorrows next to none We sit weeâ—ing now in the midst of manifold afflictions But we fore-see the day when we shall weep no more but all tears shall be wiped from our eyes by the tender hand of our merciful Redeemer We are now afraid of love it self even of our dear and blessed Father lest he should hate us or be angry with us for ever But heaven will banish all these fears when the perfect fruition of the eternal Love hath perfected our love Our doubtings and perplexities of mind are many and grievous but they will be but short When we have full possession we shall be past our doubts Our work is now to pour out our grieved souls into the bosome of some faithful friend or ease our troubled minds by complaining of our miseries to our faithful Pastors that from them we may have some words of direction and consolation But O how different a work is it that we shall have in heaven where no more complainings shall be heard from our mouths nor no more sorrow shall possess our hearts and we shall have no need of men to comfort us but shall have comfort as naturally from the face of God as we have light and heat in the summer from the sun When we all make one celestial Chore to sing the praises of the King of Saints how unlike will that melody be to the broken musick of sighs and groans and lamentations which we now take to be almost our best We are now glad when we can find but words and groans and tears to lament our sin and misery But then our joy shall know no sorrow nor our voice any sad and mournful tune And may we not bear a while the sorrows that shall have so good an end We shall shortly have laid by the hard unprofitable barren hearts that are now our continual burden and disease Love not your corruptions Christians but yet be patient under the unavoidable relicts that offend you remembring that your conflict will end in conquest and your faith and watchfulness and patience will be put to it but a little while Who would not enter willingly into the fight when he may before hand be assured that the field shall be cleared of every enemy All this must be ascribed to our dear Redeemer Had not he wrought the conquest the enemies that vex us would have destroyed us and the Serpent that now doth but bruise our heel would have bruised our head and the sorrows that are wholesome sanctified and short would have been mortal venemous and endless What suffering then can be so great in which a believer should not rejoyce when he is before hand promised a gracious end What though at the present it be not joyous but greivous in it self We should bear it with patience when we know that at last it shall bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to all them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12. 11. If we should be alwayes abused and alwayes unthankfully and unkindly dealth with or alwayes under the scorns or slanders or persecutions of unreasonable men or alwayes under our poverty and toilsome labours or alwayes under our pains and pining sicknesses we might then in deed dismiss our comforts But when we know that it will be but a little while and that all will end in Rest and Joy and that our sorrows are but preparing for those Joyes even Reason it self is taught by Faith to bid us rejoyce in all our tribulations and to lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees Heb. 12. 12. We make nothing to endure a sudden prick that by blood-letting we may prevent a long disease The short pain of pulling out a tooth
is ordinarily endured to prevent a longer A woman doth bear the pains of her travail because it is short and tends to the bringing of a child into the world Who would not submit to any labour or toyl for a day that he might win a life of plenty and delight by it who would not be spit upon and made the scorn of the world for a day if he might have his will for it as long as he liveth on earth And should we not then cheerfully submit to our momentany afflictions and the troubles of a few dayes which are light and mixt with a world of mercies when we know that they are working for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. Our clamorous and malicious enemies our quarrelsome Brethren our peevish friends our burdensome corruptions and imperfections will shortly trouble us no more As our life is short and but a dream and shadow and therefore the pleasures of this world are no better so our troubles also will be no longer and are but sad dreams and dark shadows that quickly pass away Our Lord that hath begun and gone on so far will finish his victories and the last enemy shall shortly be destroyed And if the fearful doubting Soul shall say I know this is comfort to them that are in Christ but what is it to me that know not whether I have any part in him I answer 1. The foundation of God still standeth sure the Lord knoweth his own even when some of them know not that they are his own He knoweth his mark upon his sheep when they know it not themselves God doubteth not of his interest in thee though thou doubt of thy interest in him And thou art faster in the arms of his Love then by the arms of thy own faith as the child is surer in the Mothers arms then by its holding of the Mother And moreover your doubts and fears are part of the evil that shall be removed and your bitterest sorrows that hence proceed shall with the rest of the enemies be destroyed 2. But yet take heed that you unthankfully plead not against the mercies which you have received and be not friends to those doubts and fears which are your enemies and that you take not part with the enemy of your comforts Why dost thou doubt poor humbled soul of thy interest in Christ that must make the conquest Answer me but these few Questions from thy heart 1. Did Christ ever shew himself unkind to thee or unwilling to receive thee and have mercy on thee Did he ever give thee cause to think so poorly of his Love and grace as thy doubts do intimate thou dost Hast thou not found him kind when thou wast unkind and that he thought on thee when thou didst not think on him and will he now forget thee and end in wrath that begun in Love He desired thee when thou didst not desire him and gave thee all thy desires after him and will he now cross and