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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	free_a	grace_n	justification_n	4,592	5	9.0747	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64984	The death of ministers improved. Or, an exhortation to the inhabitants of Horsley on Glocester-shire, and others, on the much lamented death of that reverend and faithful minister of the Gospel, Mr. Henry Stubbs By Tho. Vincent, John Turner, Rob. Perrott, M. Pemberton. To which is added a sermon upon that occasion, by Richard Baxter.	Vincent, Thomas, 1634-1678.; Turner, Robert, b. 1649 or 50, 4aut.; R. P. (Robert Perrot) aut.; Pemberton, Matthew, d. 1691. aut.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1678 (1678)	Wing V430; ESTC R221906	43,418	108

away from God don't give the strength of your years too Let the time past be sufficient wherein you have served divers lusts and let the remaining part of your days be devoted unto God It is likely that many of you are now got into intanglements and will be hindred by incumbring business in the work which is like to be more difficult than if you had begun betimes but think although the difficulty of Repentance be never so great yet the necessity of Repentance is far greater Repentance is both universally and absolutely altogether indispensably necessary you must repent all of you must repent otherwise you are lost irrecoverably and will perish everlastingly It may be hard to you now and grievous to unravel all your sinful works to undo what hither to you have been doing to begin another life now after you have spent or rather mispent so much of your time It may be very grievous to you to cut off your right hands to pluck out your right eyes but better do so than that the whole body be cast into the fire we mean it is better to part with your most beloved lusts called in the Scripture and by our Saviour the right hands and the right eyes than that the Soul should perish in sin and be tormented in Hell surely Hells torments is far more grievous than repenting work and converting work can be O be not befooled by the deluding Devil and your own deceitful hearts to defer so great and necessary work any longer you have thought to repent at this time and thought to repent at that time and yet this time hath come and that time hath come and both have slipt and are gone and still you are where you were as far from Repentance yea further from it more indisposed more averse to it than at the beginning Sinners what do you resolve upon will you hold fast sin still Will you pursue your lusts to the burning lake Or will you defer again this work of Repentance until a fitter season What season can be more fit than the present season when God calleth you commandeth you and stretcheth forth his hand to encourage you unto this duty Thirdly And lastly We shall add one word to call old sinners to Repentance your Spring is past your Summer is ended your Winter is come and yet you have not repented yet have not amended And what do you think now to do Are you resolved to finish your course as you have begun it Are you resolved to fill up the measure of your sin with your days and will you deafen your ears against all Gods calls unto the last You have one foot in the grave and don 't you sometimes think of Death Can you think to live here always Don't you feel your strength to decay Have you no Harbingers and forerunners of death with you Do not your Silver hairs mind you of the loosing of the silver cord and your daily breakings through the infirmities of old age of the breaking of the golden bowl and pitcher at the fountain and wheel at the cistern whom dust shall return to the earth as it was and the Spirit to God that gave it that by him you may be judged Eccl. 12.6 7. Young ones may die in youth but you must die in old age you cannot last much longer in a moment you may go down into your dust and what do you think will become of your Souls when they are separated from your bodies Will not God call you to an account for all your sins Shall you not receive according to what you have done in the body Can you be content that God should banish you from his presence for ever and punish you amongst Devils in Hell Can you dwell with devouring fire Can you inhabit everlasting burnings Can you endure to be tormented and that to eternity and that with extremity of torments But you will say is there no hope I answer the Devil may tell you there is no hope when you were young the Devel perswaded you it was too soon to repent and in the strength of your years that it was too soon time enough hereafter and now it may be he would perswade you it is too late yet however grey-headed Converts are very rare some such there are and have been found We read Math. 20.6 of some called to work in the vineyard at the eleventh hour Indeed your Repentance now will be with the greatest difficulty but consider what hath been said of its necessity and you may take same encouragement from its possibility It is possible for you to obtain Repentance and Remission and Salvation if without further delay you seek it if