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spirit_n	father_n	know_v	word_n	5,396	5	4.2358	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26928	Faithful souls shall be with Christ the certainty proved and their Christianity described, and exemplified in the truely Christian life and death of that excellent saint, Henry Ashhurst, Esq ... : briefly and truly published for the conviction of hypocrites and the malignant, the strengthning of believers, and the imitation of all, especially the masters of families in London / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing B1265; ESTC R4853	35,484	74

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

Faithful Souls SHALL BE WITH CHRIST THE Certainty Proved and their Christianity Described and Exemplified in the truly-Christian Life and Death of that excellent amiable Saint HENRY ASHHURST Esq Citizen of London Briefly and truly Published for the Conviction of Hypocrites and the Malignant the Strengthning of Believers and the Imitation of all especially the Masters of Families in London By RICHARD BAXTER Luke 10. 37. Go and Do thou likewise LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Three Golden Cocks at the West end of St. Pauls Church 1681. To my worthy Friends Mrs. Judith Ashhurst Widdow of Henry Ashhurst Esq. and Mr. Henry Ashhurst their Son with all his Brethren and Sisters Grace Mercy and Peace Dear Friends I Am perswaded that the Image of so good a Husband and Father cannot but be deeply printed on your minds but yet it may not be wholly needless to be told of the Comfort and the Duty thence to be inferred It was you Sir his eldest Son and Executor who called me to the publick performance of that which I have thought meet to make more publick I have long known you so well that I am comfortably perswaded that your Father had great cause to place that great affection on you and confidence in you which he did Your dear Love to him and great Reverence of him and hearty Love to the good which he loved and your singleness and uprightness of Mind and Life are your amiableness and better than the greatest earthly birthright But I did purposely say little in the following discourse of your Fathers example as consolatory and obligatory to all his nearest Relations because I thought that their special interest in him did give them right to a special address which is the intent of this Epistle Gods Scripture blessings of the faithful and their seed doth make this relation honorable and comfortable to you all How chearfully may you all follow the footsteps of one so near you who sped so well in following Christ The greatest comforts and blessings are the greatest obligations to further duty and that duty is the way to get greater blessings It will be some help to you to Love God and Goodness good Men and all Men to remember how much all these were loved by one who so tenderly loved your selves You have not only heard but seen and felt that Holiness is not a bare name or dream and Religion a meer art or image but a Divine Nature a reall renovation of Heart and Life and that the effects of Gods Spirit in sanctifying Souls do greatly difference them from carnal minds You have seen that Godliness genuine and real is not a wearysom uncomfortable Life Live as he did and it will be a cure of melancholy passions and discontents and a constant tranquillity and delight What a help is his Example to you to live in true Love to one another to be of an humble meek and quiet Spirit neither vexatious to your selves or others As also to be absolutely devoted to God of publick minds and comforts to the poor and needy and to use all that you have as his Stewards daily preparing for your great account You have seen how you may live above the World even while you prosper in it and how to expound Love not the World nor the things that are in the World If any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him 1 Ioh. 2. 15. For where your Treasure is there will your Hearts be also Matth. 6. 21. The Spaniards have a Proverb The World is a Carrion and they are Dogs that love it much more that snarle and fight about it One would think that to read and believe Matth. 5. 6. Luk. 12. 16. and Jam. 4. should affright Men from being deceived by such a shaddow whose speedy vanishing all foresee You have seen what it is to be a Christian indeed and how your affairs your conversations and your families should be ordered And you have seen how the best may suffer and must die and therefore what need we all have to be prepared with strong and well exercised Faith Hope and Patience and by daily conversing in the heavenly regions to get sweeter thoughts of Heaven than of the most prosperous state on Earth that we may die like serious believers and joyfully commit our departing souls to Christ when we leave these corruptible bodies to the grave O dear Friends the day is at hand the change is of unspeakable importance the work of Faith and Hope is high and difficult Set to it speedily