deny the desires which he hath caused He was found of thee or rather found thee when thou soughtest not after him and can he reject thee now thou cryest and callest for his grace O think not hardly of his wonderous grace till he give thee cause Let thy sweet experiences be remembred to the shame of thy causless doubts and fears and let him that hath loved thee to the death be thought on as he is and not as the unbelieving flesh would misrepresent him Quest 2. If thou say that it is not his unkindness but thy own that feeds thy doubts I further ask thee Is he not kind to the unkind especially when they lament their own unkindness Thou art not so unkind to him as thou wast in thy unconverted state and yet he then exprest his Love in thy conversion He then sought thee when thou wentest astray and brought thee carefully home into his Fold and there he hath kept thee ever since And is he less kind now when thou art returned home Dost thou not know that all his children have their forwardness and are guilty of their unkindnesses to him And yet he doth not therefore disown them and turn them out of his family but is tender of them in their froward weakness because they are his own How dealt he with the peevish Prophet Jonah that was exceedingly displeased and very angry that God spared Nineveh lest it should be a dishonour to his Prophesie in so much that he wisht that he might die and not live and after repined at the withering of his gourd and the scorching of the Sun that beat upon him The Lord doth gently question with him Dost thou well to be angry and after hence convince him that the mercy which he valued to himself he should not envy to so many Jonah 4. How dealt he with the Disciples that fell a sleep when they should have watcht with Christ in the night of his great agony He doth not tell them You are none of mine because you could not watch with me one hour but tenderly excuseth that which they durst not excuse themselves The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak When he was on the Cross though they all forsook him and fled he was then so far from forsaking them that he was manifesting to admiration that exceeding love that never would forsake them And knowest thou not poor complaining soul that the kindness of Christ overcometh all the unkindness of his children and that his blood and grace is sufficient to save thee from greater sins then those that trouble thee If thou hadst no sin what use hadst thou of a Saviour Will thy Physitian therefore cast thee off because thou art sick Quest 3. Yea hath not Christ already subdued so many of thy enemies as may assure thee he will subdue the rest and begun that life in thee which may assure thee of eternal life Once thou wast a despiser of God and his holy wayes but now it is far otherwise with thee Hath he not broken the heart of thy pride and worldliness and sensuality and made thee a new Creature and is not this a pledge that he will do the rest Tell me plainly hadst thou rather keep thy sin or leave it Hadst thou rather have liberty to commit it or be delivered from it Dost thou not hate it and set thy self against it as thy enemy Art thou not delivered from the reign and tyranny of it which thou wast once under And will not he perfect the conquest which he hath begun He that hath thus far delivered thee from sin thy greatest enemy will deliver thee from all the sad effects of it The blessed work of the Spirit in thy Conversion did deliver thee from the bondage of the Devil from the power of darkness and translated thee into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Then didst thou enter the holy warfare under his banners that was never overcome in the victorious Army that shall
and follow Christ so heavily and sadly into life But all this is long of the enemies that now molest our peace Indwelling sin and a flattering world and a brutish flesh and interposing death are our discouragements that drive us back But all these enemies shall shortly be overcome Fear not Death then let it do its worst It can give thee but one deadly gripe that shall kill it self and prove thy life as the Wasp that leaves its sting behind and can sting no more It shall but snuff the Candle of thy life and make it shine brighter when it seems to be put out It is but an undressing and a gentle sleep That which thou couldst not here attain by all our preaching and all thy prayers and cares and pains thou shalt speedily attain by the help of death It is but the messenger of thy gracious Lord and calleth thee to him to the place that he hath prepared Hearken not now to the great Deceiver that would draw thee to unbelief and cause thee to stagger at the promises of God when thou hast followed him so far and they are near to the full performance Believe it as sure as thou believest that the Sun doth shine upon thee that God cannot lye he is no Deceiver it was his meer love and bounty that caused him to make the promises when he had no need for himself to make them and shall he be then unfaithful and not fulfil the promises which he hath freely made Believe it faith is no delusion It may be folly to trust man but it is worse than folly not to trust God Believe it Heaven is not a shadow nor the life of faith and holiness a dream These sensible things have least reality These grosser substances are most drossy delusory and base God is a Spirit who is the prime Being and the cause of all created Beings And the Angels and other celestial Inhabitants that are nearest to him are furthest from corporeity and are spirits likest unto God The further any thing is from spirituality the further from that excellency and perfection which the creatures nearest God partake of The earth is baser than the air and fire The drossy flesh is baser than the soul And this lumpish dirty visible world is incomparably below that spiritual world which we believe and wait for And though thy conceptions of spirits and the spiritual world are low and dark and much unsatisfying remember still that thy head is there and it belongeth to him to know what thou shalt be till thou art fit to know it which will not be till thou art fit to enjoy it Be satisfied that thy Father is in Heaven and that thy Lord is