you diligently seek it You have need to ransack your hearts to read over the Register of your Consciences to draw up bills of inditement against your selves you have need to retire within to go down into your Spirits with the candle of the Lord in one hand and the word of the Lord in the other hand that you may find out and bring out and slay those lusts there which war against you and which if they be not slain will be your ruin you have need to humble your selves greatly before the Lord to lie very low to cry very loud to mourn and weep to grieve and lament over so many sins and those so highly aggravated as yours have been And then know there is mercy enough in store for such as you free-grace can save the oldest and greatest sinner the merits of Christ are sufficient for your pardon the promises of the Covenant are large and may reach the worst of you O then break off your sins by Repentance and lay hold on the Lord Jesus by faith and devote what remaineth of your life unto God and it is possible that such as you may get into the Kingdom of Heaven and eternally admire the infinite Riches of Gods free grace in your Salvation Our Letter would swell too much should we add particular directions in order to this work we therefore exhort you to call to Remembrance what your own Pastor hath Preached to you for your guidance and help and it is possible that the seed which he sowed whilst alive may spring up after his death and the Sermons which he hath Preached amongst you and the Counsels which he hath given to you may through Gods blessing and your Remembrance and Application have their effect even now he is gone in your Conversion and Salvation Besides unconverted persons we hope there are many true Converts truly gracious persons among you and not a few who have been the Seal of Mr. Stubbs's Ministry Some of you are new born others well grown Christians some of you are in a declining state others are thriving Christians we might be as large in our writing to you as we have been in our call of the Unconverted we might give particular counsel and advice in order to the healing of wounded Consciences the reviving decay'd graces

meditation of it It is sweet to read and think and speak of the essential love of God and of his unspeakable grace in Christ of his free reconciliation justification adoption and Salvation of those that were his enemies of the wonderful mysteries and methods of Gods love in our Redemption and Salvation of the Heavenly glory which we and all the elect of God shall enjoy for ever What sweeter food or business for our minds than such things as these Secondly The success of our work is an addition to our joy The success of it on our own Souls while they increase in holiness and are raised to the greater knowledg of God and greater love to him and Communion with him And our success on others while they are brought home to God and saved ●f it be pleasant to a succesful Physician to save mens lives it must be more so to a succesful Minister of Christ to further mens regeneration and to save mens Souls To add more to the number of them that love the Lord Jesus that are his members that are enemies to sin examples of holiness that pray for the World and that shall live in glory ●● not this a joyful work There is joy among the Angels in Heaven for every sinner that repenteth Luk. 15.10 Christ rejoiceth in it and all good men that know it rejoyce in it and shall not the Minister of it then rejoyce 3 Iob. 2 3. I rejoyced greatly saith St. John and I have no greater joy 1 Thes. 2.19 Ye are our joy and Crown of rejoycing Thirdly The honour of Christ and the pleasing of God in our labours and the success is the top of all our joy 2 Cor. 5.9 Heb. 12.28 Eph. 5.10 Heb. 13.21 11.5 For to please God and to be perfectly pleased in him is our Heavenly felicity it self Fourthly It is our joy to foresee the blessed end the everlasting glorious reward To live in the belief and hope of this and to taste the love of God in Christ which is the first fruits All this is the joy in which we may hope to finish our course II. How much of this joy may we here expect Answ. 1. So much as shall satisfie us that in our dedication of our selves to God we made a wise and happy choice which we need not to repent of Though we might easily have chosen a way more likely for wealth and pleasure to the flesh and in which we should not have kindled the indignation of so many against us nor have brought on our selves so much envy and malice so much slanders and reproaches to name no worse yet experience tells us that God taught us to chuse the most pleasant life as our deceased Brother and I have truly oft told one another that we have found it Even when we are sorrowful we are always rejoycing 2 Cor. 6.10 When we are falsly reported of our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Consciences that in simplicity and godly sincerity and not in fleshly wisdom we have had our Conversation in the World 2 Cor. 1.12 Paul and Silas could sing with their backsfore with scourging and their feet fast in the stocks Act. 16. And the Apostles rejoyced that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach and abuse for Christ Act. 5.41 Never yet did difficulty or suffering much tempt me to repent that I had not chosen another calling much less to repent of the Christian choice For saith Peter Joh. 6. Whither shall we go Lord thou hast the words of eternal life Secondly We may expect so much joy as shall make the duties of Christianity and Ministry easie and delightful to us Psal. 1. 