with heart and might and let not flesh and the world entangle and deceive you The great love which your Father had to me and much more which he had to Christ his Church and all the Faithful obliged me to be the larger in describing his example for your use and comfort For as Christ gone to Heaven hath left here his servants called his Brethren that men in them may shew their Love and thankfulness to him which he will reward as done unto himself so the way which I must take to express my Love and gratitude to your deceased Father is by desiring and endeavouring the true felicity of his Wife and Children whom he so dearly loved And that must be by taking God for your God and Father Christ for your Saviour the Holy Spirit for your Sanctifier the Holy Scriptures for your Rule the Church for the Body of which you are Members true Pastors for your Teachers the Faithful for your most beloved Companions especially each other who are by so many bonds obliged to more than ordinary endearedness and Love and Christ for your chief pattern and such as your Father in following him Heaven for your felicity home and hope and this short life for the day of your preparation and salvation and the world flesh and Devil so far as they are against any of this for the Enemies which with all vigilancy and resolution must be overcome O how great how good and absolutely necessary a work is this which if any one of you should miscarry about you would be more unexcusable than most persons in the world But that you will all faithfully imitate such an example of holiness humility meekness mortification peace and dearest Love to one another and to all good men is the comfortable hope and hearty Prayer as it is the present faithful Counsel of Dec. 7. 1680. Your Servant for such ends Ri. Baxter JOHN 12 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be if any man serve me him will my Father honour IF our Judgments and Wills had been the choosers and disposers of Humane events as the affairs of the world would be otherwise managed than they are so the meeting of this day would rather have been for a joyful thanksgiving for our deceased friends recovery to health than a mournful solemnizing of his Funerals But it is not we

and subjection to Obey and Trust and Love him and joyfully to hope for everlasting happiness in his Love 4. To give up our selves to Christ as our Saviour by his Sacrifice Merits Teaching Government and Intercession to bring us home to God by Justifying Sanctifying and finally Glorifying us 5. To obey the motions of his Spirit to that end which are but to bring us to a Conformity to his Word 6. To Love God in his Saints and Creatures and do all the good to one another that we can and cherish a holy Unity and Peace and to do wrong to none 7. To watch against and resist all the Temptations of the Flesh the World and the Devil which would draw us from any of this duty 8. To bear our Medicinal corrections patiently and profitably and pray seek and wait for blessed Immortality 9. To pray long and labour for the publick good the Churches welfare and the Conversion of the dark unbelieving World 10. To do all this for the glorifying of God and our Redeemer and the pleasing of his holy Will as the End and only Rest of Souls This is the service which Christ requireth and is there any thing in all this which is not safe delightful honorable profitable and exceeding desirable to every one that knoweth what it is to hope for happiness and to live like a Christian or a Man II. And what is it that is meant by following Christ Disciples then were wont to dwell with their Master that they might be always at hand to do what he bid them To follow Christ includeth 1. The absolute taking him for the Guide and Saviour to whom we Trust our Bodies and Souls 2. The obedient following of his Instruction and Commands 3. The following of his Example in all the imitable parts of his Life 4. The submissive following him through all the sufferings wherewith God trieth us and by what death he chuseth for us into the heavenly mansions whether he is ascended This is the following of Christ which the streights of this hour allow me but to name Use. Before we proceed let us consider how to improve what is said and open the two promises after in our application I. And first it is hence evident what it is to be indeed a Christian It is to serve and follow Christ in Trust as the Procurer the Captain the Giver of Salvation Our relation to him by a sacred Covenant and Vow is the thing from which we are named Christians Deceitful Covenanting may give us the name among Men that cannot see the Heart and may deceive our selves and others But if the Soul consent not God doth not consent to justifie or save us O Sirs try quickly try faithfully before death say It is row too late whether you are such as God as well as Men will judge to be Christians indeed O be not self-deceivers for God will not be mocked with names and shaddows and heartless words and the false pretenses of a worldly