there and that the Spirit that hath been so long at work within thee preparing thee for it dwelleth there And let it suffice thee that Christ knoweth what he will do with thee and how he will employ thee to all eternity And thou shalt very shortly see his face and in his light thou shalt behold that light that shall fully satisfie thee and shame all thy present doubts and fears and if there were shame in Heaven would shame thee for them Use 9. FRom the Enmity of Death and the necessity of a Conquest we may see what a wonderful mercy the Resurrection of Christ himself was to the Church and what use we should make of it for the strengthening of our Faith It was not only impossible to man to conquer Death by his own strength and therefore it must be conquered by Christ but it was also beyond out power to believe it that ever the dead should rise to life if Christ had not risen as the first fruits and convinced man by eye-sight or certain testimony that the thing is possible and already done But now what a pillar is here for faith What a word of Hope and Joy is this that Christ is risen With this we will answer a thousand Cavi's of the Tempter and stop the mouth of the enemies of our faith and profligate our infidelity As unlikely as it seems to flesh and blood shall we ever doubt whether we shall rise again when the Lord came down in flesh among us that he might die and rise again himself to shew us as to our faces that we shall rise This is the very Gospel which we preach and by which we must be saved that Christ dyed for our sins according to the Scriptures and was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures and that he was seen of Cephas then of the Twelve and after that he was seen of above five hundred Brethren at once of whom the greater part remained alive when Paul wrote this who was the last that saw him 1 Cor. 15. 1 2 3 4 5 6. Read over this Chapter again and again where our Resurrection is proved by the Resurrection of Christ No wonder therefore that the Church in all ages ever since the very day of Christs Resurrection hath kept the first day of the week as a holy festival in remembrance of it wherein though they commemorated the whole work of our Redemption yet was it from the Resurrection as the most glorious part that the Spirit of Christ did chuse the day This hath been the joyful day to the Church this 1625 years or thereabouts in which the ancient Christians would assemble themselves together saluting one another with this joyful word The Lord is risen And this is the day that the Lord hath blessed with the New-birth and resurrection of millions of souls So that it is most probable that all the six dayes of the week have not begot half so many souls for Heaven as this blessed day of the Lords Resurrection hath done Let Infidels then despise it that believe not Christs Resurrection but let it still be the Churches joyful day This was the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes This is the day which the Lord hath made we will be glad and rejoyce therein Psal 118. 23 24. In it Let us sing unto the Lord let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise to him with Psalms Psal 95. 1 2. Every day let us Remember the Lords Resurrection but on this day let the joyful commemoration of it be our work We may see by the witness of the Apostles and their frequent preaching the Resurrection of Christ as if it were the summ of all the Gospel that this is a point that Faith must especially build and feed upon and that we must make the matter of our most frequent meditations Oh what vigour it addeth to our faith when we are encountred by the sight of Death and of a grave to remember seriously that Christ is risen Did he take flesh purposely that he might dye and rise and shew us how he will raise his members and will he after all this break his
in 12. In sum for strict close watchfull holy walking with God even her Husband professeth that she was a pattern to him As I hinted before she kept a daily acount in writing which is now to be seen from the beginning of the year 1654. especially of these particulars 1. Of the frame of her heart in every dayes duty in Meditation Prayer Hearing Reading c. whether lively of dull c. 2. Of those sins which she had especially to repent of and watch against 3. Of her Resolutions and Promises and how she kept them 4. Of all special Providences to her self Husband Brothers and others and the improvement of them As at the death of her Son who died with great sighs and groans she recorded her sense of the special necessity of holy Armour and great preparation for that encounter when her turn should come to be so removed to the everlasting habitation 5. Of her returns of Prayer what answers and grant of them she found 6. Of the state of her soul upon examination how she found it and what was the issue of each examination and in this it seems she was very exact and punctual In which though many times fears and doubtings did arise yet hath she frequent records of the discovery of evidences and comfortable assurance of sincerity Somtime when she hath heard Sermons in London that helped her in her search and somtimes when she had been reading writings that tended that way she recorded what evidences she found and in what degree the discovery was If imperfect resolving to take it up and follow the search further And if she had much joy she received it with jealousie and expectation of some humbling consequent When any grace languished she presently turned to some apt remedy As for instance it s one of her Notes Novemb. 