2. and make us say that A day in his courts is better than a thousand and to be a door-keeper in his house than to dwell in the tents or palaces of wickedness And that it is good for us to draw near to God And if any time our diseased appetites shall lose their pleasure we are yet sure that we have chosen the only wholesome and delicious food and God hath Physick that can recover our appetites Thirdly We may expect so much joy as shall keep us from thirsting again for the world or longing for the forbidden pleasures of sin and as shall make even the house of mourning and godly sorrow pleasanter to us than mirth and feasting is to the ungodly and never desire to partake of their delights Fourthly We may expect so much joy as shall make all our sufferings very tollerable especially those that are for truth and righteousness Mat. 5.10 11 12. Believers took joyfully the spoiling of their goods and accepted not offered deliverence Heb. 11. As seeing him that is invisible and expecting a better and more enduring substance And that which is not joyous but grievous at the present will bring forth the quiet fruit of Righteousness Heb. 12. Fifthly We may expect so much joy as ●all encourage us to hold out to the end and ever to forsake Christ and a holy life as weary ●as hoping for a better Sixthly We may expect so much joy as ●all be some foretast of the heavenly joy and ●ome reward here of all our labours Yea some ●ay be filled with joy and peace in believing ●nd have unspeakable glorious joy Rom. 15.13 Pet. 1.7 8. Seventhly We may expect so much as shall convince the ungodly that we live a more com●ortable life than they Paul and Silas singing ● the stocks its like had some part in the con●iction of the J●ylor III. Whence and on what accounts may we expect this Ioy Answ. This may be gathered from what is ●id before 1. From the love and acceptance ●f the Father 2. From the grace of the Son From the Communion of the holy Spirit ●nd therefore 1. From the goodness of ●ur work before mentioned 2. From the ●uth of the promises of God 3. From the Communion of Saints 4. From the continued protection and other mercies of God 5. And from the certain hopes of glory All which I must now but thus only name There is another kind of joy which too many seek in this sacred Office thereby corrupting and prophaning it And the bes● things corrupted become the worst and such men most pernicious to mankind and thes● rotten pillars the greatest betrayers and enemies to the Church I mean such as Gregor● Nazianzene sadly describeth in his time eve● at the first general Council at Constantinople And such as Isidore Pelusiota in his Epistles t● Zosimus and some such others freely reprehendeth And such as Gildas describeth i● this land And such as Salvian rebuketh An● such as the Canons of abundance of Council tell us swarmed heretofore First Had there not been Prelates an● Priests that had placed their joy in dominio● over their brethren and getting into exalte● thrones in being rich and idle and bowed t● even by Princes and mastering Kings an● Kingdoms by cursing them from Christ making themselves as the Soul and Prince as the

pulse are still in motion our glass is running And O how quickly shall we see and hear that time on Earth shall be to us no more This Course will be certainly and quickly finished but whether with Ioy it concerneth us timely to foresee For the review of Time of precious Time and the work of Time will be no contemptible part of our everlasting work Secondly The Course or Race o● Christianity is the necessary improvement of our Time This is not a play nor an idle brutish or a jesting life It is a great work for a self-destroying undone sinner to believe in a Saviour and such a Saviour and wholly to trust his merits Sacrifice Counsel and Conduct his powerful operations and effectual intercessions for all our present and our future hopes It was not a dream of War that we were listed for in our baptism under the Captain of our Salvation The resisting of temptations the quenching of the Devils fiery darts the denyal of our selves and forsaking friends reputation estate and liberty and life for the sake of Christ and renouncing the flesh the world and the Devil for the hopes of a promised unseen glory is a real work To believe in Christ and his promise of Heaven to the forsaking of all wordly hopes is a serious business To love God above all and our Neighbour as our selves and to do as we would be done by how easily soever mentioned and professed are works not unworthy to be ascribed to the Spirit of the living God and to the grace of the Almighty He that well finisheth the Christian course shall certainly