fleshly unsanctified mind You will find one day that Christ came not to be a shadow nor a stepping stone to worldly ends nor a patron of pride and fleshly lusts you will find ear long that to be a Christian is a great and serious business on which lieth the everlasting saving of our Souls Greater than Life or Death Crowns and Kingdoms or any concerns of this corruptible flesh A business which will not be done a sleep nor with a careless mind nor with a slothful unresolved Soul nor with the thoughts and hours which pride and vanity can spare and which are the leavings of fleshly lusts and pleasures To be a Christian is to turn our backs on all these deceitful vanities and sinful pleasures and to place our absolute Trust in Christ and serve and follow him to the death in hope of everlasting glory obtained by his manifold Grace Have you no careful thoughts of another Life And no fear what will become of your departing Souls at death If not your reason is asleep If you have what is it that quieteth and comforteth you Is it only a careless venture because God is merciful As if his mercy saved all God forbid that your Souls should go out of your bodies without a better preparation than this But if finding your selves undone by sin and liable to Gods destroying justice and believing that Christ is the only sufficient and faithful Saviour you give up Soul and Body in Trust to him resolvedly consenting to serve and follow him who hath purchas'd and promis'd you blessedness with himself This is true Christianity and this is a Trust which will not deceive Sirs You send for us in sickness and perhaps we cannot come or we find men overwhelmed with pain and fear and with a feeble Body and fainting Spirits unfit to try and judge themselves and to do so great a work as is here described if not unable to hear much discourse of it O what a sad time is that for a Minister to give you that instruction which a long time of strength was too little to improve What a dreadful thing is it for a Soul then to have all the work that you lived for to begin and do and for to have but a sick and fainting hour or day to do that which you could not do in all your Lives and which turneth the Key for Heaven or Hell The Lord give you awakened reason and wisdom before it be too late The name of Christians is not to be used to deceive fleshly men into damning presumption but to signifie a Soul that trusteth in Christ and followeth him in obedience and patience to Salvation O that you all feelingly knew how much it concerneth you presently to set home and resolve this question Do I trust serve and follow Christ Let us now a little look to his footsteps that we may know 1. Christ lived in the World to do his Fathers work and will to glorifie and please him See Ioh. 4. 34. 17. 4. 9. 4. 8. 29. 12. 27 28. 17. 4. Is it Gods work that you live for and his will that you chiefly study to please in your inferior degree and place 2. Christ was the greatest lover of Souls his business on Earth was to seek and save them and he is still about that work in Heaven He thought not his strange condiscending Incarnation his sufferings and Heart Blood his Labour and Life too dear to save them Are your own and others Souls thus precious in your Eyes Do you think no labour loss no cost or suffering too dear to save your selves and others Do your prayers and your practices prove this to be true 3. Christs great work was to gather a Church on Earth which should be his peculiar Kingdom Spouse and Body to glorifie God and be glorified with him Eph. 4. to 17. 5. 25. to 32. 3. 21. Act. 20. 28. If you are Christians indeed Christs Church is to you as your Body to

confidently as we believe and trust a parent or a tried friend for any thing promised which is in their power yea or but as confidently as we can trust their Love without a Promise O how joyfully should we live and die O bend your prayers and best endeavours against the unbelief and doubtings of the Gospel and the unseen World were your Faith here strong it would bring you to that Holiness which would much end your doubts of your own sincerity and part in Christ. Had we nothing else to prove the sinful weakness of our Faith but our uncomfortable thoughts of the Life to come and the State of our departing Souls alas how sad an evidence is it Come on then Christians Think further what this Text containeth and beg of God that you and I may believe it as we need and as Christ deserveth to be believed Think what it is to be with Christ We shall be with our compassionate great High Priest with him that came down in flesh to us with him that loved us to the death and redeemed us by his blood to God and will make us Kings and Priests for ever We shall be with him that is gone to prepair a place for us in his Fathers house he hath many mansions Ioh. 14. 3. It was not a meer man it was not an Angel that made us this promise but the Son of God who hath confirmed it by four Seals his Blood his Miracles and Resurrection his Sacraments and his Spirit Are you afraid that your Souls shall die with your Bodies Christ is not dead and we shall be with him It is his promise Because I live ye shall live also Ioh. 14. 