1658. I found thoughts of Eternity slight and strange and ordinary imployments very desirable at which I read Mr. Bs. Crucifixion was awakened to Mortification and Humiliation c. The last time that she had opportunity for this work was two or three dayes before her delivery in Child-bearing where she finally recorded the apprehensions she had both of her bodily and spiritual State in these words Drawing near the time of my delivery I am fallen into such weakness that my life is in hazzard I find some fears of death but not very great hoping through grace I die in the Lord. I only mention these hints to shew the Method she used in her daily Accounts To those Christians that have full leisure this course is good But I urge it not upon all Those that have so great duties to take up that time that they cannot spare so much to record their ordinary passages Such must remember what others record and daily renew repentance for their daily failings and record only the extraordinary observable and more remarkable and memorable passages of their lives lest they lose time from works of greater moment But this excellent work of Watchfulness must be performed by all And I think it was a considerable expression of her true wisdom and care of her immortal soul that when any extraordinary necessity required it and she found such doubts as of her self she was not able to deal with she would go to some able experienced Minister to open her case and seek assistance as she did more than once to my dear and ancient friend Mr. Cross who in full age is since gone after her to Christ And therefore chose a Minister in Marriage that he might be a ready assistant in such cases of necessity as well as a continual help At last came that death to summon her soul away to Christ for which she had so seriously been preparing and which she oft called a dark entry to her Fathers Palace After the death of her Children when she seemed to be somewhat repaired after her last delivery a violent Convulsion suddenly surprized her which in a few dayes brought her to her end Her understanding by the fits being at last debilitated she finding it somewhat hard to speak sensibly excused it and said I shall ere long speak another language Which were the last words which she spake with a tongue of flesh and lying speechless eighteen hours after she departed August 17. 1659. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Our turn is coming Shortly we shall also lay by flesh this is our day of preparation There is no preparing time but this Did men but know the difference between the death of the holy and the unholy which doth not appear to fleshly eyes how speedily would they turn how seriously would they meditate how fervently would they pray how carefully would they live how constantly painfully and resolvedly would they labour Did they well consider the difference between dying prepared and unprepared and of what difficulty and yet everlasting consequence it is to die well O then what manner of persons would men be in all manner of holy conversation and godliness and all their lives would then be a continued preparation for death as all their life is a hasting towards it And now I shall only desire you for the right understanding of all that I have here said and to prevent the cavils of blinded malice to observe these three or four particulars 1. That though I knew so much of her as easily maketh me believe the rest upon so sure a testimony and saw her Diary yet the most of this History of her life is the collection and observation of such faithful witnesses as had much better opportunity than I to know the secrets of her soul and life 2. That it is no wonder if many that knew her perceived not all this by her that is here expressed For that knowledg of our outward carriage at a distance will not tell our Neighbours what we do in our Closets where God hath commanded us to shut our door upon us that our Father which seeth in secret may reward us openly And many of the most humble and sincere servants of the Lord are so afraid of hypocrisie and hate ostentation that their Justification and Glory is only to be expected from the searcher of hearts and a few of their more intimate acquaintance Though this was not the case before us the example described being more conspicuous 3. That I over-pass the large expessions of her charity which you may hear from the poor and her intimate acquaintance as I have done that I may not grate upon the modesty of her surviving friends who must participate in the commendations 4. That it is the benefit of the living that is my principal end Scripture it self is written much in History that we may have matter of imitation before our eyes 5. If any say that here is no mention of her faults I answer Though I had acquaintance with her I knew them not nor ever heard from any other so much as might enable me to accuse her if I were her enemy Yet I doubt not but she was imperfect and had faults though unknown to me The example of Holiness I have briefly proposed They that would see examples of iniquity may look abroad in the world and find enough I need not be the accuser of the Saints to furnish them And I think if they enquire here of any thing notable they will he hard put to it to find enough to cover the accusers shame 6. It is the honour of Christ and Grace in his members more than the honour of his servant that I seek 7. And I would not speak that in commendation of the living which I do of the dead who are out of the reach of all temptations of being lifted up with pride thereby Unless it be such whose reputation the interest of Christ and the Gospel commandeth me to vindicate 8. Lastly I am so far from lifting up one above the rest of the members of Christ by these commendations and from abasing others whose names I mention not that I intend the honour of all in One and think that in the substance I describe all Saints in describing one I am not about a Popish work of making a wonder of a Saint as of a Phoenix or some rare unusual thing Saints with them must be Canonized and their names put in the Calender and yet their blind malice tels the world that there are no such things as Saints among us But I rejoyce in the many that I have communion with and the many that have lately stept before me into Heaven and are safe there out of the reach of malice and of sin and all the enemies of their peace and have left me mourning and yet rejoycing fearing and yet hoping and with some desires looking after them here behind And the faster Christ calls away his chosen ones whose graces were amiable in mine eyes the more willing he maketh me to follow them and to leave this world of darkness confusion wickedness danger vanity and vexation and to meet these precious souls in Life where we shall rejoyce that we are past this howling wilderness and shall for ever be with the Lord. FINIS