receive the Crown of Righteousness And though none of these works do in the least participate in the Office of the justifying Sacrifice Merits or Grace of Jesus Christ yet shall we be judged according to them and we must live to Christ if we will live with Christ. Thirdly The Apostolical Ministerial course was also to be finished with joy His call was wonderful his Office honourable his gifts powerful his sufferings great his labours greater his successes by miracles in themselves miraculous yet all this would not have saved himself if he had not faithfully finished his course To begin hopefully is more common than to end happily The Sun of persecution withereth much fruit that seemed flourishing Iudas his end did more difference him from the rest of the Apostles than his beginning His Ministry was considerable as common to all the Clergy or as Apostolical To Preach the word as he commanded Timothy to be instant in season and out of season to reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and Doctrine to rule well and labour in the word and Doctrine to take heed to our selves and unto Doctrine and continue therein that we may save our selves and them that hear us to take heed to our selves and all the flock to hold back nothing profitable to them but to teach them publickly and from house to house day and night with tears Act. 20. in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God at any time will give them repentance all this is not a dream or play And to go over much of the world from Nation to Nation by sea and land to Preach this Gospel to strangers of various languages through all difficulties and sufferings to confirm all by miracles to leave this sacred Doctrine infallibly in records to the Church as a rule to the end of the World to teach men to observe all things Christ had commanded them as well as to disciple nations and baptize them and to settle the orders and goverment of the Churches according to the will of Christ this was the extraordinary part of his Ministry Thirdly This Ministry was received of the Lord Iesus by an extraordinary call a voice from Heaven and an inspiration of others that were Ministerially to send him and the special inspiration of his own soul for apostolical qualifications But do not ordinary Ministers also receive their Office from the Lord Iesus Yes And though the way of their reception differ their Obligation to finish their course is divine as well as Pauls Christ called Paul by himself and by inspired Prophets And he calleth us by his qualifying grace and by his stated Law as the King maketh Maior● and Bayliffs of Corporations by his Charters wherein the ordainers and electors orderly determine of the recipient persons and th● ordainers ministerially invest them but th● office power and obligation is directly from the Law of Christ. And if any breach o● interuption should be made in human ordination and tradition the Law still standeth to direct men in the choice and investiture and to confer Authority and to oblige as well as the Holy Ghost to give men the necessaries thereto Therefore as we receive our Office from Christ we must use it for Christ and not for carnal self nor as the servants of men And we must use it according to the Laws of Christ whose Laws soever shall gainsay them Fourthly The finishing of Pauls Course is the bringing his work of Christianity and Ministry to the desired joyful end 1. To the end of duration not to be weary of well doing nor having put his hand to Christs plow to look back and repent nor forsake the warfare in which he was engaged He that endureth to the end shall be saved and in due time we shall reap if we faint not 2. To the end of Intention 1. To do his own appointed work that his grace being exercised and increased he may be acceptable to God and fit with joy to meet the Lord. 2. To call and save sinners and to build up Saints and to gather Churches unto Christ and edifie them and leave to all ages his Doctrin and example a certain word and powerful motive 3. To glorifie Christ and God the Father in all this not to sit warm in a reverend habit for me● to honour for the sake of the Office and bar● name of an Apostle But to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God to declare the truth of it the necessity of it the priviledges and the honour the grea● love of God revealed by the Son of his lo● to sinners and the great and manifold benefi● given them in Christ the hope of glory s● before them and the just and reasonable mea● and conditions of obtaining it Thus did ●● as immediately sent and thus must we as se● by Christs appointed Order in his Law testifie the Gospel of the grace of God Fifthly Concerning Pauls finishing ●● Course with joy we must consider 1. Wh● joy it is that is here meant 2. How mu●● of this joy each faithful Minister may expec● 3. And whence and on what account he m● expect it First The Ioy here meant which Paul e●pected is 1. The joy which the nature of 〈◊〉 work affordeth Divine certain great a● holy truth is pleasant to him that understan● eth it believeth it and is exercised in 〈◊〉 ●erious