19. The Article of his descending to Hades called Hell is to tell us that Christs Soul died not with his Body yea it went that day to Paradise Our Head and we shall not be separated Are you afraid of going to Hell Christ is not there Are you afraid lest God forsake you He forsaketh not Christ though for our sakes he once in part forsook him that we might not be forsaken Can you fear Devils or any Enemies Where Christ is glorified there come no Devils Enemies or Fears We are here with him as Chickens under the wings of the Hen Matth. 23. 37. How safely and how joyfully then shall we be lodged in the bosom of eternal Love But we see not the place nor what our depated friends enjoy But Christ seeth it who is there But we see not Christ. But firm Belief will make us Love him and rejoice with unspeakable glorying joy 1 Pet. 6. 8 9. But we cannot conceive of the state and operations of a separated Soul nor where it is nor how God is there enjoyed But is it not enough to believe that we shall be with Christ and fare in our measure no worse than he If you are afraid lest Christ be deceived or deceive you that is a sinful fear indeed But if you only fear lest you have no part in him Consent to his Covenant do but give up your selves in Obedience and Trust though not in perfection yet in sincere desire and resolution and then you have no just cause to fear it O Sirs why do not our Hearts rejoyce when we think that we shall shortly be with Christ Here we have ill company too oft implacable enemies unsuitable and sinful Friends and worst of all a foolish and perverted Heart that is in effect our greatest Enemy But where Christ is none of this is so With him we shall have the company of our holy departed Friends even all of them that we conversed with in the Flesh whom we lamented and wept over as if they had been lost We shall with Christ have the company of innumerable Angels and all the faithful from the days of Adam And O how much better will Christs own glorious presence be than his presence in humbled Flesh was to his followers on Earth Here Christ was a despised crucifyed Man There even his Body is more glorious than the Sun and the Heaven or holy City needs no Sun because God and the Lamb is the light thereof Spirits are there in confirmed Holiness and not left to that imperfect Liberty of Will which lets in by abuse all sin and misery on the World They strive not in the dark in ignorant Zeal or mixtures of Error and selfish partiality as we do here There are no silencers of the holy Ministers that continually sing Iehovahs praises There is no malignant calumny or persecution no envious reproach of one another or striving who shall have his will or be the Master of the rest But holy Love uniteth animateth and delighteth all For it is God that they Love in one another There is no selfish foolish fear lest individuation cease and Saints shall be too much one and all be one common Soul In a word to be with Christ is to be perfect in Holiness and Glory in God in the Heavenly society in the Joys of Sight and Love and Praise delivered from the bondage of corruption from sin and fear and from temptation and troubles of all our Enemies IV. But yet the promise here saith more If any man serve Me him will my Father honour The Fathers Love did give us the Redeemer and the Fathers Love shall Glorifie us with him What is the Honour that is here meant Honour some time signifieth Advancement in General making one Great and Happy Numb 22. 17. 37. 24. 11. 27. 20. 1 King 3. 13. 1 Chron. 16. 27. Psal. 8. 5. 1 Sam. 2. 30. And sometime it signifieth the provision and maintenance which is due to deserving superiors which is half the double honour due to the Elders that rule well especially that labour in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5. 17. And sometime it is taken for a magnified praised State God will honour faithful Christians all these ways He will advance them to the highest dignity they are meet for He will give them the most bounteous provisions of his houshold even more than they can now desire or believe He will make them Kings and Priests to God and coheirs with Christ in the glorious Inheritance Rom. 8. 17. Rev. 1. 6. 5. 1● 20. 6. They shall Iudge the World and Angels 1 Cor. 6. 2 3. They shall see God Matth. 5. and be called his Children and all together the spouse and Body of Christ Eph. 5. Rev. 21. 22. c. They shall at Christs appearing who is their Life appear with him in Glory Col. 3. 4. When he cometh to be admired in his Saints and glorified in all them that Believe 2 Thes. 1. 10. c. We shall see face to face and shall see him as he is 1. Ioh. 3. 2. We shall behold the Glory that God hath given him Ioh. 17. 24. The Righteous shall have dominion in that Morning And shall shine as Stars Dan. 12. 13. yea as the Sun in the firmament of the Father